Overwatch: Balance Random Teams With These Hero Picks


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Victory in Overwatch is all about teamwork and choosing the best hero for the job. Even if you’re not playing with a well-coordinated team, it’s still possible to contribute and work together to turn your mish-mash of random allies into an unstoppable force. Learn how to spot an unbalanced team, and which heroes you’ll want to pick to fix things up with our fast recommendations guide.

Overwatch matches are designed around hot-swapping heroes. Forget everything you know from those other MOBAs and hero shooters — don’t stick to one character per match. The opposing team will swap as the need arises, and you should too. Every hero has a weakness, and learning how to exploit those weaknesses is where matches are won. Random teams might seem like a free-for-all with your non-speaking multiplayer strangers choosing whatever heroes they think look coolest, but you can still help balance things out. Keep scrolling to see which heroes to pick, and which heroes to avoid.

How to Balance Random Teams – Best Hero Picks

Every random team is going to have one (or more) stubborn players that refuse to swap heroes or completely ignore vital roles. During the match, monitor which heroes are active and switch accordingly based on the needs of your team — let’s start at the beginning of the match.

At the initial Hero selection, take a look at your team’s composition. Right now, it’s pretty clear which heroes are an absolute must pick to balance your team.

  • MUST PICKS:
    • Healer: Mercy, Lucio or Zenyatta
    • Tank: Reinhardt, Winston
    • Sniper [ONE ONLY]: Hanzo, Widowmaker

Your team will need at least ONE of each (healer, tank), and should contain absolutely only ONE sniper hero. Use the Chat window to request these roles if they still aren’t filled — a simple request is all you need, don’t make demands that your team change heroes, it’s very rare random players will listen.

The following heroes are just simple recommendations. Play with any hero you’re comfortable with, and your team only (usually) requires one of each of the four classes to make an impact. Multiples of the same hero can be a benefit, but a team of three Widowmakers and two Mercy’s aren’t likely to win.

Support Hero Picks

Support heroes can make a profound difference for your team and don’t require high-level play. Because most random players seem to gravitate toward offensive heroes, any of the support heroes can instantly improve your balance.

  • Mercy: One of the most popular support heroes, and the easiest to use. She can revive and help offense push to the objective while also providing damage boost to bring down tanks.
  • Lucio: His healing aura keeps clustered teams going — great if you’re escorting or following behind a shielded Reinhardt. His ultimate shields allies and he’s one of the fastest heroes around. Slightly more advanced than Mercy.
  • Zenyatta: Harmony and Discord Orbs keep allies healed and enemies taking bonus damage. If you’re dealing with enemy Bastion or Torbjorn, swap to Zenyatta.

You do not want multiple Mercy heroes on the same team, although an extra Lucio or Zenyatta can’t hurt from time-to-time. Zarya is another amazing support / tank hybrid choice, but generally not considered crucial for random teams.

Tank Hero Picks

Just as important as Support, Tanks are the bulwark of an effective team. Support is slightly higher-priority than tanks in a deprived team, but the right Tank can shield a full team of Soldier 76’s and lead the group to victory.

  • Reinhardt: Generally considered the easiest-to-use all-around Tank, Reinhardt’s shield protects his team, while his massive melee hammer can crush enemy turrets or offense. He serves a team well on any map.
  • Winston: Having problems with snipers? Winston is your man. Swap to him if you’ve got Hanzo and Widowmaker endlessly harassing. His leap, high health, and Tesla Cannon are all you need.

Winston is a great choice for anti-snipers, but Reinhardt’s huge shield protection is more readily helpful to a fumbling random team. Bring up his front-facing energy wall and your team should line-up right behind you.

Offense Hero Picks

Every team can use a sniper. It is not absolutely required, as most of your random pick-up players are bound to choose one of the Offense heroes anyway.

  • Hanzo / Widowmaker: Whatever you do, don’t pick one of these heroes if they’re already taken. Maybe you’re a master sniper, whatever, just wait for the rando to swap to something else than enjoy your time in the spotlight.
  • Reaper: A relentless flanker, Reaper is a premier tank-killer and is a good choice for being a lone-wolf in a match, thanks to his Wraith Form ability allowing him to sneak past traps  and tangle with Tanks without lots of team support.
  • Soldier 76: Just kidding. Every random team is going to feature this guy, but if it doesn’t, his healing deployable can make him very useful to supplement another Support class hero on the field.

Offense are so common, it’ll be a rare day you’ll absolutely have to swap just to keep a team’s balance intact. Still, if you see an opening there’s no hurt in switching to one of these (or any other) of our hero picks.

Escort / Attack & Defend Map Hero Picks

The Defense heroes aren’t that important when it comes to the basic balance of a random team. Like Offense, you’re likely to see a few. That doesn’t mean Defense heroes aren’t critical to success. On certain maps, you’ll absolutely want (or want to avoid) these picks.

  • Defending Team: Bastion and Torbjorn are invaluable to a good defense…
  • Attacking Team: … and they’re poisonous to a strong offensive push.

Bastion and Torbjorn are a tough challenge, but they’re designed to be stationary. If you need to hold an objective, it’s always a good idea to swap to Bastion or Torbjorn, especially if Reinhardt is around to offer his shield for these heroes (and their turrets) to hide behind.

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