Now that we’ve covered who the most versatile heroes of Overwatch are, we’ll be looking at the exact opposite. Though the many different heroes of Overwatch have purposefully made to each be as overpowered as they possibly can, following the ideology of how “if everyone is overpowered, nobody is,” that doesn’t mean every hero performs their best in every situation. Granted, it’s not impossible to use every hero to the best of their ability within any scenario, but some just simply aren’t built for as many different types of combat. So without further ado, here’s our top 10 most situational Overwatch heroes.
10. Reaper
Overwatch: Reaper
Though he may try to pose as the physical embodiment of death, Reaper is really just an edgy guy in an edgy costume that can float around and uses two shotguns at once to fight. As such, he’ll find some difficulty finding an exact niche for him to fall into during combat, though it would seem his main use is to sneak (or blast) behind enemy lines and take out the squishier characters hiding back there. That’s about it, though, and while he can be a tank killer, his very limited range hinders him from performing as well on the frontlines or any other head-on approach.
9. Widowmaker
Overwatch: Widowmaker
Though Widowmaker is my preferred of the defense snipers, she’s absolutely not without her flaws. For one thing, even if her machinegun does decent enough damage to defend herself is she has to, it’s not nearly enough to deal with any offense hero who knows what they’re doing, so she has no good way of dealing with close encounters. Her line of sight also greatly factors into how well she can do her job, so while she may do well in areas with long and open corridors, her viability suffers on the more enclosed areas where it’s difficult to line up a shot from far off.
8. Zarya
Image Source: Blizzard
Zarya’s far from the least useful hero. Her kit can come in handy in plenty of ways, but one thing it can’t do is control how the enemy will react. Her barriers are both her main weapon and defense, given how they convert any damage they absorb into power for her and can shield teammates from damage for a few seconds. And while this comes in handy greatly for protecting those using an ultimate, outside of that, their viability very much depends on opponents being foolish enough to attack while they’re up, and practically anybody who knows how they work will just hold off their fire until the barrier goes back down.
7. McCree
Overwatch: McCree
It’s a little hard to say exactly what McCree’s job specifically is in combat. He can make quick shots to far off enemies, or stun and unleash his full clip into someone that gets close to him. But aside from these two things, that’s just about all he can do. He doesn’t have any mobility options other than a quick roll across the ground a short distance, and his ultimate is very slow and easily dealt with if his enemies aren’t already being hindered by some other ultimate. And he can just about forget dealing with tanks, either close up or far off. Though he may be the slick and cool cowboy from the West, he’s not the most apt to deal with any situation.
6. Pharah
Overwatch: Pharah
Pharah is probably one of the most fun characters to play in the entire game when everything is going well. After all, nobody could say they don’t enjoy flying around effortlessly and launching rockets straight down to destroy everything beneath your feet. But that requires everything to be going right, and in all honesty, it’s hard to find a moment like that for Pharah. If any opponent has a weapon suited for hitting far off targets, Pharah’s likely their very first target, and with how exposed her flight makes her, she’ll be going down very quickly once she’s in enemy sights. Having a great weapon is of little use when you can barely stay alive, after all.
5. Winston
A big, nerdy, lovable gorilla with an iconic voice, Winston is one of my favorite characters in Overwatch. But he’s not really one of my favorites to play, and that’s mainly because of how little use he finds. His primary fire, while hit can hit multiple people at once and requires next to no aim, does laughable damage to most characters. And his barrier is nowhere near as useful as Reinhardt’s or Orisa’s, not covering a very wide area and going down quite quickly. His set of tools is really only usable for either blocking an AoE ultimate or taking down a pesky Genji that likes to spam deflect.
4. Hanzo
Image Source: Blizzpro
One of three snipers in Overwatch, Hanzo has managed to remain the least helpful to his team since launch date. It’s not that he’s necessarily bad at getting kills, as the hitbox of his arrows may as well be the size of a log, but he doesn’t add anything to a team that someone else can do much better while also being much more present. By being someone who provides not much direct support and instead stays afar, he effectively turns every push from his team from a 6v6 to a 5v6, turning the tides against his own team. Widowmaker can at least provide assistance with her landmines and Infra-Sight ultimate, but Hanzo has nothing of the sort to help them out.
3. Sombra
Overwatch: Sombra
Initially, people were very worried that Sombra, when released, would become a broken hero and destroy the current meta of the game. Though, as we’ve all seen since her release, this is hardly true. Her damage output is just not up to par with the other offense heroes, and the rest of her toolset doesn’t give her much else to work with. Hacking people to remove their abilities briefly is the best she can manage, and hacked heroes can still just turn around and shoot her. Yes, she has her teleporter, but with the time limit it stamps on her it removes a lot of freedom with what she can do, and the her other abilities simply aren’t enough to fill in the gaps.
2. Torbjorn
Overwatch: Torbjorn
So, Torbjorn’s toolset requires him to be highly diligent and analytical of the battlefield, ensuring he’s always active and looking for opportunities to destroy the enemy in one fell swoop. Here’s how he does it: he’ll go find a suitable place to put down his turret, plop it down, hammer at it until it’s leveled up, and he’s done. Perhaps I exaggerated how active he actually is. While Torbjorn’s turret can do a decent job at covering chokepoints, Torbjorn himself really doesn’t have much else going for him. He can toss out armor packs, and while those are useful, a healer is much more useful. The guy just really doesn’t have anything he can do super well after he puts his turret down.
1. Symmetra
Overwatch: Symmetra
Even after her huge rehaul a few months back, which did no doubt improve her viability marginally, Symmetra still isn’t exactly the hero you’d want to have in a lot of situations. Her primary and secondary fire aren’t going to be winning any awards, and though her projectile barrier is miles better than what her secondary ability used to be, it requires much more precise timing and allows for little wiggle room for how it can be taken advantage of after it’s been deployed. Though her unique ability to switch which ultimate she’d rather use at a given time does help this, her use is still quite limited with next to no offensive potential
