Hey everyone, welcome to yet another part of OverSimplified! In today's post, we'll be learning about how to play and improve at one of our favourite tanks in Overwatch, Winston.
Now, Winston is a very well-designed hero. He's really fun to play, has his own set of strengths and weaknesses, excels at a specific role, and is still vulnerable enough to allow for counterplay. He's exactly the kind of hero I'm sure we all want to learn how to play, so I got in touch with Top 500 Bulgarian Main Tank player and streamer, Bogur, who has been, in my opinion, one of the best Winston players on ladder for quite some time now.
With Bogur's inputs, I've written this quick Winston guide for those of you that wish to get a holistic understanding of how this hero works in the current state of Overwatch.
OVERVIEW
Winston is what we call a 'Main Tank' in Overwatch, meaning his primary job is to create space for his team, enabling them to take up optimal positions and making sure that the enemy team cannot. Winston is also one of the more mobile tanks in Overwatch, making him great at contesting high ground and going after lone squishy targets.
WINSTON'S RESPONSIBILITIES
-Contesting high ground: Winston's Rocket Jump makes it quite easy for him to reach and control high ground, which can deny optimal positions to enemy DPS and supports.
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| Winston is great at contesting high ground due to his mobility |
-Assassinating the enemy backline: Winston's natural tankiness and mobility enable him to dive and take out the opposing backline with relative ease.
-Contesting enemy squishies: It's not necessary to always try and pick off the enemy backline as Winston. You could even just 'Soft Dive' the opposing DPS or supports, making it easier for your teammates to take out their tanks. To put it simply, contesting enemy DPS takes pressure off your own DPS, making it easier for them to focus down enemy tanks; contesting enemy supports denies healing and other supportive resources to the enemy tanks, making them easier to kill.
COMMON MISTAKES ON WINSTON
-Focusing tanks too much: Winston cannot out-damage or out-brawl most other tanks in Overwatch, so tasering them again and again is a waste of time and resources. You should instead focus on the enemy backline, which is much easier to contest and eliminate.
-Using Rocket Jump too much: A lot of Winston players use their Rocket Jump to engage the enemy team and then end up dying because they have no way to retreat. Instead, we should try to engage without using our jump and save it for when we need to fall back. Another good use for Rocket Jump is to secure kills on critically-low targets.
-Dying too much: Although this applies to all heroes, it's especially bad to die a lot as Winston since a lot of his value comes simply from surviving during a fight. A lot of players "try to do too much" on Winston, die, and get tilted, not realising that they need to play safe and control space until an opportunity arises for them to make a play. It's quite hard to get immediate value on Winston, so patience is key.
-Using bubble to block damage: Despite the familiar blue look and barrier-like nature of Winston's bubble, it's not a tool you want to use to block damage. You should instead think of it as a barrier that blocks enemy CC and cooldowns. For instance, if you engage an enemy Ana, you're going to bubble-dance to avoid her Sleep and Anti, not her rifle damage, right? Similarly, when you Dive a McCree, you'll be dancing to avoid his Flashbang rather than his primary fire shots. You can also get quite creative and use the bubble against ultimates, like to block Earthshatter, Sound Barrier, and even Transcendence.
-Blindly using Primal Rage: It's really important to be aware of enemy cooldowns before you Primal Rage, since some of them can render you useless/get you killed quite easily. For instance, if you get slept during Primal, you'll have wasted an ultimate and possibly fed 1000HP of ult charge to the enemy team. Deadeye is another strong counter to Primal, especially if you've been slept. Try to bait out these cooldowns or ultimates before you ult so that you can juggle enemies with ease, boop them off the map, or even simply secure kills with the jump+swing burst damage.
COMPOSITIONAL TIPS
As we know by now, Winston is a very mobile character, so to build a comp that suits him, we need heroes that can enable him at a variety of ranges.
On support for instance, Ana is a great pick because she can heal Winston at all ranges and also provide him with Nano-Boost, which makes him quite a formidable opponent; Mercy is a great pick with Winston especially on defence, since she can damage-boost him while he cleaves through people at chokes and builds up his Primal really quickly; Zenyatta is also great at healing Winston across the map as well as amplifying his cleave damage with the Discord Orb; Brig can also throw Repair Packs across the map to help him out; you get the gist.
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| A Nano-Boosted Winston is a formidable opponent |
On the tank front, you ideally want to play D.Va or Zarya with Winston, since they can protect him during Dives and help him survive longer.
As for the DPS, you should play heroes that can either poke down opponents at medium-to-long ranges so that Winston can finish them off with a Dive, or those that can Dive alongside Winston to pick off enemies quickly. That's why you see picks like Tracer, Genji and even Widow being played with Winston at higher levels.
You can check out my post about Dive Comps to understand more compositional intricacies like these.
THE RANKED PLAYSTYLE
On ladder, it's best to make plays as Winston that are easily recognised by other solo players, since making and following elaborate plans in such a situation is quite difficult. Therefore, using the classic strat of diving the enemy backline works out well, since it's a play most players understand and instinctively try to follow up on. You don't really want to try and play around your teammates as Winston, since you're the primary initiator in most team fights. Just have an assassin's mindset and make life difficult for the enemy backline. The only time you really want to fight tanks is when the enemy team has a Sigma or a Zarya without her personal bubble, since they don't have armour and can be duelled fairly easily.
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| In solo queue, focus mainly on engaging the enemy backline |
Now, I'm pretty sure we all know that Winston's generally good against squishy targets that play away from their team, like Widow, Ana, Zen, and sometimes even Ashe, so we're not going to go deeper into Winston's strengths. Instead, let's take a look at where and against which heroes Winston tends to struggle the most.
WHEN NOT TO PLAY WINSTON
-Do not play Winston against Rush comps in tight spaces. Playing in close quarters doesn't allow you to leverage your mobility as Winston, which makes it harder for you to get value.
-Do not play Winston against hard spam on open maps. Some of you may have observed that although some maps like Junkertown and Havana have their fair share of high ground, Winston isn't played on them a lot. This is because these maps also have really long sightlines, which makes it easier for your opponents to spam you down before you even get a chance to engage. You're better off playing Winston on maps like Gibraltar, where there is plenty of high ground as well as a lot of natural cover for you to utilise before diving.
WINSTON'S COUNTERS
-Roadhog: Winston's large hitbox is a massive liability against Hog, who can not only land more shotgun pellets on him, but also hook him quite easily. Whole Hog can also burst Winston down very fast.
-D.Va: A lone Winston diving her team is a major green light for D.Va, who can boost towards him and burst him down with all her offensive power.
-Bastion: Just swap off Winston if you're playing against Bastion. You can't do much damage to him, whereas he can burst you down quite easily.
-McCree: With 225HP and the Right Click combo on his side, Winston can die quite easily to McCree if he doesn't wait out his cooldowns before engaging.
-Reaper: Once again, massive burst damage. Best not to force Winston against Reaper.
-Brigitte: A good Brigitte will constantly boop you as Winston and make sure that you don't assassinate her backline.
With the counters covered, we've reached the end of our Winston pocket guide. A big thank-you to Bogur for sparing some time from his busy schedule to help spread even more knowledge within the Overwatch community. I'd highly recommend checking out his content on Twitch and YouTube, as well as following him on Twitter. The guy's super-entertaining and an absolute delight to watch especially on Winston.
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