Defend the Objective: Three defensive duos to hold the point

You know what happens when the enemy fails to win? They lose. And that means you win.

Defense wins championships, and strong defenses win Overwatch games. But there are many different ways to play defense, and sometimes a strong defense means being able to push back. Overwatch is about synergy and team compositions, lets look at some of the character combos which might be best utilized in stopping the enemy team.

Winston + Zenyata: Transcend the Shield

Perhaps this is best classified as a 'soft-defense' which a team would run at the first or second points in a map, then switch to harder defensive composition on subsequent objectives. However, Winston is a rather strong defensive tank with his ability to shield, and Zenyata's ultimate ability, Transcendence compliments the strategy of a unified team defense. This defensive stance puts the onus on fighting and supporting as a team, and less of an importance on static positions or flanking manuevers. While it lacks a class strictly labeled as defense, the best defense is a good offense.

Pushback Potential: High

While this combination doesn't offer the most in terms of damage output or static defense, what they lose in pure defensive posture they gain in mobility and pushback. Once a successful defense has occured, Winston can immediately repush a front line with his ultimate ability, Primal Rage. Aided by one of Zenyata's orbs, (Harmony or Destruction, take your pick), Winston can quickly punish an enemy team for over extending into a strong defensive position, or staying around too long after a push has been thwarted.

Symmetra + Bastion: Sentries Online

Bastion's weakness is his vulnerability to his flanks and his immobility in Configuration: Turret. Symmetra offers wonderful synergy with Bastion on defense by covering flanks with her sentries and adding even more shielding to Bastion's turrent. When used correctly in combination, Bastion and Symetra become an unflankable combo with impressive damage and shielded sustain.

Pushback Potential: Medium

Bastion's Ultimate ability Configuration: Tank is great at clearing out space and killing enemies. In this mode, his mobility becomes better (read, greater than zero) and his damage output is immense. After a successful defense, Configuration:Tank will allow Bastion to clear space and move the front lines up, while Symetra can support the new front line position with her Teleporter ability.

Tjornbjorn + Mercy: We Can Rebuild Them

This is hardcore defense. This is, "We're pushed all the way back, and we're never moving forward again," which is a fine strategy, especially depending on the map. Tjornbjorn's turret is a great defensive weapon that essentially adds another set of guns for the enemy team to worry about. Mercy is a strong support who excels at keeping the team alive, even when they die. The true strength of this combination on defense is their ability to reset a fight in case things go wrong. With Tjornborn's ultimate ability, Molten Core, he can replace a destroyed sentry quickly. But what if Tjornbjorn is also dead? No worries, Mercy's ultimate, Resurrection brings all dead allies back to a fight at full health. The combination of these two heroes can reset a catastrphic fight into, "What kills? I didn't see the other team get any kills," and completely reset the battlefield.

Pushback Potential: Low

Trying to reestablish a new front with this defensive combination is a grave mistake. Tjornbjorn is meant to be dug in, and a death by an overextended Mercy player can spell the end of a match. In fact, one of the best ways to counter this combination is to kill Mercy before she can resurrect allies. If Mercy does successfully get a resurection off, enemy resources were wasted, and they're sent back to the drawing board in trying to take down another (quickly rebuilt) sentry, and bunch of heroes they already killed, or so it seemed.

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