Being a hero shooter, all characters in Overwatch 2 fit within certain roles or archetypes. One such broad role category in Overwatch 2 is damage or basically DPS heroes. If you prefer to kill enemies rather than heal or tank, then the damage characters in OW2 are perfect for you.
If you are new to the game or a returning player, allow us to guide you in the best ways to play and excel as a Damage dealer in Overwatch 2.
Overwatch 2 best damage pairings and combos
You have over a dozen different DPS heroes to choose from in Overwatch 2. While they are all designed to deal damage to enemies, their individual abilities and kits require each of them to be played differently. Hence, each damage hero might be suitable for a certain composition but not all of them.
- Ashe
- Bastion
- Echo
- Genji
- Hanzo
- Junkrat
- Cassidy
- Mei
- Pharah
- Reaper
- Sojourn
- Soldier: 76
- Sombra
- Symmetra
- Torbjorn
- Tracer
- Widowmaker
Tracer and Genji
These characters can bring havoc to their enemies due to their flanking capabilities. If left unnoticed, they can quickly terminate enemy DPS and support heroes.
Genji can use his Shuriken and Swift Strike to move in and kill the enemies that Tracer damaged.
Moreover, Tracer and Genji Ultimates can split the enemy teams as they will try to go away from the incoming damage. Both should use their ultimates independently, so Dragonblade kills, or Pulse Bomb picks will keep the enemies away from one another, making it an easy fight.
Genji and Zarya
Genji works best with Zarya due to her protective abilities. Genji can move in under the Bubble protection from her, quickly taking down squishy enemies.
Moreover, Genji’s Dragonblade and Zarya’s Graviton Surge combo can leave the whole enemy team dead.
However, Zarya must position herself perfectly to use the Projected Barrier on Genji and increase his survivability during his encounter with the enemies. If both are in perfect sync, then there’s no stopping this pair.
Hanzo and Orisa
Hanzo can quickly eliminate enemy healers and support heroes if provided proper protection. Orisa‘s Protective Barrier helps Hanzo to shoot freely and deal massive damage to enemies without worrying about his health.
Moreover, Orisa’s Halt enables Hanzo to land a maximum number of headshots by pulling enemies into her orb.
Additionally, the pair works because Orisa’s Supercharger ability maximizes Hanzo’s damage output. Hanzo can quickly secure kills on enemies and win the fights for his team.
Orisa lifts Hanzo into the game by giving him tremendous output damage, providing easy targets, and protecting him from different positions.
Pharah and Mercy
Pharah and Mercy make an ideal pair in Overwatch 2. Their strength lies in their abilities, and they fit together any team composition.
Pharah can stay airborne due to his Jump Jet and Hover Jets, which allow Mercy to utilize Guardian Angel and Angelic Descent to remain close to Pharah.
Moreover, the combination of Caduceus Staff with Pharah’s Rocket increases the damage output for Pharah and provides Pharah with healing.
However, Mercy is a distraction for the enemies; they might ignore Pharah and go for the kill on Mercy. This will open a time window for Pharah, and during that, she can inflict much more damage.
Reaper and Reinhardt
Reaper and Reinhardt combo increases the pushing power of the team. Reinhardt barrier holds importance over other protective spells due to its mobile nature.
Reaper can move forward under the Reinhardt barrier protection and burst down enemies using his high damage output.
Moreover, Reaper can use the barrier as a distraction and move behind the enemy lines using his ability. The enemy will not see that coming, making them vulnerable to the pair.
Sombra and Winston
This dynamic duo will leave the enemies running for their lives. Sombra Hack leaves the enemies vulnerable, and if Winston follows using Jump Pack, then there’s no escape for them.
Moreover, the combination of Tesla Cannon and Machine Pistol will eat away the squishy enemies.
Moreover, this duo will inflict maximum pressure on the enemy tanks, supports, and DPS heroes. This means Sombra and Winston can win you games in many situations.
Symmetra and Reaper
This DPS combination will prove to be a disaster for the enemy teams. Symmetra allows Reaper to get close to the enemies and inflict severe damage.
Symmetra will use her Teleport to place Reaper right behind the enemies, and he can bring down the enemies using his Hellfire Shotgun.
Moreover, Symmetra inflicts damage on her own, and with the enemy being distracted due to Reaper’s position, they will not focus on Symmetra, and she will eliminate targets quickly.
Cassidy and Brigitte
Brigitte helps McCree in dealing more damage due to her muscular build. Brigitte distracts enemies while McCree takes them down.
McCree can take a more aggressive stance on the maps due to Brigitte’s presence; she can stay in the front line, providing McCree with an opportunity to land easy headshots and win the fight.
Moreover, Brigitte’s Rally provides extra armor to McCree, which he can use to get into a more aggressive position and use his Deadeye.
How to play damage in Overwatch 2
Damage characters are considered the front and center of any team composition in OW2.
