Overwatch Counters — How to Counter-Pick Every Threat
Counter-pick by archetype, not memorisation — the anti-air, anti-dive, anti-shield and anti-heal answers that actually win fights.
By OWMAUK Staff
Swapping heroes mid-game isn’t tilting — it’s the game working as intended. You can change every time you’re in spawn, and in 5v5 the single tank matchup is so high-leverage that one good counter can flip a whole fight. The trick is to learn the archetypes, not a giant memorised list.
Think in archetypes
- Hitscan beats air — no travel time punishes floaty targets.
- Beams ignore the tricks — they pass through Genji’s Deflect, D.Va’s Defense Matrix and barriers, and need little aim.
- Crowd control shuts down dive — sleep, hook, freeze and hack stop mobility cold.
- Burst beats self-heal — out-damage Moira/Roadhog faster than they can top up.
- Ana’s Biotic Grenade is anti-heal — and Kiriko’s Suzu cleanses it right back.
Countering the air & the flankers
- Pharah → hitscan: Soldier: 76, Ashe, Cassidy (and D.Va’s Defense Matrix eats her rockets).
- Genji & Tracer → Brigitte, Moira, Winston, Zarya, Mei. Beams and auto-lock beat their evasion; Brigitte is the classic anti-flanker.
- Sombra → Widowmaker or Hanzo to reveal her, plus CC like Ana’s sleep. (Sombra is herself a top answer to dive and mobility.)
The tank matchup
- Vs dive (Winston / Wrecking Ball) → Sombra (hack kills their mobility), Reaper (shreds Winston point-blank), Zarya, Mei, Bastion.
- Vs shields (Sigma / Orisa / Reinhardt) → beam heroes: Zarya, Symmetra, Winston, Moira, Mei. Note Orisa’s Javelin Spin only blocks projectiles — beams pass straight through it.
- Into a dive comp, the answer tank is a big-barrier anchor like Sigma or Orisa that dive can’t punish.
Anti-heal & squishy supports
- Roadhog / Mauga → Ana’s Biotic Grenade negates their self-sustain.
- Ana, Zenyatta, Mercy (low mobility) → dive them (Genji, Tracer, Winston, Doomfist) or snipe them (Widow, Hanzo).
- Remember the counter to the counter: Kiriko’s Suzu cleanses anti-heal, freeze, sleep and hack.
A counter isn’t an auto-win — it’s a head start. You still have to out-position and out-shoot. Swap for the matchup, then go earn it.
Two caveats: heroes like Mei and Bastion are situational — excellent into dive and shields respectively, weak into poke and long range — and every matchup shifts with the patch. Use the archetypes as your compass and adjust to what’s actually in front of you.
Don’t memorise a counter chart — learn the five archetypes and you can read any comp on the fly.