DMG MORI uses cookies to ensure you the best experience on our website. When you browse the website you agree to our use of cookies. More information on data protection and revocation. Terms and Conditions. Exlusion of liabilityExlusion of liability. Dec 10, 2019 45 ELIMS! Cloneman16 AMAZING Reinhardt + Winston Gameplay Overwatch Season 19 Top 500.

Story
Winston is a super intelligent, genetically engineered ape that was raised on the moon at the Horizon Lunar Colony with a bunch of other genetically engineered apes by a human scientist known as Dr. Harold Winston. All the other apes went mad and killed Dr. Harold Winston and declared the colony as their own. Naming himself after his beloved human caretaker, Winston didn't like this and returned back to earth to join Overwatch.

Play style
Winston uses a Tesla Cannon as his main weapon which channels a short beam of deadly electricity that has an easy auto aim associated with it. He is a highly mobile tank equipped with rocket thrusters on his back that enables him to leap around quite frequently creating chaos amongst his enemies. Winston is able to protect his team from enemy fire with his huge Barrier Projector globes. His ultimate Primal Rage turns him into a raging beast that gives him an incredible amount of health and melee attack damage allowing him to break through tough defenses.

Weaknesses
Winston's weakness is his lack of long range fire as he requires to be right up close to his enemies to do any damage to them, but that's where his leap ability comes into play. Overall, Winston is a very well rounded tank that does a good job of helping to protect his team from damage and allowing them to push towards the objective much easier.

Name: Winston
Difficulty: Medium
Role: Tank
Age: 29
Occupation: Scientist, Adventurer
Base of Operation: Horizon Lunar Colony (formerly)
Release Date: 10-27-2015

Base Hitpoints: 500 (100 of it is armor)

Winston's Tesla Cannon will require less precise aiming than most other guns in Overwatch. This allows new players to the FPS scene to jump right in and not have to worry about aim precision. The Tesla Cannon does require some aiming, as you will only need to aim in the general direction of the enemy and it should connect. The Tesla Cannon can strike through and hit enemies behind shields and barriers, such as Reinhardt's shield, and another Winston Barrier, but it will not go through Zarya's Barriers.

The Tesla Cannon has the capability to hit more than one target at a time as the lightning from it can branch off to multiple enemies at once. Each branched lightning will deal the same full amount of damage, so you can potentially do double or triple the damage compared to only attacking one target. This is useful for crowd control and makes leaping towards multiple enemies at once a higher consideration.

Use melee strikes
Melee strikes can be more efficient in time sensitive situations. If enemies get down to only a slither of health left, just use a melee strike on them to finish them off quicker. Melee strikes do 30 instant damage, where as it will take almost a second of channeling with your Tesla Cannon to match that. This also means when you are about to reload, just use a melee strike first, you will do more damage in the long run.

The Tesla Cannon does have a short range and in order to use it effectively you will need to leap around often to get close to your enemies to deal damage to them.

Leap allows Winston to be very mobile, more so than most other tanks (except D.va and her Boosters). After landing from a Leap, Winston will deal up to 50 damage to all enemies in the vicinity, depending on how far away from you they are when you land. You can control the height and direction you jump by looking in the direction you want to jump to. For example, if you look straight up and then Leap, Winston will leap straight up in the air. It will take a bit of practice to get used to the mechanics of leaping.

Leaping is most commonly used for:

• Chasing after enemies. Sometimes you have to think of Leap as your extension to your short range Tesla weapon, as you will be leaping quite frequently to get in range to deal damage to your enemies.
• To get right up and close to strong defenses such as Bastion Sentries and Widowmakers to take them out with your Tesla Cannon.
• For basic mobility to get up to higher platforms and ledges.
• To get to health packs faster by leaping towards them.
• To get back to the fight faster after dying.
• To help push your team forward in combination with your Barrier Projector.

As a tank, Barrier Projector fits Winston's role quite well. When used, Winston will drop a Barrier Projector that is a dome like shield right at the center of Winston's character that blocks enemy fire but still allowing your allies to fire through it. If you are leaping through the air and press the barrier hotkey, it will drop from exactly where you activated the ability (not where you will land).

As soon as you place the Barrier down, the cooldown for the next one starts immediately. Because of this, you will want to use this as often as possible.

