[Top 15] Overwatch 2 Tips For Flankers

Overwatch 2 how to play Flanker, Overwatch 2 Flanker tips and tricks, overwatch 2 Flanker guide

Updated:

29 Dec 2022

Why Flankers Are Important

Flankers in Overwatch 2 are a popular subdivision of the DPS class. Some flankers include, but are not limited to, Sombra, Tracer, and Genji. These flankers rely on stealth and agility to sneak behind the enemy and "flank" them. They’re dominating the pick rates recently, which means they’re in high demand. How do you play these flankers properly?

15. Don’t Be Scared

The whole point of a flanker is to stand alone and attack the enemy. If you’re scared of going off on your own, you’ll have a difficult time playing a flanker. Flankers need to, well, flank the enemy. To do that, you can’t be scared.

Practice flanking by going into quick play and choosing heroes like Tracer and Genji. Use their kits to practice going behind the enemy. Try different angles of attack and broaden your experience with the maps and kits the flankers have.

14. Get Your Own Health Packs

As a flanker, it’s difficult for your supports to get to you. You’re supposed to be flanking the enemy team, and asking your support to run through the middle of an enemy team just to heal you will likely get them killed. When you’re flanking and not near your team, it’s much harder for support heroes to get to you. Thanks to this, you’ll need to get your own health packs.

To practice obtaining health packs, you should study the maps and find where the popular health pack locations are. If you’re Sombra, this is especially important since one of Sombra’s core mechanics is hacking health packs for only your team to use.

By obtaining your own health packs, you are demonstrating your independence as a flanker while also relieving your teammates of the burden of chasing you down in dangerous combat.

13. Plan Your Attacks Properly

If you attack at random and don’t have a plan, then you’re most likely going to die. When you see an enemy alone and want to attack them, you should still have a plan rather than just rushing in. If you do that, you’re likely going to get killed.

When you’re about to dive in on a target, you should think ahead. Think of where the health packs are and what you’ll do if you get caught. In a fast-paced game, it’s difficult to think of these things ahead of time, but the more you practice, the better you’ll perform under pressure.

12. Know Your Kit

Part of playing Overwatch 2 is knowing who you’re playing and why you’re playing them. A fundamental mechanic is hero swapping, so you need to know which kits will counter the enemy. For example, if you’re playing Genji, keep in mind that Zarya can counter you with her primary fire.

Consider the enemy team’s composition when playing. If you’re getting countered, choose a different flanker that can better aid your team. If your team isn’t getting enough healing since the enemies have a high damage team, consider switching to someone like Sombra, who can hack health packs.

11. Practice Communication

Since Overwatch 2 is a team game, communication is key. Without communication, you're more likely to lose the game. Communication is an umbrella term for all the types of communication that go into making Overwatch 2 flow smoothly.

In general, you should practice communication by keeping your microphone on during competitive matches. By practicing talking to your teammates, you’re becoming more comfortable with speaking in Overwatch and learning more about the way teams talk to each other. You’ll quickly pick up on the slang used to describe certain events, and you can help out your teammates with your communication.

10. Don’t Ignore The Objective

It’s a tale as old as time: DPS players ignoring the objective to do their own thing. In many cases, this is fine. Tank players are the ones who typically stay near the objective. However, near the end of the game, when tensions are high and you could lose by not staying on the point, you need to stay on the objective.

You’ll thank yourself for staying near the point. Not only are you protecting the objective, but you’re also giving your team time to come back and contest with you. As a flanker, you have high agility. Use this high agility to stall during overtime. These few extra seconds can save your team from losing.

9. Practice Your Timing

How well you time your ultimates could be a game-changer. Timing your abilities and ultimate is imperative to your survival and the good of the team. You shouldn’t waste your abilities, especially the ones with a long cooldown. Abilities like Sombra’s hack are less important to time well since they have such a short cooldown time, but Genji’s kit has long cooldowns you need to time well.

The best way to practice this is to keep playing. Experience will elevate you from a good player to a great one. Experiment with your kit and use it in unexpected ways. Try using Genji’s deflect early or late. Play with your timing until you find what works for you.

As for ultimates, flanker ultimates are more offensive. When you’re in a team fight or trying to push in, you should consider using your ultimate. Don’t use it when you’re alone or diving in on your own. Unless you’re Tracer with her pulse bomb, you’ll need support while using your ultimate. Make sure your team is with you when you’re using your ultimate.

8. Capitalize On Enemy Errors

In high-intensity games like Overwatch 2, your team and the enemy team are bound to make mistakes. When you see an enemy make a mistake, don’t let up. Increase the pressure of your attack. Not only is this likely to score you a kill, but your enemy will panic that you caught their mistake and capitalized on it.

For example, if an enemy Zarya thought she had her bubble but didn’t, then dive in on her. The same applies to any enemy out of position. Positioning errors are some of the most common, so look for them. If you can, look for enemy supports that are out of position or alone.

