Overwatch 2 tier list – the best characters to play in Season 15

Who are the best Overwatch 2 heroes? With 42 heroes to pick from as of Season 15, starting in Blizzard’s hero shooter can be pretty daunting, and it’s not always easy to tell how strong your chosen character is when you’re constantly coming up against different counters and team comps.

Of course, just because we say a hero is a must-pick doesn’t mean you can’t do a better job with your preferred Overwatch 2 characters, but most players should be able to look at this Overwatch 2 tier list for a quick snapshot of who to play and why. Join us as we rank every Overwatch 2 hero in the free PC game, from the titanic tanks to squishy supports.

Overwatch 2 tier list

First off, some housekeeping. Our Overwatch 2 tier list isn’t divided up into specific roles, but we have a hero for each role represented in every bracket. S tier is the highest category and represents heroes who are at the pinnacle of the game’s meta and don’t require specific team comps or strategies to dominate with. A-tier picks aren’t necessarily worse than their S-tier counterparts, but they’re generally harder to use and get the best out of. B, C, and D tier follow suit, representing the lower echelons of Overwatch 2’s roster.

Here is our Overwatch 2 tier list for Season 15:

S-tier

Sojourn

It’s easy to think of Sojourn as Soldier 76 but with a much higher skill ceiling. Attacking enemies with Sojourn’s primary weapon charges up her railgun, giving you access to a hitscan beam capable of dealing 200 damage if you land a headshot.

Her ultimate provides constant railgun charge for a short period, and each shot can pierce, so if you’re landing shots, you can wipe a team in seconds.

Kiriko

Kiriko stands out as Blizzard’s main way of bringing DPS users to switch to support. Her healing output is impressive on its own merit, but it’s also supplemented further by Kiriko’s incredible mobility and shockingly high damage output. To top it off, she can provide her team with temporary invulnerability during clutch moments when the game can be decided in an instant.

Widowmaker

Widowmaker’s ability to take down a support hero with one charged headshot is always going to make her a strong pick in the right hands, especially as that leaves the enemy team’s solo tank vulnerable. Her extreme range means that she can remain at a high vantage point and avoid small skirmishes, with only an opposing Widowmaker serving as an immediate threat, especially thanks to the buff to her shots.

That said, her viability as a team pick is almost entirely map-dependent – she excels on large maps with open spaces but is mostly useless when fighting at close range. If you insist on picking Widowmaker, you need to learn how to play as an additional DPS hero as a backup choice to manage situations where a sniper just won’t cut it.

Ana

Keeping tanks alive is crucial in Overwatch 2, which is why Ana is one of the best supports available – she can both heal your team’s tank and disrupt the enemy’s with sleep darts. Her ability to seamlessly switch between healing friendlies and damaging opposition heroes also makes her versatile and fairly easy to use, despite the fact that she’s a sniper.

To top it off, Ana’s Nano Boost ultimate can completely change a game when used at the perfect time, providing a huge damage boost to friendly heroes.

Tracer

Tracer is the face of Overwatch and one of the most difficult heroes to play in the game. With her paltry max health, Tracer can be wiped out quickly if you aren’t careful. That said, her mobility is excellent, and she’s one of the best characters in the meta right now.

On top of this, Tracer can be good for zipping in and destroying squishy heroes with one strong burst of damage. She’s also one of the very few glass cannons fast enough to evade Roadhog’s hook, and she’s a great alternative to mobile flankers like Genji and Sombra.

Torbjörn

The Swedish engineer was once a victim of Overwatch 2’s fast-paced meta, but no longer. Sporting big DPS with Overload’s reload, as well as two incredibly strong perks that provide tons of power to his turrets, Torb is in a fantastic spot.

Winston

‘Monkey one’ may be one of the most common callouts in Overwatch 2, but Winston is much more than a common chimp. This magnificent ape is a fantastic diver who can both protect his team with his domed bubble shield and leap into the enemy backline to cause havoc. Whereas his electrifying Tesla cannon was a simple lock-on and channel in the original Overwatch, OW2 brought an alt-fire that lets him fire it like a normal weapon – he’s much more useful outside of close-quarters combat now.

A tier

Lúcio

Playing as Lúcio can sometimes feel like you’re not helping the team all that much, but constant passive healing with well-timed ultimates makes Lúcio an asset for any team. His high mobility is great for attracting attention away from the heroes you’re healing, and his soundwave – or boop – makes him lethal on maps with bottomless pits and cliffs to knock enemies off of.

Keep your ult handy, and you can effectively cancel out enemy ults to flip the situation completely in your favor. Timing his projectiles isn’t easy, but once you get the hang of it, you can provide a lot of damage output. Pairing him with Ana can lead to some incredible speed and nano-boosted attacks, and a well-timed anti-nade on top of the sound barrier can swing team fights heavily in your favor.