Common uses for Barrier Projector:

• To protect choke points. Shielding choke points is a vital strategy for enabling your team to push forward if you are on Attack, or to keep the enemy from pushing forward if you are on Defense.
• To Leap safely towards your enemy. A strong combo is to leap towards a bunch of enemies and then throw up a Barrier Projector. This will protect you from outside fire while allowing you to dish out damage with your Tesla Cannon to only a few enemies at once. This is especially useful for dealing against Torbjorn's turret or other strong defenses such as Widowmakers and Hanzos.
• For use on top of a Payload. In case you didn't know, you can put a Barrier Projector on top of a Payload and it will turn into a mobile barrier that travels with the payload. This is very powerful.

Winston's Barrier does NOT block the following:

• Melee attacks.
• Some channeled weapons, including: Winston's Tesla Cannon, Symmetra's Photon Projector beam.
• Reinhardt's Fire Strike and Symmetra's Photon Orbs. Fire Strike and Photon Orbs can actually pass through and damage everything in its path, including Winston, his barrier and anyone else behind Winston.

Enemy Barriers:
When dealing with other enemy Barrier Projectors, it's generally better to not focus fire on the barrier to attempt to destroy it but rather refocus your attention on finding enemies that are out in the open and fire at them instead. You will be wasting your time and fire power on Barrier Projectors, as they will automatically dissipate after 6 seconds anyway. Only fire at Barrier Projectors if it's your last resort (unless you are a Bastion Sentry, as a Sentry can kill it in 1.5 seconds).

Primal Rage turns Winston into a raging beast with powerful melee knockback strikes with his fists. At use he gets fully healed along with an increase of hitpoints to 1000. His Leap ability instantly becomes available again (even if it was on a cooldown) and also goes on a much shorter cooldown of only 2 seconds (from 8 sec), this allows Winston to be extremely mobile during this time. The drawback of Primal Rage is that he is unable to put down Barrier Projectors for the duration of the ultimate. He is also unable to use his Tesla Cannon, but his melee strikes with his fists make up for that.

Although melee strikes will do AOE damage, they only do 40 damage in an area, which is not a whole lot of damage. The AOE knockback is really what the ability is all about. With powerful knockbacks, you can keep enemies off of objectives and bat them away from you and your team, even potentially knocking them into a deadly pit. Combined with only a 2 second cooldown for your Jump Pack, you can create a lot of confusion amongst your enemies and do some serious harassing at the same time.

Since Primal Rage heals you fully to 1000 HP, it's important to use this as a life saver when you are about to die and need to refill your health up immediately.

Primal Rage can also save you if you get knocked into a pit. When falling into a pit you can sometimes save yourself by Leaping back to safety, but sometimes Leap may still be on a cooldown. By activating Primal Rage you can use your Leap immediately again to leap back to safety.

Winston's Strength and Weaknesses Vs Other Heroes

Symmetra: Winston is the best counter to Symmetra's Sentry Turrets. All Winston has to do is walk in the room filled with Sentry Turrets and hold down the trigger for his Telsa Cannon, it will automatically aim and kill each one quickly.

Symmetra on the other hand can fire her Photon Orbs and her Photon Projector inside of Winston's Barrier Projector, making your barriers completely useless against her.

Winston has the capability to leap right up close to Symmetra, throw down a barrier and then take her out quite easily as she has no escape mechanisms at her disposal. Winston is also decent at hunting down Symmetra's Teleporter ultimate thanks to his frequent Jump Pack leaps.

Hanzo: Winston's Barrier Projector does a good job of protecting his team from Hanzo's Storm Bow shots. Leaping at Hanzo is very effective since he can't do much in close range, except fire a Scatter Arrow shot at you or attempt to escape by climbing a wall. Up close and Winston's Tesla Cannon, Barrier, and Primal Rage are very deadly to Hanzo and his relatively weak hitpoints.

If there is a lot of allies inside of Winston's Barrier, Hanzo can fire a Dragonstrike at it to force you and your allies to scatter out of the barrier.

Genji: Genji's Deflect ability has no use against Winston and his Tesla Cannon. Winston's Barrier further protects him and his allies from Genji's shurikens.

If Genji happens to get close and use a Swift Strike (which does 50 damage), it simply won't be enough to put a dent in Winston's large 500 00 hitpoint pool. Plus Winston's Tesla Cannon will automatically keep aiming at Genji while he does his Swift Strikes. If Genji tries to run away, Winston can simply leap after him to take him out.

