DPS are essential team members in Overwatch 2, responsible for securing picks, breaking shields, and punishing enemies out of position. While every DPS can be excellent in certain situations if they’re in the right hands, navigating your selections and finding your footing at times can be challenging due to the large and diverse roster. If you’re trying to find a DPS pick to rely on, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. Here’s our complete ranking of all the DPS heroes in Overwatch 2 as of Season 4.
17. Sombra
Sombra was an absolute beast when Overwatch 2 was released, and she dominated many matches with her Hack buffs. Unfortunately, she’s received some significant nerfs since then and tends to underperform in almost every circumstance unless she’s played in a particular team composition, such as Dive, or used by a player with a high level of skill and clear communication.
Sombra’s Hack can still get value from specific targets, though, and she is one character that provides the best chance at shutting down the recently dominant Tank, Wrecking Ball, and brand new Support, Lifeweaver. Unfortunately, she just doesn’t keep up with damage output and can struggle to isolate targets on her own to secure kills, which most other DPS are capable of. This leaves Sombra in a bizarre, niche position, so you’re usually better off selecting someone else.
16. Junkrat
While Junkrat has been a reliable shield break and spam-heavy damage Hero for most of his lifetime, nerfs to his Mine one-shot combo have seen him fall off quite dramatically. While Junk can still break shields consistently, securing kills, especially in 1v1 situations, is much more difficult. As of Season 4, Junkrat is heavily defensive-favored, having the most effective results while playing around tricky choke points for the opponent, which limits his capabilities and utility compared to other DPS.
15. Genji
Undoubtedly, if you’re a skilled Genji player, you’ll be able to get value from his kit no matter what. Unfortunately, while he is still quite playable, Genji is in a bad spot this Season and struggles to challenge several characters. He can be helpful in Dive comps to help follow up and secure kills. Still, he is also far too situational and easily countered to be a reliable choice, especially if communication and teamwork aren’t there.
With the release of Lifeweaver and his Life Grip ability, Dragonblade feels much harder to secure kills. The same scenario tends to occur during 1v1 dive opportunities, making your job much harder. If you’re looking to pick up a similar Dive hero, Tracer can do a lot of the same things Genji can and is also sitting in a much better position this Season, so getting the hang of her may come in handy as a solid backup plan when you run into trouble.
14. Bastion
Bastion can be great for mowing down shields quickly and delivering heavy bursts of damage. If someone gets caught in his line of fire while in Turret mode, very few characters will be able to survive the damage — provided your aim is there. While Bastion can provide a strong defensive DPS for your team if you all play together, unfortunately, he’s so easily countered that playing him can be a real uphill battle, especially as you begin to climb higher up the Competitive ladder.
Widowmaker, Hanzo, and Ashe can all do heavy damage to him from range, Zenyatta can Discord orb him, Sombra can hack him, Junkrat can delete him by firing his grenades from behind cover, Orisa can stun him with her Javelin, Ana can Sleep him, Genji can bait out his cooldowns and turn his damage back at him with deflect, and Zarya can collect easy Energy charge from his high DPS. He’s a lot of fun to play, but once you start noticing counter-picks coming in, it’s best to save yourself the struggle and switch.
13. Mei
Mei can be run quite efficiently in Brawl comps, where her Ice Wall can be best utilized to separate the enemy and isolate targets for easy picks. Mei thrives in close quarters where she can use her slow with her primary fire, and her secondary fire allows her to poke and chip damage or picks with well-aimed headshots. This makes Mei great on several maps, especially Capture and Control points.
Unfortunately, Mei also struggles when she can’t consistently get up close and personal with the enemy, making many maps with long-range points more difficult for her to get value. There are also a lot of characters that Mei has less-than-favorable matchups against, such as Pharah, Junkrat, Reaper, Ashe, Hanzo, Widowmaker, Echo, and Orisa. Her secondary fire isn’t enough to provide value on its own, so it may be time to switch if you’re failing to get close to the enemy and utilize your kit or you’re struggling against counter-picks.
12. Symmetra
Similarly to Mei, Symmetra is quite good in specific maps, situations, and compositions but can tend to fall flat and be shut down when she fails to utilize her Sentry Turrets. Sym can use her Teleporter to allow herself and her team to reach advantageous locations and change positioning. She can set up her Turrets on Control Points to help provide a nuisance of damage and slowing to her opponents, which can provide the opportunity for your team to secure kills.
