With a game full of 39 heroes, a patch with as many changes as the one for season 9 will benefit some a lot more than others. Which ones are the best to play after this season’s big overhaul?
1) Tracer
- Pulse Pistols: Short-range automatic weapons (220 DPS).
- Blink: Teleport in the direction you are moving.
- Recall: Travel back in time to your previous location and health.
- Pulse Bomb: Throw out a powerful sticky explosive (350 damage).
- Hero score: 90/100
Tracer has been a good pick for most of the game’s history, but she’s even better when other dive heroes are there to help her, because she can cause even more annoyance in the enemy team’s backline than usual.
Both of the new parts of the DPS passive benefit her really well, letting her heal without having to go around the map for healthpacks and poke people to tag them with the anti-healing. The projectile size buffs don’t hurt her too much because she has great mobility and her hitbox is one of the smallest in the game.
The nerf to her range means she has to get a little closer to whoever she’s flanking if she wants to get her full damage output, but she’s still capable of one clipping squishies, which makes 1 v 1ing her as a sniper or low mobility support feel awful.
Tracer’s strengths:
- Tiny hitbox makes her hard to shoot at
- High damage up close, can oneclip heroes like Zenyatta and Widowmaker
- Ultimate that oneshots 250 HP heroes
- High mobility + self heal with recall
2) Lúcio
- Soundwave: Create a short-range blast wave to knock enemies away from you.
- Crossfade: Switches between two songs: Healing Boost heals nearby allies, and Speed Boost makes nearby allies move faster (16 HPS for allies, 10 HPS for Lúcio).
- Amp It Up: Increase the effectiveness of your current song (52 HPS).
- Sound Barrier: Create temporary extra health for nearby allies (750 overhealth).
- Wall Ride: Jump onto a wall to ride along it.
Hero score: 89/100
Lùcio’s kit gives him a flexible playstyle, letting him hang back to peel for his other support if they’re being pressured, speed his tank in for engages or follow his flankers when they’re in the enemy team’s backline.
A lot of low mobility tanks appreciate the speed boost, but even if you aren’t running something like Ramattra or Junker Queen, he can keep up with faster heroes and annoy the enemy team’s snipers, if they have any.
His ultimate is good regardless of how you use it too, free 750 overhealth gives your team the advantage when you’re trying to push and counters offensive ultimates like Dragon Blade or Gravitic Flux.
Lùcio’s strengths:
- Buffed boop makes him better at peeling
- Flexible playstyle, can flank or stay with his tank
- Speed boost enables low mobility heroes
- 750 overhealth for everyone on the team when he ults
3) Kiriko
- Healing Ofuda: Channel a burst of healing talismans that can seek targeted allies (76.5 HPS)
- Swift Step: Teleport directly to an ally.
- Protection Suzu: Throw a protective charm to make allies become briefly invulnerable and cleansed of most negative effects (80 healing normally, 110 when debuffed).
- Kitsune Rush: Summon a fox spirit that rushes forward, accelerating the movement, attack speed, and cooldowns of allies that follow its path.
- Wall Climb: Jump at walls to climb up them.
Hero score: 87/100
Regardless of losing out on her ability to 2 tap most DPS and support heroes, suzu is still a great ability and Kitsune Rush is one of the best ultimates in the game, so Kiriko can still keep up even if the patch nerfed her 1 v 1 potential.
She’s the only hero that can cleanse the new healing debuff on multiple of her teammates at once, with Zarya only being able to cleanse one, so she can give her squishies or tank a small burst of healing before they get tagged by the passive again.
Kiriko also goes really well with Lùcio, since they both have speedboosts, she has enough healing to keep up brawl tanks like Ramattra and they put out decent offensive pressure together.
Kiriko’s strengths:
- Immortality + cleanse on a cooldown
- One of the best ultimates in the game
- Can teleport to teammates through walls, so hard to kill
- Good poke, can distract enemies from off angles
4) Sojourn
- Railgun: Left click rapid fires projectiles that generate energy on hit. Right click is a high impact shot that consumes stored energy (126 DPS, 190 damage on max charge railgun headshot).
- Power Slide: Ground slide that can cancel into a high jump.
- Disruptor Shot: Launch an energy burst that deals damage to enemies within it (60 DPS).
- Overclock: Railgun energy auto-charges for a short duration and charged shots pierce enemies.
Hero score: 86/100
Soldier and Sojourn were initially almost tied for how well they were performing, since they have similar playstyles, but after Soldier’s small nerf she has bigger bullets, better burst than he does and some of the best supports right now have damage buffs, which really benefits her right click.
Sojourn’s slide gives her more vertical mobility than a lot of the other DPS, letting her take high ground off angles faster and go for a quick pick when her railgun is on high charge or she’s using Overclock.
Sojourn’s strengths:
- Vertical mobility lets her take off angles easily
- Can kill 250 HP heroes really quickly
- Also good at spreading the DPS passive
- Works best with supports that give her a damage amp
5) Mauga
- Incendiary Chaingun: Automatic weapon that ignites enemies on repeated impacts (72 DPS).