The only thing to really watch out for is Genji's ultimate Dragonblade, as it will deal more DPS than you can do back to him and your barriers will have no use against it. Consider leaping away from him to avoid his Dragonblade damage.

Widowmaker: Winston's Barrier shields are powerful against Widowmaker for blocking all her shots temporarily protecting him and his team. Winston can use his Jump Pack to leap right to Widowmaker and deal damage with his close range Tesla Cannon or turn on his ultimate Primal Rage to knock her around. However, if Widowmaker survives any immediate damage she can counter that by grappling away from him. Winston's high HP means it will take a lot of good shots from Widowmaker in order to take him down.

Mercy: Winston happens to be decent at flanking enemies with his Leap/Barrier combo and it works especially well against Mercy. Mercy is also a prime target to flank as her heal and resurrect abilities are very powerful and you will want to make sure she is disabled from combat as much as possible.

If Mercy is heavily guarded then you will need to wait until Primal Rage is ready before leaping at her.

Torbjorn: Once again, Winston can do his Leap/Barrier combo against Torbjorn and his turret, and if timed correctly Winston can put the Barrier down right in front of the turret so the turret will hit the barrier instead of Winston, then he can deal damage to the turret with his Tesla Cannon while his barrier absorbs the damage from the turret. Winston can then use his ultimate Primal Rage to clean up Torbjorn and any other enemies in the area.

After leaping towards Torbjorn and his turret, you will need to watch out for Torbjorn using his ultimate Molten Core. If Torbjorn is repairing his turret with Molten Core, try to take cover from the turret with a Barrier shield and dish out damage to Torbjorn. If Torbjorn attacks you then attack whichever is lower in health between Torbjorn and the turret instead. If Primal Rage is available, just use that to take control of the situation.

Crouching Winston Does More Dmg Mean

Other than that powerful combo, Barrier Shields in general will protect Winston's team from turret damage allowing his team to push forward and take out the turret more easily.

Tracer: Like Symmetra's weapon, Winston's Tesla Cannon works very well on Tracer thanks to the automatic aiming, as it does okay at damaging Tracer even while she is blinking as long as she is in range of him. Because of Winston's Tesla Cannon and high HP of 500, Tracer is better off ignoring Winston most of the time and focus on weaker heroes to harass and pick off.

Tracer's Pulse Bomb is a good counter to Winston's Barrier Projector. Tracer can blink into the Barrier real quick, lob a Pulse Bomb, then Recall out of there, dealing massive damage for anyone taking cover under the Barrier. If Tracer throws her Pulse Bomb on Winston, his Jump Pack does NOT unstick a bomb. However at full health, he can take a full hit from a Pulse Bomb and live it. Winston can also activate Primal Rage to give him a 1000 HP to survive a Pulse Bomb.

If Winston uses his ultimate (Primal Rage), Tracer can simply blink away from it.

Ana: Winston is fairly strong against Ana due to his ability to block Ana's Biotic Rifle shots, Sleep Darts and Biotic Grenades with his Barrier Projector. This can help protect his allies against all of her attacks and can increase your allies healing potential by blocking Ana's Biotic Grenades.

Winston also excels at flanking Ana quickly by leaping up close and taking her on with his Tesla Cannon. A well aimed Sleep Dart is Ana's best hope at surviving Winston's wild close up leaps. If Ana's Sleep Darts are on a cooldown or if she misses her shot at Winston, she can also throw down a Biotic Grenade to do some damage to him while healing her up a bit, but she will have to hope her allies are there to help fend Winston off because Ana's poor mobility and damage output will make it hard to run away from Winston.

Ana's ultimate Nano Boost can be used on one of her allies to help improve her chances of surviving Winston's Primal Rage by providing possible cannon fodder for Winston to bat around instead of Ana. Ana can also Nano Boost one of her allies to help deal with Winston's wild Leap flanks.

Winston's ultimate Primal Rage can be annoying to deal with for Ana, as long as Ana keeps her distance from him she should be okay. Even though Primal Rage has a big hitbox it can still be tough for Ana to aim Sleep Darts at him during this time. Even if she does land a Sleep Dart on him, Primal Rage is one of the few ultimates that will continue if it gets awakened while sleeping.

McCree: Winston can block McCree's shots with his barrier shield, protecting his team at the same time. Winston's Jump Pack helps him to stay away from McCree and his Flashbangs. Since Winston can only do damage in close range with his Tesla Cannon or his ultimate Primal Rage. He is very vulnerable close up to McCree's deadly Flashbang and fan fire combo. If Winston uses Primal Rage, McCree can still Flashbang and fan fire at him, and McCree can back away from it using Combat Rolls.