Sym has a lot of opportunity to provide poke damage if you can hit her projectiles, and she can charge up some consistent damage with her primary fire. Sym’s main problems are getting her team to work with her and being quickly shut down by enemy focus fire and counter-picks. If she can’t put her Turrets to use and charge her Shields, Sym can struggle to get value, especially if her team isn’t coordinating with her.
11. Reaper
Reaper is relatively strong in the right team composition, specifically Brawl comps and specific Dive teams. He pairs nicely with Ramattra, Zarya, and Junker Queen, and his Lifesteal passive allows him to position right beside his Tank and help lead those brawl-heavy team fights.
However, Reaper has a couple of weak points moving into Season 4, with the oppressive power held by long-range characters. Reaper relies heavily on getting close to his opponents, so he can struggle to perform against the strong state of distanced hitscan such as Ashe and Widowmaker, especially when a pocket mercy accompanies them
10. Echo
Echo is a very technical DPS capable of doing much with her Hero kit to punish the enemy and secure picks for her team. Unfortunately, Echo is also one of the most complex characters to use in the entire game, which makes her excellent at top ranks, but quite unsteady for the average skill level.
Echo is a strong flier who can do serious burst damage with her Sticky Bombs and secure kills on low HP targets with her Beam. Her Ultimate is also somewhat unpredictable to the opponent and can be used to clone an enemy and build an Ult on a whim during a team fight, allowing you to control the brawl as needed. While Echo certainly sounds strong, she needs to be able to hit her abilities on her targets to perform and build her Ult, and she can struggle quite a bit against the current very strong ranged hitscan-heavy characters.
9. Pharah
Pharah has quite a decent hero kit that gives her strong automobility and heavy-damage-dealing rockets, making it easy for her to harass and pick up squishes from above and break shields and barriers. Despite these strengths, Pharah falls into the same boat as an Echo in terms of struggling against a hitscan dominanted Season 4 roster and being quite easily countered.
Even though Phrah has excellent mobility, she’s relatively slow while moving in the air, which makes her an easy target to any hitscan player with decent aim. To get value from Pharah, you’ll need to rely on pairing her with Mercy to play the infamous Pharmercy combo, as the assisted healing and Damage Boost on the fly can help Pharah play much more aggressively, even into a hitscans if they’re failing to focus you.
8. Hanzo
Hanzo is a lethal pick for those who have his projectile-based sniper aim mastered. He can scrape enemies out with his Sonar Arrow to help scout for his team, burst down opponents or shields with his Storm Arrows, and has the potential to get instant picks by hitting headshots. Hanzo is quite strong, and a good Hanzo can be a devastating threat. He even has his Lunge ability and Wall Climb to provide him with the necessary movement to change his positioning regularly, which is very handy.
Hanzo is only limited by the skill of the person playing him, meaning that if you can hit semi-consistent headshots to get picks at the start of a fight, you’ll be providing considerable assets to your team. On the other hand, if you’re struggling to hit slow-moving targets and using all your cooldowns without securing kills, you’ll soon run into problems. Hanzo’s Ultimate, Dragonstrike, is also one of the weaker ones in the game, feeling lackluster at the best of times. It is only really effective in rare circumstances when you catch the enemy completely off guard or when it’s paired with a trapping ability, such as Grav or Blizzard.
7. Torbjorn
Torbjorn is in a relatively good place in Season 4 due to his high versatility. Torb’s Turret can provide a lot of assistance for playing an Anti-Dive comp or countering annoying flankers and fliers. Torb’s primary and secondary fire variety allows him to play from different ranges and adjust or rotate depending on the situation. He can struggle on a select few maps, but for the most part, Torb’s kit also makes him relatively easy to pick up and learn the basics. This makes him a very solid pick for most team comps across numerous ranks in the competitive ladder.
6. Cassidy
While Cassidy was an absolute menace in Season 3 thanks to his lock-on Magnetic Grenade, he’s since received some nerfs at the beginning of Season 4 to help stop him from being so oppressive with this ability. Don’t let this fool you, though; Cass is still a force to be reckoned with. He is a great DPS hero who can punish a lot of low-health targets and aerial fliers, such as Pharah and Echo. Despite the nerfs, his Grenade can also help stop dive Heroes such as Genji and Tracer. His Roll automatically reloads his gun, which is a massive asset in 1v1 fights, often allowing him to win.
