A new support hero was released in season 12 and multiple other supports had their survivability nerfed recently, so let’s see who came out the best after all of the changes Blizzard made.
1) Brigitte
- Repair Pack: Heals an ally for a short duration (25 instant healing, 100 extra).
- Whip Shot: Launch your flail to knock an enemy away from you.
- Barrier Shield: Hold right click to deploy a frontal energy barrier.
- Shield Bash: Available when Barrier Shield is deployed. Dash forward to knock back an enemy.
- Rally: Gain armor, empower Barrier Shield, and provide extra health to nearby allies (also gives Shield Bash a stun).
- Inspire: Dealing damage to enemies heals nearby allies (15 HPS).
Hero score: 90/100
Dive tanks are strong right now, particularly D.Va and Winston, so Brigitte is already a strong pick since her kit was designed to counter the comp. She’s also Juno’s best support partner, along with a good one for Ana, because both of them are particularly vulnerable to mobile heroes and she can peel for her other support.
The bug fix for her armour and the nerf to her repair pack cooldown make her a little less strong than she was in season 12, but she’s still one of the most survivable supports and can keep herself alive against flankers like Tracer.
Her healing is also incredibly consistent, even if she hasn’t got as much burst as someone like Baptiste or Kiriko. If you can keep your inspire up, either by spamming Whip Shot from the safety of your backline or playing her against the right heroes, your passive and packs are enough to keep up all of the other squishies on your team unless the enemy has lots of damage.
Juno’s speed boost also makes it easier to run Brigitte even outside of the situations you would usually pick her, since she can get in range to hit someone with her mace a few times a little faster. You still don’t want to try brawling or playing on the frontline, but it’s a good way to proc inspire if you’re struggling.
2) Juno
- Mediblaster: Burst fire weapon that heals allies and damages enemies (78.64 HPS)
- Pulsar Torpedoes: Press right click to lock on, press again to fire homing projectiles. Heals allies over time and damages enemies (85 direct, 50 extra).
- Hyper Ring: Deploy a ring that increases movement speed of allies that pass through it.
- Glide Boost: Glide horizontally with increased movement speed.
- Orbital Ray: Call down a ray that travels forward, healing allies and increasing their damage (85 HPS).
- Martian Overboots: While airborne, press space to double jump and hold space to hover.
Hero score: 88/100
Despite the recent nerfs to her healing and range, Juno is still a really good generalist pick. You’ll have to position a little closer to your team than you did before, but if you can keep yourself safe, it’s still easy to output lots of healing and damage.
Her speed ring is great for enabling tanks, regardless of whether they’re mobile or not, because you can close the distance on whoever you want to quicker with it. For dive tanks, you can go for the isolated supports or DPS you want to target, and for brawl tanks you can get in range of the enemy tank faster.
Juno’s torpedoes are simple, since they’re autoaim and do both 85 damage and burst healing. It does a lot of damage to most DPS and supports so they’ll want to use cover if they’re being targeted by it, but the healing over time it does also makes it good for healing your tank if you can hit them before they’re too low.
Orbital Ray’s probably one of the best initiating ultimates in the game right now along with everything else, since it does a lot of healing and has the second highest damage boost in the game. It’s an AOE too, so all 5 players on your team can benefit from the 35% boost as long as they’re in range.
Sombra’s nerfs weren’t a direct buff to Juno, but they also made her changes a little less impactful, since Sombra was one of the biggest reasons that positioning close to teamfights was dangerous for her.
3) Kiriko
- Healing Ofuda: Channel a burst of healing talismans that can seek targeted allies (76.5 HPS).
- Swift Step: Teleport directly to an ally.
- Protection Suzu: Throw a protective charm to make allies become briefly invulnerable and cleansed of most negative effects (80 healing normally, 110 when debuffed).
- Kitsune Rush: Summon a fox spirit that rushes forward, accelerating the movement, attack speed, and cooldowns of allies that follow its path.
- Wall Climb: Jump at walls to climb up them.
Hero score: 82/100
She fell out of the meta for a little white after her nerfs and Juno’s release in season 12, but she’s still one of the best supports, because her utility is too good for her to be an even average pick for long.
Suzu can still cleanse almost every status effect in the game, as well as give invulnerability and burst healing to multiple people at once. It’s also a great counter to characters like Ana, Zenyatta and Junker Queen, since they revolve around the debuffs they give to the enemy team.
Her lower HP and the higher cooldown on Swift Step make it a little riskier for her to try and flank or take 1 v 1s with squishies like before, but you can still go for that playstyle if your aim is good. If you’re not sure you can pull that kind of thing off, Kiriko’s poke is technically better than it was before since her bodyshot damage was buffed, so you can spam kunai from your backline instead.
Kitsune Rush is still really useful, comparable to Orbital Ray, since it’s another AOE ultimate that gives multiple buffs to anyone standing in it. Usually using both support ultimates at the same time is a bad idea, but the two of them have surprising synergy if your team pushes up properly.
