Overwatch’s Moira
While I still consider myself a Lucio main, I’ve found myself playing a lot of Moira for the last year or so. It’s been a long time since I’ve written an article dedicated to an Overwatch hero, but I think the time is ripe to give my thoughts on the most versatile healer in Overwatch.
Support mains are spoiled rotten in Overwatch. Blizzard has given us so many exciting heroes, all with their own methods for keeping the team healed, but none of them have quite so many different ways to heal as Moira. She can tag nearby teammates with healing spray, tag faraway teammates with her healing orb, and even heal herself by right-clicking on enemies. She can stack any of these effects on top of each other as the situation demands, meaning that you’re doing something wrong if you end the game having been outhealed by any other healer on the team.
Yes, Moira’s flavor is that she heals with one hand and hurts with the other, but I urge you to ignore your purple abilities as much as possible. Your right-click should almost always be used to recharge your left-click, and your purple orb should only be used to finish off a fleeing enemy at low HP. Moira is a very cooldown-focused healer, and you can’t afford to spend them willy-nilly or you’re going to be caught with your pants down. Her damage is not good enough to blow cooldowns on it, especially because her insane healing output is the only reason you should play her.
Ironically, despite this versatility in healing, the biggest reason people complain about her is that she doesn’t offer much else to support the team. Everything in her kit either heals or deals (pathetic) damage, meaning she doesn’t bring a secondary support ability like damage-boosting or barriers like every other support. Despite this, her self-healing and her Fade ability are so convenient I can’t resist playing her. She’s the only support with no real counter; even Tracers and Doomfists will have a hard time killing a Moira that manages her cooldowns wisely. In fact, I love standing perfectly still when I hear Doomfist ult; 8 times out of 10 he’ll try to drop on my head, only for me to Fade to safety.
Speaking of Fade, put some time into learning which map objects you can ramp off for a vertical boost. It’s a game-changer.
Moira is at her most vulnerable when using her ult, a channeled Hadouken of healing and damaging energy. Since she can’t prematurely cancel it, she can’t fade away from danger and is also broadcasting her position to everybody in the general area. Tracers, Brigittes and Roadhog hooks will flock to you, which only reinforces that it’s best used with teammates in between you and the enemy. Moiras who try to use their ult to teamwipe the enemy are in for a rude disappointment.
On that note, the main reason I find myself playing Moira more often than not these days, is because I can’t trust my teammates to play her correctly. Noob Moiras cannot resist the allure of the purple damage orb and are constantly flinging them at the enemy front line because they want to get all five gold medals. It sets my teeth gnashing because it’s such a waste; both orbs are on the same cooldown and you are severely reducing your healing numbers when you waste them dealing piddling AoE damage. Overwatch is a burst-damage game, and Moira cannot burst damage; I usually go a whole round without firing a single purple orb.
But if you play her correctly, she can be an amazing asset to your support arsenal. There’s a reason she’s the only support who received no major nerfs or buffs since her release; she’s pretty much perfect. What would you even touch?
