Best Characters For Beginners

There are currently 32 characters in Overwatch. Each individual hero has their own unique abilities and stats, resulting in a radically different gameplay experience. While more accessible than the larger rosters of traditional MOBAs, this aspect of the hero shooter’s design can still be pretty daunting for newcomers, especially for those new to the genre as a whole. Luckily, there are some characters that are much more newbie-friendly than the others, providing a smooth introduction to the gameplay and the different roles. Whatever your playstyle preferences, you won’t go wrong if you begin by playing as one of the following:

1.    Soldier: 76 – Shooter Classic

First-person shooter veterans will find Soldier: 76’s mechanics very familiar. He wields a full auto pulse rifle and explosive missiles, can sprint, heal nearby allies and himself, and lock on to targets with his Ultimate. In other words, he is a classic shooter protagonist, though even people who haven’t played a shooter before should find his abilities pretty easy to figure out. You could start playing like him right away, even as you begin to level your account.

Though less flashy than many of the other characters, the soldier is highly versatile, meaning he can fit into any team composition and easily adapt to unexpected opponents. After using him to learn the basics, you might want to switch to someone more specialized, but you can also stick with the trooper as a reliable damage dealer. If you do, you will be able to utilize some smart tactical options, mainly revolving around mobility and position.

2.    Mercy – Essential Healer

Some players find it easier to watch and learn from the backline, where they can help out without feeling too much pressure to excel. They may also simply feel more comfortable in a Support role, preferring to heal rather than to kill. That is a perfectly valid way to play – and healing only becomes more valuable as you get closer to the Top 500 Rank.

There are several characters with such abilities on the roster, but even after nerfs, Mercy remains one of the most potent pure Support heroes. She is surely the most accessible one of the lot as well. Her “weapon” provides straightforward buffs and healing, and she comes with a slew of mobility options that let her navigate the battlefield without too much trouble. While her Resurrection power is more tricky to use safely, it also would not come up that often. Mastering it would provide a fun challenge once you are acquainted with the rest of the angelic medic’s moveset.

3.    Torbjorn – Turret Master

The diminutive engineer may seem like a one-trick pony, but his trick is fun, effective, and easy to start using. All you really need to do is deploy a turret somewhere your enemies would want to go, and then repair it and enjoy the carnage. Of course, Torbjorn has some other tricks up his sleeves as well. He can put up a decent fight at different ranges, especially when using Overload. His Ultimate gives him a devastating extra area control option. Ultimately, though, the turrets are the main thing you need to worry about when playing as him.

If anything, Torbjorn has the reputation of being a little too simple and lacking depth. However, this perception is misleading. While it isn’t difficult to simply place a turret, getting the most use out of that and the rest of his skill set requires a mastery of timing and map knowledge, giving you a goal to work towards. In the meantime, though, the suspiciously dwarflike Swede is a great option when you just want to have fun with friends. It’s no mistake that he is such a popular duo queue pick.

4.    Bastion – Moving Fortress

While Torbjorn places turrets, Bastion is a turret – or at least, it can become one. The omnic can switch between the mobile Recon and stationary Sentry modes, as well as the Ultimate Tank mode. Its damage reduction and self-healing allow it to stand up to all but the most focused assaults while wearing down the opposition with Sentry’s brisk rate of fire. Recon enables sniping, while Tank can inflict splash damage. This fairly intuitive yet varied moveset makes it easy and fun to play, at least in the lower tiers of competitive or casual play.

It is not surprising that Bastion shares many tactical characteristics with Torbjorn. Positioning is perhaps even more important, as the robot can absolutely dominate chokepoints while being very vulnerable to flankers. That makes it a good vehicle for learning the intricacies of the shooter’s maps, as well as for figuring out how to coordinate effectively with one’s allies. Though the omnic may underperform in higher ranks, where the enemies are more familiar with its weaknesses, mastering those problems can still let it carry the game.

