Introduction
Overwatch has been going through a bit of renaissance over the past couple of months. To really hammer home the ‘fresh start’ that the game has experienced, Blizzard decided to change the title from Overwatch 2 back to just Overwatch. It’s basically an admission that the whole swap to Overwatch 2 (along with the now broken promises of vast PvE experiences etc.) was a mistake and that we’re now starting with a clean slate again.
With that clean slate, we also got five new heroes. With the release of Overwatch Season 1 (2026 version), Blizzard launched two new DPS heroes, two new Healers, and a tank. And now, with the release of Season 2, there’s another DPS. It’s basically an entire team, so familiarizing yourself with these heroes is important if you want to get back to competing in Overwatch.
So, here is a quick summary of what these heroes do, how to counter them, and general things you should know about them. If you’re a returning player, you’ll learn all you need to know to get up to speed here.
Jetpack Cat
Jetpack Cat has been a meme in the community for almost a decade now, and it’s finally a real hero.
Abilities
The defining feature of Jetpack Cat is her ability to fly permanently. She’s the first hero to do so (Pharah has a limit on how long she can boost for) and she never has to touch the ground over the course of a game.
Her primary fire is a projectile-based weapon that heals allies and damages enemies, similar to how Ana’s primary fire works. Note that there’s quite some damage falloff here; Jetpack Cat is not going to be winning any sniping contests.
In terms of movement, she’s obviously an extremely mobile hero, but she flies quite slowly. That’s why she also has a boost ability, which shoots her in whatever direction she’s moving. This is not unlimited and is on a cooldown, so use it to strategically get out of fights or chase an enemy who is low.
Jetpack Cat can also carry allies with her Lifeline ability. You can let allies ‘hop on’ and transport them wherever you can go on the map. The downside here is that your damage and healing drops quite significantly when you’re carrying someone, so you can’t just fly around with a teammate tethered to your jetpack at all times.
If you want burst healing, you can also do exactly that. Purr is a pulsing AOE heal ability that also knocks back enemies who get too close. Do note that the knockback ability only works once, so you can’t use it as a sustained deny tool.
Her ultimate has Jetpack Cat diving to the ground, knocking down nearby enemies, and tethering the closest enemy. You can then take this enemy anywhere you like, which is ideal for isolating important enemy targets.
Playing style
If you’re playing as Jetpack Cat, you’ll want to stick close to your team, as there’s a lot of falloff to your primary fire. Use your Purr ability for sustained group healing in teamfights. You can use your Lifeline ability to rescue teammates who have been booped off of a cliff, but you can also use it to quickly reposition your teammates. Your ult should be used to isolate high-value targets and drop them in your team’s line of concentrated fire.
If you’re playing against Jetpack Cat, you should always watch the sky with a hitscan hero. A good Widowmaker or Cassidy, for example, will make Jetpack Cat’s life incredibly difficult. Additionally, you should note that the first phase of Jetpack Cat’s ult makes her relatively stationary, which is a good time to burst her down.
Mizuki
Mizuki is another healer introduced in Season 1. His kit is quite straightforward, making him a great beginner hero.
Abilities
His primary attacks are short blades that he throws; these can also ricochet off the walls to hit enemies multiple times.
His healing ability has him throw his hat at allies, healing them in the process while bouncing across multiple teammates. When the hat returns to Mizuki, he also heals himself, so this ability makes Mizuki relatively self-sustaining.
He also has a movement ability, where he leaps forward and places a doll behind. Mizuki can then teleport back to the doll. This is an aggressive positioning tool with a built-in ‘get out of jail free’ card for when you’ve overextended a bit.
Speaking of movement: Mizuki can also deny enemy movement with his chain ability. This tethers an enemy and hinders their movement, which is great for denying the escape of enemy healers and other high-value targets.
Finally, his ultimate creates an area that heals all allies inside and absorbs enemy projectiles that are coming from the outside.
