The Current State of Season 20
Season 20 of Overwatch kicked off on January 2, 2020, and will continue through March 5th. The Blizzard devs made some huge changes to many of our favorite legends after listening to the community feedback and taking a close look at the season 19 data.
At a high level, the prior iteration of competitive play was plagued by the “double shield” meta, where Orisa and Sigma dominated most strategies and resulted in a slower pace than the preceding GOATs comp.
The Season 20 update sought to reduce the dependence on barriers and bring more variety to the viable team comps. Ultimately, any hero is feasible if you can play it at an expert level. For the rest of us mortals, these recommendations should give you a great opportunity to win more games given their current strength in this season.
Best Tanks to Play in Season 20
The role of the tank is to take space, absorb damage and allow the team to better position in a fight. We’ve got main tanks and off-tanks in this category – put simply, main tanks are better at creating space and off tanks have greater utility.
For Season 20, you should be playing these two tanks you should be playing!
Orisa
Orisa was strong in the double shield meta, and she’s still strong. In Season 20, even though her shield HP was reduced by 33%, the devs increased Orisa’s armor and reduced her Fortify ability cooldown.
These changes made her much tougher to kill, which subsequently increased her damage output per life. What we ended up with is a juggernaut with crazy kill potential and excellent sustain.
Her halt ability is one of the best offensive weapons that isn’t an ult. You can get easy environmental kills or combo with a teammate’s ability for a quick kill.
You’ll need to get used to putting down your barrier more frequently than prior seasons, but you can also hide behind natural cover while the shield is on cooldown.
Orisa is great on most maps and is a must-learn if you’re looking to climb the comp ladder as a tank!
Reinhardt
Rein used to be the backbone of many strong Overwatch comps back in the day. In the last few seasons, where crowd control was king and Sigma was really strong, Rein fell a bit to the curb.
Well now he’s back!
Reinhardt got hit with a 25% reduction to his barrier but still has the strongest shield in the game. He also has the benefit of being able to toggle on and off his movable shield at the click of a button.
What makes Reinhardt so strong in season 20 is his ability to move around the map and swing that giant hammer a bunch more. The barrier field movement reduction was buffed as well as improvements to the steadfast passive knockback.
Reinhardt feels fun to play again!
You can build ult quickly by landing fire strikes on multiple enemies, his pin is great for instantly eliminating an opponent (although, you should really only use this at close range), and his Earthshatter has teamkill potential in many scenarios.
You’ll have to communicate when your shield is coming down pretty frequently, but you also have the chance to be the team’s quarterback as you navigate the team around the map.
Best DPS to Play in Season 20
DPS is arguably the most fun hero type to play in Overwatch, as evident by the 15 minutes wait times in role queue. These heroes typically get the highest damage, elims or both in any given match.
There are twice as many options for DPS as there are for tanks, so it may feel overwhelming to figure out who to choose. For Season 20, I’ve got three DPS you should be playing!
Mei
Mei is bai…again.
Not only did she get a damage buff recently, but mei can also freeze multiple targets at once! This is basically like having a mini-ult AT ALL TIMES.
Beyond primary and alternate fire of her endothermic blaster, she is the queen of choke points. Using the ice wall, Mei can effectively create a 1v6 scenario at most choke points, swinging the man advantage in favor of your team. This is a great way to win team fights without digging into your ult bank.
Mei is also one of the few DPS heroes who can heal herself. This opens up the door for flanks without having to depend on your healers.
Lastly, Mei’s ult can be capitalized on by the entire team. As the frozen opponents are immobilized, she can nail quick head shots and the rest of the squad helps eliminate the baddies.
Mei is a well-rounded DPS who can carry a team.
Mccree
The cowboy is deadly from both close- and long-range. His pistol has a linear damage dropoff (see graph from Gamepedia, below) and has the benefit of being hitscan.
Cree can delete any 200-HP hero at close range by using the flash bang + fan the hammer combo. For heftier enemies, you can use the combo, do a combat roll, then do the combo again to even take out tanks.
Mccree is also great for countering Hammond, who is another great tank but didn’t quite make my top 2 list. He stuns the hamster after a piledriver, then gets the team to quickly focus down Wrecking Ball.
His ult isn’t spectacular, but you can get 1-2 quick picks if you go on a smart flank behind the opponent. Many of the pros will even just use his ult to quickly reload when fighting tanky heroes who have high health.
