Support heroes in Overwatch 2 are far more than simple healers. Instead, they are crucial playmakers, as highlighted in many Overwatch 2 Guides, who balance healing and buffing their teammates with dishing out damage and debuffs on enemies. Turning them into one of the most vibrant and most enjoyable types of heroes in the game.
But if you’ve made it to this guide, chances are you’ve already got an appetite for support play. The question is, how to rise up the competitive ranks? This is one of the many Overwatch 2 guides designed to provide a comprehensive look at how to improve at support heroes. So buckle up, it’s jam packed.
Core Support Principles
Before diving into the details of specific heroes, this guide joins the best Overwatch 2 guides to offer a broad look at how to improve as a support player. Mobilising these four tips is a vital Overwatch strategy likely to improve your play drastically, regardless of the hero you choose.
Position Yourself Carefully
As a support hero you want to dish out healing, damage and use your abilities. But, realistically, the most important thing for you to do is stay alive. This means that you will be able to continue supporting your team. After all, a dead hero can’t provide any value.
Positioning is the single most impactful element to help you stay alive, as emphasized in most Overwatch 2 Guides. Here are some quickfire tips for improving your positioning:
- Always stay behind or near natural cover.
- Maintain a line of sight to your team, and their escape route.
- Keep in a position where you can peek the enemy to dish out damage when possible.
- Don’t stay still for long. Utilise multiple cover points to avoid becoming predictable.
- Stay within range of your other support, to keep each other alive.
Together, these tips will help you stay alive, while maximizing your effectiveness.
Balance Healing and Damage
Many support players in the lower Overwatch elos will focus solely on healing, while some stuck in the mid-ranks will put too much focus on dealing damage. You need to strike a balance. To do this you can:
- Actively contribute to damage whenever your team is healed up.
- Pre-empt the moments where you will need to switch to damage or healing, so you are prepared to do so.
- Use abilities to buff your team’s overall damage output.
- Don’t chase unrealistic eliminations – your role is to support, not kill.
Overwatch 2 support combos
As a support player, you’re not alone in your task. You have another support with the same goals as you. Thus, working together and focusing on strong Overwatch strategy and support combos will help your team’s potential In this regard you can:
- Pick complementary heroes, such as the best healer Overwatch 2 offers, to provide both burst and sustained healing.
- Be open to peel for each other to deal with flankers.
- Combine ultimates when viable.
- Communicate clearly so you don’t double-up on certain abilities – like healing ults.
- Recognise when to switch between aggressive and defensive playstyles; often doing the opposite of your fellow support.
Manage Your Abilities
Beyond what we have discussed so far, you also have to consider when to use your abilities. This can be a make-or-break for lots of support players, as it’s paramount that your abilities are available when they’re needed. To ensure this you can:
- Avoid overhealing. Using regular healing instead of abilities when viable.
- Use mobility abilities during engagement or escape; not mid-fight.
- Track enemy cooldowns, especially when they’re directed at you (like Winston jumps).
- Communicate your ultimate with your team, to maximize effectiveness.
Communicate
Whether you’re calling for help or to engage with your ultimate, communication is a support player’s best friend. This is because your tank and DPS will be facing the front line – finding it hard to predict the best moments to engage, disengage or peel to support you. By effectively calling out such strategies, you’ll be able to maximise the power of your team.
Together, these general tips will help to bolster the play of any support hero. Effective support also comes down to choosing the best heroes in Overwatch 2 and developing in-depth hero knowledge. So, let’s take a look at some of the best support heroes to play today.
Hero-Specific Overwatch 2 Guides
As highlighted in many Overwatch 2 guides, the roster of support heroes has been steadily growing since the release of Overwatch 2. With four new supports almost doubling the original count. Because of this, this guide will focus on the top three most played heroes in competitive and esports play. As, while other supports are definitely viable picks, these three are chosen for a reason.
Whether you’re trying to rise up the ranks in the current Overwatch season or maintain your position, mastering one of these three heroes can provide a solid foundation for success. Overwatch accounts can help you get started faster.
Juno
Despite being the newest support hero in the game, Juno has quickly jumped to the most played in casual and competitive play. Both due to her novelty and her incredibly effective support playstyle. Here’s everything you need to know to get started on your road to mastering Juno.
Strengths:
- Exceptional healing output.
- Some burst healing.
- Great mobility, for Juno and the team.
- Ultimate offers strong area-control.