5.    Junkrat – Explosive Entry

Most characters on this list tend to play it safe, at least to some extent. But what if you just want to cut loose and wreck havoc in the solo queue? Junkrat is arguably the best aggressive character for new players because he is extremely easy to use to good effect. Most of his abilities revolve around splash damage, which means you don’t even need to aim properly to do some real damage to your enemies. Junkrat being immune to his own explosives frees you to use them (and him) with reckless abandon. Even in death, the Australian outlaw can get back at anyone in his vicinity by immediately setting off six grenades.

Junkrat’s abilities make him a blast to play even for someone with zero experience – all you really need is a taste for chaos. Yet he is also shockingly powerful in the right hands. With luck, skill, or both, he can inflict outrageous amounts of damage on entire enemy squads. Paying attention to map layouts and using his trap powers can enable you to set up even more devastating attacks. His crowd control potential can also make Junkrat an effective team player. Whether you play for fun or play to win, the demolitionist could serve you well from start to finish.

6.    Brigitte – Team Champion

One of the later additions to the roster, Brigitte has become enormously popular due to her sheer versatility and usefulness to her teammates. Although technically a Support character, a role that was reinforced by her nerfs, she retains considerable frontline potential. Her flail attacks can deal hefty damage at varied ranges and are good for crowd control, but they also initiate healing on all nearby allies. She can also apply directed healing, shield her allies and herself from harm, and effectively cancel out many offensive Ultimates.

In other words, Brigitte won’t die easily, while possessing many straightforward and convenient options for helping her team. Those strengths become especially visible at around Platinum rank, where good teamwork and countering advanced enemy tactics becomes essential. However, she is good to go from the very beginning of a player’s career, being another character that’s easy to learn if difficult to master.

7.    Orisa – Walking Shield

The purpose of a Tank character is to draw away fire from your allies, allowing them to go on the offensive. With so many different powers in play, that may be easier said than done. If you wish to assume this role, you will not find a better option than playing as Orisa. The omnic centaur is both highly effective and easy to use. Her main advantage over other Tanks is the speed and flexibility of her shield deployments that protect both her allies and herself. However, she also has solid offensive and crowd control capabilities, while Fortify allows her to temporarily shrug off speed debuffs and halve the damage.

Optimal play for Orisa usually involves some variant on the bunker composition, in which she supports Bastion and quickly rotates shields for her allies during defense or a slow advance. Together with the deployment of her damage-boosting Ultimate, this strategy accounts for her success in Diamond rank games and higher. Yet while the omnic has a high skill ceiling, she also has a low floor. She is sturdy and versatile enough to survive rookie mistakes, giving you a chance to grow into her skillset.

8. D.Va – Flexible Pilot

Though also a Tank, the South Korean gamer idol is an Off Tank. That means she can perform in a greater variety of battlefield roles, assisted by her superior mobility and truly unique powers. While rather exotic, her moveset does not require any extraordinary skill to use on a basic level. When riding her mech, she can fire cannons continuously with high spread, meaning that accuracy is not very important. She also has solid anti-projectile, jump, and missile volley capabilities that let her adapt to different situations and make her so popular in most Arcade modes.

The more complex part of her moveset revolves around the destruction of her mech. Her Ultimate lets her do so on purpose in a potentially devastating suicide bombing run. Losing the mech does not kill D.Va, but unless she uses the Ultimate, the pilot then has to earn the mech back by shooting enemies on foot. The ground mode is rather fragile, but also has long range, giving her a fighting chance. Overall, playing as D.Va may require somewhat more finesse than the other entries on the list, but it is still fairly easy to get into the right mindset and dominate the battlefield.

Conclusion

As you can see, Overwatch provides many routes towards mastering its gameplay. By playing one of the characters suggested here, you can not only learn their own abilities, but also gain insights into their roles and pick up valuable skills such as map knowledge, timing, and coordination. What unites those characters is that they are all fairly forgiving to play and let you contribute from the start of your playing career. Afterward, you can continue using them or start learning other heroes with more complex and risky builds. The lessons that they teach you may be further consolidated with practice matches and coaching, setting you on a path to competitive mastery.