Winston Key Takeaways
- Winston’s best maps allow him to move around and take cover with ease, enabling him to set up calculated dives and target the enemy backline without taking significant damage upon approaching.
- Winston’s worst maps confine him to tight spaces where he’s vulnerable to short-range burst damage.
- Winston counters heroes who are easily dove, such as Lucio and Cassidy, and heroes vulnerable to beam weapon damage, such as Genji.
- Winston is countered by heroes who can deal lots of short-range damage quickly, such as Roadhog and Reaper.
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Winston Quick Tips
- Winston has 550 total health, with 200 armor.
- Winston plays best when his abilities are used in an aggressive manner—though skilled Winston players also recognize when to stay back and help teammates.
- Due to his low damage output, Winston generally needs to secure kills quickly. If he lingers in the enemy backline, he’ll receive focus fire and get bursted down easily.
- Winston pairs well with damage (DPS) heroes like Genji and Tracer who can help him secure kills. Use the Z League app to find competent teammates on whatever platform you play on.
Winston Abilities Explained
Img via Blizzard Entertainment
Tesla Cannon (Primary and Secondary Fire)
Winston’s primary fire shoots a short cone of damage which damages any players in its radius. Its damage per second is just 60, which is lower than other tanks. However, his primary fire can damage multiple opponents at once, meaning it’s a surprisingly lethal weapon in the right situations, especially against squishy DPS (damage) and support characters with lower total health pools.
Winston’s secondary fire shoots a beam of lightning in front of him, with a max range of 30 meters. The beam does between 15 and 50 damage depending on how charged it is. Winston’s secondary fire is a fantastic tool to whittle down enemy players’ health before he commits to a dive. It’s also effective at finishing off enemy players with low HP, and providing pressure to flying heroes like Pharah, Mercy, and Echo.
Barrier Projector
Barrier Projector is a highly mobile shield which deploys right on top of Winston with a five meter radius. With 650 health, Barrier Projector isn’t the strongest shield in the game, but due to its mobility, it has the potential to block crucial enemy damage—and healing. For example, if Winston dives an enemy Moira and deploys Barrier Projector, Moira will be unable to damage Winston or other allied players, resulting in an inability to self-heal. His barrier also blocks some enemy healing abilities, such as Lucio’s song.
Jump Pack
Jump Pack allows Winston to quickly take space by launching him forwards into the air. The ability deals 50 damage if enemies are within a five meter radius of where he lands. Jump Pack can be paired with Winston’s secondary fire and a melee attack to deal significant burst damage. Players can maintain forward momentum after using Jump Pack by jumping and moving forward upon impact.
Primal Rage (Ultimate)
Upon activating Primal Rage, Winston’s total health pool instantly increases to 1050, with 200 armor. The cooldown for Jump Pack is reduced to three seconds. His Tesla cannon also disappears, replaced by an enhanced melee attack which damages and knocks back opponents.
Primal Rage works well as an emergency measure to stay alive when Winston is low HP. Skilled Winston players can use Primal Rage to secure kills; however, if the enemy team has abilities off cooldown, a Winston using Primal Rage is easy to shut down. Primal Rage can also feed the enemy team significant ult charge, meaning Winston players should look to use Primal Rage as efficiently as possible.
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