Illari has emerged as one of the stronger support heroes in Overwatch 2, and her high damage potential and staying power has got some players wondering if countering her is even possible.
While Illari might not match the consistent targeted healing that someone like Ana or Mercy can bring to the table, she’s got hitscan damage and brilliant staying power to make up for it.
Her healing pylon combined with the pushback on her dash means she’s got great disengage, and a reliable source of healing that needs to be dealt with before you even start hitting her. It’s like she doesn’t even need the support passive healing.
Even after some quick nerfs to her ultimate after release, Illari remains near the top of the support roster. Still, that isn’t stopping some players from thinking up ways to counter her.
Illari emerges as top Overwatch 2 support
One of the top strategies that emerged to counter Illari was to focus down the healing pylon before engaging directly with her.
One player on the Overwatch subreddit said: “Her downtime is extremely brutal if you take down her turret. She has no way of self-sustaining for the 12 seconds when her turret is down and her dash really isn’t that good to quell someone who is fully invested into diving her.
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“Treat that turret like Dva mech and Illari herself like baby Dva. You can’t kill the baby Dva without taking out the mech first.”
Genji was also discussed as a popular pick against Illari, as he has ways to close the gap between them without using his dash, which means he can use it to follow Illari when she tries to disengage.
Likewise, Ana was floated due to her anti-heal, which means killing the pylon isn’t even necessary. However, this strategy requires your teammates to hit their shots within the small time window that the nade lasts for, so this probably isn’t that reliable in solo q.
For more news and updates on Overwatch 2, check out the bizarre lore reveal that would technically make several heroes child soldiers.