Juno

Season 12’s new girl, Juno shook up the meta when she was introduced, and the nerfs she received in Season 13 didn’t stop her from dominating. Juno’s Mediblaster was hit by nerfs to its falloff range and overall healing, but her mobility remains untouched, ensuring her viability as one of the game’s best support heroes.

Being able to heal from a distance and having the option to dart in and out of combat makes her incredibly useful, and it helps that she has one of the most busted ultimates in the game right now.

Doomfist

Doomfist is good at hunting down backliners, snipers, and aerial heroes, but all of his offensive capabilities are only really effective in close-quarters combat. As a dive tank, he doesn’t provide much of a shield for your team, and he’s not as mobile as heroes like Winston. We currently don’t see much of a reason to randomly pick him over the aforementioned monkey.

D.Va

With one of the most effective ultimates in the game and a rounded kit, D.Va is as strong as ever. Her mobility makes her especially effective at hunting down damage and supporting heroes, and you can do a lot of work if you can successfully breach the enemy backline as part of a dive comp.

In addition to this, D.Va’s Defense Matrix directly counters many powerful abilities, including Moira’s Biotic Orb, Reinhardt’s Fire Strike, and Ana’s Sleep Dart.

Ramattra

As the first tempo tank to debut in Blizzard’s hero shooter, Ramattra’s kit is versatile by design. His Omnic form is a defensive stance, providing you with access to his Void Accelerator staff and Void Barrier, which can be placed to help your team push a fixed point or retreat accordingly.

Alternatively, Ramattra’s Nemesis form can be triggered to deliver an eight-second burst of aggression, imbuing him with the additional armor needed to survive a direct melee assault on the enemy team that ignores shields and barriers.

Sigma

Sigma was no slouch in Overwatch 1, and he’s even more durable in Overwatch 2. What’s more, he now poses a real threat to the majority of heroes, as you can combo his spheres and rock attack to dish out tons of damage.

Sigma excels on maps with a lot of congested areas as it’s almost impossible to miss his projectiles, and his Gravitic Flux ultimate can separate aggressive enemies from the pack, allowing your hitscan teammates to dispatch them with ease. There will be times on certain maps where you may feel like you’re doing nothing, though.

Ashe

Overwatch 2’s 5v5 format and highly mobile heroes mean there’s a lot more open space on the battlefield, and that’s had a pretty noticeable effect on the potency of Ashe’s dynamite, which does tons of damage in congested areas. She’s a great damage pick, but you really need to land your shots to get the best out of her now that it’s harder to farm for her ultimate ability with dynamite.

However, her long-range primary fire means she can apply pressure without the threat of melee heroes, and Bob is an excellent tool for routing the enemy and turning the tide of a match.

Cassidy

Like Hanzo, Cassidy is great when you’re landing every shot and awful if you’re having an off day. His stun grenade has been replaced with a magnetic grenade in Overwatch 2, removing his ability to deal with tanks on his own. The magnetic grenade is highly effective against other DPS heroes, capable of dealing up to 100 damage in under two seconds. Cassidy’s main problem is that he has no chance of survival against certain heroes.

When Cassidy had his flashbang stun, he could compete against most heroes in the game, but now his overall damage output isn’t enough to save him in dangerous situations. Cassidy’s roll is no longer hindered by enemy player collision, but the focus on close-range heroes in the current meta means that this change provides limited scope to help you escape with your life.

Echo

Echo is much weaker in Overwatch 2 as her duplicate ability now has a health point cap, preventing you from cloning a tank and steamrolling the enemy team. Despite this, she’s still a highly mobile, tank-busting DPS hero with a diverse arsenal of projectiles, a beam that melts barriers, and the unique ability to duplicate an enemy with her ultimate.

Zarya

Zarya suffered a similar fate as Genji. At launch, she enjoyed an excellent standing as one of the best-performing tank heroes. Soon, though, she received a barrage of nerfs to her barriers to increase her window of vulnerability. Since then, she’s received some much-needed love.

As a result, Zarya can still hold her own – her cannon deals a lot of damage once it’s gained some charge, and her ultimate can take at least one hero out of the fight.

Zenyatta

Zenyatta is arguably the hardest support hero to master due to his high skill ceiling, forcing players to get to grips with his strange abilities. It’s worth learning his gameplay style, though, as his ultimate can single-handedly thwart any coordinated attack by providing the team with constant healing for five seconds.

Pharah

Pharah hasn’t changed much at all, but her aerial mobility and damage output can still prove lethal in the right hands. She’ll require a dedicated healer when coming up against hitscan damage heroes like Soldier 76, who can pluck her out of the sky.

