The Tiers

S Tier (>100% Usage Rate**): McCree, Mercy

A Tier (>80% Usage Rate): Lucio, Reinhardt

B Tier (>40% Usage Rate): Widowmaker, Winston, Tracer

C Tier (>20% Usage Rate): Zarya, Genji, Junkrat, Soldier 76, Roadhog, Pharah, D.Va

D Tier (>5% Usage Rate): Symmetra, Reaper, Bastion, Zenyatta

F Tier (<5 % Usage Rate): Hanzo, Torbjorn, Mei

**What is Usage Rate? It is NOT the percent chance of seeing a particular Hero in a Match, it’s actually a little different than that! Please see this glossary page explaining the term.

The Tier Ranges I’ve chosen*** reflect different states of “Balance” in the Meta. This week, the Meta that is being analyzed is the Meta of Payload Maps only: Route 66, Watchpoint: Gibraltar, Dorado, King's Row, Numbani, and Hollywood.

S-Tier Heroes are Heroes with greater than 100% Usage Rate, which means that one can expect greater than 1.00 of these Heroes to appear on a given lineup over the course of a game, which hints that these Heroes may perhaps be a bit overtuned. McCree and Mercy made the S Tier this week, the former deservedly and the latter perhaps not so. McCree has been the center of the Competitive Meta for quite some time and is already being eyed by Blizzard for some re-tuning, but Mercy barely scraped into the >100% Usage Rate conversation with a rate of 101%. All this means is that, by and large, Mercy is used in every lineup on both Offense and Defense on the aforementioned six Payload Maps. Mercy's usage on King of the Hill Maps helps Balance her Overall Usage, as you seen in the comparison chart below. McCree's Payload Usage is enough to give him a greater than 100% Overall Usage even with <70% Usage Rate on King of the Hill Maps, so I feel quite safe in saying that it's High (Noon)Time for a McCree nerf.

A-Tier Heroes have a Usage Rate of greater than 80%, which indicates that they’re “Core” Heroes. On Payload Maps, the two "Core", but not "Overpowered" Heroes are Reinhardt and Lucio. These Heroes are used in most lineups on most maps, but will sometimes concede their lineup slot for specific Heroes on specific areas of maps. For example: when running a Symmetra on Defense Pros often swap out the Lucio instead of the Mercy as their second Support -- which also further explains Mercy's high Usage Rate. Reinhardt's less than 100% usage can be attributed to Defending Teams swapping to Double Winstons in an attempt to stave off a final push, or for even more niche strategies involving Double Winston and a Zarya on Attack.

The B Tier has the widest range (40% to 80% Usage Rate), and is meant to indicate Heroes that are well-balanced by having a good compliment of pros and cons to their Hero kit, or by finding a niche lineup slot in a decent amount of scenarios. In Payload Maps this Tier is occupied by Widowmaker, Winston, and Tracer. Widowmaker falls into this Tier because of the strength of running her on specific portions of specific Maps -- Widowmaker is actually one of the few Heroes which can steal a lineup slot from a second McCree on areas like Hollywood's second point. Winston is the most commonly used Off-Tank, but as the Meta does not currently favor the constant use of a second Tank, he's relegated to similar usage patterns as Widowmaker. Tracer rounds out the B Tier primarily for her special ability to stall on final point pushes -- outside of these specific scenario she's usually a liability to McCree's Stun Grenade.

The C Tier generally contains the true “Specialists” -- Heroes who only work in very specific situations -- and Heroes who do similar things “almost” as good as Heroes in the S,A, and B Tiers but not well enough to take their lineup slots. This week, perhaps because I'm only looking at Payload Map Data, this is the most crowded of the six Tiers -- despite the B Tier having twice the range of Usage. Interestingly enough, only one true "Specialist", Genji, appears in this Tier as Symmetra just barely missed the cut at 19.35% Usage Rate. The rest of these Heroes -- Junkrat, Soldier 76, Roadhog, D.Va, Zarya, and even Pharah to some extent -- are simply outclassed in their roles as DPS or Off-Tanks by the Heroes occupying the Tiers above. Why bring a Soldier 76 when you can just bring a second McCree? Why bring Roadhog when you can bring a Winston or a Reinhardt?

The D Tier is where the current position of its denizens in the Meta begins to seem troubling. These Heroes tend to be specialists who simply are “Too Special” for the current Meta, or Heroes whose power level is just not up to par. On Payload Maps, the Heroes which occupy the D Tier this week are Symmetra, Reaper, Bastion, and Zenyatta -- all of which are simply too niche at the moment. As I stated before, Symmetra just barely missed out on the C Tier, but she's only really used on the first point Defense of Dorado, Hollywood, and King's Row. Reaper is yet example of a Hero whose job is almost always better accomplished by higher Tier Heroes (see: McCree) -- Zenyatta joins him in this aspect. Bastion fits moreso with the theme of the Defensively-oriented Heroes of the F Tier, but his immense damage potential saved him from wasting away this week on Payload Maps.



Heroes that routinely find themselves in the F Tier may be ripe for either total Hero Reworks or significant buffs, and are generally Heroes who have a blatant focus on Defensive rather than Offensive strength. Unfortunately for Hanzo, Mei, and Torbjorn, the current Meta of Competitive Overwatch abides by the saying "The Best Defense is a good Offense," and thus are very rarely picked except as a joke. These Heroes will need much more work to save them than Heroes in the S Tier -- who need only minor changes to drop their power level -- since they usually have many “almost good enough” Heroes sitting in A and B tiers waiting to take their thrones.

*** I do not chose the placement of Heroes in a Tier, only the Range which defines the Tier. By determining Usage Rate directly from Hero Picks in Tournament Matches, my data is Objectively determined, and not subjective at all.