Lastly, Mccree has great shield break potential in Season 20. With the nerfs to shields, you can often take out an enemy barrier before the opposing tank even gets to the choke point.
Hanzo
Ever since Blizzard replaced Hanzo’s scatter arrows with storm arrows, this archer has been moving up the ranks. He is one of the few characters who never have to reload and has the potential to one shot enemies from any distance.
Hanzo can get high ground quickly by climbing walls and has decent escapability using his lunge double jump. High mobility combine with no damage dropoff make Hanzo a deadly DPS option.
The buff to Sonic Arrows gives the team even more information on the location of the enemy. Landing a headshot with one of these does a devastating amount of damage while highlighting your opponent.
Hanzo’s ult also pairs very well with some of the top hero picks for Season 20. Use Dragonstrike after a Reinhardt Earthshatter or Mei freeze for a potential team wipe. It’s also great for pushing the opposing team off an objective.
He’s a tricky character to use at close range so you’ll want to spend time in the practice range to get a handle on firing arrows at nearby bots.
Best Support to Play in Season 20
Support heroes either heal, buff and/or bring some utility to their team. In most comps, you’ll want one support who can provide a large amount of healing and another one who makes the team faster/stronger/provides shield/etc.
Honestly, most of the support characters are playable right now. Given the above DPS and tank recommendations, I would stay away from Ana and Brig, but either can work with the right counterparts.
The other supports can rotate through the mix but there are a couple that really stand out. For Season 20, I’ve got two DPS you should be playing!
Baptiste
The Haitian combat medic is in a really good place right now. Blizzard removed his random bullet spread so this damage potential went up a lot. It’s not uncommon to see a Baptiste with a medal for elims, damage and support now.
The immortality field has ult value when placed properly. For 5 seconds, your team just can’t die! Place this around corners to play aggressively and quickly win a team fight.
Baptiste is able to heal himself, heal his team with an AOE secondary fire AND can launch into the air like Ironman. His utility is incredibly high and can work in most comps.
Amplification Matrix doubles the damage AND heals going through the window. You can use this in front of yourself to heal up far away teammates in a pinch or drop it in front of your team to help wipe the opposing squad.
Baptiste works best with comps that want to stick together but he is a viable option about 9 out of 10 times.
Moira
Moira has been my favorite for many seasons, and for good reason. Her Fade is a ‘get out of jail free’ card that allows her to play aggressively and escape from tough situations.
Her healing output is some of the highest in the game, with 65 healing per second and an additional 65 heals over the next lingering 4 seconds. Tap the heals on a friend when they lose a little health to conserve your energy. Hold down Biotic Grasp top off your squad when they are in immediate danger.
Moira is also one of the best dueling supports in the game. You can toss a purple biotic orb before engaging with an enemy to quickly delete most squishies.
Her ult builds so quickly, especially via healing, that you can oftentimes have it ready for every team fight. Coalescence is an ult that can be used fairly freely due to how quickly you get it. Make sure to send out an orb (healing or damage, depending on if your team has enough health) before using this ult.
Honorable Season 20 Mentions
There are currently 31 total heroes available in Overwatch, so you can find many other playable options in Season 20:
- Reaper – burst down most enemies in a matter of seconds as long as you can flank and get close | good sustain with life steal | high mobility | ult pairs well with Rein and Mei
- Lucio – speed boost is highly underrated in lower ranks | Amp It Up is great for initiating a team fight or defending against enemy ults | easy environmental kills using Soundwave
- Roadhog – high sustain | good shield break | halt + hook combo with Orisa gets easy picks | environmental hooks for days using Hook or Whole Hog
- Zenyatta – helps with focus fire by drawing attention to the enemy who is discorded | one of the best defensive ults in the game | decent DPS potential
- Doomfist – high mobility | high sustain | high escapability | high burst damage | difficult to master
- Wrecking Ball – great for stalling on an objective | disrupts teams that want to group together | good sustain
These are great alternatives if the S tier heroes aren’t working out in a given match or if your team comp allows for better chemistry between certain characters.
Again, any character can be used if you play them at an elite level, but these picks will set you up for a high chance of success in your matches. If you’re looking for more tips, check out my guide on how to get better at video games!
What heroes would you add or remove from my list? Leave a message in the comments below so we can see how the meta changes through season 20!
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