Highlights
- Overwatch 2's support character Moira has faced criticism, but recent balance changes and new heroes have made her an extremely viable support pick.
- Despite lacking team buffs and complex abilities, Moira's damage-dealing abilities have made her a strong addition to any team composition in Season 6.
- Modest buffs to Moira's abilities, such as being able to use Fade during Coalescence and increased base healing, have significantly improved her effectiveness in the game. A meta change has also opened her up to thrive, and she is even starting to appear in high level play.
One of the many reasons that Overwatch 2 is so engaging is because the effectiveness of its playable heroes is constantly changing. As new heroes are added to the title, others are impacted by a spate of nerfs and buffs to ensure the game is balanced above all else. This often leads to some interesting developments, where heroes that were once the brunt of jokes among the game's community suddenly become no laughing matter.
Of all of Overwatch 2's heroes, the support character Moira has arguably faced some of the most vocal criticism over the years. As a healing class with a very limited support kit and a focus on dealing damage, Moira has long-been one of the most memed characters in the game, although that has now changed. Thanks to recent balance changes and new heroes that have come to Overwatch 2, the Season 6 state of Moira has seen the figure become an extremely viable support pick for even the most seasoned players.
Overwatch 2's Moira: From Zero To Hero
While the damage-dealing abilities of Moira seem quite attractive at face value for a support class, many players cite the lack of team buffs and complex abilities for the hero as a dealbreaker. When playing Moira, players have to deal damage to charge her healing ability, meaning Moira players will often act more as a DPS role as opposed to support. This had led to the longstanding meme of "DPS Moira," in which many players jokingly do not even consider the character to be a support class.
The lack of dedicated healing from many Moira players has led to a lot of controversy around the hero, and for a long time Moira was considered a terrible class pick for the more competitive side of Overwatch 2. However, thanks to a changing meta and some buffs that flew under the radar, the way Moira plays in Season 6 of OW2 is undeniably powerful, with the hero now being a potentially devastating addition to any team composition.
A lot of this improvement can be attributed to the seemingly modest buffs that Moira received back in April. Coming alongside Season 4 of the game, Moira was given the option to use her Fade ability while using her Coalescence ultimate. Coalescence offers great damage and healing output from a concentrated beam, but can easily be stopped by any attack that stuns Moira. Now that Moira has better movement during Coalescence thanks to Fade, her ultimate is much more consistent. This patch also improved Moira's base healing, with her Biotic Grasp now doing three seconds of lingering healing as opposed to the original two.
These changes have been overshadowed by more prominent reworks to other characters, such as Roadhog's upcoming changes, and Moira has silently been shaped into a seriously powerful hero over the past year. The popularity of new support heroes like Illari and Lifeweaver give even more room for Season 6 Moira to thrive, with both heroes having great kits that allow Moira much more freedom between dealing damage and sticking with the team.
Moira is even beginning to creep into the top picks for the best ranked support players in Overwatch 2, showing just how much the tide of opinion has changed for the hero in recent months. With Overwatch 2's support roster becoming more diverse and Moira receiving some dedicated improvements that allow her to thrive in the latest meta, the once laughed at hero is a serious force to be reckoned with in Season 6.
Overwatch 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