On the rare occasion when the enemy team isn’t running any hitscan heroes, you can punish them with the deadly Pharah and Mercy combo to deal devastating amounts of damage from the sky.

Symmetra

If any hero needs a revamp right now, it’s Symmetra. Her kit was relatively effective in the first game as it charged off shields, but with one less tank on the battlefield, she’s not as potent, which leaves her open to dives from the roster’s more agile heroes. Symmetra has seen some use as part of rush comps purely due to her ability to teleport the team out onto the field at the beginning of a match – anything to get one step closer to the objective than the enemy team.

Junker Queen

Proving to be a bit too powerful as both an attacker and tank in the beta, Junker Queen’s abilities were nerfed at launch to make her less of a threat. She’s since received buffs to several abilities, including her passive, which now heals for the additional wound damage remaining on enemies after they die with the wound effect applied.

As the seasons have trundled on, Junker Queen’s settled into a comfortable spot as a mid-high-tier hero. A safe bet for a tank main, you’ll seldom suffer for playing her.

Venture

Venture is a budding archeologist, introduced in Season 10, and is one of the freshest characters to date. They can dig through the ground with their drill and emerge from underneath with a huge amount of force. Though they have been rebalanced a few times since joining the roster, this mostly changes impact damage to be lower while damage over time increases, making sense for a drill-based weapon.

Venture can potentially one-shot a player, but if you somehow manage to dodge them, they need a while to recover, making them vulnerable to counterattacks. We do think that Venture is a solid pick, but they’re nowhere near a dominant force.

Mauga

Mauga can cause players headaches due to his overwhelming power as a tank. While the usual tank counters work against Mauga, you have to play perfectly to take him down. In Season 15, he’s not quite as imposing as he has been in the past, but he remains a decent pick.

B tier

Hazard

An incredibly mobile tank, Hazard excels at diving in and out of combat and can focus vulnerable enemy backlines with ease. Hazard has both single-target dps abilities and his ultimate showers a huge area with spikes, damaging any enemies caught in the radius. He can also scale some walls, giving him unique angles of attack.

Genji

Genji benefited hugely from Overwatch 2’s shift to 5v5 match formats and the removal of crowd control abilities that would previously leave him vulnerable.

If you manage to slip behind the backline, you can chain swift strikes to take out vulnerable heroes like Mercy and Widowmaker. However, you’ll have to keep an eye on your ammo while diving. To make the most out of Genji’s kit, it’s vital that you become familiar with the Overwatch 2 maps so you can sneak around more effectively and avoid being caught out.

Reaper

Reaper remains the premier tank-buster and is especially potent against off-tanks like D.Va and Winston. With tons of damage to his name and a kit that allows him to reposition and devastate, Reaper should be in a great spot. However, the speed of the game in the current meta makes it hard for him to have an impact.

Soldier 76

There are plenty of powerful DPS heroes in Overwatch 2, but Soldier 76 has one of the simplest and most effective kits of the lot. He can sprint and self-heal, which is great for escaping a pinch, but really, his strength lies in the amount of damage he can put out with his standard assault rifle. His large ammo clip and forgiving rate of fire ensure beginners and pros will get on with this damage stalwart, but in many respects, he can be seen as a stepping stone for higher-performing heroes.

Wrecking Ball

Wrecking Ball has ebbed and flowed in viability since launch. His main strength has always been his mobility, massive health pool, and regenerative shield, making him an exceptionally durable tank that can get about. Despite technically fitting a fast-paced meta, Wrecking Ball doesn’t dive as well as Winston or Hazard, leaving him languishing in the lower leagues.

Orisa

Orisa’s automatic cannon ensures your frontline is always lethal. She can escape imminent death by combining her Fortify and Javelin Spin abilities and disrupting or pushing enemies around with her Energy Javelin. Her Terra Surge ability can also pierce through barriers, so you no longer have to rely on your team to break through enemy defenses.

Orisa was one of the better heroes in Season 14, and that hasn’t changed in Season 15. Her ability to stay on the battlefield is practically unrivaled, and she provides enough utility that most teams will benefit from her presence.

Brigitte

As a melee support with some tank potential, Brigitte offers her teammates a suite of passive buffs and protection. She can also score kills when you combo her mace attacks and shield bash – though we recommend using the latter as an escape rather than as part of a full-frontal assault.

While she’s not as busted as she was back in the OG Overwatch days, Brigitte is still an incredibly versatile hero, and can keep your team topped up on health with each swing of her mace.

Illari

Introduced in season 6, Illari quickly became one of the go-to healers in both competitive and esports-level play. She fell down the ranks back in Season 9 due to major game changes, and has since struggled to be more than a middling pick.