Playing Style
Since your healing bounces off enemies, you should stay near grouped allies for maximum healing. The same goes for your primary damage: due to the bouncing effect, you can deal some quite significant damage to groups of enemies in close quarters.
Obviously, your movement ability gives you a bit more of a chance to go crazy in terms of positioning. You can use it to push for a final blow, or to heal an overextending friendly and quickly return. The Binding Chain ability should be used to peel flankers or to lock down high-value targets.
If you’re playing against Mizuki, it’s important to know that his ult only blocks projectiles from the outside. So against dive or brawl comps, his ult is not that great. Additionally, you can see his doll on the ground when he’s used his movement ability. You can ‘camp’ it to surprise a returning Mizuki.
Emre
Emre is a new Talon member who joins the Overwatch hero roster. He’s a quite straightforward character.
Abilities
First thing you should know is that Emre’s passive healing kicks in sooner than it does on other heroes, and that it instantly heals for 30 when it activates. This gives him a lot more self-sustain than most other DPS heroes.
Emre’s primary fire uses a three-round burst. It hits hard at close and medium ranges, and when it crits, it does a ton of damage. He can also zoom in, which reduces the damage falloff at range.
His Siphon Blaster ability has him pull out a pistol that shoots life-stealing explosive rounds. It also gives him a boost in terms of movement and jumping height. This is great for finishing off targets or close-range brawling.
His final regular ability is his frag ability. This is a bouncing grenade that detonates after one bounce. It’s a very straightforward grenade ability.
Finally, his ult fires rapid explosive shots or heavy explosive shots which deal even more damage. Heavy shots do deal damage to Emre himself, as well.
Playing style
Emre is a very beginner-friendly character with no super special abilities. You’ll want to focus on landing your bursts at mid-range, while using your lifestealing pistol for extra mobility or close-range fights.
If you’re playing against Emre, you should stay away from the mid-range that he excels at. You can go for long-range snipers like Widowmaker and Hanzo, or you can close the distance on him with dive heroes. He can still deal a lot of damage at close range, but he’s not as effective there. Also note that his passive makes him super self-sustaining. Make sure you get the kill on him if you engage him.
Anran
Anran is a fan-favorite DPS hero thanks to her unique kit.
Abilities
With your left click, you shoot fiery projectiles that, when hit, cause the enemy to start burning. With your right click, you fan the flames, making the enemy burn more and dealing more damage. So, if you want to be effective, it’s a mix of shooting flames and then fanning them to deal more damage.
Her second ability makes her shoot forward in a blaze of flames. Anyone who is hit gets damaged. It has two charges.
Her third ability makes her invulnerable for 8 seconds while dealing damage to enemies. She also heals herself for each hit.
Anran’s ult is a dual ult. When she’s alive and casts it, she charges forward, draws in targets that are hit, and then explode for massive damage. However, Anran can also revive herself if she dies with ult available. She will then revive in a fiery blaze, damaging enemies caught in it. Both enemies as well as allies can spot a dead Anran with her ult available by looking for a flame above her corpse.
Playing style
Anran’s main mode of damage is sustained damage. This is not a burst hero made to quickly kill targets. As such, she’s great for applying sustained damage to tanks and other larger-health characters. She also has a lot of movement and ‘get out of jail’ abilities, making her a good brawling hero.
If you’re playing against Anran, it’s very important to focus her down or make her retreat before she can apply a ton of burn damage. She seems like a scary and unpredictable hero, but her movement ability always goes in a straight line, making it predictable. Her Dancing Blaze ability (where she’s invulnerable) also seems very OP, but you can just wait it out and punish Anran when it ends. If a teammate has been affected by heavy burn, focus on heavy healing or cleansing effects.
Domina
Domina is a poke tank similar to Sigma. She has a big shield that she can sustain quite easily.
Abilities
First, it should be noted that dealing damage restores Domina’s shields. This makes her shield sustainable than Reinhardt’s shields, for example.
