Illari was released alongside Season Six in Overwatch 2 on Aug. 10, and she’s bringing a solid array of abilities to help her teammates get the win —and wreak some havoc herself.
The Peruvian support has some aggressive abilities, which means she can deal some devastating damage compared to other supports, and her healing hinges on fewer elements.
She mainly relies on her Healing Pylon to top her allies off in addition to her secondary fire, while her other abilities revolve around crowd control. While she features strong heal right now, Illari will likely be hit by balance changes before she enters competitive play, which means ways of countering her might be also adjusted in the near future.
Illari definitely feels unique in the support category, and you might be confused when fighting against her. Even her Solar Rifle, which is her primary fire, can be threatening in the right hands. Here is how to counter her in Overwatch 2.
How to counter Illari in Overwatch 2
Some picks will be more efficient than others to play against Illari in Overwatch 2. In general, though, what will be key is to know her timings, and what to focus on to counter her strengths.
Since she has fewer healing options than some other supports, destroying her Healing Pylon can be key to negating her potential. In addition, you can learn to notice when she’s going to use her Outburst to knock you back and get away from her path to prevent it.
Tank counters for Illari in Overwatch 2
Generally, shield tanks won’t be optimal against Illari. First, her Ultimate Captive Sun goes through shields, which prevents them to protect their team against it. In addition, she features high mobility, which means static tanks might struggle more to shut her down.
D.Va
D.Va has high mobility, which means she can hunt down Illari when the support decides to flank her team or set up for her Ultimate. She also has several tools to counter the hero’s abilities and negate her potential.
With Matrix, she can eat her Captive Sun and change the course of the game. In addition, due to her double life with her Mecha, she won’t be as vulnerable as other tanks to Illari’s knockback. Generally, Illari is so versatile as support that a tank like D.Va is ideal to counter her, whatever strategy the player chooses.
Orisa
Orisa is a strong tank against Illari because she’s tailored against many of the support’s tools. She can swallow her Captive Sun projectile using the Javelin Spin, be protected against her knockback with Fortify, and can even interrupt her Ultimate cast with a well-timed Energy Javelin.
That last skill can also be used to punish an overextending Illari after she uses an aggressive dash to stun her and leave her vulnerable to your ally’s blows, for example. In addition, Orisa has a long-range, allowing her to reach Illari more easily if she stays in the backline.
Zarya
Zarya not only has plenty of tools to negate key strengths of Illari, but she can also become stronger thanks to her abilities. Although she won’t be able to protect everyone against a cast of the Captive Sun, she can use her shield to negate the damage caused after a short delay and gain some precious charge percentage.
Since Illari’s Ultimate has a cast and damage delay, it’s quite predictable, which means Zarya can counter it pretty easily. Her shield can also help a squishy ally if an aggressive Illari rushes in with her dash ability. It will both negate the damage and knockback of her ability.
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Damage counters for Illari in Overwatch 2
Sombra
Sombra has many tools to annoy Illari. Her hack can negate her full potential. She can hack her Pylon so it doesn’t heal anymore and loses its shield, and hack her while she’s casting Captive Sun. She has the potential to counter her every move and can take her down rather easily if Illari isn’t protected by her teammates.
Genji
Genji is the other rather logical counter to Illari, since he has everything to take her down. His deflect can also change the tide of a game if he launches back Illari’s Captive Sun projectile.
Since it features a cast delay, Genji won’t have too much of a hard time deflecting it. In addition, his dash and endless possibilities to flank enemies make him a significant threat to Illari at every moment. He can also take down her Healing Pylon from behind rather easily.
Cassidy
Flankers aren’t the only DPS heroes that can give Illari a hard time. Hitscans can also bother her, and Cassidy is first in line for that. His grenade can be lethal to Illari and punish her if she overextends. In addition, his Deadeye is a real threat to the support since she will be vulnerable to it when casting her Captive Sun, due to getting high up in the air before launching the threatening projectile.
Support counters for Illari in Overwatch 2
All in all, even though every support has tools to counter Illari, she also has powerful abilities to annoy most of them —except those on our list.
For example, Kiriko’s alternate fire can be deadly to Illari when she’s up in the air. But she can also take advantage of Kiriko’s Ultimate, which will gather up enemies, to get the maximum of them in her Captive Sun range.
Only Baptiste and Lucio won’t have a risk of being negated by the Peruvian support. Moira wouldn’t see her potential undermined by Illari either, but she’d lack tools to counter her, in comparison to what Baptiste, Lifeweaver, and Lucio have to offer.
Baptiste
The main strength of Baptiste against Illari is his Immorality Field. Since Illari’s Ultimate main damage is delayed, they’re predictable, which means Baptiste can protect his team from it using the precious skill. In addition, his jump can allow him to escape her focus or reach places from where he’ll be able to shoot down her Healing Pylon.
Lifeweaver
Illari’s Captive Sun and Dash can be ruined by Lifeweaver’s tools, which makes him one of the best support counters against her. He can save an ally from her using his Life Grip, as well as his team from her Captive Sun by a well-timed Petal Platform.
And if the team is hit by her projectile, he can still negate the damage using his Ultimate Tree of Life. Lastly, he has some mobility to survive her or focus on her Healing Pylon thanks to his Rejuvenating Dash.
Lucio
Generally, mobility is very strong against Illari. And it’s Lucio’s territory, which means he’s one of the most obvious support picks to survive and annoy her when she overextends.
He can also slide his way to a place where he’ll reach her Healing Pylon and take it down with a few salvos of hits. Lastly, a well-timed Sound Barrer will have the potential of making her Captive Sun almost useless, provided the team doesn’t receive too much damage outside of her.
Meanwhile, if you’re also willing to master the new support, you can read some tips given by OW2 hero designer Pedro Herrera, and other information on her Ultimate given by streamer Emongg.
