Can You Still Solo Carry In 2022 Overwatch?
With metas changing and patches tweaking the strengths Overwatch heroes have, it’s difficult to know which heroes are best for solo carrying. Solo carrying occurs when you play with the mindset that you must have the greatest impact on your team. When solo carrying, it's critical to select a hero that not only matches your skill set but also allows you to rely on yourself rather than faulty teammates.
To help you understand how each hero works in competitive play, here is a top-five list of the best Overwatch heroes to play to solo carry (regardless of skill rating).
5: Zenyatta
Zenyatta in his hero pose, waiting for a player to choose him
Zenyatta is a support hero who specializes in providing defensive and offensive assists to his teammates. A believer in peace and harmony, Zenyatta uses his orbs of harmony and discord to help his team. The orbs of harmony heal his teammates while the orbs of discord weaken his foes.
Although it’s difficult to carry while on support, a Zen with good aim and targeting can turn the tide of the game. For example, if you focus your attacks on a super-jumping Mercy, you can eliminate her and help your team.
By eliminating important heroes (tanks, supports) from the enemy team, you can solo carry with Zenyatta. However, you have to keep in mind that Zenyatta is slower than the other heroes. You’ll need good positioning to avoid enemy fire. Along with that, you’ll need to make good callouts to your teammates so they can help you when needed.
His ultimate, transcendence, does 300 HPS (healing per second). While in transcendence, Zenyatta takes no damage, can move twice as fast, and almost automatically restores the health of his teammates. The big con is that Zen can’t use his kit during transcendence.
Transcendence is a powerful support ult that counters other huge ults like Genji’s dragonblade, Zarya’s graviton surge, and Pharah’s barrage. To better use transcendence, don’t use it as a panic button to save your own life. Wait until the enemy uses one of their tank or DPS ultimates, then use yours to counter it.
What Makes Zenyatta Great For Solo Carry
- Versatile kit capable of doing both defense and offense
- High damage
- Good self-defense capabilities
- Ultimate ability that counters game-changing plays (i.e. Zarya’s graviton surge)
See Zenyatta in action:
4: Genji
Genji in front of Hanamura, his former base of operations
Genji is a cyborg DPS hero who’s known for his powerful combo moves and high level of difficulty to play. Although difficult, if you practice his set and use combos, Genji is a devastating hero who can change the game.
He has agility that allows him to climb walls and double jump. These features can be used to sneak into the enemy backline. Once you’ve snuck up on them, you can take out their support heroes with ease, then use Genji’s dash to get away.
Genji’s swift strike (players call it “dash”) does 50 damage and propels him forward. If you’re playing Genji and eliminate an enemy, the swift strike cooldown (8 seconds) automatically resets. For example, if you kill an enemy with a dash, you instantly get another dash. You should use this reset to your advantage when you’re in the backline, killing the enemy supports.
His primary weapons are shurikens, which are three throwing stars that reload quickly (1.5 seconds). It has two fire rates, both doing 29 damage. You have the pinpoint, which fires in a straight line, and the spread, which fires the shurikens at an angle. It’s best to use pinpoint on an individual target and the spread on multiple targets.
Deflect is a powerful ability that has the potential to counter game-changing ultimates like Zarya’s graviton surge. Using deflect, Genji deflects all projectile damage coming his way. It deflects back where it came from, which means with one deflect, you can eliminate an enemy with their own bullets. Or, you can deflect a graviton surge from an opposing Zarya and use it for your team’s benefit.
His ultimate, dragonblade, is Genji using his katana for 6 seconds. Each swing (1 swing every 0.9 seconds) does 110 damage, and it grants him a 30% bonus on movement speed. Although he cannot use his shurikens during this period, his dash automatically resets, which balances out the loss of his primary weapon.
What Makes Genji Great For Solo Carry
- High damage potential
- Stealth mechanic
- High agility and ability to escape deadly situations
- Versatile kit
- Dash resets can be used infinitely
- Deflect counters projectile ultimates (graviton surge, pulse bomb, etc.)
- Dragonblade has team kill potential
See Genji in action:
3: Cassidy
Cassidy getting ready for battle with his trusty revolver
Cassidy (formerly called McCree), an outlaw gunslinger, is a DPS hero that’s capable of doing between 21-70 damage with his primary weapon, his revolver (called the Peacekeeper). The Peacekeeper has six bullets and has a range of 20 to 40 meters. It has no spread, making it good against individual targets (especially flying heroes like Pharah).
His secondary fire mode is nicknamed “fan the hammer”. This is when Cassidy unloads all six of his bullets in rapid fire (1 shot per 0.13 seconds). It has a spread, making it good against a group of enemies, and also good for stunned enemies.
The flashbang ability ties into the fan the hammer technique. In the Overwatch community, it’s called “flash fan the hammer”. The flashbang temporarily stuns an enemy, allowing you to fan the hammer, which results in a quick kill. This move is best used against support heroes.
Every 6 seconds, Cassidy can use a combat roll where he dives forward. Although this doesn’t seem like a powerful ability, while fighting a hero like Tracer, you can dive out of the way and buy yourself time to react. Along with that, the combat roll automatically reloads your weapon.
