With Blizzard finally launching Overwatch 2 - and with it, the latest support hero Kiriko - many people are curious to see how she will compare to other characters in the game. Even though new players, or those who don’t like to spend money in-game, might not be able to play her right away due to her being locked behind Overwatch 2’s new battle pass and the game's new First-Time-User-Experience system, almost everyone is likely to encounter a Kiriko in their matches. Whether playing as, with, or against Kiriko, it is imperative for any Overwatch 2 player to learn her strengths and weaknesses in order to lead their team to victory.

As a healer, Kiriko sports a long list of abilities that she can use to aid her team and herself in combat. Her primary fire, Healing Ofuda, slowly sends target-seeking talismans to an ally, restoring their HP. Her secondary fire is a Kunai, a projectile knife that she can throw at enemies to deal damage. Protection Suzu provides both a cleanse effect and brief invulnerability to everyone in its range, including herself. Her Swift Step allows her to instantly teleport to an ally, even through walls. Kiriko’s ultimate ability, Kitsune Rush, sends a fox spirit dashing out in a straight line, granting movement speed, attack speed, and cooldown reduction to anyone who follows its path. She also has two passive abilities: as a healer, she receives passive health regeneration out of combat, and as a member of the Shimada Clan, she can climb up walls.

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With so many abilities - and with many of them being unique to her alone - Kiriko may seem like a bit of a wild card. But the reality is that she’s an exceptionally useful pick. Her kit has far more utility than any other support hero in Overwatch 2, putting her above the competition in almost every situation.

Kiriko Provides A Lot Of Utility To Any Team In Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2 Support Hero Kiriko Ultimate Attack

In contrast to most of Overwatch 2's support heroes, Kiriko has a very high damage output. Her Kunai does 40 damage per body shot, which can already rack up quite quickly. But if she lands a headshot, she receives a 3x multiplier, laying out a hefty 120 damage. It’s a difficult projectile to land, but for players with crisp aim, she can do a nasty amount of damage over the course of a match. It can be extremely helpful when cleaning up teamfights, or when trying to quickly charge up her Kitsune Rush (since in Overwatch 2, all healers get 30% less ultimate charge by healing tanks). Her high damage makes her a lot less susceptible to flanking heroes, as well. For example, provided a player can hit their shots, they can quickly eliminate a Tracer by hitting a headshot-melee combo, which will come out to 150 damage total.

Kiriko’s Swift Step and wall climb passive ability in Overwatch 2 also make her a soft counter to dive-heavy team compositions. These abilities grant her high mobility, which makes proper positioning much less of a concern than it is for other healers, such as Ana or Zenyatta. If Kiriko falls behind and her teammates are out of her line of sight, she can simply teleport to them, or climb up a wall to get high ground and reposition herself. Similarly, it gives her low-risk opportunities to help flanking teammates. For example, if a Genji is having trouble in the enemy backline, Kiriko can teleport to him and help him win the fight, then teleport back to the rest of her team with ease. Especially with the short invulnerability and cleanse that it provides her, Overwatch 2's new hero Kiriko's Swift Step is basically a “get out of jail free” card in any situation.

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Along those same lines, Kiriko’s Protection Suzu is arguably the best part of her kit. Unlike Baptiste's immortality field, the invulnerability period is very brief at 0.75 of a second, but if timed correctly, it can save both Kiriko and her teammates from death - even from things like D.va's Self Destruct ultimate. The cleanse effect is a game changer too, as it can be used to remove almost any negative debuff in the game. Most notably, it can be used to counter anti-heal abilities, such as Ana’s Biotic Grenade, or Overwatch 2's latest tank Junker Queen’s Rampage ultimate. Prior to Kiriko’s release, there was no way to counter the anti-heal debuff, and thus it was incredibly strong - but with Protection Suzu, it can be instantly wiped away and completely change the tides of a fight.

Kitsune Rush can easily be used in conjunction with Protection Suzu to make Kiriko’s team nearly unkillable. With an increase in movement and attack speed, this ultimate is already powerful - but the cooldown reduction is immensely beneficial to every member of the team. Even though Protection Suzu has a rather long cooldown of 14 seconds, if used immediately before Kitsune Rush, Kiriko can use it almost two more times before her ultimate expires. This means that when using her ultimate, Kiriko’s team will be inherently very difficult to take down.

Kiriko Doesn’t Play Like A Typical Overwatch Healer

Overwatch 2 Kiriko Official Release Art

Although Kiriko provides plenty of utility for her team, her healing output is low compared to heroes like Mercy in Overwatch 2. She has a total of 10 Healing Ofuda talismans to throw, and with each healing 13 HP, she can heal 130 HP at a time if she sends out all 10. While this may sound like a lot, the talismans cast and travel quite slowly, and thus it takes a while for allies to actually receive the healing. If a teammate is too low, they may be dead before the Healing Ofuda reaches them. Talismans may even need to be pre-fired in situations where a teammate might take a consistently high amount of damage.

With this in mind, Kiriko is a hero who might be difficult for some players to pick up, especially those who are just getting into Overwatch 2. Understanding proper timing, as well as the pacing of teamfights, are necessary skills for making the most out of her ability kit. Knowing when to send out her Healing Ofuda - not to mention, balancing its use with the Kunai - is essential to keeping her team alive. Her Protection Suzu needs to be timed just right in order to be effective, too.

Additionally, with the Healing Ofuda being the only healing ability in her kit - and especially with it being a single-target ability - Kiriko struggles to support multiple people at a time. If all four allies on her team are at critical health, it will take a long time to heal them all up to full HP as opposed to burst healers, such as one of Overwatch 2's most powerful supports Moira. This lands her a seat as more of an off-healer or a healer-DPS-hybrid, meaning she might require a main healer by her side to unlock her full potential. It might also mean that she simply is not viable against some very high-damage team compositions.

It’s safe to say that the newest addition to Overwatch 2’s support roster, Kiriko, is an extraordinarily powerful hero. With limited heals and a high skill ceiling, she is very dependent on the player’s skill in order to be used effectively. But with utility strong enough to sway the course of an entire teamfight, Kiriko's unique abilities more than likely cement her place as a soon-to-be favorite.

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