Best support heroes to play in Overwatch 2

The importance of support heroes has increased exponentially with the release of Overwatch 2. The change to five-vs-five gameplay has incentivized the need for healing and other forms of utility to succeed.

Despite that increased importance, there are still not many options for support players compared to DPS. However, even within the small pool of heroes lay a handful that stand out among the others, mostly due to how impactful they can be in nearly any team composition.

While most support heroes aren’t inherently bad, there are a few that struggle more than others to synergize with other heroes and remain rather niche or comfort-driven options.

Here are the current best support heroes in Overwatch 2 that can be crucial in turning around any deficit.

Kiriko

• Main weapon: Kunai
• Ability: Healing Ofuda
• Ability: Swift Step
• Ability: Protection Suzu
• Ultimate ability: Kitsune Rush

Both Kiriko’s Swift Step and innate passive to wall climb provide her with mobility akin to Mercy and Lucio combined. When in difficult situations, Kiriko can simply teleport away to distant allies on a rather short cooldown, which also provides her with a few frames of invincibility. This gives her some of the best survivability in the game among supports.

A large part of Kirko’s power lies in her Protection Suzu ability, as well as her ultimate Kitsune Rush. Protection Suzu can be thrown at a group of allies to protect them from a distance and cleanses negative status effects, such as anti-heal from Ana or Junker Queen.

Related: KarQ warns Overwatch 2 tank players of ‘frustrating’ Kiriko bug that could be their doom

Kitsune Rush, on the other hand, creates a large zone that provides allies that pass through it with increased movement speed, attack speed, and lowered cooldowns on their abilities. This, in theory, can turn any hero into Bastion in his turret configuration, forcing enemies to withdraw to cover or be sent back to spawn.

Perhaps the most overlooked part of her kit are her kunais, which she throws as part of her attack. Though they don’t do much damage upon hitting body shots, they are the only weapon to have a three-times multiplier for headshots, allowing Kiriko to make quick work of unsuspecting DPS targets.

Thanks to her mobility, Kirko can be played fairly aggressively and works very well alongside tanks that enjoy diving straight into clusters of enemies.

Ana

• Main weapon: Biotic Rifle
• Ability: Sleep Dart
• Ability: Biotic Grenade
• Ultimate ability: Nano Boost

Ana has been a staple pick since her original release as the base game’s first post-launch character, and she fits well into nearly any team composition—as long as players are aware of their surroundings.

A perfectly-executed Sleep Dart continues to be one of the best ways that Ana can impact the map outside of healing. Upon making direct contact with an enemy, it will put them to sleep and render them unable to move or attack. It’s perfect for shutting down anything from charging tanks to diving DPS that just popped their Ultimate.

Related: Overwatch League pro gives masterclass in Ana’s hidden DPS potential

Biotic Grenade is perhaps her most utilitarian ability, despite a recent nerf. It can not only prevent heals on enemies, but it also heals and buffs allies. In solo-queue situations where team coordination isn’t always optimal, Anas regularly hold a Biotic Grenade to stymie enemy dive attempts, giving her an added layer of survivability.

Ana’s Nano Boost empowers the attacks of an ally and grants them a bit of damage resist, as well as heals them for 250 health, often paired with heroes ready to use their Ultimates as well.

In this five-vs-five meta, using Nano Boost on a tank has seen increased priority for their already-high damage output and innate damage resist, oftentimes making them even more powerful than a Nano Boosted damage hero.

Moira

• Main weapon: Biotic Grasp
• Ability: Biotic Orb
• Ability: Fade
• Ultimate ability: Coalescence

Moira’s abilities give her plenty of room to lend a hand with almost every class of hero. If she mainly focuses on healing, the squad gets more than enough to keep them going with each fight.

Her Bionic Grasp gives teammates 70 per second, then 35 over two seconds as it lingers. It’ll reach 15 meters away, giving her plenty of room to stay close but not too deep into the fight. The life-consuming side of the bionic grasp will heal her while draining opponents of their precious life force.

The survivability provided by her Bionic Orb combined with Fade make her the ultimate solo-queue healer for players that may not necessarily trust their team. Meanwhile, she has some of the best throughput potential of any support hero.

Zenyatta

• Weapon: Orb of Destruction
• Ability: Orb of Harmony
• Ability: Orb of Discord
• Ability: Snap Kick
• Ultimate: Transcendence

Zenyatta might not have the standard healing capacity to be labeled a “main healer,” but with his Orb of Discord, he doesn’t need to be. When paired with another healer that has a higher healing throughput, he remains one of the strongest support selections in a dive composition.

While he lacks the survivability of some other heroes on this list, the amplified damage that his Orb of Discord provides makes the omnic worth playing around. The only potential downside to running Zenyatta comes if you are playing with a team that doesn’t peel for you during an enemy counter dive.

Related: Zenyatta player defeats Nano-Boosted Reinhardt with one of the easiest tricks in Overwatch 2

Along with being able to assist diving DPS and tanks with his orbs, Zenyatta is a certified fragger himself, and while he isn’t played nearly as much as some of the other supports in the game, he has one of the highest win rates in the game among support heroes on the competitive ladder, according to Overbuff.

Though his healing throughput is lacking during most parts of the game, a well-timed Transcendence can easily push him to the top of the healing meters and save the day against otherwise lethal enemy ultimate combos.