Overwatch 2 Best DPS Heroes: Tier List and Ranking

In Overwatch 2, good DPS players can easily carry a team to victory. Dealing damage to the opposing team, taking out their Supports and keeping them on the back foot, is just as crucial as buffing or tanking for your team. Some Heroes definitely have an easier time with this than others, which is why we’ve put together this list of the best DPS Heroes in Overwatch 2!

Let’s kick things off with our tier list, then get into our ranking.

Best DPS Heroes in Overwatch 2 — Tier List

Parts of this tier list may come as a surprise. Keep in mind that this list is catered to competitive PC play — your mileage may vary in other modes or levels. If you’re having trouble deciphering why certain Heroes are ranked as they are, allow us to better explain our tiers.

S Tier

The S stands for Sojourn. And she’s our #1 best DPS Hero for Overwatch 2. Sojourn stands alone in this tier, and for good reason — no other DPS comes close the amount of power that she has. She’s like Soldier, but if Soldier had better movement, damage, and carry potential. Check out our more detailed character breakdown in the ranking below!

A Tier

The Heroes in A Tier have found themselves thriving in the new 5v5 format of Overwatch 2. Without having to worry about another tank or multiple shields, these Heroes can focus on getting picks or diving the backline. While they might take some skill to play well, you can’t go wrong with choosing any of them. In the right hands, they can easily carry a game to victory.

B/Map Dependent Tier

B Tier Heroes are still powerful, but are ultimately outshined by others. Fortunately, these Heroes are a little bit easier to play than their A Tier companions.

Map Dependent Heroes are likewise just as powerful but — you guessed it — are largely dependent on what map is being played. These Heroes like to spam small choke points to deny an attacking team entry. On maps like Junkertown (first point), this is hard to do and lowers their overall effectiveness. On the right maps, however, these Heroes are B Tier or above.

C Tier

Unfortunately, those in the C Tier have found themselves with the short end of the stick in Overwatch 2. Whether they received no changes or the changes they received did nothing good, these Heroes need a little bit of help to become meta. You can still play them, but you’ll more than likely have a better time playing someone else.

Mercy Dependent Tier

Last on the list are the Heroes that are really only good with a Mercy attached at the hip. In most situations, these Heroes deal loads of damage but are easily countered and shot down. Players who dedicate hours upon hours of time to learn everything about these Heroes can easily play them like they’re A Tier, but unless you’ve got a Mercy pocketing you, you might have a bad time.

Best DPS Heroes in Overwatch 2, Ranked Worst to Best

Now that we’ve gone over our general tier list, let’s take a closer look at our top 10 picks for the best DPS Heroes in Overwatch 2. We’ll be going into more detail on each pick, showing off what exactly they excel at to help improve your gameplay.

10/10

Junkrat

Junkrat should probably be higher on this list, but is held back by some of the maps in Overwatch 2. The main thing Junkrat wants to do is hold a choke point and lob grenade after grenade to cause some mayhem. He loves closed in spaces where his grenades can bounce and have more of a chance to hit someone.

Master of Chaos…On Certain Maps

On maps he excels at (such as Eichenwalde), Junkrat is a high B or low A Tier pick. His grenades alone can shut down enemy pushes and make it a nightmare to get to the objective. Outside of the choke, he can two-shot most non-Tank heroes with one grenade and a C4 mine. Additionally, his ultimate, RIP-Tire, can decimate enemy teams, especially if they are grouped up.

On the other hand, maps like Junkertown (ironically) are horrible for Junkrat. Maps like these are too open and there aren’t enough of the tight choke points Junkrat loves. Without them, enemies can easily just move out of the way of grenade spam.

All in all, Junkrat is still a great pick, or he wouldn’t have made it to the top ten. Just be aware of what map you’re on and be prepared to switch if you have to.

9/10

Soldier: 76

Soldier: 76 is probably the best DPS Hero in Overwatch 2 for beginners. He has damage, self-healing, movement, and the easiest to use ultimate in the game.

The Call of Duty Protagonist

Soldier truly is the bridge for COD players into Overwatch 2. His weapon is just like any other fully automatic rifle, with the added benefit of a small rocket launcher attachment. Rather than two-tapping someone, Soldier focuses more on keeping consistent damage and tracking a target. With a 30-round mag, this is pretty easy to do.

Another COD similarity is Soldier’s Sprint ability, which allows him to sprint for as long as he wants with no cooldown. Sprint can get you to the fight faster, help you chase down enemies, or get you out of sticky situations.

A little bit different from COD healing, Biotic Field puts down a small healing fields that slowly heals you and your allies. This ability is solid for getting the better of someone in 1v1s or making sure you don’t die from a simple mistake.

No Aim Needed

Soldier’s ultimate, Tactical Visor, is basically an aimbot that auto-aims your shots for 6 seconds. You can hit all 30 shots on a single target without breaking a sweat — great for killing squishy targets or sending out a lot of damage in a short amount of time. Combine it with a damage boost, and you’ll easily kill the entire team.

Soldier is very simple to play, which makes him solid pick most of the time. I always recommend new players check out Soldier as a way to get comfortable with the DPS role.

