Who Does the Most Healing in Overwatch? Unraveling the Top Healers
The question of who does the most healing in Overwatch is not as straightforward as it might seem. While raw numbers are a factor, context, hero abilities, and the specific situation within a match all play critical roles. The short answer? It’s typically Moira who leads in raw healing output, but Ana and Baptiste are close contenders for overall healing efficacy depending on team composition and game flow. Ultimately, the “best” healer isn’t just about quantity but also quality and utility. Let’s delve into why this is the case.
The Reign of Moira: Raw Healing Output
Moira stands out as a champion of consistent, high-volume healing. Her Biotic Grasp is a beam-based ability that allows her to spray healing onto allies in a wide arc. This area-of-effect (AoE) healing, combined with her Biotic Orb, makes her a powerhouse for keeping grouped teams alive. When playing a “deathball” style composition where team members clump together, Moira’s healing potential is maximized. While she can’t target specific allies with extreme precision, the sheer amount of healing she pumps out makes her difficult to surpass in terms of total healing done over a match. In short, she outputs the most raw healing over time.
When Moira Excels:
- Deathball Compositions: When allies are grouped tightly, Moira’s AoE healing is highly effective.
- Choke Points: Moira’s healing can keep tanks and allies alive while pushing through narrow corridors.
- Sustained Fights: Moira’s high-output, consistent healing is excellent for long engagements.
Moira’s Limitations:
- Lack of Range: Her effective healing range is short, making her less useful in wide-open maps or when allies are spread out.
- Single-Target Healing: She struggles to quickly burst-heal a single ally in dire need.
- Utility: Compared to other supports, she lacks utility such as damage boosts or crowd control.
Ana: Precision and Tank Healing
Ana is a support hero known for her precision and healing prowess at longer ranges. Her Biotic Rifle allows her to accurately target allies, making her exceptional for supporting divers, snipers, and tanks, even at a distance. Her Biotic Grenade not only heals allies but also amplifies all healing received by them for a brief duration. This grenade makes her incredibly efficient at keeping tanks alive during heavy engagements and turning around critical situations. In addition to her powerful single-target healing, she provides a significant boost to the healing efficiency of her allies.
When Ana Excels:
- Long-Range Support: Ana’s range is unmatched by other healers, allowing her to support teammates from across the map.
- Tank Healing: Her combination of rifle and grenade is ideal for keeping tanks alive under pressure.
- Healing Amplification: Her grenade allows a significant boost for all healing, including her allies’.
Ana’s Limitations:
- Aim Dependency: Ana requires good aim to consistently heal allies, which can be challenging for some players.
- Self-Preservation: She has very little mobility or self-healing outside of her grenade, making her vulnerable to flankers.
- Burst Healing: While she can pump out healing, it’s not as fast as burst healing from characters like Baptiste.
Baptiste: AoE Burst and Emergency Savior
Baptiste is a support hero who provides a mix of consistent healing and potent burst support. His Biotic Launcher shoots grenades that heal allies on impact within an area. This gives him significant AoE burst healing potential, particularly useful for handling sudden damage spikes. He also carries Immortality Field, an ability that prevents allies from dying for a short duration, allowing them to survive what would otherwise be fatal scenarios. His ultimate, Amplification Matrix, further boosts his team’s damage and healing output making him a very strong all-around support.
When Baptiste Excels:
- Emergency Healing: Immortality Field makes him an excellent choice for clutch plays and dire situations.
- Burst Healing: His grenades provide significant burst healing to grouped allies.
- Area Control: His projectiles provide some area denial and a combination of healing and damage output.
Baptiste’s Limitations:
- Cooldown Dependent: His Immortality Field has a long cooldown, limiting its availability during continuous pressure.
- Aim Dependency: Like Ana, Baptiste requires aim, especially with his heal grenades.
- Single-Target Healing: His single target heal is less powerful than that of Moira, or especially Mercy.
Mercy: Consistency and Mobility
While not the highest raw healing output, Mercy is one of the most reliable healers, particularly for single targets. Her consistent, single-target healing beam means she can reliably keep one ally at full health, and her damage boost can dramatically increase offensive capabilities. Her mobility and revive ability offer a high level of utility and consistency.
