Overwatch: What Role Should You Play?

Tank, Support, DPS. These three roles make up team composition in Overwatch, especially now that Blizzard has enforced the 2-2-2 meta. 

 

Like many other games, the best players focus on one school of discipline, spending hours and days, weeks and months, sometimes years, mastering the intricacies of a role. 

 

With such a daunting and important task ahead of you, you may be asking what role should I play, or how do I choose?

 

Well, no one can give you the correct answer, but I can try to provide you with some tips to decide for yourself. 

 

What Experience Do You Have?

 

Start out simple. Have you played an Esports title before? If so, what position/role did you play? Your answer gives you some idea of where to start with Overwatch. For example, if you were a jungler on League of Legends, you may want to play a fast-paced DPS hero. 

 

If you were a support main, try out the support heroes, and so on. 

 

However, just because you enjoyed a role in a different game does not mean that you can enjoy that same role in Overwatch. So play around to see what you have fun with. 

 

How Do You Like to Play?

 

Leading on from the last point, what kind of playstyle do you enjoy? Are you an aggressive player, seeking out high engagements and always staying in the action? DPS. Do you like providing crucial support to your teammates, being the unsung hero of the group? Go with support. 

 

Perhaps you enjoy feeling like a lumbering monster on the battlefield, standing against your foes strike after strike. If so, go with Tank.

 

Experiment

 

The easiest way to decide what role to play is to play each one individually. Spend some time, and I mean days, not hours, with each role. Try out different heroes on different maps with different team compositions.

 

By the end of it, you should have a solid idea of what you want to do. 

 

Do Some Research

 

Read online articles about the strengths and weaknesses of each hero type, what heroes of each class have the highest pick rates, and what their counters are.

 

There are countless resources packed full of useful information, from YouTube videos to Gamepedia pieces. You can even check out the official Overwatch forums to see what other players advise.

 

Know The Meta

 

If you are a fiercely competitive player, you should put some time into learning the meta. You can cut down how long you spend with each role this way. By focusing on the heroes with the highest pick rate, you can determine if you can enjoy grinding out ranks with each class in the long term.

 

Go With Your Heart

 

You wouldn’t be the first. Find a character you like the look of, or find cute, and learn to play them. For me, this was Mei. For many others, it was Tracer, Widowmaker, or Reinhardt (I see you). 

 

At the end of the day, it’s not a permeant decision. You can always change up how and who you play, so don’t be afraid to experiment.