8/10

Reaper

Reaper, Reaper, Reaper. There’s no other hero that tilts me more. Maybe it’s the way he walks at me menacingly, or maybe it’s because Season 2 Beyblade meta haunts my dreams forever. Despite my dislike for this Hero, there is no denying how good he is.

Everyone’s Nightmare

First and foremost, Reaper is a Tank shredder. While armor does reduce the damage he deals, any large target will let Reaper hit most of his shotgun pellets, dealing maximum damage. Reaper is a great pick into tanks like Winston, Roadhog, or Orisa.

Tank shredding is not the only thing Reaper is good at. With Shadow Step, Reaper can teleport and flank enemy teams. Additionally, his Wraith Form gives him movement speed and makes him immune to all damage. With these two abilities and insane damage, Reaper can assassinate a Zenyatta and get away scot-free.

The Spinning Top of Death

Lastly, his ultimate is pretty good. Death Blossom deals immense damage per second as Reaper shoots in all directions around him. Usually, the goal is to Shadow Step to the high ground, then jump and ult onto the unsuspecting supports. If no one was paying attention, you can often net yourself 2–3 kills. Or you can be like me and use your ult when you are about to lose a 1v1. Both are good, effective uses of your ultimate.

7/10

Mei

Out of all the best DPS Heroes in Overwatch 2, everyone should know how to play Mei. While somewhat situational, Mei provides so much utility to the team that she’s a great off-meta pick to have in your pocket.

Freeze! Don’t Move

While she can’t freeze people with her primary fire anymore, Blizzard compensated by buffing its damage and giving it a 50% slow. I often don’t even use my secondary fire, and instead opt to spray people down. Additionally, the frost spray goes through D.Va Matrix, Genji Deflect, and Sigma Grasp. This makes her a great counter to these Heroes.

Likewise, her ultimate, Blizzard, is great ult to have and it charges up fairly quickly. Blizzard freezes enemies in a huge radius in the spot it was thrown to. It can cover a whole payload or almost a whole capture point, freezing everyone in its wake for 4 seconds.

The Great Wall

In terms of other utility, her Ice Wall is as great as ever. With it, you can separate enemies or wall off a choke point. Walling off a Tank from the rest of their team is probably the evilest thing you can do in Overwatch 2. Ice Wall can be used defensively as well. While its health was nerfed, it can still block things like D.Va Bomb, Earthshatter, etc.

Mei is a great choice to provide plenty of utility and damage for the team.

6/10

Ashe

Ashe is an interesting character. And by interesting, I mean I completely suck at her. In all seriousness, Ashe is a sort of Cassidy-Widowmaker hybrid, but with a decent offensive ult. Unlike Widow and Cassidy, Ashe has unique playstyle compared to other Heroes.

Unique Gameplay

Ashe is one of the few characters able to scope-in her weapon. Much like Ana, her hip-fire and scoped fire have different properties. Her hip-fire shoots faster but with lower damage, which is only useful for finishing off close targets. The scoped fire does loads more damage, allowing you to two-shot most Heroes, provided you hit a head shot.

Ashe’s most unique characteristic is her Dynamite ability. With this ability, she throws a stick of dynamite that she can shoot to blow it up. The explosion can go around corners and shields, causing immediate damage and burning damage over time. This ability makes her the only hitscan hero that can consistently do damage around corners or shields.

B.O.B

What pushes Ashe ahead of the pack is her ultimate ability, BOB. Ashe calls out the robot BOB to rush into the fray, knocking up any enemies hit and proceeding to fire upon any enemies in sight. With 1000 health and plenty of damage, BOB is a force to be reckoned with. To make him more dangerous, Ana can even Nano-boost him. A well-placed BOB can decimate enemy teams.

5/10

Sombra

Sombra is a nightmare to deal with. She is without a doubt one of the best DPS heroes in Overwatch 2. Fortunately, Blizzard has hinted at a future nerf, so I took the liberty of placing her in the B Tier. Nerfed or not, Sombra is a solid utility DPS choice.

Hacker Extraordinaire

While she can certainly do damage, most of her power comes from her hacking ability. Hacking an opponent prevents them from using abilities, cancels some ultimates, and gives Sombra a 25% damage boost towards the hacked target. Additionally, Sombra can see whether or not the hacked target has their ultimate, which is perfect for teamplay.

Her ultimate, EMP, is a stronger, AOE version of her hack. EMP hacks all enemies within 15 meters of Sombra, with the added benefit of destroying barriers and dealing some extra damage. A good Sombra ult can render a whole team useless and make them easy targets for your team.

Now You See Her, Now You Don’t

Sombra’s Stealth ability is great to have and only improves her hacking ability. Stealth renders her invisible, granting her movement speed and the ability to use hacking and her translocator while staying invisible. This allows you to hack crucial targets or position yourself for the perfect EMP.

Additionally, invisibility lets you get information on the enemy that you relay to teammates. While not needed for normal games, the information might be useful in competitive or playing with friends.

4/10

Widowmaker

Widowmaker has the simplest reason as to why she’s number four on this list. She can one-shot most Heroes. However, that also makes her one of the most skill-intensive DPS Heroes in Overwatch 2.

