Are you looking for advice on becoming a better player in Overwatch? No wonder—it is a well-known 2016 title from Blizzard Entertainment that many players cherish for providing thrilling 6v6 Player vs Player (PVP) combat. Though excellent and still immensely popular, many players are already hyped for Overwatch 2, which entered its beta phase in late June 2022. We want to remind you that skins and cosmetics you earn carry over to Overwatch 2. Therefore, you have an extra reason to study our Overwatch tips and tricks.
1. Try all roles, new characters, and maps
We all have one or a few heroes we love to play, but we shouldn’t forget this is a team game, so communication is key. Unsurprisingly, you should delegate responsibilities accordingly, and respect players who excel or prefer certain roles. Because sometimes you don’t have a choice, use Skirmishes to test new heroes. Also, practice in-game classes (Attack, Defense, Tank, Support) even if you don’t main them. We suggest creating a Custom Game to practice or playing Practice Range and Open Queue.
2. Look for hidden hero abilities and configure their options
This example among our tips and tricks for Overwatch is comprehensive and will take a long time as you can’t memorize everything. However, players should do their best to remember as many “hidden” bits of information. To give you an example, when Tracer uses a recall, its pistols will reload, and if you use a second mine as Junkrat as soon as the first cooldown is over, you can double-jump with its explosion. Similarly, Mercy has passive out-of-combat health regeneration.
Further, the heal she casts afterward is increased when applied to team members. Also, Genji has the cooldown of blade dash reset if it kills a hero or assists in the kill, and Winston has its health restored to full after it uses the ultimate skill. As for character options, you can configure character-specific options based on the hero you’re playing. You can tweak how a shot/orb/laser/shield works for every character. For instance, Mercy’s Guardian Angel skill can pick a beamed target instead of the one you’re targeting. You can switch activation to toggle instead of a one-off spell for so many heroes, too, making gameplay easier.
3. Shoot a lot, but don’t focus on kills (Objectives are the priority)
There’s an excellent reason Overwatch has infinite ammunition—Blizzard Entertainment wants you to shoot everything that moves without worrying about running out. That means one of the key tricks and tips in Overwatch is not waiting to line up a perfect shot. Cooldowns are rather short, so it’s a numbers game—more shots can slowly tear the shield down and gives you a bigger chance of delivering a killing blow. Battle royale fans find this difficult due to the scarcity of weapons and ammo, but in this game, you only have to worry about finding shelter while reloading.
Sadly, that forces people to leave their team, overextend, and get killed. You can certainly play aggressively, but keep the position and safety of the others in mind. Focus on objectives, whether it’s capturing a point or guarding the payload. You should also stay on the move at all times. That prevents you from becoming an easy target for snipers such as Widowmaker and Hanzo that can see through the walls. It also makes it hard for enemies such as Cassidy to use his Peacekeeper to shoot you down.
4. Start using the ping system in Overwatch
The ping system lets players signal where the friend should hide, the side the enemies are flooding from, or the location of a health pack. You can use the ping button like this:
- Press the middle mouse button on a computer mouse
- Use the G key on your keyboard
- Press the left button of the D-pad on any controller
Perhaps the most important function is to ping for incoming enemies, which is to press the ping button twice in a row while pointing at the location. That makes your friends get a red “Incoming!” warning. If you hold the ping button, you get a radial menu of 8 options such as Going in, Need Help, Fall Back, and so on.
5. Learn about Overwatch hero shields and their unique features
Although shields are something the game throws at you from the get-go, many players gloss over the topic in excitement to start playing. Unfortunately, this can be a crucial bit of information for shield-oriented heroes such as Zarya or D.Va and countering heroes such as Soldier 76 and Tracker. We recommend you test this out yourself, but the gist is that your armor and health points do not regenerate unless you pick a hero that can heal. In contrast, shields regenerate passively and can be put up as defense by certain heroes such as the two we mentioned.
With that in mind, such characters should take lead and investigate a corner or a crossing point in case the enemy sets a trap. That lets your team know the enemy’s position, while the hero will recuperate instead of dying, and can confidently attack again. Zarya should be assertive when the particle cannon is charged with high energy, too. That also brings us to the fact that heroes have unique aspects to their shields. While most are highly effective against rapid fire (low damage, high fire rate), some can stop devastating attacks.
For instance, Zarya’s shield, while capable of absorbing 200 HP of damage, can also negate a single-hit attack that exceeds that number. In other words, she can absorb self-destruction from D.Va or the Rip-Tire ultimate attack. Even better, Zarya can put the barrier on a nearby teammate, meaning damage dealers can unexpectedly survive an explosion and perhaps eradicate surprised opponents. Another example is Reinhardt’s Shield, which lets its fire strike pass, as well as Symmetra’s orbs. If Winston is up close, his tesla cannon can penetrate the shield, too. These bits of less-known information can make a huge difference.
6. Line up Overwatch ultimate abilities and ensure at least one damage boost
An important reminder is that you can always open the scoreboard (TAB on keyboards) to see both teams. However, Overwatch also lets you see whether the ultimate skill of your team members is ready, which is a crucial representative of tips and tricks we can give you. If there’s a checkmark under their icon, they can use their ulti, making it easy to coordinate and synchronize with willing teammates. Speaking of ultimate abilities, many Support heroes can give them a big damage boost.