Key Takeaways
- Mitigated damage is important because it shows how much damage a tank protected their allies from.
- Shields are the easiest way to mitigate damage in Overwatch 2, but all tanks can mitigate damage in some way or another.
- Mitigated damage is an important part of playing tank, but it shouldn’t be your only focus if you want to make a big impact and win games.
- Skilled tank players should download the free Z League app to find damage (DPS) and support teammates who will help them win games.
Why is Mitigated Damage Important?
In Overwatch 2, heroes can deal lots of damage quickly. For example, a skilled Widowmaker player can deal enough damage to kill most damage (DPS) and support heroes in a single shot. With so much damage coming from every hero, how do players stay alive long enough to win the teamfight?
One answer is with natural cover—by hiding around corners, you make it impossible for enemy players to hit you (with some exceptions, such as Sigma’s primary fire). The other way is through mitigated damage. Mitigated damage is similar to blocked damage—if you mitigate damage, you prevent it from hurting yourself or an ally. However, shields aren’t the only thing in the game that can mitigate damage.
Here’s What Counts as Mitigated Damage in Overwatch 2
Shields are the primary way to mitigate damage in Overwatch 2. Any time a shield takes a point of damage, that point counts towards the tank’s mitigated damage numbers. Heroes like Reinhardt can often end up with 10,000+ damage mitigated in a match because his shield has a lot of health and is a primary feature of his kit.
Other tanking abilities that block damage also count towards mitigated damage. For example, D.Va’s Defense Matrix will delete incoming projectiles. If D.Va uses Defense Matrix to eat Helix Rockets from Soldier 76, she will gain 120 mitigated damage because Healing Rockets usually deal 120 damage.
Certain heroes are also able to mitigate damage in unconventional ways. For example, Wrecking Ball’s Adaptive Shields count towards mitigated damage any time they take damage while they’re active, even though they don’t technically block damage for allied players. Roadhog is also able to mitigate damage while Take a Breather is active.
Does Mitigated Damage Help You Win Games?
Overwatch 2’s Leaderboard is a helpful tool to find glaring problems with your performance. For example, regardless of your role, if you have a much higher number of deaths than your teammates do, it may be a sign you need to play more passively. If you have much less healing than your fellow support teammate, you may need to focus more on enabling your team—et cetera.
Mitigated damage is the one leaderboard statistic that is not necessarily indicative of your performance—neither good nor bad, regardless of how much mitigated damage you have.
For example, if you’re playing Reinhardt, it may seem like you should try to block a lot of damage with his shield to have high mitigated damage numbers. While blocking damage is a large part of Reinhardt’s playstyle, it’s not by itself an indicator of success. If you think about it, you could just stick back, block tons of damage, and never push up—but you wouldn’t win games like that.
Tanks win Overwatch 2 games by making space for their teammates and finding opportunities to be clutch. Part of doing that is mitigating damage, especially for tanks like Reinhardt and Sigma. However, there’s no relationship between more mitigated damage and more teamfights won. Focus on blocking the right damage at the right time rather than padding your mitigated damage stats.
