So, you bought your new gaming laptop; you purchased Overwatch, and you finished the tutorial. What now? How do you know which hero to pick? Sometimes the best idea is just to go for who looks cool but even though all the heroes are balanced, some of them take a while to master.
Mastering characters is an effective way to level yourself up and get all those loot crates for your characters. Also, mastering them makes you more comfortable with new characters. That means transitioning to other heroes won’t be so difficult.
So we prepared a list of good starting characters for each role. Easy to use, quick to master, and still fun.
Starter Offense Hero: Soldier: 76
Did you ever play other first person shooter games? Bastion is the hyper version of all that. That’s why he’s the tutorial character. He’s basic and simple. Gun, grenades, sprinting, and healing. Staples of any FPS game. He serves a great way to acclimate or familiarize yourself with the game.
Playing Soldier: 76 teaches you the overall basic gameplay for Overwatch. You can fight, defend, harass, and do a lot of other tasks with him due to his ridiculously balanced playstyle. A lot of players find him boring but that doesn’t mean that they underestimate this quiet beast.
Starter Defense Hero: Bastion
Bastion can turn into a turret that mows down whole teams of enemy players. In the last few months since the release of Overwatch, people have complained about facing Bastion, especially in groups. All you need is a good position and clear line of fire to your targets, and you will be knocking them down like bowling pins.
Playing Bastion teaches you the importance of map familiarity. You will learn to value positioning and to learn to find choke points. Basically, he is a subtle lesson in tactical awareness that will cascade to other heroes, if you decide to move to others.
Starter Support Hero: Mercy
Healers are vital in Overwatch, and no one is better at being one than Mercy, especially if you’re just starting. She has three support powers; Mercy can heal her allies quickly, she can increase the damage of one ally as long as she keeps her beam on that character. Lastly, she can resurrect fallen teammates as her Ultimate. In fights, she has a pistol, but it’s laughably weak so you can’t strike it out on your own (no support figure ever should).
Playing Mercy teaches you to value your teammates and always know where they are. Overwatch isn’t the kind of game you can win by yourself. She also teaches you self-preservation since she is a soft character. You learn to temper your valor with discretion.
Starter Tank Hero: Reinhardt
More often than not, a newbie player will jump into the fray of battle out of excitement. It’s a good idea to play tanks because it lessens the drawback of a direct attack because of their high health. And they don’t get any tougher than Reinhardt. He walks around with a shield that he uses to protect his team and a giant hammer that smash anyone hit by it into the next respawn. He is a bit on the slow down, but he has ways to make up for it. Eventually, the urge to jump in will cool down, and you will learn to be smarter in your clashes with opponents.
Playing Reinhardt teaches you to have grace under fire. An average game of Overwatch is frenetic and fast, with things shooting in all directions. Reinhardt’s cumbersome movement teaches you to pace yourself and not be so bloodthirsty. You will gain a certain degree of tactical restraint after playing him.
Even if you’re playing at home or outside with a gaming laptop, you won’t have to stress during your early Overwatch days with these heroes. You can learn the basics and so much more by playing with them. Go and start your Overwatch adventure!