Soldier 76 is one of the best damage characters that you should learn to play in Overwatch 2. Thanks to his abilities he is an S Tier character in our Best DPS heroes Tier List. And worry not once you understand how his weapon and abilities work you will be eliminating your opponents in no time. So in this guide let us check how to play Soldier: 76 in Overwatch 2.
How to Play Soldier 76 in Overwatch 2
Soldier: 76 is a Damage character, so you should play him offensively. And while he is primarily a DPS character, he still has some support abilities. So in order to play as him effectively, below are some tips and explanation on how his weapon and abilities work.
- The best way to play Soldier: 76, is to push and attack. This will allow you to put pressure on the enemy to make them play defensively. And thanks to his sprint and biotic field abilities you can also use him as a support in a pinch.
- Since his weapon has a damage fall off range it is best you are somewhat close or at a medium distance from your opponent.
- Shoot the Helix Rockets down towards the ground near your enemy. This trick will help you deal them some splash damage. While it may not deal full 120 damage when hit directly. This trick will help you to chip away a chunk of their HP.
- Another way you can use the Helix Rockets is by shooting them down, and using them for jumping to higher elevations. This will require some practice as to get an idea of which platforms you can and cannot reach.
- If your team doesn’t have a support then you can play a bit passively and try to focus more on supporting your team. Do remember Biotic Field has a 15 seconds cooldown, so when not healing your team, you should focus on dealing damage to the enemies.
- Finally, a tip for his ultimate, use Tactical Visor when you have multiple enemies to target. His ultimate locks on to the nearest target as long as you can see them. So if you have multiple enemies in sight, even if one enemy manages to escape you. Your ultimate will lock on to the next nearest target. This way you can not only get a lot of eliminations, even if they escape and your teammate gets the kill. You still get an assist for it.
How Soldier 76’s Weapon & Abilities Work
- Weapon
- Heavy Assault Rifle: Soldier 76 uses Heavy Assault Rifle which is an automatic assault weapon. This weapon can deal 6-18 damage per shot. It has a magazine of 30 and a fire rate of 10 shots per second. It also has a relatively fast reload time of 1.5 seconds. Lastly, this weapon has a falloff range of 30 to 50 meters.
- Offensive abilities
- Helix Rockets: This ability launches a volley of rockets at your target. If it hits them directly you deal 120 damage to them. Any enemies within 3 meters of its radius will also take splash damage ranging from 40-80. This ability has a cooldown of 6 seconds, and you don’t get any extra damage for headshots. Do remember you can do self-harm if the enemy is too close when you use this ability, so be carful when using it. It does 20-40 damage to yourself.
- Tactical Visor: This is the ultimate of Soldier 76. This is a very powerful ability, which almost works like a soft aimbot. That is because Soldier 76’s targeting visor locks his aim to the opponent that is closest to his crosshair. So all you have to do is loosely track them once they are locked and you will most likely be able to eliminate them. This is unless they manage to escape your line of sight. It costs 2310 points to use Soldier 76’s ultimate.
- Other abilities
- Sprint: Sprint is an ability that you can use for both evasion and joining a fight depending on the situation. Using this ability gives you a 40% movement speed buff. It ends after you take any action that is not charging forward. If you cancel sprint then you also have to wait for 0.3 seconds, as during this time you will be unable to use your primary or secondary fire.
- Biotic Field: This is an interesting ability that lets you work as a support. Soldier 76 places a small emitter on the ground that heals himself and his teammates. It has a 4.5-meter radius and heals 35 HP per second. This ability has a cast duration of 0.54 seconds and lasts for 5 seconds. Since it does heal you quite a lot when used properly it has a cooldown of 15 seconds.
Overall this is one of the best characters for beginners that would like to get familiarized with the game. But even as a veteran you can dominate the game when used him correctly.
That covers this guide on how to play Soldier: 76 in Overwatch 2, and how his abilities & weapon work. If you are looking for more help with other characters then check out how to play Sojourn and Tracer in this game. You should also check our guide on how to change your crosshair, get competitive points, gain XP fast, and more for Overwatch 2.