General tips

A basic understanding of when to use your primary or secondary attack is important. Mainly you want to use secondary for enemies further away or when they are grouped up, so you can deal damage to multiple targets at once. When it comes to close/mid range fights against single targets, go for the primary as it deals more damage per second. Also, when using secondary close to an enemy, use your quick-melee right after you shoot for extra damage.

Building up your damage to your barriers is the most important aspect of Zarya. You generally want to use Projected Barrier on targets that are already taking damage or coordinate with your Reinhardt to lower his shield right as you bubble him. This goes for any friendly players, just ask for them to build the charge for you. Same goes for your self-shield, use it when you are taking damage for sure.

Be mindful about your own health, as you are the softest tank in the game. Being aggressive is a big part of the hero, but always try to be in close range to a friendly barrier or support hero. Also, keep in mind that your blue shield at your health regenerates after a few seconds.

A lot of players tend to try and go for huge 5-6 man Graviton Surges, but that is not a must. Hitting 3-5 players with your ultimate is more than enough, especially if you hit multiple supports and offense heroes. An extra idea that you could use is the “Threat of Graviton”. When the enemy team knows that you might have your ultimate ready, they tend to use more of their ultimate abilities when a teamfight happens.

Hero specific tips

If you position yourself correctly and time your Particle Barrier, you can block all of Reinhardt’s Earth Shatter. This can be harder against experienced players, but nevertheless still an extremely useful technique to abuse.

Whenever you have the chance you should combo your Graviton Surge with a huge damage dealing ability like Hanzo’s Dragonstrike, Tracer’s Pulse Bomb, Genji’s Dragonblade, Reaper’s Death Blossom and so on. Using your ultimate without a huge follow-up like these still can be useful, but make sure you pay attention to your teammate’s ultimate status on the scoreboard.

D.va is your nightmare when going for your Graviton Surge plays. In general, you are really decent against D.va as your primary fire pierces her Defense Matrix, but that huge cone can easily mess up your Graviton Surges. Make sure to call for your team to focus her down and pay attention to your timing. Or you know, just shoot your Graviton to a wall point-blank.

Your Projected Barriers cleanse Ana’s nade and Zenyatta’s discord orb. You can also save teammates that are being charged by Reinhardt or hooked by Roadhog and so on. Always think about these possibilities and save your teammates, you build your energy in the process anyway.

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If you time your self-shield properly against Sombra, who is using her ultimate, you can get 40 charges and keep your blue armor.

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Using your secondary fire for grenade jumping can enable you to reach certain high grounds. Just aim right below yourself and jump as you shoot. Additionally, you can escape Mei’s Blizzard with this technique.

This is our favorite Russian, Zarya. On top of mastering her barrier efficiency and good ultimate usage, we would strongly advise practicing and tracking aim with this hero. Lower SR players tend to rely too much on the secondary fire, even though you can deal an insane 195 damage per second with the primary fire with 100 energy.