As players evolved during the first Overwatch, Zarya began to gain some momentum after being thought of as underwhelming. As experts began to play around with her, they found her to be one of the best tanks. Going into Overwatch 2, she gained notoriety as the best tank in the game.
That's not a crown she's going to give up anytime soon. Overwatch 2 has made games feel less like team fights and more like deathmatches by limiting teams to just one tank. This type of environment is where Zarya thrives the most. With some tips, players will see why she's so strong and only getting better.
Updated on October 7th, 2022 by Hodey Johns: This article was published soon after the game was released. After some tinkering, it felt important to add a few new sections. Zarya covers many bases but that doesn't mean she's perfect for every team composition. Therefore, her best combos have been added to this guide. Friends and teammates will want to pick accordingly. Next, times to pick and not pick Zarya have also been added. Much as everybody would love to play as her on every map, there are situations where she's called for and times when it's best to choose another hero. These new sections should give players a better idea of when she shines the brightest.
Playstyle
With a healthy shield and a deep life pool, Zarya is designed to be up front where the action is. Her shield has a lengthy cooldown, so she can't simply stand up front and absorb hits like most other tanks, but she supplements this by turning defense into offense.
Zarya covers all three roles. DPS and tanking have been covered, but her support abilities are what differentiate legendary players from merely good players. By shielding an ally at a critical moment, she saves their lives and coverts this into damage. Those who have unlocked all heroes may still return to Zarya simply due to this versatility.
If any tank is worthy of a pocket healer, it's Zarya. She's tough to kill already, but sustaining her life even longer makes her grow in deadliness. Her damage resets back to a base level if she dies or stays out of the fight for too long, so she must stay up front and active.
Abilities
Particle Cannon
- Primary Fire: Short-range linear beam weapon.
- Alt Fire: Energy grenade launcher
Hold onto the weapon and Zarya will have a short blade of light emanating from her. This deals single-digit damage if pulsed just once, but hardly any opponent can withstand this beam for three seconds, even uncharged.
The secondary fire is a grenade that detonates on impact with the ground or when hitting a player. Like the primary fire, it deals a small amount of damage unless Zarya has been charged up, then the secondary fire becomes a potential one-hit kill.
Particle Barrier
- Create a damage barrier around Zarya.
Shielding herself for 100% of the damage she would take for a second and a half, this is what makes Zarya so frustrating to kill. It takes a lot of DPS to get Zarya close to death. This move buys her just enough time to escape from a sticky situation and come back topped off on health.
Projected Barrier
- Create a damage barrier around an ally.
Even the best support heroes will struggle to say they have a move as strong as this. Total immunity from all damage for 1.5 seconds can save a life and mess up an enemy team's ultimate. The cooldown is long, about eight seconds, but when used wisely, that's about the time it takes for an ally to retreat, get healed, and return to the frontlines.
Energy
- Passive: Damage blocked by barriers increases particle cannon damage.
The shields that prevent damage are instant offense as well as the obvious defense. Any damage taken becomes extra damage Zarya's primary weapon deals. Enemies that previously could survive a few seconds of her attack will suddenly not even live for a full second of sustained damage. The secondary fire can wipe out multiple players with one accurate lob.
Graviton Surge
- Launch a gravity well that pulls enemies to it.
Ask anybody what the strongest ultimate in the game is and they'll likely either point to Zenyatta or Zarya. Pro teams wait for Zarya's ultimate to be ready and plan their progression likewise. While the other moves are great, this move alone explains her usage at the top of the competitive ladder.
Tips & Tricks
A true master of Zarya will learn how to stay aggressive without dying. This balance is key to success for any player that wants to use her regularly. If she's too passive, her damage is negligible and players will ignore her, rendering her useless as a tank. If she's too aggressive, she dies and has to start earning that energy all over again.
Her damage can be on par with the best DPS heroes and that should not be taken lightly. It's her ferocity that makes her a tank instead of a shielding support hero. Zarya should be the first one to the target area and the last one to leave.
Communicate with the team about the status of Graviton Surge. This ultimate is a potential team-killer. When coupled with D. Va or Reaper, the opponents have no chance of survival when they get caught in its grasp. Don't use this for one solo kill, it's worth is so much more than that.
Zarya can become invincible but her allies cannot. Identify her teammates that will be with her up front and monitor their health and situation. Upon hearing an ultimate being cast or seeing them in a tight spot, toss a shield on them. Sharing her tanking ability with the DPS is the number one reason experts hate playing against her.
Combos
- Reaper
Zarya drops an ult, then Reaper ults on top of it. The whole enemy team gets wiped. It's really that simple and deadly. Pro players are very good about scattering as soon as they hear Reaper's ultimate being cast, but they can't do a thing about it if Zarya has them stuck.
- Lucio
Trying to secure a point that has both a Lucio and a Zarya on it is next to impossible. Lucio's gradual healing is more than enough to keep Zarya topped off. Zarya's shield keeps Lucio safe if Junkrat or Cassidy snags him with a stun.
- Mercy
If Zarya has her Energy skill close to maxed out, she automatically becomes a DPS hero in addition to tanking. With Mercy amplifying her damage, Zarya's damage becomes so absurd that her grenades can become fatal to tanks. Her primary fire is lethal within a second to about any class.
- Pharah
New players learning the game will be surprised that Pharah and Zarya are even allowed on the same team. Zarya can easily target and protect a Pharah in distress. Tack on the ultimate stacking that works just like Reaper and these two become a deadly combo.
- Junkrat
Again, there isn't too much creativity required here. Junkrat's ultimate will wipe out a team on top of Zarya's. However, Junkrat doesn't need his ultimate to succeed. His grenades have so much area damage that a grouped-up team is in a dire situation regardless of his ultimate status.
Advantages & Disadvantages
Zarya is a premier escort hero and should be considered next to required on such missions. Likewise, if a point needs to be captured, she's a tank that can get on the point and stay on the point so long as she's got a slight amount of help from the support heroes.
Given her assistance on damage and support, teammates should feel more liberated to pick hybrid DPS and support heroes, like Moira and Mei. Trading in a pure healer or DPS for more DPS and tanking can easily be the difference in a stalemate game.
She's not perfect for every scenario despite her versatility. Anything that flies, she's not going to be able to do anything about. Barring an extremely lucky grenade, Echo, Mercy, and Pharah can ignore her and target the squishy teammates.
Zarya's beam doesn't pierce shields, so a frontline against a Reinhardt is a losing battle. Reinhardt's shield can also mess up Zarya's ultimate badly, saving the squad (keep this in mind if Zenyatta's ultimate is off of cooldown, too). Snipers can one-hit kill Zarya's teammates, eliminating her protective shield from being of any value.
Overwatch 2 is available now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.