Overwatch 2 Reveals All Overwatch: Classic Hero Kits

Key Takeaways

• Overwatch: Classicfeatures the original 21 heroes with abilities as they were in 2016, offering nostalgic gameplay without modern changes.
• The limited-time game mode features 6v6 battles, old maps, and no role restrictions, providing a unique experience for new and old players.
• Players can freely choose heroes with no role restrictions, allowing unique team comps like the iconic six-Winston composition.

Overwatch 2 just revealed the hero kits for the characters available in the new Overwatch: Classic game mode. While the abilities used by most of the original 21 Overwatch heroes are exactly as they were in 2016, even veteran players could use a refresher, given how many iterations these characters have gone through between then and modern Overwatch 2.

Recently, Overwatch 2 announced Overwatch: Classic, a new limited-time game mode where fans can experience the original FPS as it was when it was released in 2016. Featuring 6v6 games with no hero or role limitations, the discontinued Assault game mode, and the original 12 launch maps, Overwatch: Classic promises a nostalgic experience for old players, and a drastically different game for newer ones.

Most importantly, Overwatch: Classic brings the heroes and villains of Future Earth back to their roots. Only the original 21 heroes available during the release of Overwatch 1 will be playable in the event, each of which is reverted to how they were at launch. The characters are divided into the four classic roles: Offense, Defense, Tank, and Support. That said, fans can freely choose any of the available heroes with no role restrictions in these 6v6 Overwatch 2 matches, allowing up to six of a single role if they wish – and for the first few days of the event, they can even all select the same hero, like the iconic six-Winston “Gorilla Warfare” team comp.

All Overwatch: Classic Hero Abilities

OFFENSE HEROES

Cassidy

• Peacekeeper Accurate, powerful revolver
• Peacekeeper Wildly fire remaining rounds
• Combat Roll Roll in the direction you’re moving and reload
• Flashbang Stun enemies in front of you
• Deadeye Face off against your enemies. Press your Ultimate to lock on, then Primary Fire to fire.

What’s different?Cassidy’s truly brings Wild West action in Overwatch: Classic. His damage output will be more increased than what you may be used to in Overwatch 2 with damage from fanning the hammer dealing 70 damage per projectile. Cassidy’s Flashbang is restored to its original form where heroes caught in its blast will be immobilized for a few seconds, leaving them vulnerable to attack. Finally, Deadeye has more versatility as Cassidy can cancel from firing and save up to half of his Ultimate charge.

Genji

• Cyber-Agility Climb on walls and double jump
• Shuriken Throw an accurate burst of 3 projectiles
• Shuriken Throw a fan of 3 projectiles in an arc
• Swift Strike Rapidly dash forward and inflict damage on enemies. Eliminations reset the cooldown
• Deflect Deflect incoming projectiles towards the direction you are aiming and block melee attacks
• Dragonblade Unsheathe a deadly melee weapon

What’s different? Genji’s Dragonblade won’t be able to be ignored so easily as he can attack for up to eight seconds. Genji is also more mobile as Double Jump will reset as you wall climb.

Pharah

• Rocket Launcher Long-range explosive projectile weapon
• Jump Jet Fly rapidly upwards
• Concussive Blast Launch an explosive blast to knock back enemies
• Barrage Launch a continuous volley of mini-rockets
• Hover Jets Hold Jump to hover

What’s different? Pharah’s original kit allows her more opportunities to stay in the air longer and can have more potential to boop opponents from ledges using her Concussive Blast. She also deals more damage with higher splash explosion damage from the rockets in her Rocket Launcher.

Reaper

• Hellfire Shotguns Short-range spread weapons
• Wraith Form Move faster and become invulnerable, but you cannot shoot
• Shadow Step Teleport to a targeted location
• Death Blossom Damage all nearby enemies
• The Reaping Collect Soul Globes to restore health

What’s Different? Aside from the broader damage changes in Overwatch 2, Reaper’s passive The Reaping will return to its original form where soul orbs will be dropped from defeated enemies that Reaper can pick up to gain 50 HP. Also plan how you use Wraith Form as it cannot be canceled early.