McCree's ultimate Deadeye is less effective on Winston due to his large hitpoints (of 500) and his ability to block it and protect his team with his Barrier Projector. Plus with Winston's Primal Rage, he can leap right up to McCree using Deadeye and knock him out of view from firing his shots off.

Overall McCree still has the upperhand thanks to his strong medium range fire and up close Flashbang and fan fire combo against Winston.

Pharah: Winston is not much of a threat to Pharah since she flies and hovers in the air most of the time and is mostly in the clear from Winston's Tesla Cannon and Primal Rage. If you do leap at her to attempt to do some damage she can use a Concussive Blast to knock you back away from her.

However, Winston's barrier shield does a decent job at protecting his team from incoming rockets, but only temporarily.

Pharah's ultimate Barrage is not very effective against Winston since he can just use a Barrier shield to block it and protect his team or leap out of the way from it.

Reaper: Reaper's shotguns are very deadly, as it can only take 4 close up shotgun shots to take out Winston. You will find that Reaper will be harassing you more so than any other hero. Reaper can Shadow Step behind you and then move inside your Barrier and start attacking you, or worse he can use his ultimate Death Blossom to quickly take you out.

As Winston, do your best and keep your distance from Reaper. Leap away from him immediately if he comes close to you, stick with your teammates so they have your back, and use Primal Rage to save yourself from him if you need to. Unfortunately, Reaper can avoid your Primal Rage by simply using Wraith Form to escape.

Lucio: Lucio has multiple ways to stay away from Winston's close up attacks. Lucio can use his speed aura to move away from Winston while still being able to fire his sonic projectiles at him. However, Winston's Barrier Projectors do a great job at blocking Lucio's sonic projectiles. Up close and Lucio can use his Soundwave ability to knock you back, which can make it hard to damage him with either your Tesla Cannon or Primal Rage.

Lucio can also use his ultimate Sound Barrier to save him and his whole team from Primal Rage, which is one of the hardest counters to it.

If Lucio uses Sound Barrier, it's best to not worry about playing offensively, but instead play defensively for the time being by protecting your team with Barriers until it's over.

Zenyatta: Zenyatta's Orb of Discord can be tough to deal with as it will do +30% more damage to whoever has it on them. If Zenyatta puts his Orb of Discord on Winston I recommend playing him a bit differently. If you get the Orb of Discord, I recommend staying back with your team and protecting them with Barrier Projectors. Discord Orb cannot be thrown through Winston's Barrier Projector. Avoid leaping at the enemy unless you feel like you have a clear chance at leaping at Zenyatta to take him out. If you take Zenyatta out, you will drop the Orb of Discord. However, Zenyatta can save himself from all attacks by using his ultimate Transcendence. So it's best to leap at him right after he uses Transcendence so he can't use it on you.

Winston also has various ways to counter Zenyatta's Discord Orb. Winston can use his Jump Pack to quickly leap out of the line of sight from Zenyatta to drop the orb. He can use his Barrier Projector to block damage that could be done to him. Winston can also use his ultimate Primal Rage to fully heal him at 1000 HP which can waste the Discord Orb's potential.

Mei: Winston's Tesla Cannon weapon only does damage in close range, so he would need to get close to Mei to do any damage to her, but Mei's freeze blaster is simply stronger. Even if Winston uses his ultimate Primal Rage melee attacks on Mei, she can still freeze him or she can simply use Cryo-Freeze to escape it. Mei's Ice Walls can further keep Primal Rage away from her and her allies.

Winston is better off staying away from Mei and focus on other heroes to kill. Winston's Barrier Projectors are still effective at blocking Mei's Endothermic Blaster's frost stream and long range Icicle shots. Winston can also escape from Mei's freeze gun by simply Leaping away from it.

If Mei uses her ultimate Blizzard, you can simply escape out of it with a leap. Barriers won't do anything against a Blizzard.

Reinhardt: Winston can quickly leap up towards Reinhardt and has the ability to be very deadly up close to him. Winston's Tesla Cannon can fire through Reinhardt's shield, potentially forcing Reinhardt to drop his shield to do melee attacks or an Earthshatter to save himself unless his team can provide enough fire power behind Reinhardt.