4) Baptiste
- Biotic Launcher: Lob a healing projectile that heals all allies near the impact (55.55 HPS on splash, 77.77 HPS on direct).
- Regenerative Burst: Activate to heal yourself and nearby allies instantly, with additional healing over time. Instant heal is doubled for targets less than half health (40 instant healing or 80 if under 50% HP, 40 extra).
- Immortality Field: Toss a device that prevents allies from dying. The device can be destroyed.
- Amplification Matrix: Project a matrix that doubles the damage and healing of allied projectiles.
- Exo Boots: Hold crouch to jump higher.
Hero score: 80.5/100
Baptiste was already pretty strong before the buff to his recoil this season, but now he’s better, since he’s easier to pick up for people that didn’t know how to control his gun before and he’s more consistent for people that could already aim well with him.
He’s got plenty of healing, vertical mobility and immortality on a cooldown, along with lots of damage. Unless the enemy team is running a dive comp, killing him can be hard, because someone that’s good on him can 1 v 1 most DPS or supports unless they can outrange him.
You can fit him into most comps, unless most of the heroes on your team are really mobile or fliers, since he’s good with both brawl and poke. He’s also self-sufficient, so he doesn’t need constant protection from flankers.
If you’re running him with Zenyatta or Illari, the amount of damage they’ll do will usually be comparable to their actual DPS, but he also works pretty well with Lúcio if you have a tank like Reinhardt or Ramattra. There aren’t many other supports he’s actually bad with.
5) Ana
- Biotic Rifle: Long-range rifle that heals allies and damages enemies (93.75 HPS).
- Sleep Dart: Fire a dart that puts an enemy to sleep.
- Biotic Grenade: Throws a grenade that heals and increases healing on allies, while damaging and preventing healing on enemies (60 healing or damage).
- Nano Boost: Increases an ally's damage, while reducing damage taken (250 healing, 50% damage buff).
Hero score: 79/100
After a few seasons of being middle of the pack, Ana’s back to being a pretty good pick. She’s probably Brigitte’s second best support partner, along with fitting well in to dive comps, since she has the range to heal mobile heroes without putting herself in danger.
Her grenade prevents the enemy team’s healing and she can basically take someone out of the team fight for a few seconds with her sleep dart, so the fact that she’ll need a little extra protection if she’s being focused is almost always worth it.
She’s an especially good pick against tanks that have no way to block her abilities and depend on self healing, like Junker Queen or Mauga, since they’ll probably end up having to swap if Ana is using her cooldowns properly. Her anti-healing is also useful against Orisa, even if she has a few ways to play around it, since she’s dependent on being pocketed.
6) Lúcio
- Soundwave: Create a short-range blast wave to knock enemies away from you.
- Crossfade: Switches between two songs: Healing Boost heals nearby allies, and Speed Boost makes nearby allies move faster (16 HPS for allies, 10 HPS for Lúcio).
- Amp It Up: Increase the effectiveness of your current song (52 HPS).
- Sound Barrier: Create temporary extra health for nearby allies (750 overhealth).
- Wall Ride: Jump onto a wall to ride along it.
Hero score: 76/100
Lúcio’s a little less good for general use than Juno since she has a speed boost too, but he’s still great with Reinhardt and works with most other tanks. His boost is a little more situational since its range is limited and he has to use his amp to make it on par with Juno’s, but it has infinite uptime unless he swaps to healing.
He’s also not as helpful to dive tanks, since they won’t be playing close enough to him to benefit from his speed most of the time. He can go on flanks with the DPS or annoy Widowmaker, since he’s the best support to pick if you want to do something about her, but then you’re leaving your team without your utility so it can be situational.
Since Brigitte is a really strong pick right now, you generally benefit more from picking a support that works well with her too, which Lúcio doesn’t. The protection isn’t really needed since he can take care of himself, along with them having a low healing output together, so they won’t be able to keep up someone like Orisa.
7) Illari
- Solar Rifle: Medium range healing beam that consumes solar energy (105 HPS).
- Healing Pylon: Deploy a pylon that heals allies (50 HP for allies, 25 HPS for Illari).
- Outburst: Launches you in the direction you are moving, knocking back enemies. Hold jump to go higher.
- Captive Sun: Fire an explosive ball of solar energy. Enemies hit are slowed and explode after taking significant damage.
Hero score: 70/100
Illari’s still pretty good when run with poke comps on long range maps, but that’s about it. Picking her with either dive or brawl will make things harder for your teammates, because you don’t have enough range to keep up with mobile heroes and pylon encourages you to play slowly, but your team can’t do that with tanks like Reinhardt or Orisa.
Her utility is a little low, since all she can do outside of her ultimate is boop people away with her shift and do lots of damage, but Captive Sun is still a great ultimate if the enemy team doesn’t have heroes that can cleanse it.
She also struggles a little bit into dive, since she doesn’t have enough mobility to get away from them and it’s not as easy for her to kill Tracer as it was when she first came out. Pylon does a less healing to Illari than it used to and even if she’s still capable of killing her in two headshots, it’s hard to land them back to back and Recall can undo any damage she takes.