7. Utilize The Practice Range

While queuing for a game, you have the option of going into the practice range and testing out the controls. DPS is a popular role, meaning you have some time to spare as you wait. Use the practice range to your advantage.

The reason you should use it is because it can warm you up for the next game while also honing your skills. With the practice range, you can practice your aim and become more familiar with the kit you’re using. Practice with the flanker you want to play, such as Sombra. Observe the cooldowns she has on her abilities and all the little details about her kit.

The more knowledge you have, the better of a player you’ll end up being.

6. Make Cooldown Callouts

Callouts are an imperative mechanic in Overwatch 2. Without callouts, your team is left in the dark about several important factors, such as the position of the enemy team. Cooldowns are just as important as positions since cooldowns let your team know what dangerous abilities the enemy doesn’t have.

For example, Roadhog has a hook that can drag an enemy toward him. If Roadhog has his hook and isn’t on cooldown, then he can potentially kill a vital player on your team. However, if he’s on cooldown, he’s vulnerable for a few moments.

When playing a flanker, enemies are going to shoot at you a lot. You’re sneaking around the enemy team to kill their supports, and the enemy team will notice and peel back to kill you. When you see the enemy use their abilities, call out that "Roadhog has no hook" or "Zarya has no bubble". Now your teammates know who to target and how long they have before the enemy’s abilities come back.

5. Practice Independence

Getting your own health packs is part of gaining independence, but so is practicing when to dive in and when to retreat. Flankers are the most independent role in Overwatch 2 since they’re the ones who often flank and separate from their team. You need to practice preparing for that.

For starters, don’t be scared to dive in out of fear of dying. As long as you take the previous tips into account (like knowing your kit), your odds of dying are greatly reduced. When you dive in, make sure you know who to target and what you’re doing. You’re going in independently, so practice having a plan.

Before you dive, you should know who you’re targeting, why you’re targeting them, and have an escape plan and a backup plan in case your escape plan doesn’t work. Of course, in a chaotic game, you’re not always going to have time to map this out. That’s where the practice comes in.

Practice knowing the maps. Knowing the maps is imperative to your survival. If you dive in all of a sudden and your escape plan fails, your knowledge of the map will save you. Along with that, calling out for help will save you too. Practice having your own voice and knowledge of the game. Yes, Overwatch 2 is a team game, but the more you can accomplish on your own, the more you’ll contribute to your team.

4. Know When Flankers Are Appropriate

Flankers are dominating Overwatch 2 games, but you should know when you should and shouldn’t use them. There’s a difference between knowing when to switch between the flankers and knowing when to switch off the flankers entirely.

If the enemy team isn’t very vulnerable to flankers (i.e., they have a team full of highly agile heroes), then it may not be wise to continue playing a flanker against them. The more agile the enemy is, the harder it’ll be to score kills when flanking. This is because their agility allows them to dodge your attacks, or at least dodge them until help comes to harm you.

If you’re playing a flanker and it isn’t working, consider switching to a more direct counter to the enemy team. Switch off the flanker and play a close-quarters hero instead, or a defensive hero.

3. Reload, Reload, Reload

You don't want to be one bullet away from killing your opponent only to run out of ammunition. Whenever you aren’t in a fight or have a few seconds, reload. It’s important that you keep your ammo stocked. If you enter a fight with only half your ammunition, you'll be at a disadvantage.

At the same time, if you see your enemy reloading, capitalize on it. As a flanker, you should go for the ones who are vulnerable. A reloading target is vulnerable since they can’t do as much damage to you as before. Not to mention, when reloading in the middle of a fight, gamers tend to panic and mess up.

2. Know Who Your Supports Are

Support players keep their teammates alive, and as a flanker, you need to know who your supports are so you can properly play for them. For example, if you have Mercy, you need to know that you won’t get healed unless you get free of the action. Otherwise, your Mercy will fly right into the combat to come save you, but she’ll end up dying.

For heroes like Zen, all you have to do is peek so he can throw an orb of harmony at you. You have two options when playing a flanker: get health packs to play more independently, or know your supports and change your playstyle so you can match their kits.

Also, knowing your supports will help you choose which character to play. If you want to play Sombra, but you have an Ana, it may be better to play Genji so you can capitalize on Ana’s nano boost.

1. Prioritize Targets

The most important part of being a flanker is knowing which target you’re going after. In Overwatch 2, prioritizing targets is imperative. If your team is going after different enemies, the odds are, no one will die. If your team focuses on one or two targets, those targets are much more likely to die. The same applies to flankers.

When flanking, you need to choose a target you think you can kill. As a flanker, the odds are that you aren’t going to win against a tank like Zarya. Your best bet is to go after a slow support like Zenyatta. Also, target any defenses such as turrets. Destroying the turrets early will help your team push in.