Support roles are the most underrated roles in Overwatch, as you may have noticed in your PvP games. This is because most support characters don’t have abilities like frags and usually play sideways, healing or otherwise setting their teammates up for kills. However, support classes are more important than ever, as becomes evident in professional play. This role and characters, in addition to healing, have various abilities that become decisive in team fights, and sometimes even become your victory condition. If you are someone who enjoys a passive playstyle and loves to guide your teammates, this guide is for you. We will discuss all the tips you will need to play a support character in Overwatch 2.
How to Play a Support Role in Overwatch 2
As a support player, your basic instinct should be to stay out of the enemy line of fire and survive as long as possible to help your teammates. Most support characters offer mobility skills that allow you to quickly get out of the clutches of the opposing team if you find yourself in a bad situation. As such, most supports also have additional offensive abilities that require you to be in the action to give your team an edge in combat. Ana’s Sleep Dart/Biotic Grenade and Kiriko’s Kunai Dagger are good examples of this. However, the following tips will help you become an effective support player:
Command function
Now the functioning of the team is largely dependent on the composition in which OW2 brings the biggest changes. With the new 5v5 mandate and one tank, the two support characters in the default lineup should be coordinating roles, where the healer’s main support assists the important tank role. The tank’s defensive abilities are critical for support players as well.
Positioning
As mentioned, support players should always stay away from heavy fights, but also stay close enough to their team. This is done so that you can heal them or provide them with other goodies as quickly as possible. It also becomes important when using characters like Mercy or Kiriko, as your movement abilities are effective in close proximity to your allies.
Play offensively when needed
Although support agents do not have abilities that deal critical damage, you should not dodge fights when necessary. Those chip damage and debuffs you give to your enemies are rewarded when needed. This is an overall benefit for your team. You should especially aim to take as much damage as possible when you have an advantage in combat. For example, Mercy in her ultimate can fly and has unmatched movement speed. You can use this to your advantage by flying in and dealing damage with Mercy’s Caduceus Blaster, which also has unlimited ammo during the ultimate.
Support coordination in Overwatch 2
As a support, you should always coordinate with your team to use your abilities that give them an advantage in attacks. Many support characters have abilities that grant buffs to allies and debuffs to enemies, which should be timed for decisive moments in a match. This synergy with your DPS and Tank allies can even become extremely useful and you can end up winning matches.
That’s about it for how to play support in Overwatch 2.