His ultimate, deadeye, is an offensive ult. When casted, Cassidy has decreased speed (-70%) and can lock onto enemies in his line of sight (abbreviated as LOS). He can reach enemies up to 200 meters away, and after locking on for 1.5 seconds, he can fire and instantly kill almost every hero in the game. After 1.5 seconds, the damage from the shot is 550 per second. This ability forces enemies to reposition and get behind cover.
To use Cassidy well, try to flank when using deadeye. It’ll catch the enemy off-guard. Even if you don’t kill anything with it, you’re giving your team more space to push while also making your opponents vulnerable from multiple sides.
What Makes Cassidy Great For Solo Carry
- Powerful damage output
- Flashbang ability
- Flash fan the hammer technique
- His ultimate ability forces enemies to switch their positions
- Ranged weapon can counter enemies like Pharah, Echo, and Widowmaker
- Combat roll automatically reloads weapon
See Cassidy in action:
2: Doomfist
Doomfist with his gaunlet, AKA the source of every support player's rage
Here he is: every support player’s nightmare. Doomfist is a member of the fictional, villainous organization called Talon, and he’s a DPS hero. He’s known for his deadly combos and high health. He has a passive ability called “The Best Defense…”, which grants him +30% temporary shields when he does damage with his normal abilities, and +75% shields when he does damage with his ultimate (has a max of 150 shields).
Doomfist has a hand cannon that does 19.8-60 damage per shot. Although it doesn’t have long range, headshots are dangerous and are what you should aim for while playing him. The hand cannon acts like a shotgun.
Next are his combo abilities. The first is the rising uppercut, which throws enemies in front of him in the air and does 50 damage. Second is the seismic slam, where Doomfist (nicknamed “Doom” by Overwatch players) slams the ground in front of him. This does 25-125 damage and knocks the enemies in front of him toward him.
Lastly, there’s the rocket punch. Yeah, it’s exactly what it sounds like: Doom charges up his giant gauntlet and flies toward enemies to punch them. When he hits someone, it does 50-100 damage. If he hits someone into a wall, it does between 50-150 damage. When combined, you can use these abilities to instantly kill any DPS or support hero.
His ultimate is called a meteor strike. Meteor strike sends Doom into the air, then he has to select an area to attack. It’ll have a glowing ring so you can see it, and enemies on the outer ring suffer 15-200 damage while those on the inner side suffer 300 damage.
Doomfist is commonly called an overpowered (abbreviated as OP) hero because his kit is difficult to counter, and he does so much damage. With the right practice, you can become a terror to support players too. However, make sure to apologize to the enemy support players after the game. You caused them emotional as well as physical damage.
What Makes Doomfist Great For Solo Carry
- Deadly combos that can instantly kill supports
- His shields make him difficult to kill
- Versatile kit
- Ultimate ability that forces enemies to split up
- Ultimate ability kills slower heroes like Zenyatta
See Doomfist in action:
1: Zarya
Zarya flexing in one of her highlight intros
Zarya, a Russian bodybuilder, is an extremely strong hero who has been referred to by many as a “DPS with a tank’s health”. Her damage output and shields make her such a valuable pick, and her ultimate can wipe out entire teams in only a few seconds.
When paired with Reinhardt (another hero that has potential for solo carry, but didn’t quite make this list), Zarya can use her particle and projected barriers to gather energy. The more energy she gains (it goes on a scale of 0-100), the more damage she can do. The particle barrier protects Zarya and blocks 200 damage, and the projected barrier protects a teammate of the player’s choice and also blocks 200 damage.
The barriers are what give Zarya energy. The more damage she blocks, the more energy she gets. At 0, Zarya does 75 damage per second, but at 100, she does a whopping 170 damage per second. Her primary fire that does this damage is called the particle cannon, and it has a beam mode, and a projectile mode.
The beam mode counters heroes like D.Va and Genji, firing out a laser that counters abilities such as Genji’s deflect. At max energy, Zarya can melt supports in seconds. The projectile fires an explosive charge that can hit multiple opponents. It does 9.4-47 damage (0 energy), or 19-95 damage (100 energy). This ability also harms Zarya at 4.7-23.5 damage per shot (0 energy) or 9.5-47.5 damage per shot (100 energy).
Her ultimate is graviton surge (nicknamed “grav”), and it’s a projectile that acts as a gravity bomb, sucking in all players to the epicenter for 4 seconds. The enemies caught in it cannot leave unless they have an ability (like Moira’s fade) to get out of it. A good Zarya will call out when they’re using their ult so other players can capitalize on it. The best strategy is to wait until another DPS has their ult, then use yours so you can use your ults together (i.e. Genji’s dragonblade).
Zarya is a difficult tank to play, but when you learn how to use her barriers (nicknamed “bubble or bubbles” by the Overwatch community), you can gain energy fast and shred the enemy team’s health bars. Be sure to try and kill heroes that can counter your graviton before you use it. For example, make sure Zenyatta used transcendence, or de-mech the enemy D.Va so she can’t block your ult.
What Makes Zarya Great For Solo Carry
- High damage output
- Shields that can protect herself and teammates, making her stronger in the process
- Counters other powerful heroes (i.e. Genji, D.Va)
- Her ultimate can kill an entire team
- She acts as both a tank and a DPS
See Zarya in action:
Professional Zarya gameplay showcasing the fear enemies feel when faced with a good Zarya