Key Tips:
Juno’s main utility comes from her ability to be a main healer, while providing additional buffs in the form of speed boost and occasional damage boosts through her ultimate. As highlighted in many Overwatch 2 Guides, her impressive mobility allows her to stay out of reach while supporting her team effectively.
While playing Juno, keep these tips in mind:
- Avoid dives with Martian Overboots and Glide Boost – allowing you to stay out of harms way.
- Focus on healing with the Mediblaster, especially keeping your tank up.
- Use pulsar torpedoes on your teammates during engagement or ultimates to negate burst damage, due to their healing over time effect.
- Carefully choose where you drop your ultimate, placing it in or beyond choke points to allow your team to push forward with its buffs.
- Use Hyper Ring to engage.
- Juno has no way to heal herself, so remain close to your other support.
Simultaneously, avoid some common mistakes:
- Don’t fly into range of hitscans with your glide boost.
- Don’t drop Hyper Ring mid fight; use it to engage, escape or chase.
- Don’t focus on dealing damage – Juno is a great primary healer.
Team Synergies:
- Cassidy – To increase his mobility.
- Ana – As Juno can provide great peel support for Ana’s incredible healing output.
- Zarya – To increase mobility, allowing Zarya to press with high damage output.
Hard Counters:
- Ashe (or most snipers) – Due to the range and hitscan which punishes Juno’s movement style.
- Winston – Dive tanks can punish Juno as although she is mobile, she isn’t fast. So anyone that chases her effectively can cause problems.
- Dva – Like Winston, Dva can dive and dish out huge damage.
- Moira – As Juno can’t self-heal, Moira’s damage and mobility can decimate her quickly.
Ana
Perhaps the most beloved support in the game, Ana is great at dishing out damage and heals while providing plenty of effective buffs and debuffs which can easily change the tide of combat. Her ultimate can also be an absolute game changer when paired with others.
Strengths:
- Huge burst healing.
- Strong utility with Dart and Biotic Grenade.
- Offers long-range poke.
- Team-wipe potential with every ult.
Key Tips:
Playing as Ana is no walk in the park. You will be expected to dish out insane amounts of healing while covering your own back with sleep dart. Not only that, but you’ll need to communicate your ultimate well with your squad, in order to facilitate team wipes. So keep these tips in mind:
- Positioning is key. You’ll need good lines of sight for both your allies and opponents.
- Practice quickscoping to heal faster.
- Practice landing sleep dart on moving targets, to cover your back.
- Save dart for when you need it.
- Use biotic grenade offensively to throw off the opponent’s healing.
- Communicate well; for your ultimate and dart targets.
Team Synergies:
- Genji – Nanoblade is a thing for a reason.
- Reinhardt – Easy to keep alive, and he has huge damage potential when paired with a good anti-nade.
- Winston – Easy healing at range.
Hard Counters:
- Winston – Any dive can punish Ana and stop her from working effectively.
- Tracer – Can bait out your abilities and quickly eliminate Ana.
- Doomfist – Dive potential and damage negation with power block.
Kiriko
The first of Overwatch 2’s new supports, Kiriko made a splash by redefining what a support hero can do – becoming an effective healer with great mobility and a badass kunai to boot. Combining many of the things which make Moira and Lucio player favourites into one supercharged package.
Strengths:
- Great mobility with wall climb and swift step.
- Burst healing potential.
- Teamfight changing ultimate.
- Suzu can counter enemy ultimates.
Key Tips:
Kiriko’s agility and fast playstyle can make her quite frenetic to play – somewhere between Genji and Lucio. This can be hard to master, but once you get your abilities under your belt you can become incredibly effective.
- Use your mobility to access high ground and cover.
- Save your quickstep for emergency escapes.
- Save Suzu to protect teammates near death or during an ultimate.
- Focus your Kunai at enemy support to catch them off guard.
- Coordinate ultimate with teammates.
Team Synergies:
- Genji – Kiriko is one of the few supports who can keep up with him.
- Ramattra – Suzu allows for even more aggression during Nemesis, along with great ultimate synergy.
- Soldier 76 – Kiriko’s ult pairs well with Tac Visor.
Hard Counters:
- Widowmaker – Punishes poor positioning and movement with one shot, one kill.
- Cassidy – Punishes Kiriko at close and mid range.
- Ashe – Another sniper, punishing Kiriko.
Master Your Play
These tips should have equipped you with new techniques and tactics, making this one of the most actionable Overwatch 2 guides for support players. While they may take some time to become second nature, these tips will help you hone your play – allowing you to deliver more support to your team which should translate to more match wins.