Winston's Barrier Projectors have no use against Reinhardt as all his abilities can go through Winston's barrier, including Fire Strikes and Charge.

Primal Rage can be very deadly to Reinhardt because you can knock him and his powerful shield away from his allies, however, he can still Charge and pin you while Primal Rage is active, or worse he can use his ultimate Earthshatter to drop you down, and can follow that up with melee strikes or a Charge.

Be cautious about Reinhardt charging at you, if he does, quickly leap upwards somewhere to avoid it.

Zarya: A good Zarya player will be able to protect any one of her allies that Winston leaps to with her Projected Barrier. If you see these Projected Particle Barriers, don't shoot at them or your shots will simply get absorbed and will increase the damage output of Zarya's weapon. She can also use these Particle Barriers on herself to do the same thing. This makes leaping at defenses and other enemies a tough task. Only consider leaping once you know these Particle Barriers are on a cooldown.

Close up battles with Zarya can be very deadly to Winston since her Particle Cannon weapon is simply more powerful than Winston's Tesla Cannon, especially when it's charged up. Plus she can use a Particle Barrier to protect herself. Not to mention, she is a tank herself with 400 HP (200 of it is a regenerating shield). Zarya's Particle Cannon at 0% charge without a Particle Barrier will out beat Winston's Tesla Cannon in a 1vs1 fight.

Luckily, Winston's Barrier does block both of Zarya's Particle Cannon attacks (both her short range beam and medium range explosive charges).

Zarya's ultimate Graviton Surge is somewhat deadly to Winston since he has no way to escape it (his Jump Pack wont let him escape it), but Winston can put down a Barrier to block shots from hitting him and his allies stuck in the surge. Zarya's Graviton Surge becomes especially deadly when she traps you into it while Primal Rage is active, making Primal Rage totally useless then. It is possible to leap away right when Zarya tosses out her Graviton Surge, one must be very quick with the trigger on that though.

If you hit Zarya's Particle Barrier with Primal Rage it will still knock the target around but it will absorb the damage for Zarya's Particle Cannon.

Bastion: Overall a Bastion Sentry can deal with Winston very easily. Although, Winston can counter a Bastion Sentry thanks to his Leap/Barrier combo. I would only do this as a flank maneuver, because if Bastion sees you coming you will most likely die to him. After leaping towards Bastion, quickly get out of his field of view so he cannot attack you. You might be able to take Bastion out as long as his teammates don't zerg you down or he focus fires on you precisely. Just hold down the trigger once you get close to him while strafing and jumping around him to make it harder for him to aim at you.

If Bastion is heavily guarded, I would not bother leaping towards him. Winston's Barrier is only somewhat effective against Bastion. A Bastion Sentry can melt Winston's Barrier in 1.5 seconds and Primal Rage is very weak against a Bastion Sentry as it will not knock him around.

If you see Bastion use his Tank Form ultimate, you can simply Leap away from it to avoid the cannon ball hits or use Primal Rage to knock Tank Form away from your team.

Soldier 76: Barrier Projectors will be your best friend against Soldier 76's Pulse Rifle and Helix Rockets. However, the periods of time when your Barriers are down is when Winston can dish out a lot of damage to Winston. Since Winston has a large hitbox, Soldier 76 will be able to do a lot of damage to Winston even from long ranges.

When you use Primal Rage around a Soldier 76, he may attempt to Sprint away from you. But remember, your Jump Pack changes to a 2 second cooldown, giving you plenty of mobility to leap after him to take him out.

If you see Soldier 76 use Tactical Visor, rally your teammates to you and protect them with a Barrier Projector.

Winston: Ape Vs Ape? There's not a whole lot to say here, except that all of Winston's attacks can go through shields and barriers (except Zarya's shield), so you can fire your Tesla Cannon through another Winston's Barrier Projector. The fight really comes down to who has the better healer on them and who can effectively use Jump Packs to retreat to health packs from a losing battle or leaping away from another Primal Rage Winston.

Roadhog: Winston's Barrier Projector protects his team from Roadhog's Scrap Gun shots and also blocks Chain Hooks as well. When Winston's Barrier goes down is when Roadhog can make his moves.

If Roadhog Chain Hooks you into him, you can counter that by using a Leap or Primal Rage. However, Roadhog's ultimate Whole Hog can be used to knock Primal Rage back away from Roadhog and his team. But you can just keep leaping to make up for that. If Primal Rage is not available, you will need to leap away from him (and/or throw down a barrier) or he will be able to do a lot of damage to you close up.