Her primary fire is a medium-range beam that culminates in a hitscan shot. It has pretty high damage, and since it’s a beam, it ignores things like Deflect or Defense Matrix.
Her shield is a segmented shield that’s made out of individual panels. Each panel has its own individual ‘health pool’, so enemies can shoot out specific sections of the barrier. This means that barrier placement is extremely important for Domina players.
Her Crystal Charge ability allows her to shoot an explosive crystal that she can then explode whenever she wants.
She also has a knockback ability, which knocks back enemies. Enemies who get knocked into a wall get stunned and take double damage.
Her ult fires a bunch of ‘barrier cages’ that trap enemies within them. Each barrier has 450HP. It lasts for 5 seconds, and enemies trapped within then take 300 damage. However, enemies (and their allies) can break these barriers, allowing them to walk away freely if they get out before the cages detonate. Damaged barriers do reduced damage.
Playing style
Domina is a very effective mid-range tank. You should drop your barrier at key sightlines and choke points and stay near cover so that you don’t get sniped or focused. You want your shields to sustain, though, so you want to be doing damage as well. Your beam is a great tool for sustained pressure, while the charged shot hits quite hard on lower-health characters. Positioning and barrier placement is key.
If you’re playing against Domina, focus team fire on single shield segments. If you spread out the damage, it can be extremely difficult to take down the barriers if the enemy Domina is also doing a lot of damage. Once they are down, though, you should push hard. The cooldown is 14 seconds, which is quite a lot. Additionally, Domina has almost zero mobility and self-defense tools. Winston, D.Va, and other dive heroes can make her life really difficult.
Sierra
Sierra is the newest hero to be added to the roster. She was not part of the original pack of heroes that were launched with the ‘Overwatch rebrand’, but she was added in Season 2.
Abilities
The first important thing to know is that Sierra can see enemies below half health through walls after damaging them. So in essence, she has a ‘wallhack lite’ ability at all times, even if only for enemies she damaged herself.
Her primary fire consists of an automatic assault rifle that fires in a spiral pattern. Important to note here is that this weapon gains accuracy as you shoot. The longer you stay on target, the tighter the spread becomes.
To make her primary fire even more damaging, she can also use her Tracking Shot. This marks an enemy target. While marked, your primary fire automatically tracks marked enemies. So in essence, this is ‘aimhack lite’.
Sierra can also launch a drone (named Dorothy) in the air, to which she can then grapple. You can also hold on to it to start swinging. This is her movement ability, which allows her to get to high ground or unexpected places easily.
Her Tremor Charge ability throws an explosive that creates a shockwave on impact. This can be good to get enemies to spread out or flush them out.
Finally, her ultimate has Dorothy (her drone) fly forward while dropping explosives along its path.
Playing style
Sierra thrives in mid-range battles. Her need to sustain fire makes her weaker in short-range brawls, and her damage in the long range isn’t fantastic. Your main goal with Sierra is to position well (using your drone grappling ability) and then mark a target, allowing you to deal massive damage to them. If they run away while low, you can track them and finish them off easily.
If you’re playing against Sierra, you should try to bait out her marking ability. Without it, her dps drops quite harshly, unless the enemy player is landing every single shot. If you get caught in a sustained primary fire loop, break line of sight. Similarly to Widowmaker, her movement ability is also her escape ability. So if you catch her using her grapple, you’ll know she’s without her main escape ability, and you can safely focus her down on short range.
Conclusion
For many returning to Overwatch after a while, the game might feel unfamiliar. There was a lot of new stuff introduced during the Overwatch 2 run, like perks and subroles. While those are pretty straightforward, learning and understanding a new hero can be difficult, and this time, there are five of them. That’s why this article is a good way to get up-to-date on the new heroes and prevent being trapped in confusing matcups.
Of course, every Overwatch hero has specific interactions with other abilities and heroes (which is what makes the game so exciting) but this surface-level overview should be enough to get you up to speed.