One Shot, One Kill

Widowmaker’s sniper rifle is the source of all her damage. While scoped in, the sniper charges up damage. At full charge, she deals 300 damage on a headshot, which is enough to one-shot all non-Tank heroes. In the game of 5v5, getting a pick is enough to turn the tides in a match, and getting any more is game changing. Being able to make game-changing plays is what makes Widow that strong of a Hero.

However, being effective on Widow requires you to hit those headshots, which are typically very small targets moving pretty fast. If you can hit those shots, then you can solo carry any match.

3/10

Genji

Genji is a fast-paced Hero whose skill ceiling ties with that of Widowmaker. He is quite possibly the hardest to play out of all the best DPS Heroes in Overwatch 2. While the enemy Genji makes it look easy, it requires some knowledge of Genji’s abilities to play well.

Hard but Rewarding

What makes Genji so strong is his ability to jump into the enemy’s backline and assassinate any squishy targets, like Ana or Zenyatta. However, to do this, the player needs to understand how to use his abilities and when to use them.

Most of his power comes from his dash, Swift Strike. Swift Strike propels Genji in a straight line and does 50 damage to everyone hit by the dash. Getting a kill or assist refreshes the cooldown on this ability. Getting the dash reset is crucial for being an effective Genji, as it allows you to escape or output more damage.

Combining Swift Strike with other attacks is how Genji can seemingly output a lot of damage in a short amount of time. The most common Genji combo is Primary Fire + Swift Strike + Melee + Secondary Fire, which is enough to quickly kill any 200 health Hero. Those who play fighting games might resonate well with Genji.

Team Kill Monster

Not only does Genji have high damage combos, his ultimate, Dragonblade, can easily kill a whole team. With Dragonblade, Genji pulls out his katana and is able to slice and dice for 6 seconds, dealing 110 damage each swing.

By itself, Dragonblade can kill a few people, but it shines with an Ana on your team. One of the strongest and most popular ult combos in the game is what is dubbed Nano-Blade. Genji’s Dragonblade + Ana’s Nano-boost turns Genji in a blender. With Nano, Swift Strike + 1 Dragonblade swing does 240 damage, which is enough to one-shot most of the cast. A good Nano-Blade can turn any losing match into a win.

2/10

Tracer

If you’re looking for another fast-paced Hero, then Tracer is your gal.

The Flash but with a Bomb

Tracer’s playstyle involves teleporting or blinking around, flanking the backline, and being a general pest. Her Blink ability gives her three dashes that teleport her a few meters away. With her constant Blinking, enemies have to keep adjusting their aim and predicting where she’s going to be next.

Her other ability, Recall, rewinds her 3 seconds back in time to the location she was at and restores her health to what it was 3 seconds before. This ability is basically a get-out-of-jail-free card, provided you were at a safe place 3 seconds ago.

Lastly, she has Pulse Bomb, her ultimate. Pulse Bomb is a sticky grenade that Tracer can throw. It can stick to anything, including enemies. The full damage of Pulse Bomb deals 350 damage, which is more than enough to kill any non-Tank hero.

A Complete Menace

With all of these abilities combined, Tracer proves to be a decent backline assassin. With the removal of Cassidy’s stun, she can quickly assault any backline Support or DPS uncontested. Higher skilled Tracer players can easily take out anyone they want with a well-placed Pulse Bomb or from one clip of her guns.

What makes her better than Genji is her ability to be non-committal to diving the enemy backline. While Genji’s only escape is his dash or maybe his Deflect, Tracer has three dashes and Recall to save her if need be. Additionally, she only needs decent aim to do her job, compared to the knowledge required to play Genji well.

If you like safe backline assassins, then you can’t go wrong with learning how to play Tracer.

1/10

Sojourn

Sojourn stands alone in a tier all her own. She’s so strong that even Grandmaster players think she needs a nerf. What separates her from other DPS heroes like Genji or Soldier? Well, Sojourn does a lot of damage.

The One-Shot Machine

Sojourn’s unique characteristic is her Railgun, which can be charged by shooting at enemies, then fired whenever she wants. This is a fun design choice both on paper and in practice. What makes it so powerful is that, at full charge, a headshot does 260 damage — enough to one-shot most Heroes. And it only takes a few seconds to fully charge the Railgun.

If that wasn’t strong enough, her ultimate ability, Overcharge, auto-charges the railgun to full for 9 seconds. This allows you to get about seven full charge shots off during those 9 seconds. A decent player could get 2–3 kills in a matter of seconds.

Insane Movement

What’s more, her movement ability, Power Slide, is one of the best in the game. Not only is it on a six-second cooldown, but the slide is fast and she can jump to reach higher vantage points. So, instead of a Widowmaker high in the sky, the last thing your Ana sees is Sojourn slide jumping around the corner before blasting them in the face.

If you are looking to climb the ranks, Sojourn is one of the best DPS Heroes in Overwatch 2.

Join the High Ground

And that wraps up our list of the best DPS Heroes in Overwatch 2 — thanks for reading! Leave a comment for what your top 10 DPS Heroes are, and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter for more Overwatch 2 content.

Happy gaming!