When Mercy Excels:
- Single-Target Focus: Mercy is adept at consistently keeping single allies alive, or pocketing a specific damage character.
- Mobility: Her Guardian Angel ability allows her to quickly reach allies in need.
- Revival: Her ability to revive fallen teammates adds a unique advantage.
Mercy’s Limitations:
- Raw Healing Output: Her healing output is lower than Moira, Ana, or Baptiste, especially in AoE situations.
- Lack of Utility: Aside from the damage boost and revival, she offers less utility than some other healers.
Who is the Best Healer: It Depends
Ultimately, no single healer is definitively the “best” in every situation. The optimal healer choice depends on several factors, including:
- Team Composition: Do you need AoE or single-target healing?
- Map Design: Are you playing in open areas or in close-quarters?
- Enemy Heroes: Which hero will most effectively counter your opponent?
- Play Style: What play style do you and your team prefer?
- Game Flow: Can you adapt to changes throughout the game?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Who is considered a main healer in Overwatch?
Main healers typically focus on higher healing output and are often vital for keeping the team alive. Common main healers include Ana, Moira, Mercy, and Baptiste.
2. Who are the off healers?
Off healers, also sometimes called main supports, often provide healing utility and/or other beneficial effects while not necessarily outputting as much raw healing. Off healers include Lucio, Zenyatta, and Brigitte.
3. Who is the easiest healer to play in Overwatch?
Moira is often regarded as the easiest healer to play due to her straightforward mechanics and auto-aim abilities. Mercy is also considered easy because of her mobility and simple beam-based healing.
4. Who is the hardest support to play in Overwatch?
Supports like Ana, Baptiste, and Lucio are considered more difficult to play due to their aim-dependency and/or more complex mechanics.
5. Who is the best single-target healer?
Mercy is one of the strongest single-target healers in raw numbers and can increase a target’s damage. Ana is also a great single-target healer and she can boost all healing received by a teammate with her grenade.
6. Does Moira have self-heal?
Yes, Moira regenerates health automatically as a support Hero, starting after not taking damage for 1.5 seconds.
7. Does Symmetra heal herself?
Symmetra cannot heal herself or allies. Her shield provides small personal protection and some buffing.
8. Is Lucio considered a main healer?
Lucio is often considered a main support, particularly in organized play, because of his ability to enable his team in other ways as well as outputting moderate healing.
9. Is Mercy a main or off healer?
Mercy has been both during the life of Overwatch. Currently, in Overwatch 2, she is considered a main support but her healing output is less than Ana, Moira, or Baptiste.
10. Who is the best healer to pair with Reinhardt?
Brigitte’s Repair Pack is great for healing and protecting Reinhardt, and her Inspire passive provides consistent healing. Ana’s grenade and long-range healing are also an excellent pairing.
11. Who heals more, Moira or Mercy?
Moira usually heals more raw numbers overall due to her AoE healing capabilities and consistent healing output. However, Mercy provides higher single-target healing along with a damage boost.
12. Can Moira self heal?
Yes, as a support hero, Moira has passive self-healing after 1.5 seconds without taking damage.
13. Who is the best healer in Overwatch console?
While opinions vary, Mercy is often considered a consistently reliable choice for console players. Kiriko can also be very effective with high single-target healing when her shots are landing.
14. Who is the least-picked hero in Overwatch?
Currently, heroes like Junker Queen and Torbjorn are among the least-picked heroes in Overwatch. This can change as the meta and balancing change.
15. How much healing does Kiriko do?
Kiriko, when landing all of her Talismans, can heal for around 72 health per second.
In conclusion, while Moira consistently puts out the highest amount of raw healing, characters like Ana, Baptiste, and Mercy are all very strong healers and their overall healing efficacy will often be more powerful due to their utility and various different situational strengths. The “best” healer is always context-dependent, requiring a careful assessment of team composition, map design, enemy counters, game flow, and playstyle preferences.