Soldier: 76

• Heavy Pulse Rifle Automatic assault weapon
• Helix Rockets Launch a volley of explosive rockets
• Sprint Run faster while moving forward
• Biotic Field Deploy a field that heals you and your allies
• Tactical Visor Automatically aims your weapon at targets in view

What’s Different? Soldier: 76 has had mostly tuning changes throughout Overwatch’s history. His Heavy Pulse Rifle deals less damage at 17 damage per projectile, but the rifle has no recoil and will instead have increased spread the longer you hold it.

Tracer

• Pulse Pistols Short-range automatic weapons
• Blink Teleport in the direction you are moving
• Recall Travel back in time to your previous location and health
• Pulse Bomb Throw out a powerful sticky explosive

What’s different? Tracer’s time traveling playstyle has been relatively unchanged throughout Overwatch’s history, with tuning changes to her Pulse Pistols and Pulse Bomb being the biggest adjustments. Expect the Pulse Bomb to deal incredibly high damage that can finish off most heroes.

DEFENSE HEROES

Bastion

• Configuration: Recon Mobile with a light automatic weapon
• Configuration: Sentry Immobile with a powerful rotary cannon
• Configure Switch between weapon configurations
• Self-Repair Heals yourself
• Configuration: Tank Mobile with a powerful cannon

What’s Different: Bastion’s original kit is much different than what you play with today. Bastion is a tricky hero that can keep chokeholds nearly unpassable when staged in Sentry Form, firing a volley of machine gun fire, though he cannot move and has a limited amount of ammo while in Sentry form. This makes his biggest weakness – getting attacked from behind – easy to exploit if the opponent can flank around him. Don’t forget to use the Self-Repair to heal Bastion when you are not dealing damage. Also watch out as Configuration: Tank will deal massive bursts of damage as he freely roams the battlefield in tank form.

Hanzo

• Storm Bow Hold to charge then release to launch arrows further
• Sonic Arrow Reveals enemies for a short time upon impact
• Scatter Arrow Splits into multiple ricochet arrows on impact
• Dragonstrike Launch a deadly Dragon Spirit that devastated enemies it passes through
• Wall Climb Jump at wall to climb up them

What’s Different? Hanzo’s most notable change was swapping his original specialty arrow, the Scatter Arrow. This is a powerful choke buster attack which will launch a volley of projectiles reflecting on the walls, which combined with the Sonic Arrow, is a great way to stop a flanking target that may be hiding around the corner. Hanzo won’t have his Lunge jump passive either, so his mobility is more limited.

Junkrat

• Frag Launcher Bouncing explosive projectile weapon
• Concussion Mine Throw a knockback mine with Ability 1 then detonate it with Alternate Fire
• Steel Trap Place an immobilizing trap
• Rip-tire Drive and detonate an exploding tire
• Total Mayhem Drop bombs on death

What’s Different? Junkrat has a lot more risk to his own health as damage from his Frag Launcher will be dealt on him as well. Concussion Mine only has one charge which will limit how Junkrat can use the ability to jump into action or deal damage to opponents.

Mei

• Endothermic Blaster Short-range spray weapon that freezes enemies
• Endothermic Blaster Long-range icicle launcher
• Cryo-freeze Become invulnerable and heal yourself
• Ice Wall Create a wall in front of you
• Blizzard Launch a weather control drone that freezes enemies in a wide area

What’s Different? Many of you will find Mei’s original kit to be much cooler… literally. The primary fire from Endothermic Blaster will quickly freeze individual enemies, allowing Mei to deal an icy-cold elimination with the Alternate Fire. Also, the Ice Wall will be a more formidable obstacle to take down with each pillar having 500 health.