Cassidy has huge potential damage output if you can consistently hit your targets, making him a reliable pick for most team comps and maps. He’s most vulnerable when using Deadeye, but with abilities like Kiriko’s Cleanse and Lifeweaver’s Life Grip to back you up, you can get some solid picks off his Ult and work with your Supports in most circumstances to outlive the reduced damage you take while locking on to targets.
5. Widowmaker
Widowmaker can consistently threaten the enemy due to her one-shot potential. With Map Pools being removed with the arrival of Season 4, there’s been an increase of maps she benefits from being played on, with an additional handful of maps she works amazingly well on. With Mercy also being in a relatively good state, the combination of the two is nothing to be scoffed at and has the potential to hard-carry matches, as long as you can hit your shots and secure picks for your team.
While Hanzo can also hit one-shot headshots on equities, Widowmaker operates with a hitscan weapon instead of the projectile, making her much more consistent in lining up headshots. To get the most value on Widowmaker, you’ll also need to know map layouts to choose your positioning and frequently rotate to keep finding angles and hit shots.
4. Soldier: 76
Soldier: 76 is a great all-rounder and reliable hitscan that makes a good pick at any level of the competitive ladder. He’s easy to understand and learn the basics of and has a great kit with his hitscan-based primary fire, Helix Rocket projectile, increased movement speed with Sprint, and the ability to heal himself and his teammates with Biotic Field.
The soldier is a very flexible character that fits into numerous team compositions. He can shoot down fliers such as Pharah and Echo with his primary fire, thrives on taking and holding the high ground, quickly takes down turrets and helps to chip away at shields, and outmaneuvers a lot of opponents due to his Sprint speed. Soldier’s Ultimate Tactical Visor is also essentially a temporary aimbot on the enemy team, so it can be devastating when paired with ally Ults such as Amplification Matrix or Nano Boost.
3. Ashe
While Ashe can’t hit one-shot headshots like Widow, she has a little more versatility to her kit as a ranged hitscan sniper, making her stand out as a very effective pick, particularly on maps she can utilize high ground. Ashe can be solid both with or without a Mercy Pocket and has the potential to do a lot of damage with her Dynamite. Kiriko’s Cleanse counters this ability, but if you manage your cooldowns and bait out cleanse first, you can get some very big Dynamites to give your team the upper hand.
Ashe’s Coach Gun also comes in handy for repositioning to high ground or pushing people away from you and potentially over edges. B.O.B. is also a great Ultimate that can turn a team fight, and sweep kills in dire moments, especially with the most recent changes to him that prioritize fire on targets Ashe is also focusing. To summarise, Ashe can provide consistent pressure to the enemy and has no particularly bad maps to hinder her as an effective pick.
2. Sojourn
With Cassidy’s state slightly weakened, Sojourn has more opportunity to shine in Season 4. She’s a relatively easy character to play but also has a high skill ceiling, so she relies on good mechanics and aims to reach her full potential. Sojourn is also highly versatile in team composition and can fit into any arrangement, making her very flexible and, therefore, a worthwhile character to learn.
Charging Sojourn’s railgun up by delivering damage to any enemy target, including shields and barriers, is a massive part of her toolkit and allows her to get aggressive and finish off squishiest or punish out-of-position enemies due to her mobility from her Slide and Jump. While a Sojourn plus Mercy Pocket has felt unbeatable in previous Seasons of Overwatch and resulted in substantial nerfs, Sojourn is still highly capable, and this combo can still be devastating to play against.
1. Tracer
Dive comps have been much more recurring in the latter half of Season 3 and now into Season 4, which has benefitted the already strong Tracer tremendously. Tracer is currently one of the absolute best dive Heroes in the game, with the ability to flank and harass the enemy and perform very consistently. Tracer is brilliant in team dives and 1v1 situations and can build her Ultimate very quickly to secure a crucial pick or two, turning team fights in an instant.
Unfortunately, Tracer is also very hard to master and play to her full potential due to her high skill ceiling. You’ll need brilliant cooldown management and know how to combo your blinks and rewinds to get the upper hand, bait out abilities, and jump on an opening. This is because of Tracer’s low HP, meaning she can be easily killed by one-shots from various characters. However, if you can stand out on Tracer and get momentum going, she can feel very unstoppable to go up against.
And that does it for our ranking of all the DPS heroes in Overwatch 2. Be sure to search for Twinfinite for more tips and information on the game, including our rankings for the Tanks and Supports as well.
