With the release of Overwatch 2, a myriad of minor changes has meant major differences in the way the game is played from the original. From new heroes to smaller team sizes to a complete rearranging of the meta, knowing exactly which hero to pick has never been more important in the early days of Overwatch 2. With one less player on each team, the margin for error is slimmer than ever before.
Luckily, the logic behind great hero pairings and team compositions is simple: the heroes only need to complement one another's play style. For instance, a pairing of Widowmaker and Winston is doomed to fail without a serious mismatch between the teams' respective skill levels since Winston is most effective as a tank when he is diving into the enemy team whereas Widowmaker should maintain the furthest distance possible.
Ana and Soldier 76
Many newcomers will naturally gravitate toward Soldier 76 as he is one of the easiest characters to play in Overwatch 2, but luckily for them, he also happens to synergize extremely well with one of the game's top-picked support heroes, Ana. The pairing of Ana's Nano Boost ultimate with Soldier 76's Tactical Visor has been a staple of top-tier play since the early days of Overwatch and nothing has changed in Overwatch 2. It's akin to briefly turning on an aimbot while also having increased damage.
While Ana consistently ranks among Overwatch 2's top support heroes, her two main drawbacks have always been her lack of survivability and her inability to act as the main healer. Luckily, with her new passive, her low survivability has been partially addressed, but with Soldier 76's Biotic Field Ana's shortcomings are completely covered. Not only can a Soldier 76 player drop their heal on top of Ana and keep her alive, but they can also provide off-healing to the entire team, which affords an Ana player the freedom to adopt a more offensive focus.
Winston and Genji
The name of the game when it comes to pairing Winston and Genji is chaos. The idea is to dive into battle together and deal as much damage as possible while also avoiding taking unnecessary punishment. Unfortunately, it's a seemingly simple pairing that requires a great degree of skill to pull off correctly. If done well, this pairing can be an absolute nightmare for the enemy team, but when executed poorly it can lead to staggering deaths and wasted time. Most importantly, the Genji player must be effective with deflects and dashes in order to survive the initial retaliation that will come when diving in.
Like Ana and Soldier 76, combining Winston and Genji's ultimate abilities is overpowered. The panic that popping their abilities simultaneously can cause is enough to capture any point. It works especially well against defensively-minded compositions that include characters like Widowmaker, Bastion, and the like.
Junker Queen and Brigitte
Junker Queen was designed with a smaller team in mind and helped redefine the tank role in Overwatch 2. She's one of the best heroes in the game at dishing out pain while simultaneously soaking up damage. With proper healing support, Junker Queen can be a complete headache to deal with because of her natural sustain. For the perfect pairing, players don't need to look much further than Brigitte.
The key to Junker Queen and Brigitte's synergy is their Adrenaline Rush and Inspire passive abilities. While Brigitte's updated kit allows her to dish out a fair bit of damage while protecting her team, she can make Junker Queen nearly unstoppable just by standing in proximity to her. This makes the pairing of Junker Queen and Brigitte especially enticing for new players with significant upside into the higher ranks.
Overwatch 2 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.