- Volatile Chaingun: Automatic weapon that deals critical damage to burning enemies (72 DPS).
- Overrun: Charge forward and stomp to launch enemies. You are unstoppable while charging (25 direct damage, 60 minimum damage and 120 max on stomp).
- Cardiac Overdrive: Nearby allies take reduced damage and heal by dealing damage (30% damage reduction).
- Cage Fight: Deploy a barrier that traps yourself and enemies.
- Berserker: Gain temporary health when dealing critical damage.
Hero score: 86/100
With high sustain, DR and multiple changes to the things that were making his kit harder to get value out of Mauga at the start of season 9, he's back to being one of the most difficult tanks to try and kill in the game.
If he's getting pocketed by a Kiriko, it can feel like he won't die no matter how much you shoot him, and by the time he's finally gone your own tank might already be dead since he's almost as good at 1 v 1ing tanks as Bastion.
Mauga's strengths:
- Gives team healing + damage reduction
- Good at killing enemy tank
- Easy overhealth
- Lots of armor + HP
6) Sombra
- Machine Pistol: Short-range automatic weapon (160 DPS).
- Hack: Hold to hack. Hacked enemies cannot use abilities (for 1.5 seconds) and can be seen through walls. Hacked health packs spawn faster and can’t be used by enemies. Taking damage interrupts the hack attempt.
- Stealth: When out of combat, become invisible and move faster.
- Translocator: Throw a beacon and teleport to it. Stealth cooldown is reduced after teleporting.
- Virus: Infect enemies with a projectile that deals damage over time. Virus damages hacked enemies at a faster rate (25 impact damage on unhacked enemies, 50 on hacked ones + 100 DOT).
- EMP: Deal damage to all nearby enemies equal to a percentage of their current health, hacking them and destroying barriers near you (Damage is 25% of enemy’s health).
Hero score: 84/100
With the buff to virus, Sombra is better at getting kills by herself than she was at the start of the season, giving her better consistency when it comes to finishing someone off and then leaving the fight.
It can feel a little difficult to punish her before she translocates away, because it's on a short cooldown and she can go invisible to buy herself more time if she doesn't have it, so you need proper teamwork to try and catch her out.
Lots of ultimates and important abilities can also be deleted by hack without much counterplay, since Sombra applies it so quickly that a lot of heroes have a hard time reacting quickly enough to damage her.
Sombra's strengths:
- High mobility
- Invisibilty
- Hack is hard CC
- Counters multiple tanks
7) Moira
- Biotic Grasp: Hold to heal all allies in front of you. Consumes biotic energy (70 HPS, 51 extra).
- Biotic Orb: Launch a bouncing sphere that either heals nearby allies or damages nearby enemies (65 HPS, 50 DPS).
- Fade: Disappear, move faster, and become invulnerable, but you cannot shoot.
- Coalescence: Fire a beam that heals allies and damages enemies (140 HPS, 70 DPS).
Hero score: 83/100
Moira's kit is incredibly easy to get value out of, her DPS buffs make her better at taking 1 v 1s than before and she's one of the best supports to deal with Sombra or Tracer. She can either scare them off if they've committed enough resources chasing her or run away and heal herself if it looks like she's going to die, so she can be hard to actually kill.
All of her cooldowns are short, she has lots of healing so she can help keep her tank alive if they need it and it's hard to miss her right click if you're trying to pressure one of the enemy squishies in their backline, so she's perfect to pick if you want to play more independently as a support.
Moira's strengths:
- High healing
- Fast charging ultimate
- Large hitbox on right click
- Lots of survivability
8) D.Va
- Fusion Cannons: Automatic short-range spread weapons (146 DPS).
- Light Gun (Demeched): Automatic weapon (98 DPS).
- Boosters: Fly in the direction you are facing (15 damage).
- Defense Matrix: Block projectiles in an area in front of you.
- Micro Missiles: Launch a volley of explosive rockets (77 DPS, can do up to 198 damage).
- Self-Destruct: Eject and overload your mech, causing it to explode after a short time (100 minimum damage, 1000 max).
- Call Mech (Demeched): Call down a new mech (250 damage).
- Eject: Eject out of your mech when it is destroyed.
Hero score: 83/100
D.Va is great at contesting enemy DPS to make space or protect her team, she has the best kill potential out of the dive tanks because of her micro missiles and Defensive Matrix is one of the best blocking abilities in the game, but she has less mobility than Winston or Wrecking Ball and beam weapons can break her mech relatively quickly.
The healing debuff doesn’t bother D.Va too much either, since she can use her matrix to block the enemy DPS and she can boost back to safe positions for the supports to heal her while she waits for it to wear off. If she takes too much damage, she can always use her ultimate to get a fast remech.
A lot of her counters are also a little worse off this season, so even if the enemy team does have a Zarya or Symmetra, a good D.Va player will still be able to get value.
D.Va’s strengths:
- High kill potential (for a tank)
- 3 second block that can eat most abilities in the game
- Good at scaring people off high ground
- Doesn’t need much healing
9) Echo
- Tri-shot: Fire 3 shots at once, in a triangle pattern (153 DPS).