Torbjorn

• Rivet Gun Slow-firing long-ranged weapon
• Forge Hammer Swing to improve your turret or damage an enemy
• Rivet Gun Inaccurate but powerful short-range weapon
• Build Turret Build an upgradeable turret
• Armor Pack Build an armor power up
• Molten Core Increase your weapon attack speed, gain additional armor, and temporarily upgrade a level 2 turret to level 3
• Scrap Collector Collect scrap to gain resources

What’s Different? Torbjorn’s original kit is about building his tools and resources out of the scraps fallen from both allies and opponents. Collect scrap to deploy Armor packs that you or your allies can pick up for additional Armor HP. When you use Deploy Turret, a small, low-damage Level 1 will be placed, but you can use your Forge Hammer to upgrade it Level 2 which is the same turret that now deploys automatically in the live game. With the original Molten Core ultimate, power up Torbjorn with additional armor and faster movement, and instantly upgrade a Level 2 turret to the missile-launching, rapid firing Level 3 turret to secure any battleground.

Widowmaker

• Widow’s Kiss Automatic assault weapon
• Widow’s Kiss Hold for long-ranged sniper weapon
• Grappling Hook Launch a hook that pulls you towards a ledge
• Venom Mine Launch a poison trap
• Infra-sight Provide your team with a view of the enemy’s location

What’s Different? Widowmaker is far more lethal with faster charge shots and more damage dealth at long-range. However, Widowmaker will be more vulnerable each time she uses Grappling Hook as it uses a longer cooldown.

TANK HEROES

D.Va

• Fusion Cannons Automatic short-range spread weapons
• Light Gun Automatic weapon
• Boosters Fly in the direction you are facing
• Defense Matrix Block projectiles in an area in front of you
• Self-Destruct Eject and overload your mech, causing it to explode after a short time
• Call Mech Call down a new mech
• Eject! Eject out of your mech when it is destroyed

What’s different? D.Va’s original kit is more static and lacks the Micro Missiles ability that would be added later in Overwatch. Notably her Defense Matrix continuously channels the field for several seconds between a 10 second cooldown, and Pilot D.Va can be damaged from the blast of her own Self Destruct ability which takes 4 seconds to explode, making it a challenge for Pilot D.Va to stay out of the blast radius of the devastating ability.

Reinhardt

• Rocket Hammer Devastating melee weapon
• Barrier Field Deploy a frontal energy barrier
• Charge Charge forward and smash an enemy against a wall
• Fire Strike Launch a fiery projectile
• Earthshatter Knock down all enemies in front of you

What’s Different? While Reinhardt won’t have the advantage of two charges to his Fire Strike and a smaller HP pool, his Earthshatter will have more horizontal and vertical range to catch enemies off guard. Also, he will be able to mitigate incoming damage as his Barrier Health is much higher than in the live game.

Roadhog

• Scrap Gun Short-range spread weapon
• Scrap Gun Medium-range spread weapon
• Chain Hook Drag a targeted enemy to you
• Take a Breather Heal yourself over a short time
• Whole Hog Damage and knock back enemies in front of you

What’s different? Roadhog’s kit has often received tuning adjustments based around his ability to hook and catch opponents. Carefully avoid the hook as it will catch anything and everything around him and can deal a lethal one-two combo between his scrap gun and melee for an easy finishing blow to most low HP heroes.

Winston

• Tesla Cannon Electric frontal-cone weapon
• Jump Pack Leap forward into the air. Landing on an enemy damages them
• Barrier Projector Deploy a protective energy dome
• Primal Rage Gain immense health, but you can only leap and punch enemies

What’s Different? Winston’s kit will be missing the long-range attack from his Tesla Cannon that was introduced in Overwatch 2. Also, carefully time your placements of Barrier Projector, as cooldown starts only after the shield expires instead of when it is deployed.

