With the free play version of Overwatch coming here in a few days there are going to be a lot of new players that are going to try out the game. So, If you're just starting overwatch in 2018 then you might be wondering what the best beginner heroes are to play. In Overwatch, some heroes are catered for beginners so that they can get a better grasp of the game while other heroes are more difficult to master. In this guide we will be going over the best heroes to start off with for Overwatch in competitive play.
Before we get into the best beginner heroes it's important that you begin playing the game and start learning the heroes in competitive play. The reason for this is because more people take a serious approach in the competitive brackets whereas quickplay people are goofing off and you may not really experience of the pros and cons of each hero. It's important to understand that these heroes are the ones that you need to choose and competitive player and a quick play.
Choosing Your Role
Choosing a beginner hero is going to be relative to which role you want to play on overwatch. There are 3 different classes which you can place yourself in when you are about the 20. There are support heroes DPS heroes and tank heroes. Each role has a specific the way that you need to play. Depending on what you like more is going to be correlated with which beginner hero is going to be for you. In this guide we're going to be going over the best heroes for each specific role. But before we get into that I'm going to give a summary of what each role does:
Support: Your support heroes are heroes which are going to be healing you or providing damage absorption so that you can stay alive longer. Often players who thrive in this role our players who are not selfish and don't care about topping the leaderboards at the end of every match. You're not going to be at the top of the most kills when you play a support hero. Most of the time you're going to be focused on healing and using your abilities to keep your teammates stay into the fight if possible.
Tank: The tank heroes in the game are designed to be your frontline. Those heroes are critical to the success of your team because they are going to be able to protect you and take the most damage and let your support be your support and your DPS be your DPS. However, at the same time don't be afraid to pump out as much damage as possible because tanks are very well catered to provide good damage throughout the game.
DPS: DPS, also referred to as damage per second, heroes are the ones that are going to be able to pump out as much damage as possible but usually have zero to little survivability. Most people are going to like these heroes because it's more relevant to other first-person shooters they have played. You simply join a game and act as if you were playing any other first-person shooter while utilizing their abilities. In most cases you are going to be picking a DPS hero if you're just starting out in overwatch.
If you're still struggling after this then consider a skill rating boost to help you push into higher tiers of competitive play.
Best Beginner DPS Heroes
Solider 76
Right off the bat Soldier 76 is going to be the most popular beginner hero. This is because his abilities cater towards low ranked competitive play. His machine gun is extremely effective, and he has a healing ability which allows him to stay alive on his own. So, a lot of the times people who struggle with overwatch they struggle staying alive when playing as a DPS character and when you choose soldier 76 you can pump out damage while at the same time keeping yourself alive using his healing ability. Additionally, his ultimate allows you to 1v1 most heroes that you come up against. Essentially, his ultimate turns into a name but believe it or not where you're able to lock in on an opponent and never miss a shot hence why a lot of new players like using him as their first DPS character.
Pharah
Pharah is going to be another hero which caters to new players who want to play as a DPS rule. If you struggle with positioning in FPS games, Pharah allows you to have poor positioning and still be effective in a competitive game. However, the downside with Pharah is that someone using Widow Maker or McCree is going to counter you and this will almost always happen in competitive play. If you see someone from your opposing team switch to a hero which counters pharaoh then you're probably better off switching to another DPS like soldiers 76 who is a little bit more balanced if you are new to the game. However, if you see that the opposing team is not coming to you directly fair is going to be great as the large hitboxes are going to be wonderful for new players and you can wreak havoc when you use her.
Junkrat
Some might be surprised that I have listed Junkrat as one of the best beginner DPS heroes that you can use. It's true that he is a little bit more difficult than some of the other ones I have listed here but really what it comes down to is your knowledge of the map. So, you don't have to be a great FPS player to utilizes abilities but what you really must do is understand the map and understand how to use his abilities to the advantage of the map. Thus, what I would do is I would recommend that you become accustomed to most of the maps that are in overwatch right now and learn how to use his abilities in each map. You can spam his grenades and really attack the opposition without them knowing where you are and that's why he makes such a great beginner hero in my opinion.
Best Beginner Support Heroes
Before I began and go through my list of support heroes that I would recommend as an Overwatch beginner, I'd like to point out that it really takes the right mindset if you plan on playing a support hero. These are not the heroes that you want to play if you plan on scoring as many kills as possible. these are heroes that you want to play if you want to be a vital role to your team and I would honestly say it's probably one of the most important roles in Overwatch. without a good support on a team then you really won't be getting anywhere. So if you do master one of the sport heroes consider yourself one of the only few who took the time to master a support hero and many teams that are going to be playing are going to be looking to add you on their team so I highly recommend that if you are starting out make sure that you are in the right mindset because you will most likely be targeted quite a bit in matches and you will have to learn how to be OK with dying a lot during your first games in competitive play.
Mercy
Mercy is flat out the best healer on overwatch. There is no arguing that. At the same time, you are going to be probably the most targeted in every single game you play. The opposing team always keep their eye out of looking for mercy and making sure that she is out of the game right away. On the contrary, Mercy is also the easiest support to play because you just must focus on healing and staying in the back line while your team supports you and make sure no one gets to you. So, if you can keep an eye on health bars and simply target your teammates and use Mercy’s healing ability it's going to be a great support hero to start off and get you used to playing that role.
Zendaya
Zendaya I would say is a unique healing and support hero that you probably have not been used to seeing in other games. If you like the support role, Zendaya is great to pick up and learn while at the same time being pretty good for new Overwatch players. He only has a few abilities that you need to master. The first one is putting an orb which heals overtime on your allies and you can do that even prior to entering combat. Your other ability is where you can help your teammates damage your opposition. It makes the target take more damage so as long as you master how to use those in junction with each other, he is going to be a great hero to start Overwatch with.
Best Beginner Tank Heroes
As mentioned earlier, tank heroes are not only just damage absorbers, they can also put out some damage on their own. So, if you like to be in the frontline and protecting your team while at the same time being able to either hook someone in or push forward, these heroes are going to be perfect for starting out. Just like other roles in Overwatch, here are a few tank heroes which are going to be easier for you to play.
Winston
Winston is the cookie cutter tank of Overwatch. He really is the poster boy of the game. I mean anywhere you see Overwatch mentioned you'll see Winston as one of the most played heroes because he is, on paper, one of the easiest ones to play. The great thing about Winston is if you ever get caught out of position you can always use his jump ability and get back to where you are a little bit safer whereas other heroes if you get caught your mobility is lackluster especially as a tank to really do anything. On top of that he does not have a right click ability he only has one left click ability, jump pack, and his ultimate. Thus you really don't have to learn any other skills and making it just one of the easiest roles and heroes to play on Overwatch.
There you have it! This list consists the best beginner heroes for overwatch in 2018. This list may change as time goes on and patches are released on the game but we will do our best to update this list as things change. However, if you're reading this and you haven't noticed an update then most likely these are still in my opinion the easiest heroes to pick up and play. Always remember to enjoy yourself and have fun!