Overwatch is a game where players fight together to secure a point and push the payload further to win. In every season, the meta changes to at every stage to secure a victory in the game. As every new season is released, many top heroes are nerfed to the ground, and many low used heroes are buffed to become the new meta. To win in overwatch, you must always understand the meta and play accordingly. If you control the meta, then I’ll be easier to rank up.
Overwatch Meta Tier List is a list made to acknowledge which heroes are currently best in the game. Season 24 has brought many new changes to the game, but the meta still didn’t change a lot. Although many players agree that understanding the meta helps the team win, many players focus on the one-trick heroes. Yes, meta absolutely helps you win, but your skills and movements are also key factors.
I’ve made a complete Overwatch meta-list of 32 heroes divided into 5 categories as below –
- S Tier
- A Tier
- B Tier
- C Tier
- D Tier
With S Tier being the strongest and D Tier being the weakest group. These tiers can help you to identify the meta and play accordingly.
There is another post regarding – Overwatch Tier List (With explanation of every 32 heroes). Do check it out!
Why do we need Overwatch Meta?
In every season, the game developers change the abilities of many heroes. Some strong heroes are nerfed to groud in these changes while some are buffed to become the god of the overwatch. Remember the meta of McCree? Yes, that is what an unbalanced meta looks like. When McCree was released, he was more powerful than any other damage champions. This created a meta of McCree, but as the next season released, McCree was nerfed a lot, and soon after, players avoided playing him. This is the exact reason why you should understand the meta and pick the heroes which can provide you a win.
Overwatch Meta Tier List
In this post, I’ve segregated all the 32 heroes into different tier lists. This tier list will help you to understand which hero should pick.
S Tier in Overwatch Meta
- McCree (Damage)
- Roadhog (Tank)
- Baptiste (Support)
- Zarya (Tank)
- Widowmaker (Damage)
These are the top 5 heroes that I highly confident in putting the top of the Overwatch Meta. With McCree, a good aim is required but once mastered; he can do some insane damages. His ult can be much lethal if used properly. Without a doubt, he is an S Tier hero. After McCree, Roadhog is the best hero in the current season 24. With good communication and his hook, he can pull an enemy into a death pull. This can be used to control the crowd and provide a good path for allies.
Baptiste is the only support capable of being in S Tier. With his insane healing capacity and escape abilities, he can survive on his own and heal the teammate forever. However, you need to learn Baptiste to use him.
Then comes the Zarya with her shield and Widowmaker with her sniper rifle. Both women are very lethal when fighting against them. Zarya can put a good shield to protect the allies, whereas Widowmaker can spine the asses of enemies.
Update (January 2021) – The nerfs for Zarya make her not viable of S Tier in the current meta. She belongs to the C Tier of the Meta list due to her slow mobility.
A Tier in Overwatch Meta
- Ana (Damage)
- Ashe (Damage)
- Mercy (Support)
- Echo (Damage)
- Tracer (Damage)
- Soldier: 76 (Damage)
- Sigma (Tank)
Firstly, I’ll start with the west world girl Ashe. Ashe is mighty in handling close combat fights. She can stay with the team to help them provide more firepower. With every ability being damage, she can single-handedly kill the enemies if supported properly. Then for Ana, if you are a good aimer, you can easily make your enemies rage quit. There is nothing more frustrating than a sniper in any game.
Mercy can be in S Tier, but handling her can be very difficult, especially when the enemy team has got the CC heroes. The healing output of her is more insane than any of the support. But the Overwatch meta developed in such a way that she got stuck between S Tier and A-Tier. Echo was recently released as robotic damage. She was very powerful at the start, but devs really nerfed her hard. But still, she’s mighty to be in A Tier, and with good aim, you can even kill the S Tier heroes.