Mei

She might have less crowd-control potential than before, but her weapon no longer freezes enemies in place. Mei is still very good at laying down fire and closing out the objective. With only one tank per team in Overwatch 2, Mei’s ability to stay alive and soak up damage can make her really powerful, especially if you need to hold an area while your tank is healing up. It’s also worth mentioning that using her ice wall to pick off stragglers is still a viable strategy, though the opportunities to do so are a bit more limited in Overwatch 2.

Baptiste

If you want to play support on the frontline, then Baptiste is an excellent hero. His primary fire makes him genuinely dangerous in the right hands; he can self-heal, and he can provide temporary immortality – roll all that together, and you have a hero that regularly comes in clutch. His Exo Boots also allow you to reach high vantage points, which pairs brilliantly with his range of support throwables; you can escape some ultimates with it. Dedicated Baptiste mains can certainly justify their place on most team comps, but there’s no denying that Kiriko is also a great alternative pick.

Junkrat

On maps with lots of tight corridors, Junkrat used to be a devastating pick. While his trap has been heavily nerfed in Overwatch 2, no longer pinning players who step into it, that hasn’t slowed his roll. On the contrary, he’s got a two-hit combo that’s possible to pull off by dropping a concussion mine at the same time as flinging a grenade, which is lethal to squishier targets that drift into close range.

On top of this, Junkrat’s ultimate has always been strong, capable of wiping whole teams at bottlenecks or disrupting a reinforced line of defense on the point.

Moira

Moira’s key strengths lie in her survivability thanks to Fade which lets her easily weave in and out of combat, and her ultimate is fantastic for clearing congested areas. Her healing abilities are still as potent as ever, and you don’t need incredible aim to get the most out of Moira. Her Damage Biotic Orb remains a constant threat on the battlefield as it drains health from unsuspecting players in tight areas.

Moira is the type of healer who deals plenty of damage alongside her healing duties, racking up numerous assists for doing very little. Try to pick Moira on smaller maps where it’s easy to heal numerous teammates in enclosed areas.

Sombra

Sombra received a rework in Overwatch 2, placing less emphasis on her disabling abilities while increasing her damage output. Her hacking ability now attaches a massive damage amplifier to the target, which you can apply while invisible, which is ideal for a backline assault. Sombra excels when paired with dive-oriented heroes such as Winston or Genji, and they’re both in a fantastic place. Also, her EMPs will just shut down anyone nearby, making her a great support choice.

C tier

Reinhardt

Arguably the truest tank in Overwatch 2, Reinhardt is good at soaking up enemy fire and bringing the rest of your team into the fights. A well-timed charge can pick off squishes, while a big ultimate can immediately win a fight.

Hanzo

As always, if you can hit your shots with Hanzo, he’s one of the best damage heroes in the game. That’s a pretty big if, though, especially with Overwatch 2’s increased mobility and one less enemy hero to aim at. When paired with the right set of heroes, Hanzo’s ultimate is capable of wiping out entire teams on the spot, but his inability to deal with heroes with high mobility makes him a hard sell.

Roadhog

Forget the top dog, here’s the bottom hog. Roadhog easily benefitted least from the tank changes back in Season 11, which left him lagging behind the rest of the pack. Though he can still stick out a mean hook, he’s not going to have a fun time against the shield-based or high-mobility tanks/off-tanks that are currently dominating the meta.

Bastion

Despite receiving a rework, Bastion is still a little too much of a sitting duck in Overwatch 2. While he has strong DPS potential against agile tanks like Winston, the odds are he’ll be dismantled before he can do the damage. That said, this potential does extend to support characters, which Bastion can dispatch with ease. It’s certainly possible to secure a match with Bastion on your team, but his dependence on support heroes to help him perform at his best means sacrificing your team’s composition, and it’s rarely worth the trade-off.

Mercy

Ouch. The impact on healers back in Season 9 did a number on Mercy, and she’s yet to recover. She still brings value with her ability to boost damage for allies, but this support-based character is otherwise not worth bothering with. Here’s hoping you find a really good Pharah player to pocket, as they can do some work with your involvement, but she’s far from the best support in the game.

D tier

Lifeweaver

Lifeweaver is a more utility-focused support with access to solid healing and abilities that can reposition allies in a pinch. He has a little bit more skill expression than, say, Mercy, though there are still plenty of supports who are much more engaging picks.

With Season 15, Lifeweaver was given a lifeline with the introduction of perks, but it’s not been enough to make up for his fundamental deficiencies.

That’s all there is to know about the current Overwatch 2 tier list and meta. Check out our Overwatch 2 characters guide to discover more about the latest heroes joining the roster. Alternatively, take a look at the best Overwatch 2 crosshair settings for your chosen character, which can give you the edge while climbing the Overwatch 2 ranks in competitive mode. If you’re looking for other hero shooters, check out our Marvel Rivals tier list for the best characters in the game right now.