8) Moira
- Biotic Grasp: Hold to heal all allies in front of you. Consumes biotic energy (70 HPS, 51 extra).
- Biotic Orb: Launch a bouncing sphere that either heals nearby allies or damages nearby enemies (65 HPS, 50 DPS).
- Fade: Disappear, move faster, and become invulnerable, but you cannot shoot.
- Coalescence: Fire a beam that heals allies and damages enemies (140 HPS, 85 DPS).
Hero score: 66.5/100
In a season where all of the meta supports offer a lot more utility than Moira, she’s a decent pick at best. There are lots of situations she won’t work in, so unless you’re playing brawl on a short range map, you’d get better results picking another hero.
All she can really offer is healing and damage, when even Illari can give a slow with her ultimate and knockback with her shift. Baptiste’s AOE healing is also comparable between his right click and shift, on top of being harder to kill than she is, since she had her HP nerfed in season 12.
You can still get away with running DPS Moira if the enemy team is having a hard time dealing with you, since her damage is still auto-aim and they buffed Coalescence to have more damage, but you need to be careful with it since your self healing is lower when you’ve got the DPS passive on you.
9) Zenyatta
- Orb of Harmony: Launch this orb at an ally to heal them (30 HPS).
- Orb of Discord: Launch this orb at an enemy to increase the damage they take (by 25%).
- Transcendence: Become invulnerable, move faster, and heal nearby allies (300 HPS).
- Snap Kick: Quick melee damage increased by 50%, and its knockback is significantly increased.
Hero score: 64/100
Despite the fact that one of his best tank matchups is meta, Zenyatta still struggles to keep up, since Tracer and Widowmaker are some of the best DPS in the game right now. His massive head hitbox makes him an easy kill for both of them, so you might have a hard time finding the right situations to run him in.
He’s still decent if you can make him work, since discord is still hard for tanks to play around and he does plenty of damage, but he’ll probably need help from his other support or backline DPS. He’s too vulnerable to be left alone.
His harmony orb is still good for flankers and dive tanks, since they don’t usually need much healing and the orb can stay on them even if Zenyatta doesn’t see them for 5 seconds. If the enemy team is mirroring dive though, you’re basically forced to run heroes like Cassidy or Brigitte to keep him safe.
10) Mercy
Caduceus Staff: Hold left click to heal an ally. Hold right click to increase an ally’s damage inflicted (60 HPS, 25% damage buff).
- Guardian Angel: Fly towards an ally. Jump launches you forward, and crouch launches you upward.
- Resurrect: Revive a dead teammate.
- Valkyrie: Gain the ability to fly. Abilities are enhanced (60 HPS, can chain heal).
- Angelic Descent: Fall very slowly.
Hero score: 58/100
Pharah and Ashe are both good picks right now, which keeps Mercy out of the bottom spot, but she’s still pretty weak compared to the other supports. Her utility falls behind when multiple other heroes have damage boosts nowadays and resurrect depends on one of her teammates dying for her to use it first.
The DPS passive nerfs her only self-sustain, since Sympathetic Recovery depends on how much she’s healing her teammates for. Her mobility also doesn’t matter as much in a meta full of hitscan or dive heroes, since regardless of what she’s playing against, the enemy team is probably running heroes she struggles against.
If the enemy team is running dive, she’ll struggle against Winston and Tracer, but if they’re playing heroes like Ashe and Widow she’s likely to be sniped if she uses Guardian Angel too much. Because of that, she has to spend more time hiding behind cover, which is the opposite of what Mercy wants to do.
11) Lifeweaver
- Healing Blossom: Hold to charge a healing burst. Release to heal a targeted ally (55.2 HPS).
- Petal Platform: Throw a platform that springs upwards when stepped on.
- Rejuvenating Dash: Dash towards your travelling direction and lightly heal yourself (50 self healing).
- Life Grip: Pull an ally to your direction, protecting them as they travel (50 healing).
- Tree Of Life: Place a tree that instantly heals allies upon sprouting and continues healing periodically as it lives (150 instant healing, 90 per pulse).
Hero score: 56/100
Lifeweaver is a little too dependent on his team to work, like Mercy, even after multiple buffs to try and make him more proactive. Only his teammates can benefit from his main utility, Petal Platform is only good for letting him run away or giving his hitscan free high ground and his ultimate is mostly meant for defensive use.
The fact he has to spend time changing his weapon doesn’t help either, since the only other support that can’t swap between healing and damaging quickly is Mercy, but she has damage boost to make up for it. Even if the passive healing build up is nice, he’s still punished if he spends too long using his thorns because his teammates might die while he’s swapping back.
He’s also encouraged to sit back and heal because of both the charging on his healing and the time it takes for him to swap off his blossoms, but the HPS he offers isn’t usually enough to keep people alive if they’re being focused, so he’s a little too situational to find much use.
This is technically the best he’s ever been, but it’s unlikely he’s going to be meta any time soon.
