Following on from the five new heroes last season—the largest number of fresh faces in a single update since the game first launched—Overwatch Season 3: Into the Tiger's Den has welcomed yet another new DPS in Shion. New arrivals plus some significant balance patches, the character tier list looks a little different now. At least the cat-stion meta has been reeled in compared to last season.
Overwatch tier list
Here's where I'd rank all 52 characters in Overwatch during Season 3, separated by role:
Overwatch Tank tier list
Rank |
Character |
|---|---|
S |
Sigma, Zarya, Ramattra |
A |
Reinhardt, Wrecking Ball, D.va, Domina, Hazard, Winston, Roadhog |
B |
Orisa, Mauga, Junker Queen |
C |
Doomfist |
The biggest winner of the Season 3 patch notes is Reinhardt, who's moved up a tier thanks to faster, more lethal Firestrikes—they're seriously annoying for any 250 HP characters. Zarya, for some reason, also got a buff to her energy depletion rate, so she's as strong as ever.
Elsewhere in the tank roster, it's pretty much the same as it has been for a while. Poke tanks like Sigma are consistent powerhouses, while dive and brawl tanks tend to struggle a bit more—no thanks to Mizuki. I'll always be a faithful Winston main, though, especially when the enemy team can't handle a dive composition.
Roadhog is an outlier, though. He's pretty terrible at the highest ranks, where players tend to have the coordination to take him down quickly. On the flip side, he's an absolute monster the lower you go, with a one-hit combo that's enough to make you punch a hole in your wall.
Overwatch Damage tier list
Rank |
Character |
|---|---|
S |
Sojourn, Ashe, Bastion, Symmetra, Cassidy, Emre |
A |
Shion, Bastion, Echo, Venture, Soldier 76, Mei, Reaper, Genji, Tracer, Junkrat |
B |
Anran, Widowmaker, Sombra, Torbjorn, Hanzo, Pharah, Sierra |
C |
Freja, Vendetta |
Let's start with the newest arrival, Shion, who's actually much more balanced at launch than I'd expected. She's a hybrid between a flanking DPS like Tracer and a more positional fronterliner. Her bike and dash give her some good mobility (necessary given her fairly limited, 20m range), but most of her power is stored in her Execution ability. Execution is capable of one-shotting enemies in close range if you land headshots. And it's a proper tank killer if you pick the X Machina minor perk.
My beloved Anran got another buff focused on making her abilities flow more fluidly. It's minor, but very welcome. So long as the enemy hasn't stacked crowd control with Cass, Mizuki, and the like, you can cause some hellfire.
In terms of the biggest losers, that would be Vendetta and Sierra. Once the terror of every lobby, Vendetta's been hit by nerf after nerf, and the slight buff in Season 3 has done little to lift her out of the ditch. Similarly, Sierra's primary weapon got several nerfs to reduce its effectiveness at range, and the Locked-In perk only triggers on Tracking Shot hits now. She's got very little going for her now, especially while Sojourn is so strong.
Overwatch Support tier list
Rank |
Character |
|---|---|
S |
Lucio, Kiriko, Wuyang, Juno, Ana, Mizuki |
A |
Brigitte, Mercy, Zenyatta |
B |
Illari, Lifeweaver, Jetpack Cat, Moira |
C |
Baptiste |
Between Season 2 and 3, several healers have had some important changes. Mizuki had a handful of buffs, and his binding chain offers unmatched utility, especially in coordinated lobbies. Since Season 2, Mercy has had Flash Heal as part of her base kit, making up for one of her biggest weaknesses, and the classic 'pocket your best DPS' strategy is alive and well. Sadly. But her movement penalties, which were met by 'strikes' from Mercy mains in Season 2, were later rolled back, so she's mobile once again.
While Moira still won't be picked much at the highest ranks, it's worth talking about the mad scientist. The damage and healing per second provided by her orbs have been increased, as has the maximum damage one can cause. She can actually be quite a nuisance now—and a ton of fun.
The other elephant in the room is Jetpack Cat, who's faced lots and lots of changes since her arrival in Season 1. The latest is that she deals more damage and healing per shot as compensation for having her airlift potential knocked down a peg. Basically, flying Bastion and similar combos aren't as dominant as they were in Season 2 (including in the Overwatch Champions Series).
Otherwise, Lucio, Wuyang, Juno, Ana, and Kiriko remain reliable choices for most teams—they're everywhere in the pro scene, too.
Overwatch hero win-rates
Taking an average across all competitive ranks (specifically based on official data from the Americas, though the results are similar in other regions), these are the top heroes by win rate right now on PC:
- Shion: 55.2%
- Reinhardt: 54.7%
- Mizuki: 53.1%
- Zenyatta: 53%
- Genji: 52.4%
The most picked characters are:
- Shion: 46.1%
- Kiriko: 34.2%
- Moira: 29%
- Ana: 23.6%
- Mercy: 18.1%
And the most banned heroes are:
- Zarya: 53.7%
- Sierra: 44.1%
- Sombra: 39.7%
- Doomfist: 20.6%
- Jetpack Cat: 20.1%
Keep in mind that, generally speaking, new characters are picked up incredibly quickly by the community, but buffs and nerfs affecting ban rate take much longer to catch up. For example, I don't think Sierra or Jetpack Cat warrant such high ban rates anymore, and I'd expect them to be replaced by other characters towards the end of the season.
