Today we're going to be covering the three best heroes for climbing out of Silver/Platinum in each role. Climbing from different roles in this game is a very broad subject, as most heroes in Overwatch have diverse playstyles. The objective of our list today is to be effective with minimal knowledge and time investment. So, we'll be grading heroes on a easy, medium, and hard scaling. This doesn't mean that a character has a low skill ceiling at all but that the skill floor is far more accessible to the average player or somebody that doesn't have an insane amount of time to invest into Overwatch. Let's go ahead and talk about DPS first.
Easy Difficulty DPS
Symmetra
Our first pick for DPS has to be Symmetra. Symmetra is doing good after a recent buff and has always been a menace in average play. This hero can solo tanks really easily, shut down entire flanks by herself, and since most people in middling ranks in Overwatch don't really watch for turrets, it's super easy to create death zones or picks as a whole. We have the added benefit of not having to aim much, so clicking heads isn't of the utmost importance on this hero. The shielding buff that Symmetra has recently received has also made her deceptively tanky when in the middle of a fight and also hard rewards you for left-clicking and using turrets. For these reasons, Symmetra is by far the easiest hero on this list to climb with initially.
Honorable mention
Soldier:76
Next up, as our honorable mention, we have Soldier 76. This hero is really independent. He can find massive flanks, and a well-timed visor can easily ace a poorly played push. This hero is only here as an honorable mention because he is simply a jack of all trades, master of none. Soldier is alright for dealing damage, okay at controlling space, a decent flanker, but there's nothing that Soldier really excels at. If you hit your shots when you need to, this is a great hero to climb with because he's so independent. However, the sheer amount of aim that you need on Soldier compared to our actual medium pick is what separates the two. So if you're a traditional FPS player with lots of experience, then Soldier might work better for you
Medium Difficulty DPS
Torbjorn
Torb is the best of both worlds for DPS. He's really tanky and has an insane amount of damage from his primary and alt fire. This pick doesn't require too much thought. He just needs you to place a turret and then fight near your tank. The reason why we have him in a medium rating is purely just because of the aim requirement that this hero has. Rivets from the primary fire are actually quite hard to hit at longer ranges because of bolted projectile speed and the heavy drop that they come with. The shotgun makes things significantly easier to hit than most other heroes. The turret kind of negates some of his weaknesses as well, as we can place it to contest angles for us since it doesn't have the same weaknesses as the projectiles. This hero punishes enemy mistakes quite heavily, which makes him amazing for cheesing games out, which is why he's on this list.
Hard Difficulty DPS
Echo
Echo has to be placed here. Echo's skill floor is actually quite high, as her playstyle is kind of niche. Being a flight character is already enough of a barrier for entry, but her ultimate's mechanics are what cement her in this tier. Echo requires good game knowledge of enemy heroes and understanding of flanks and different flight paths. This is just the bare minimum for playing this hero; we haven't even really talked about the combo potential yet. Echo's skill rotations are harder to access because we need some confidence to get the most out of them. Echo, when played effectively, is probably one of the most demanding picks for the enemy team. She needs to consistently get shut down, and if she's given the opportunity to run free with the map, she is going to do exactly that. She's solid on most maps, and she has an insanely high skill ceiling that we can actually try to attain. And then on top of that, the sheer amounts of pressure that she demands from the enemy team just make her an all-around solid pick.
Easy Difficulty Support
Mercy
While Mercy doesn't have good damage, she's incredibly good at pocketing the best player in the lobby. Keeping someone that is able to be proactive and get things done alive for us is a huge boost to our chances of winning as a whole. Pulling pressure off of our tanks and onto ourselves is a great way to climb in lower brackets, and being ignored is also just as good because we'll be super effective. This leaves us in a win-win situation where we'll always have an impact no matter what, which is exactly what we want in a pick for climbing. There will be games that you'll lose because your DPS and tank are not up to par, but the easy wins that we get off this hero are by far more worth it than these rare losses. We simply fly around, try not to die, and rest our allies when we have a chance. Just by existing, we have pressure.
Medium Difficulty Support
Moira
This one is a no-brainer, as Moira is relatively simple and very independent. This support makes up for a team's lack of a DPS player quite well by herself while remaining a solid pick for the rest of our allies. Moira doesn't really have an aim requirement but does require good reaction time and aggressive positioning to get the most out of her short-range kit. Knowing when you want to be damaging and healing is also a little bit more difficult than the average support. From a climbing perspective, this is all that we want in an Overwatch hero in the support role. We can solo pressure the enemy DPS, assassinate and support, all while not having to think too much about clicking heads. This is the perfect middle ground support for just about any situation.
Hard Difficulty Support
Lucio
Lucio is one of, if not the most, frustrating support in all of Overwatch to pin down. This hero can stall infinitely if you have good movement and ability tempo, making him an absolute headache to deal with. He's fantastic on push, solid on cart, really impressive on maps with environmental hazards, but his steep movement requirement makes him significantly harder to play compared to most other supports. Lucio's movement is truly unique, so if you've invested time on other heroes, it'll take some getting used to. Once mastered, however, Lucio is easily one of the best support picks in all of Overwatch for climbing. Sound Barrier is one of the best denial and aggression ultimates in the entire game when used properly. Even without the rest of Lucio's kit, when combined with it, we have a super solid high-skill ceiling pick that will grow with you and your time invested.
Easy Difficulty Tank
Reinhardt
Reinhardt is our easy pick. The reason that he sits in the easy tier is purely because of the strength of Earth Shatter and the effectiveness of just swinging in lower skilled brackets. The higher that we climb on Reinhardt, the more difficult and more complex he is to play, but at the baseline, his skill floor is very low. If people in lower brackets don't punish you correctly, Reinhardt becomes an absolute freight train. Charge is a one-shot to most DPS, Fire Strike is super impressive when combined with melee, and barriers overall are just easy to use at the surface level. This pick has a very low floor but an incredibly high ceiling, making him super difficult to play at higher tiers.
Medium Difficulty Tank
Junkerqueen
Next up, we have Junker Queen in the medium tier. Junker is our medium pick due to her low health pool and higher aim requirement. This hero is fantastic for punching just about every class of character in Overwatch while rewarding aggressive and proactive play with frequent high damage, high impact ultimates. This is a really solid pick for any tank player that wants to have an impact on any lobby while not having to min-max when compared to our next pick. Junker Queen is really good at just brawling and getting in there, which is super important in this ELO range. When we're playing in more average play, a lot of people don't really respect our range, so it's a lot easier for us to actually walk up and be effective. All we simply need to do is get into a fight, stay inside of a fight, and then build our ult so we're able to initiate over and over and over again. To make this pick effective, which is why she sits very snugly in the medium tier.
Hard Difficulty Tank
Ramattra
Ramattra, in his core, is only simple once we understand his form swap and his general game plan. This hero is ridiculously tanky once we understand how his barrier and nemesis form work, but that's more than we have to understand for most tanks. If we place a barrier down, then swap to Nemesis immediately, we aren't getting the most out of this hero, which is a problem. Ramattra requires a bit more thought because of all the little adjustments that we have to make on the fly while also maintaining decent aim mechanics, such as Pummel into melee cancel, Pummel into melee block cycling, and reverting into Omnic before ulting are all very important on Ramastra. Dropping barrier and then using our nemesis to peek is actually quite complex as well. Even if Ramattra is considered easier to play by higher ranked players, for these reasons, Ramattra is really easy to climb with once we understand him but hard to climb with initially when we lack the knowledge. This is overall just an amazing pick for any aspiring tank player, and I highly recommend that you pick him up.