Keep in mind that a Jump Pack landing will NOT cancel out Roadhog's Take a Breather ability (his self heal).

If Roadhog uses Whole Hog, Winston's Barriers are an excellent counter to it.

Crouching Winston Does More Dmg Mean

Junkrat: Winston can block Junkrat's grenade spam with his Barrier Projector shield, protecting his team, only temporarily though. Junkrat's Traps/Mines can be dealt with by either leaping over them or simply walking up to them and hold down your Tesla Cannon to easily take them out. Keep in mind that your Barrier Field will block everything Junkrat has, including: mines, traps and frag grenades.

If Winston gets close to Junkrat he can use his ultimate Primal Rage on him. But, Junkrat can quickly throw down a trap and then mine jump away from you. But since Jump Pack turns into a 2 second cooldown with Primal Rage, you can just leap right after him.

Junkrat's ultimate Rip-Tire can be blocked by a barrier shield, but the tire can be steered right inside of a barrier and then be detonated. Winston doesn't have a long range weapon to shoot it with, although Winston can just leap away from it (if it's not on a cooldown). Winston can also counter a Rip-Tire with Primal Rage to take the hit from it, otherwise one Rip-Tire will be able to knock regular Winston out at full normal HP.

Be careful after killing Junkrat close up, as his Total Mayhem death bombs do a lot of damage over Junkrat's corpse!

D.va: D.va can be a pain to deal with, mostly because of her Fusion Cannons out DPS Winston's Tesla Cannon up close and she can also do good damage at medium range as well. D.va is also a tank with the same amount of HP as Winston, but more since she will pop out of her mech when it gets destroyed. This makes leaping at her a risky endeavor. I would only consider leaping at her if her health is nearly low. Luckily though, Winston's Tesla Cannon can go through and bypass D.va's Defense Matrix ability.

Both Winston and D.va have great mobility, since D.va can use her Boosters to fly up to you or escape from you, just like Winston can do the same to her.

If you manage to take out D.va's mech, Winston has the easiest time dealing with the little D.va that pops out, as his Tesla cannon combined with leaps will be able to easily keep up with her to take her out with no problems.

Primal Rage can be effective against D.va. Knocking her around will still allow her to shoot her Cannons, but it can knock her away from more fragile allies.

D.va's ultimate Self-Destruct can easily be avoided by leaping away from it and hiding behind a wall. Alternatively, a Barrier Projector can also save you and potential allies from the explosion as well, while also providing cover to continue attacking underneath the Barrier.

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Overwatch Basics Guide Menu
Overwatch Hero Introductions - Basics Guide
How the Mechanics Work in Overwatch
How Headshots Work In Overwatch
Overwatch Game Modes Overview
Overwatch Health Types & Hitpoint Basics
Overwatch Terms, Abbreviations, & Their Meanings
Other Guides
Easiest and Hardest Overwatch Heroes to Master
My Hotkey Bindings For Overwatch & Why I Use Them

This guide will cover all the basic things you need to know about Overwatch, including: how hero abilities work, switching of heroes during a game, ammo, death, melee attacks, crouching, etc..

Hero Abilities
Every hero has a basic attack weapon with two basic abilities and an ultimate ability. Some heroes have an alternate fire for their basic attack weapon as well. Some heroes have passive abilities that are unique to them and don't require cooldowns.

Ability buffering
One very important trick you should be aware of with abilities is that they can be buffered in a sense where you can hold down the hotkey for an ability and your hero will use that ability again immediately when it becomes available. This only works though when pressing the button again during the cooldown of an ability. If you press the hotkey down again before the cooldown, it will not execute again immediately when the cooldown is up for it. This trick is very important for so many abilities in Overwatch. For example, when playing Soldier 76, after using a Biotic Field and the cooldown for it begins, simply press and hold the hotkey down for that ability so it will be used again immediately once the cooldown is up for it.

Here is a list of abilities where ability buffering tends to be more useful for:

• Pharah's Jet Packs
• Winston's Barrier Projector
• Soldier 76's Biotic Field
• Roadhog's Take a Breather
• McCree's Combat Roll or Flashbang
• Zarya's Particle Barrier
• Tracer's Recall
• Mei's Cryo-Freeze

And of course there are many more abilities that can take advantage of this trick.