They ensure they are blasting the enemies with an overwhelming and hard-to-cope amount of damage. They perform best when they are active in angles and spaces created by the Tanks.
DPS guys are fast-paced and make sure they are lashing out as much damage as possible to drain and eventually wipe enemies off the field.
Damage heroes are responsible for engaging the most in combat and using their weapons, high-damage abilities, skills, and tools to defeat the opposition.
Experiment with every DPS hero
One of our first and most basic tips would be exploring the variety of Damage heroes available in Overwatch 2 to play the DPS class and finding what kind of playstyle suits you the most.
While the 17 heroes mentioned above belong to the same class, they still have their personalized abilities, skills, and weapons that can make their individual playing experience unique. Ranging from deadly Katana Blades to Plasma Cannons, each of them is different.
Some perform best in close combats, while others are better off with ranged attacks. With some quick research and experimenting, you can find your perfect Damage hero fit in OW2.
Know your maps
Another general tip we recommend is to take your time and study the maps in the game. OW2 is an extremely detail-oriented game. Every little action produced by your character has an effect, and sometimes these effects also are influenced by the environment.
For example, some team comps perform best on maps with higher grounds, while others perform better on the plains.
Even little details as how you’re angling your DPS character while producing an attack, will influence their speed and damage rate.
Moreover, some maps allow you to capture an area, sneak up on your enemies as a DPS, and kill them. Playing Damage hero comes with many perks, as long as you use them correctly.
Switch heroes mid-game
Switching characters in OW2 is known to be a tactical decision made midgame if the need arises.
Since Damage heroes are mainly used to enter the enemy’s territory and capture the area aggressively, they are also the ones put on the spot to deal the most damage. And as we discussed above, DPS heroes don’t possess a large health pool than other classes.
In such scenarios, this is where switching characters mid-game becomes a great decision to save yourself and the team from losing coordination and failing to achieve the objective.
Even though some people have their opinion related to this feature removing the competitive aspect of the game, we think it’s great in terms of identifying the usefulness of different heroes at different points of the fight.
Position damage heroes with tanks
Our other tip while equipping a Damage hero would be positioning them critically and understanding where they would be the safest while engaging in a heated fight.
Compared to other classes, Damage heroes tend to have low HP and can become very vulnerable to being killed if they deal damage from their enemies.
The best way to go about this issue is to position them near your Tanks, which will provide them with a powerful shield.
This will also allow great coordination between the two classes, letting Tanks create spaces and enabling DPS to use them to reach team objectives actively.
Another way of positing your DPS heroes is keeping them away from close combats and instead executing ranged attacks.
Since they don’t do well when encountered directly with enemies, putting them at a safe distance will ensure that their health is not being compromised and they can still be useful for the team.
Identify vantage points
As emphasized before, most Damage heroes don’t do well with encounters, which can pull you back while you’re in heated battles. A solution to the problem would be to use Vantage Points and sort of use that as your main post to attack from.
Find a good Vantage Point and do what a Damage hero does, spam! Go ham with your attacks and give the ultimate damage. Vantage Points can be High or Low grounds, behind tanks or healers, and blind spots.
Backstab enemies
Backstabbing enemies doesn’t really refer here to as literally grabbing a weapon and backstabbing them.
It means strategizing your DPS’s attacks in a way that they are advancing their attacks from the back of the enemy’s line. You may have also heard this technique referred to as Flanking.
Now, this approach won’t be as simple and easy to execute; instead, you will need to make your DPS characters fight aggressively.
However, once you’re behind the enemy line, you can successfully carry out the Pincer Strategy, which lets you shock the enemy and mess up their coordination.
This will break up their synergy and allow you to change the fight’s momentum. The enemies will now focus on individual survival instead of teamwork, making it very easy to target and kill each of them.
Memorize health pack locations
Following the Back Stabbing, our next tip involves learning the health pack locations in the game. Doing so helps you plan the flanking routes effectively and allows you to avail them when you struggle later in the fight.
This makes you independent of your healing, especially if the main healer of your team is respawning at the time or simply lifting some burden off them.
This learning becomes your ultimate plan B mid-fights, so we highly recommend you learn where the closest health packs are around you.
Target the enemy support heroes
One of the best ways to make use of your Damage heroes is by making the most out of their targeting abilities and using them to target heroes of the opponent’s team and kill them off one by one.
While being present in the fight arena, use your DPS heroes to identify the fragile heroes of the opponent team and target them by using your ultimate abilities or primary weapons. This will provide the enemies with damage that can wipe them out.
One of the major techniques to use while using DPS heroes is to target the opponent team’s Support heroes.
The main function of a Support hero is to heal their allies and rejuvenate their health to help them pick up the fight and come back stronger.
Lowering the health of the opponent’s Support hero will ensure that the main health bank of the team is no longer present, eventually making it very easy to break down the whole team comp.
