An Overwatch Beginners Guide to Build Momentum
So you’re new to the game and looking for an Overwatch Beginners Guide. Look no further! This guide will take you through the basics of Overwatch, how it differs from other FPSes, and some basic strategies/easy heroes to pick up. Good luck out there!
Table of Contents
What is Overwatch?
Well if you’ve gotten this far you probably have a basic idea of what Overwatch is, but for the few of you out there who don’t, Overwatch is a First-Person Shooter (FPS) created by Blizzard. It makes use of cartoon graphics and unique maps in order to give a less-serious more-fun atmosphere. There are many heroes to choose from, and every single one of them has entirely different abilities, making every game you play unique.
Competitive and quick play games are 6v6. Each game that you play will have a specific objective. These objectives will be clearly defined and will be things such as: push the payload, stop the payload, and capture or defend a point. If you are playing competitive then you will play more than one round in order to get a fair gauge of both teams’ prowess.
Heroes
Since there are clearly several different objectives, there are heroes with different roles to match this. The heroes are split into three groups:
- Tank
- Damage
- Support
A typical team will be comprised of two of each of these roles. The Tank heroes are D.Va, Orisa, Reinhardt, Roadhog, Winston, and Zarya.
Support Heroes
The Support heroes include the following:
- Ana
- Brigitte
- Lucio
- Mercy
- Moira
- Zenyatta
The remaining heroes fall under the damage category, although they clearly all have their strengths and weaknesses. At this point, you’re likely overwhelmed, so I’m going to make things a bit easier and recommend a few specific heroes for each role.
Which Tank is best for beginners?
The Tank role is incredibly important. Without a tank, your team will just get shredded while the other team’s offense sits safely behind their own tank. The tank’s job is to soak damage, draw attention, and split the enemy’s ranks where possible. Many of the tanks require a support hero to back them up in order to reach their full effectiveness. Since you are never guaranteed a competent support, the tank that I recommend is D.Va, which is both beginner-friendly and can operate effectively without a support.
D.Va
First up is D.Va. She’s a gamer girl in a giant mech suit. In her mech form she’s a tank with high health, shields, and strong up-close damage output. She also never has to reload, so you can really unload! Her movement may be slow, but she also has the ability to fly for short bursts, allowing her to position quickly, or get back to her team in a pinch. When D.Va’s mech reaches zero health, she jumps out of it and can fight as a human with only a basic gun attack – however her ultimate recharges extremely quickly, which lets her get back in her mech. Her mech’s ultimate is a giant explosion which can decimate an enemy team. However, since it has such long warning it’s typically used to get people off a point or cause an enemy team to break formation.
Due to D.Va’s high health totals, ability to soak damage, and two forms, she is an incredibly strong tank to play without a dedicated support. Her damage output has the potential to be extremely high at close range, and she doesn’t have to aim too heavily since she never has to reload. Her ultimate is both powerful and extremely fun as well, making D.Va a strong and beginner friendly tank!
What is Support, and do I have to play it?
Support heroes are ones that heal their team. Yes, you can be supportive in other ways, but in Overwatch the “support” classification specifically means healing. The different support heroes all have varying levels of healing that they can put out, and varying levels of damage as well. For example, Zenyatta has the lowest healing, but the highest damage output of the supports. Mercy has extremely high single target healing, but cannot heal groups easily, and cannot attack while she is healing. (Incidentally Mercy is probably the easiest support if you want to go that route). But the one I think is most beginner friendly has a mix of talents.
Lucio
Let’s be honest. Healing sucks. Maybe you’re one of the few players who genuinely enjoy playing Mercy, or lives to snipe-heal your allies with Ana. But most players find healing to be a chore and prefer to deal damage. Lucio is the perfect mix. He heals in an area around him, meaning you don’t have to concentrate on your allies too heavily. His damage is solid, and he has some utility as well. His ultimate is one of the strongest defensive abilities in the game, giving every ally nearby around 1000 extra health (most non-tank heroes have between 150 and 200 base health). Plus, he can freakin ride up walls. That’s pretty cool.
Lucio’s ability to pump out a ton of healing without paying concentrated attention to it is the main reason I put him as the most beginner friendly support. If you love healing, Mercy is easier. But if you were forced into support and just want to shoot stuff, Lucio is a great pick that won’t hold back your team defensively.
Which Damage Hero should I play?
Damage is the hardest role to choose specific heroes from. When it comes down to it, most tanks and supports can fill their role on any map, offense or defense. Damage characters aren’t really like that. For example, Bastion is incredibly strong on defense, but on offense, he needs an entire team comp built around him. Doomfist can break up enemy teams effectively on offense but tends to die rather quickly, making him a poor choice for defense. My pick for best beginner Damage character is because he is good in every situation, even if he isn’t the best in any.
Soldier: 76
Soldier: 76 is the most simple character in Overwatch. He’s basically just the character from a Call of Duty game. You can run, shoot, shoot bigger things, and heal. His simplicity is what makes him so strong for newer players, just play him the same as you’d play any FPS. He can deal a ton of damage to tanks, doesn’t get demolished by any specialists, and has the potential to take out every hero in the game – including the flying ones.
Soldier: 76 is the character you pick if you just want to point and click to kill your enemies. He doesn’t have any special traits, and that’s what makes him so incredibly good for beginners. Hell, even today Soldier: 76 is one of my favorite heroes, due to the lack of difficult mechanics and ease to play.
Conclusion
Overwatch is an incredibly complex game which takes many many hours to fully understand and play competently. This guide will get you in the door, and give you some solid choices to start working with. Chances are you’ll play these heroes a few times, then find others that you like far more – and that’s fine! Overwatch is all about playing what you like best, and what suits your team best. Get out there, use this Overwatch Beginners Guide and have fun.