Ultimates
The ultimate ability for each hero gets charged up slowly overtime automatically (even when doing nothing), and gets charged up faster when you deal damage to enemy heroes. Healing or self healing also charges ultimates. Dealing damage to objects such as turrets do not charge up ultimates. When an ultimate charge is at 100% you can then use the ability once. Once the ultimate is used, the charge meter will be reset (or partially reset depending on how it was executed). Ultimates are generally significantly more powerful than basic abilities and can easily turn the tide of the battle around in your favor.

Enemy ultimates will sound louder and be in the native language of the hero, while allied ultimates will generally be 'softer' and always be in the language of the game you are playing (usually English).

Click here for an audio/visual differences for all ultimates for both enemies and allies.

Ultimate Charge Rates

NOTE: Receiving healing from support healers does not increase the ultimate charge of the hero receiving the support heal.

This list can give you a rough estimate of which heroes can reach their ultimates quicker than other heroes. By looking at the list you can see that D.va's Call-Mech (not really an ultimate) gets revved up the fastest. Symmetra's Teleporter is the second fastest, but keep in mind that Symmetra does not gain ultimate charge if she already has a Teleporter out, but she can get another one relatively fast once her current one gets destroyed. Tracer's Pulse Bomb is 3rd and she can use her ultimate very often.

There are some other important ultimates that get charged up relatively fast that's important to keep in mind, such as: Mercy's Resurrect and Widowmaker's Infra-Sight.

Some of the ultimates that get charged up the slowest and are lowest on the list includes ultimates that provide teams with a powerful 'push' ability, such as Zenyatta's Transcendence and Lucio's Sound Barrier.

Switching heroes during a game
Overwatch was designed so that you can switch heroes during a game. You can only change your heroes in the spawn locations, and you can do so anytime as long as you do it in your team's spawn location.

Why is this allowed? Switching of heroes during a match lets you have more opportunities to counter the enemy. In Overwatch, certain heroes will counter other heroes. By knowing who counters who you can make better hero choices to counter the enemy more effectively. TIP: You can browse my guide to see all the hero counters on all the individual hero pages. Memorize them as best as possible and you will be better educated on knowing which heroes to pick during matches.

While playing if you see you are continuously dying to the same hero, then you should highly consider switching to a different hero that counters that specific enemy hero.

Keep in mind when switching heroes you will lose any ultimate charge that was built up for the specific hero you was playing. You may want to get your ultimate out first before switching heroes.

Ammo & Reloading
Players have infinite ammo, but reloads are needed on most weapons in the game. You can see how much ammo a clip holds along with how much your current clip in use has left, as shown below:

The following lists heroes that use weapons that does not require reloading:

• D.va's Fusion Cannons
• Reinhardt's Rocket Hammer (melee swings)
• Torbjorn's Turrets
• Hanzo's bow

Melee attacks
All heroes can do a melee attack that does 30 damage. The only exception to this is Reinhardt and Torbjorn's Forge Hammer. Reinhardt's melee attack works completely different than everyone else. Reinhardt does 75 damage in a wide ark in front of him that also knocks back enemies. Torbjorn's Forge Hammer acts like any other melee weapon except it does 75 damage. When Torbjorn uses his Rivet Gun, he does a normal melee attack of 30 damage.

Melee attacks are usually worth doing once you get close to an enemy as you will be able to dish out more overall damage. Melee attacks are also very useful to use instead of reloading your gun if you have the opportunity for it. Melee attacks will also interrupt reloading as it has a higher priority of use.

Important hero melee combos:

• Roadhog's Chain Hook, then melee combo.
• Tracer's unload clip, then melee.
• D.va Boosts up to an enemy then melee.
• Mei freezes target, then melee.
• Genji Swift Strikes to an enemy, then melee.

Learn How Abilities Affect Reloading
Keep in mind that some abilities and all melee attacks will interrupt the reload animation and actual reload if it didn't complete in time. So you can always cancel a reload if you need to use an ability or melee someone to finish them off quickly instead. But this also means you may miss the point of actual reload. You should memorize exactly when a gun gets reloaded vs how the gun sounded and looked at that exact time. I highly recommend using sound as the main cue for knowing exactly when you have reloaded (at least on most guns), but memorizing both the visual state of the gun and the actual sound at time of reload is key. Practice this by just shooting and looking at your ammo count and gun animation at the same time. Find out where it barely makes the reload before it gets canceled out by an ability (or melee attack). This will allow you to be more proficient at reloading and then getting back to the fight ASAP.