- Sticky Bombs: Fire a volley of sticky bombs that detonate after a delay (180 damage if all bombs are stuck).
- Flight: Fly forward quickly and then free-fly briefly.
- Focusing Beam: Channel a beam for a few seconds. Deal very high damage to enemies under half health (50 DPS when enemy is above 50% health, 175 under).
- Duplicate: Become a copy of the targeted enemy hero. They cannot swap heroes for the duration.
- Glide: Hold jump to glide while falling.
Hero score: 82/100
Echo is the better of the two flying DPS, with more airtime, higher burst and being much quieter than Pharah is, giving her extra value when picked by a good player. She's difficult to play, but has more flexibility because of how her kit works.
Her sticky bombs do a lot of damage if you hit them all and focusing beam lets her finish off low HP enemies, so comboing them can be a quick way to get a kill on squishier heroes. You could also beam the enemy tank if they're taking lots of damage, but that's a more situational way to use it.
Her ultimate is a get out of jail free card too, so if you take an aggressive angle and get caught out, you can pop it to stay alive for longer. Her dupe starts out full HP and heals Echo up to 100 HP if she was below that when she used it, so she can distract the enemy team if she times her flank well.
Echo's strengths:
- Consistent flight
- Doesn't make much noise
- High spam damage
- Can fit in multiple team comps
10) Cassidy
Peacekeeper: Left click is a powerful, accurate revolver. Right click wildly fires remaining rounds (140 DPS).
Combat Roll: Roll in the direction you’re moving to take reduced damage and reload (75% damage reduction).
Magnetic Grenade: Throw a homing grenade that sticks to enemies, slowing them and preventing them from using movement abilities.
Deadeye: Face off against your enemies. Press Q to lock on, Then Q or ability 3 to fire.
Hero score: 78/100
Cassidy doesn’t apply anti-healing as well as Sojourn or Tracer, but he’s better against dive in comparison. His grenade cancels movement abilities for 1.5 seconds, letting him scare off flankers and slow down high mobility tanks like Ball or Doomfist. His right click also has good shield break, so he’s decent if the enemy tank has one.
He works best on middle range maps, since other hitscans will usually do better on long ones and he can’t do much against brawl comps on short ones. He’s the best hitscan to pick if your supports are being annoyed by high mobility heroes though.
Cassidy’s strengths:
- High shield break with right click
- Free reload on roll + ultimate
- Mobility cancelling grenade
- Damage reduction on roll lets him survive things like Tracer’s pulse bomb
11) Sigma
- Hyperspheres: Launch two charges which implode after a short duration, dealing damage in an area (73.3 DPS).
- Kinetic Grasp: Absorb projectiles in front of you and convert them into extra health.
- Accretion: Gather a mass of debris and throw it at an enemy to knock them down (12 damage minimum. 40 max).
- Experimental Barrier: Hold to propel a floating barrier; release to stop. Press again to recall the barrier to you.
- Gravitic Flux: Manipulate gravity to lift enemies into the air and slam them back down (50 damage on lift, 50% of max HP on slam).
Hero score: 79/100
Sigma's been consistenly strong since Overwatch 2 launched, because he has a kit that lets him take care of himself without needing constant attention from his supports. His shift can eat most things to give him overhealth, he has a mobile shield and CC for if an enemy gets too close.
His damage isn't very high, but he has decent range and infinite ammo, so he can play safely and enable long range DPS on maps that benefit poke comps. He's also a good pick against Mauga and Orisa, since he can usually play out of their range and ignore them, which stops them from getting in his face and bullying him like they want to.
Sigma's strengths:
- Consistent damage
- Great ultimate
- Can shoot while shielding
- Good self-sustain
12) Baptiste
- Biotic Launcher: Lob a healing projectile that heals all allies near the impact (55.55 HPS on splash, 77.77 HPS on direct).
- Regenerative Burst: Activate to heal yourself and nearby allies instantly, with additional healing over time. Instant heal is doubled for targets less than half health (40 instant healing or 80 if under 50% HP, 40 extra).
- Immortality Field: Toss a device that prevents allies from dying. The device can be destroyed.
- Amplification Matrix: Project a matrix that doubles the damage and healing of allied projectiles.
- Exo Boots: Hold crouch to jump higher.
Hero score: 78/100
Baptiste is one of the hardest supports to 1 v 1 in the game if his aim is good, with his high damage, immortality field and self heal. He can contest enemy squishies on high ground, keep his tank alive and use his ultimate to enable his DPS.
Having immortality on a cooldown, even if it’s one of the longest in the game, would be enough to make him at least pickable, but he has plenty of other things on top of it. Good survivability, no cooldown mobility and an AOE heal means he’s a safe pick in most situations.
The only time you probably shouldn’t pick him is if you have a dive comp, since he has a hard time healing mobile heroes with his grenades and he can’t really keep up with them.
Baptiste’s strengths:
- Gives team immortality
- Great with low mobility tanks because of high healing
- Good 1 v 1 potential + poke damage
- Damage amp on ultimate