Tracer and Soldier:76 are the mid-tier damage heroes that can deal with a continuous stream of damage to the enemies. Unlike snipers, you can deal with constant damage, which can be more useful in team play. Last but not least, Sigma was a tank worthy of S Tier a few seasons back. But as the devs nerfed him, he is now in A Tier. But still, with his hyperspheres, he can deal a lot of damage.
Update (January 2021) – Tracer recently received buffs, which made her capable of S Tier. With powerful movements, she can sustain much longer now.
B Tier in Overwatch Meta
- Moira (Support)
- Reaper (Damage)
- Winston (Tank)
- Torbjorn (Damage)
- Genji (Damage)
- Hanzo (Damage)
- Wrecking Ball (Tank)
- DVa (Tank)
Moira is supported as capable of healing in low ranked matches. But in high ranked matches, it’s hard to survive by picking her. Reaper can be used as a good flank for your enemies, but he is in Mid Tier of the Overwatch Meta as he can easily be countered. Winston was one of the powerful tanks in the past few seasons, but players found other easier tanks that can deal insane damage compared to him as the game progressed. I still remember the meta of Winston when everybody used to instalock him to secure a win!
Torbjorn being a good damage player, can be considered a double-edged sword. He can deal insane damage with his types of abilities, but as his movement ability is too slow, many players tend to use CC against him to shut him down. Genji was a compelling hero in the past. But constant nerfs brought him to the B Tier zone. The main reason why players love to play Ganji is his speed. With this speed, you feel like you are totally playing a different game.
Then comes his brother, Hanzo. Hanzo is mighty in situations where you need to have close combat damage and long-ranged damage. He can use his rapid-fire to burst through the enemy. Overwatch meta forced him to drop down to B Tier.
Wrecking Ball and Dva are the tanks that are useful situationally. Wrecking ball can create a huge chaos in small maps, but he can easily be shut down by maintaining the distance if the maps are large. For Dva, her movement is excellent compared to other tanks, but she is stuck in B Tier due to the lack of play-making abilities.
C Tier in Overwatch Meta
- Lucio (Support)
- Bastion (Damage)
- Pharah (Damage)
- Zenyatta (Support)
- Orisa (Tank)
- Doomfist (Damage)
This tier contains the heroes who can dominate certain situations and can help the allies. But in the overall aspect, these heroes are weak as well as dependent on other picks. Starting with Lucio, he can provide a good heal but at the cost of risk that involves fighting with the enemies. As for support, you can use Lucio to provide good Crowd Control, but as of healing output, he is probably to the worst support in season 24.
Bastion, Pharah, and Doomfist can be played to have fun in the Overwatch casual game. But if you want to rank up, you have to give up on these heroes. I’ve seen some of the one-trick Doomfists in the lobbies, which frag insanely. But considering the bigger picture, you can not use these heroes at top tier matches.
Zenyatta can be good support if used correctly. The only thing which hinders him from being below B Tier is his complexity. It would be best if you practiced him more before picking him in top tier matches. Lastly, Orisa is a useless tank with the least movement speed. As the Overwatch Meta developed, slow heroes got ruled out. Being slow in the game means the Crowd Control players can easily target you. Being able to be an easy target makes Orisa a real weak tank.
D Tier in Overwatch Meta
- Mei (Damage)
- Symmetra (Damage)
- Sombra (Damage)
- Reinhardt (Tank)
- Junkrat (Damage)
Avoid picking these heroes if they want to win the game. If you are playing a casual match with your friends, you can definitely use them. Starting with Reinhardt, he was an alternate tank in the past few seasons, but as season 24 was introduced, he received unnecessary nerfs changing the Overwatch Meta once again. This made him an almost unplayable character. As for Mei and Symmetra, they can be good if you’re good at communicating.
Final Words
Overwatch is a big game to grind your way to the top of ranks. Overwatch Meta lists and updates help you to get the correct information on every hero and their counters. In Overwatch, you can experience toxicity if you don’t pick a good hero for your team. But still, anyhow, we all love this game no matter what!
Happy Gaming!
