Open Forum: Overwatch’s Best And Worst Characters

It’s been almost a fortnight since Blizzard launched Overwatch to what has been mostly praise among players and critics. As mentioned in our review, it’s not the prospect of ranking up and unlocking cosmetic baubles that keeps the fans coming back, it’s the solid shooting matched with a incredibly diverse swarm of characters.

Aside from their unique cartoon-like appearances, each one is endowed with a handful of loadout options that present a variety of in-game scenarios when paired with and against one another. With several hours under many of our belts, it’s only natural that a number of our writers have found themselves gravitating towards certain heroes. Similarly, there are those we’ve been avoiding and, of course, the ones we detest playing against.

Straight out of the blocks, I wanted to give each and every character a thorough test so I’d at least have a few to lean on in public games. Right away, I found myself courting a small selection including Roadhog, Torbjorn, Zarya, and Zenyatta. This particular combination of favourites hardly came as a surprise, given my penchant for playing support heroes in games like Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2.

The one unmentioned hero that continues to fascinate me is Lucio. Despite wanting to experiment with Overwatch’s more offence-oriented characters, playing with randoms often means an empty support slot. Not wanting my team to flounder in battle, I’d begrudgingly opt in as Mercy, Symmetra, or Zenyatta. However, upon taking Lucio under my wing, I now find myself volunteering as a support without being prompted by the game’s selection menu.

Lucio can passively heal nearby allies while firing off his mid-range sound blaster. With a simple button press, he can swap out his healing power, increasing the movement speed of friendly characters around him. Throw in a pair of rollerblades and Lucio’s knockback blast, and he becomes one of the game’s most nuanced, versatile heroes.

The character I tend to avoid playing most is McCree. I’m slowly growing in competence while playing him yet his sluggish speed and inaccurate primary attack leave much to be desired, especially for someone who sucks at using his ultimate.

Although I do like playing him on the odd occasion, Junkrat is the one hero I hate coming up against. The trajectory of his grenades means he can safely hide while pelting shots off walls and other terrain. To top it off, Rip-Tire is easily one of the game’s cheapest ultimates, capable of wiping teams that fail to hear the audio cue.

From the sound of things, Dave is pretty much in the same boat, his two “mains” being Mercy and Torbjörn. He definitely aligns more with a defensive style of playing, weaving through bombs and bullets to top up ally health reserves. He also finds Torbjörn’s strategic turret placing to be immensely satisfying.

For him, Soldier 76 stands out as the weakest. Although solid enough, he’s the one addition to the roster specifically designed to accommodate the wave of Battlefield and Call of Duty players settling into Overwatch.

Meanwhile, Mei continues to plague Dave as he plays. As many will agree, her ability to slow and freeze characters can make for some truly frustrating moments. The fact that she can regain health while encased in a damage-proof block of ice only adds to the annoyance.

Needless to say, it takes a particular kind of player to use Mei effectively. Maybe someone like Tef?

Mei’s my Mei-n. She’s literally the only character that I’ve played as in the release game, which has become something of a running joke, but she is, in my opinion, a fantastic all-rounder. Her ice gun freezes people up close, gradually slowing them down to a complete halt, and can shoot shards of ice at distance, which I’ve used to counter snipe the occasional Black Widow.

But really, it’s her specials, where she can turn into a chunk of and regain health – making her great when your team is unbalanced and has no support – and can place an ice wall almost anywhere in sight. I love it because it’s a total dick move, to just slam the door in someone’s face, or cut them off from their teammates and escape. Basically, she’s an incredibly annoying character to face, which suits me down to a tee.

To cap off, Miguel also had some nasty things to say about Overwatch’s resident ice queen. When trawling the character select screen, he’ll often choose Junkrat, simply due to his all-round versatility against incoming waves of enemies. Aside from having decent splash damage, his steel traps and concussion mines allow for some effective crowd control when placed properly. Given Miguel’s love for Junkrat, his dislike for Winston is completely understandable. Despite having a chunkier health bar, his abilities lack pizazz, as does his primary weapon which has a poor damage output.

What about you, though? Who are your favourite and least favourite heroes in Overwatch, and why? Let us know in the comments below.