Overwatch 2 is a game that highly rewards players for spending time and effort honing skills such as optimizing damage output for each hero, learning effective positioning on each map, and working with teammates to create a strong and unified team composition. Taking time to learn these aspects of Overwatch 2 will reward dedicated players with more wins and higher ranks than those who don’t put the time in.
Even so, there are some hero-specific techniques that remain fairly unknown among the player base and could be important in giving players a unique edge in their matches to come out on top.
10 Doomfist - Slam Cancel
Doomfist’s Seismic Slam can be used to suddenly leap large distances, getting the literal jump on the enemy team and causing chaos. But to travel even further, players can use a slam cancel by aiming high into the air, using Seismic Slam and immediately using Rocket Punch or Power Block. This maintains the upwards momentum for longer and lets Doomfist fly farther than just a regular Seismic Slam.
Canceling with Power Block makes him an armored distraction for the enemy team to shoot at, while canceling with Rocket Punch allows him to punch vertically hard-to-reach heroes such as Widowmaker or Pharah.
9 Reinhardt - Fast Shatter
Reinhardt’s Earthshatter is one of the most powerful abilities in the game, instantly stunning any enemies caught in its wide area of effect. Combined with Fire Strikes, hammer swings, and follow-ups from teammates, team kills from a well-timed Earthshatter can be made easy.
Despite this, its start-up frames and Reinhardt's loud yell can let enemies quickly respond to it and protect themselves or move away from Reinhardt to avoid it. By using Earthshatter and jumping at the same time, Reinhardt can skip the start-up animation and have it activate much faster, surprising the enemy team and not giving them time to react.
8 Tracer - Vertical Blink
Tracer’s Blink lets her zip around the map at high speeds, useful for flanking to pick off lonely supports, escaping sticky situations in a flash, or blinking through shields to poke away at turtling enemies.
While Blink usually only allows Tracer to teleport a set distance horizontally, players can use maps’ level geometry to their advantage by jumping and Blinking toward small ledges or curved edges. Blink will carry Tracer slightly upwards to breach the ledge, even more so when using Blink twice to travel further and higher, letting her take some unexpected flank routes.
7 Ramattra - Double Armor
Ramattra’s ultimate ability Annihilation can be used to consistently damage enemies all around the Omnic leader, especially when combined with the slowing effect of his Ravenous Vortex, but it also grants him a boost of 225 armor upon activation for some extra 'tankiness'. Activating Nemesis Form also gives Ramattra 225 armor when used in addition to allowing him to block and severely reduce incoming damage.
As such, if players activate Nemesis form for an armor boost but find themselves taking enough hits to lose the extra health, they can quickly deactivate Nemesis form and use Annihilation to instantly return to Nemesis form with a fresh 225 armor, letting Ramattra tank hits for longer.
6 Doomfist - Turn Punch
Doomfist’s Rocket Punch is an explosive force, capable of disrupting the entire enemy team with one hit, or outright killing them if it has been empowered with Power Block. Although it travels incredibly quickly, its charge time and linear movement make it somewhat predictable and easy to punish if the punch misses.
However, using a Turn Punch (flicking the camera to the left or right and jumping at the same time during Rocket Punch’s travel time) allows players to circumvent this weakness by suddenly flying towards the direction their camera was facing, letting them aggressively catch enemies by surprise or defensively escape around corners.
5 Sigma - Accretion Combo
Sigma’s Accretion can be used for both damage and crowd control, with the gravity-controlled boulder dealing significant damage on a direct hit as well as knocking enemies to the ground for a moment of stun. Launching his Hyperspheres primary fire after using Accretion is a surefire way to deal strong burst damage, but Sigma can deal this damage even faster by pressing primary fire immediately after activating Accretion to cancel the animation and launch the Hyperspheres at the same time as the boulder.
This combo heavily wounds or even instantly kills some lower health characters such as Tracer or Widowmaker, especially with a primary-fire-canceling quick melee added on to the end.
4 Mercy - Resurrection Spin
Mercy’s Resurrection is a game-changing ability, letting her revive fallen teammates from the dead for a second wind. Combined with the burst movement of her Guardian Angel ability, Mercy can quickly hop into a team fight, revive a teammate and fly back out again, avoiding the enemy’s fire. If the enemy team focuses on her during Resurrection, however, Mercy’s immobility during the long cast time makes her a vulnerable sitting duck.
As Mercy’s large wings have a hitbox of their own and can block shots to her head from behind, spinning the camera very quickly makes her head very difficult to hit behind her rapidly spinning wings, defending her from critical damage during Resurrection.
3 Doomfist - Diagonal Punch
Doomfist’s Rocket Punch is one of Doomfist’s main movement tools, launching him a long distance at a very high speed to advance across the map or escape battles much faster than other heroes. While its straight-line path is effective in itself, it can be made more adaptable by using a Diagonal Punch. By aiming at a ledge or slightly raised object such as a fence, jumping, and using Rocket Punch to collide with the edge of the object, Doomfist will slide upwards off of it to gain useful vertical distance.
When used with an Empowered Punch to travel even further and combined with a Seismic Slam after the jump, Doomfist can travel massive distances in seconds and reach areas otherwise impossible.
2 D.Va – Eject Boost
D.Va spends most of the match in her MEKA, firing missiles and blocking shots and abilities with her Defense Matrix. Once her health bar is depleted, her MEKA will break down and force her to jump out and eject, leaving her in her Pilot form with much lower health and only a weak pistol to defend herself until she earns her MEKA again.
The eject animation itself is slow and predictable, letting enemies focus D.Va as she exits the mech to instantly eliminate her and block her from returning to her MEKA. If players hold their jump key while exiting the MEKA, however, she will jump much higher while ejecting, giving her an unexpected exit trajectory to avoid shots from enemies trained on her.
1 Reaper – Fake Shadow Step
Reaper’s Shadow Step is key to his flanking, allowing him to effectively sneak into enemy back lines to melt through the health bars of supports and tanks. Its ability to teleport to faraway high ground and secluded areas of the map makes Reaper a nightmare for the enemy team to keep track of. Once found, Reaper’s Wraith Form gives him an invulnerable chance to escape, but it could be on cooldown during a fight.
If so, players can aim Shadow Step at their feet to trick enemies into thinking he is teleporting away and aiming elsewhere, as well as granting him momentary invincibility, letting him continue his offensive immediately after reappearing. If timed carefully, this can even be used to avoid instant damage attacks like D.va’s Self Destruct if Reaper disappears precisely during the attack.
Overwatch 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.