Best damage heroes to play in Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2 boasts a diverse roster of damage heroes, any of whom can be highly effective in the right situation. But as Blizzard continually fine-tunes the game’s balancing, some heroes stand out more than others.

After every monthly patch, there seems to be at least a slight shift to which heroes are most useful. But there are also a few heroes that stay up at the top of the totem pole. This ranking will be determined via Dot Esports writers’ expertise, with assistance from trackers like Overbuff and the Overwatch League. Who’s the best choice to help your team meet your objective? Who’s the most powerful hero on the battlefield?

Here are the five best damage heroes to play in Overwatch 2 right now.

Genji

• Main weapon: Shuriken (primary and secondary fire)
• Passive: Cyber-Agility
• Ability: Swift Strike
• Ability: Deflect
• Ultimate: Dragonblade

Genji has regularly been one of Overwatch’s most popular DPS characters to select. The allure of being able to run, jump, and maneuver quickly is appealing to many players, as is the cybernetic ninja’s powerful attacks and solo carry potential.

Like Tracer, Genji can use his high mobility to maneuver around just about every other hero in the game. By design, it’s difficult to hit him with precision heroes like Ashe and Widowmaker, and he can easily deflect most projectiles thrown his way with the aptly-named Deflect ability. A good crowd control ability, like a stun, used to be able to put him in his place. But now that those abilities are confined mostly to tanks, Genji can run more freely than he ever has before.

Fast, small, hard to hit, and annoying as all “get out” if you’re facing him, he can be a tricky one to take down. He does have a weakness to beam weapons, which can’t be deflected; even so, notice none of the heroes on this list have a beam weapon.

With Ana being among the most-played support heroes in ranked play, according to Overbuff, Genji with Dragonblade is perhaps the best candidate to receive a Nano Boost. While he’s not one of the more heavily-used heroes at the Top 500 level, a solid Genji who regularly combos off with Ana can carry matches on almost all levels of the ladder.

Hanzo

• Weapon: Storm Bow
• Passive: Wall Climb
• Ability: Sonic Arrow
• Ability: Storm Arrows
• Ultimate: Dragonstrike

Hanzo is easily the strongest projectile-based damage hero in the game’s current state. With one-shot potential, his skill cap is extraordinarily high. But in the wrong hands, playing him can almost seem like throwing.

Playing Hanzo isn’t for the weak-minded, but whenever you land a fully charged Storm Bow shot to an enemy’s dome, there is no sweeter sound than when you hear the “tink” of a headshot combined with the one players get from securing an elimination.

Players at lower ratings who maybe don’t have projectile aiming figured out should probably pass on using Hanzo. But it’s clear by looking at which heroes the top 500 players on the ladder use that Hanzo is a force to be reckoned with.

Cassidy

• Main weapon: Peacekeeper (primary and burst secondary fire)
• Passive: 25 percent increase in movement and reload speed after an elimination
• Ability: Combat Roll
• Ability: Magnetic Grenade
• Ultimate: Deadeye

Cassidy has seen a slow progression into the top tiers of Overwatch 2. The gunslinging cowboy’s accuracy and damage with his peacekeeper revolver can be oppressive when played around by his team. His ultimate might be used poorly in the lower ranks, but if you’re whipping Deadeye out in the perfect moment in higher ranks, he’ll tear through your team.

His combat roll keeps him as a great middle-of-the-pack player while giving him the ability to get some cheeky flanks in here and there, with a quick escape. The higher the ranks, the less this will work.

As soon as Cassidy is in your face, you better believe that magnetic grenade is coming out sooner or later. Though it was nerfed, it is still a strong deterrent for diving enemies and can cause some serious damage to several players if a Cassidy throws it in a crowded space.

If you’re a pinpoint precise aimer, Cassidy might be the pick for you.

Widowmaker

• Weapon: Widow’s Kiss
• Ability: Grappling Hook
• Ability: Venom Mine
• Ultimate: Infra-Sight

Widowmaker certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. While her mantra is “one shot, one kill,” the hero fails to mention that players need to actually land that shot to be effective. As the second-most played hero among the top 500 players in DPS role queue, it’s difficult to leave her off the list of best damage heroes in the game. But it can’t be stressed enough that players need to practice her to perform at even a serviceable level.

With the best one-shot potential in the game, a player who has impeccable aim can absolutely take over a game by playing Widowmaker, and her Infra-Sight Ultimate ability is often underrated.

Similar to Hanzo, Widowmaker can make an enemy’s life miserable, but that often occurs more at higher ranks than it does lower ones. Her lack of sustained damage makes getting picks crucial to her viability, but her ability to get those picks in the right hands makes her one of the best DPS heroes in the game

Tracer

• Main weapon: Pulse Pistols
• Ability: Blink
• Ability: Recall
• Ultimate ability: Pulse Bomb

As the cover girl of Overwatch, there has rarely been a time when Tracer wasn’t a meta pick. Her kit is pretty simple: two rapid-fire pistols, a high-speed burst of movement, and Recall, which brings her back to where she was three seconds earlier. Tracer is easier to understand than other DPS characters with more complicated kits, but her skill ceiling is incredibly high. To be a good Tracer player, you must be aware of your surroundings and be able to track them.

Tracer is in her zone when there are several avenues to sneak around in. Planning her attack in hallways can be the best way to position before she goes in for the kill.

Related: These DPS heroes are dominating the top of Overwatch 2’s ranked ladder

She’s had very few changes to her original kit since 2016, meaning players haven’t had to redefine her playstyle in the way they have with other heroes.

Playing Tracer is exhilarating for both new and old players, and you can’t go wrong playing as her in Overwatch 2. With a kit catered to survivability, a strong Tracer player can carry most matches on the competitive ladder making her by far the most-used DPS among players in the Top 500. With a low health pool, it may take some practice to stay alive, but once you’ve figured that out, she’s the perfect hero to rank with when solo queuing.