Here is a video showing the actual reload states for all weapons.

Death
When you die you have to wait a set amount of time before returning back to the game, as shown below:

• If you are on Attack, the death timer is 10 seconds (12 seconds during Overtime).
• If you are on Defense, the death timer is 10 seconds (12 seconds during Overtime).

While you are dead, your allies will see a death timer on your corpse, like this:

A death will also set you back a bit more than this because you will then have to run back to the fight, which can take an average of 10 additional seconds. When you respawn back to the game you will spawn in your team's last spawn room checkpoint.

While you are dead you can immediately switch to a different hero to play with if you choose to. Also by default, you will see a 'kill cam' showing exactly how you died. A lot of players don't like watching this, but I feel like it's important to watch how you died so you can figure out what you should have done differently to have prevented that death. Remember, when it comes to getting better at any video game, your failures is your keys to improving by learning from your mistakes.

No fall damage
When falling from long heights, you will not take any damage when landing on the ground.

Max Damage Reduction
The total damage reduction that a hero can receive while buffed (e.g. from Ana's Nano Boost and Orisa's Fortify) is capped at 50%.

Hero Collision
In Overwatch you can clip through other allies, as you can walk right through them. However, you cannot clip through enemies, they will act as 'walls' that you cannot run through. You can also stand on top of enemies. The exception to this is that Genji can Swift Strike through enemies, Tracer can Blink through enemies and Reaper can Wraith Form through enemies.

If you run or crouch walk against an enemy you can push them very slowly.

Friendly Fire
This refers to being able to shoot and damage your own teammates. Overwatch does NOT use Friendly Fire. If fact, there is no weapons or abilities in Overwatch that can be used to damage your own teammates. However, there is self-damage. You can hurt yourself with certain abilities.

All abilities with Self-Damage:

Crouching Winston Does More Dmg Free

• Junkrat's Frag Launcher
• Junkrat's Rip-Tire
• Soldier 76's Helix Rockets
• Zarya's charged particle shots
• Tracer's Pulse Bomb
• Pharah's rocket Launcher & Barrage
• Widowmaker's Venom Mines

Footsteps
Every hero in Overwatch has a unique footstep sound. You should memorize all these sounds so you will be aware of what enemies (or allies) are around you at any given time. Generally, the heroes with the loudest footstep sounds will also be the ones that are the most deadly close up. So definitely keep this in mind. Zenyatta is the only hero in the game that does not have footstep sounds (he simply hovers around).

Here is a video guide showcasing all footstep sounds for Overwatch.

It's also important to know that enemy footsteps are much louder and clunkier than allied footsteps. Allied footsteps are MUCH softer and less audible than enemy footsteps.

Crouching
All heroes can crouch (except D.va in mech form). Crouching has a few purposes. Crouching will soften the sound of your footsteps and make it quieter, this is great for when you are trying to sneak up on someone unnoticed.

Crouching up to these specific enemies can be useful:

• A Widowmaker or Ana sniping - When a Widowmaker (or to a lesser degree, Ana) is in sniper mode, their field of view is very narrow and they can only see so much around them at once. They rely heavily on footstep sounds to warn them of incoming flankers.
• A Bastion in Sentry Mode - Crouching up to a Bastion Sentry is a little scarier than a Widowmaker, as a Bastion Sentry can still turn around 360 degrees and has a large field of view. But they are stationary and crouching up to them is still effective for the most part.
• A Hanzo - Many times you will see a Hanzo in one specific spot sniping away with his bow. Sneak crouching up to him can be effective if you manage to get close to him.

Crouching is also useful for taking better cover behind payloads, or for Widowmaker's sniping to provide better protection.

Overtime
Overtime is a condition in which the time limit ran out but both teams are still contesting the objective. A fuse will go up or down depending on how many defenders there are relative to attackers contesting the objective. If there are no more attackers contesting the objective the fuse will count down and the game will be over. During Overtime both attackers and defenders will have a 2 second longer respawn time, this is to ensure the game will end quicker and not stay in Overtime for too long.

Overwatch Basics Guide Menu
Overwatch Hero Introductions - Basics Guide
How the Mechanics Work in Overwatch
How Headshots Work In Overwatch
Overwatch Game Modes Overview
Overwatch Health Types & Hitpoint Basics
Overwatch Terms, Abbreviations, & Their Meanings

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