Zarya

• Particle Cannon Short-range linear beam weapon
• Particle Cannon Energy grenade launcher
• Particle Barrier Create a damage barrier around you
• Projected Barrier Create a damage barrier around an ally
• Graviton Surge Launch a gravity well that pulls enemies to it

What’s different? Originally, Zarya had separate cooldowns for Particle Barrier and Projected Barrier, so be careful of when you use either to protect yourself or your teammates. However, Zarya’s ability to gain energy from these abilities is much higher than in the current live game.

SUPPORT HEROES

Lucio

• Sonic Amplifier Sonic projectile launcher
• Soundwave Create a short-range blast wave to knock enemies away from you
• Crossfade Increases the effectiveness of your current song
• Sound Barrier Create temporary extra health for nearby allies

What’s different? While the identity of Lucio’s kit has remained the same, his Crossfade will feel the most different, as it provides a radius of 30 meters versus the 10-meter range in his current kit, but with less healing to his allies. However, this enables him to be a great character to help rush his team to the next team fight with ease.

Mercy

• Caduceus Staff (Primary) Hold to heal an ally
• Caduceus Blaster Automatic weapon
• Caduceus Staff (Secondary) Hold to increase an ally’s damage inflicted
• Guardian Angel Fly towards an ally
• Resurrect Revive dead teammates
• Angelic Descent Fall very slowly
• Regeneration Restore your own health after not taking any damage

What’s Different? Mercy’s Resurrect as an ultimate works as a great teamfight counterplay, allowing her to target up to five allies in range to be resurrected immediately. Watch out if there are multiple Mercy players on your team as the benefit from her Damage boost can be multiplied.

Symmetra

• Photon Projector Short-range beam weapon with increasing damage
• Photon Projector Hold to charge, release to fire orb
• Sentry Turret Deploy a small turret that damages and slows enemies
• Photon Shield Give shields to an ally
• Teleporter Deploy a teleporter that connects to the spawn room

What’s Different? Originally categorized as a Support hero, Symmetra’s kit was more geared to providing utility to her allies than dealing damage directly. Her Photon Shield ability grants your allies with additional Shield Health, which can regenerate as long as they are not eliminated. With Teleporter as her ultimate, you can place the exit teleporter anywhere on the map and be linked directly to your active spawn room. Consider playing more than one Symmetra to create complex sentry turret fortifications to wash clean any chokeholds from your opponents.

Zenyatta

• Orb Of Destruction Energy projectile weapon
• Orb Of Destruction Charge to release more projectiles
• Orb of Harmony Launch this orb at an ally to heal them
• Orb Of Discord Launch this orb at an enemy to increase the damage they take
• Transcendence Become invulnerable and heal nearby allies

What’s Different? Zenyatta’s kit remains relatively unchanged, short of not having his Snap Kick passive that was added later. However, watch out for his Orb of Discord, as damage amplification increases 50% of the damage received on its target.

Several modern changes to Overwatch 2 will be reverted in this game mode. The projectile, health, and damage adjustments from Overwatch 2 Season 9 are gone, Ultimates charge significantly faster, and interrupted Ultimates refund part of the meter depending on how quickly it was disrupted. All self-damaging explosive effects have been re-enabled, so Junkrat and D.Va will need to be careful when using their Ultimates, lest they kill themselves along with the entire enemy team.

Beyond the modern improved graphics, there are a few other alterations to the original game in Overwatch: Classic as well. Symmetra only has access to her Teleporter ultimate, rather than having the choice between it and Shield Generator. Additionally, given the problematic actions of his original namesake identified during the lawsuits in 2021, Blizzard kept Cassidy’s new name, rather than reverting it to McCree.

The first Overwatch: Classic begins November 12 and runs through December 2. While it is waiting to see the reception of this first event before making any promises, Blizzard has said it doesn’t want this to be the only time it runs Overwatch: Classic. If the game mode is popular, players could see other events with more heroes and kits based on iconic periods in Overwatch history.