Deciding what hero to play at the beginning of an Overwatch 2 match can be a daunting task, especially as a support player. You need to consider what type of support hero the DPS and tanks players are most comfortable with, and also balance your preferences with that of your fellow support.
More often than not, you’ll want to make sure that the team has at least one “main healer” with the capacity to dish out a high amount of healing per second. However, one player on social media has planted a seed for every support main out there to consider as their starting selection—Zenyatta.
Despite having some of the weakest healing in the game before using his ultimate, one player is out to prove that the meditative Omnic is exceptionally powerful at the start of a round. In a July 26 video posted to Reddit, one Zenyatta showed off a plethora of round-opening highlights where they displayed how quickly you can turn a five-vs-five fight against the enemy team.
Related: Emongg explains why Zenyatta changes are effectively a nerf to all tank heroes
Zenyatta’s primary fire tosses singular Orbs of Destruction at opponents, but with his alternate fire, he can charge a grouping of them that can deal up to 240 damage before accounting for headshot modifiers. This means that if a player positions themselves appropriately at the beginning of a match and is aware of where opponents will likely be, there are countless opening pickoffs to be had that other supports just aren’t capable to replicate.
As the video showcases, the Zen sets up and prepares to fire a burst of Orbs at numerous launching points for enemies; from the top of King’s Row tower to a particular train carriage on Route 66, the lineups almost always allowed Zen’s team to begin a match with an advantage.
While Zenyatta was recently nerfed to make his Orb of Discord less effective, the support hero still has immense value in the right hands. Even if you plan on quickly swapping heroes five seconds into the match, charging up a shot to try to earn an early elimination is almost always worth your while on many Hybrid or Payload maps.
