A scientist with questionable morality. With Overwatch 2 comes a brand new Moira O’deorain Guide to focus on how she now functions in the new 5v5 team format. Moira, however, hasn’t seen that many direct changes to her kit. As a very approachable hero for newcomers with resource management at her core, it’s crucial for players to understand how to get the most value out of a hero that has a more basic moveset.
In this Overwatch 2 Moira Guide, I’ll be going over her abilities, statistics, playstyle, tips, tricks and how to excel with the hero. Whether you’re new to the game or a returning player, there will no doubt be content here to aid your support journey. If you’re more familiar with the hero, feel free to skip to the sections further down for some more advanced advice.
Don’t forget to check out KeenGamer’s Mercy Guide, too.
Weapon
Moira’s weapon isn’t actually a handheld object like most characters have. For this advanced individual, she uses bracers on her wrists. She can leech the life of her victims or replenish those in need. Knowing which of these to use and when is crucial to mastery.
Biotic Grasp
- Healing: 70hps (35hps lingering for 2s)
- Max Range: 15m
- Damage: 50dps
- Self-Healing: 24hps
Split into two functions, much like Mercy’s staff, Moira’s bracers can either damage enemies or heal allies. Her restorative hand sprays biotic energy over her allies which can heal multiple at once. It also passes through teammates and enemies. Her damaging hand soft-locks onto an enemy and deals continuous damage until they are out of range or line of sight. It also self-heals Moira while she is dealing damage.
One hand gives, the other takes away
Biotic grasp functions in such a way that it encourages Moira to alternate using both features. When healing, a resource meter shows how much biotic energy you have left. In order to replenish this meter, you must deal damage to wrack the life from foes and use it as your own. It’s essential to manage your biotic energy properly. Otherwise, you may find yourself unable to use it when it’s needed.
Abilities
With arguably one of the best evade moves in the game and a beginner-friendly kit, Moira can make some devastating plays. She often surprises her enemies who underestimate her offensive potential. Being in a duel with Moira is often a pretty scary interaction.
Role Passive: Regeneration
- Self-Heal: 15hps
All support heroes now passively regenerate health when they’re not taking damage. This isn’t too noticeable in this character due to her brilliant self-sustain. It does, however, save you from using your abilities to recover. So, for example, instead of using her Biotic Orb, you’ll want to save it when out of combat.
Moira has many ways to heal herself
In order to make full use of this passive, make use of natural cover which is plentiful in Overwatch 2. Supports in general typically don’t make themselves targettable, so your positioning will mostly be in the backlines. You’ll notice after 1.5 seconds of not taking damage, you’ll begin to passively recover missing HP.
Biotic Orb
- Damage: 50dps, up to 200
- Healing: 65hps, up to 300
- Cooldown: 8s
Upon activating this ability, Moira will hold two orbs in her hands. A purple poisonous orb in her right hand, and a yellow restorative orb in her left. From here, you can choose which one to use. Firing an orb causes it to travel in the direction you aimed it, slowing down considerably when in range of enemies or allies (depending on which orb was used) that are nearby. It doesn’t quite attach to heroes like Zenyatta’s orb, though, and it will speed back up if it goes out of range of any targets.
Restore or destroy?
Choosing which one to fire is pretty simple. When you’re in a team fight, and you notice a few of your allies are considerably low, or your tank is, you’ll want to use the restoration orb. This heightens your healing output. In combination with Biotic Grasp’s healing function, she provides incredible restoration. As for the purple orb, you’ll want to fire this whenever your team are satisfied and you see targettable enemies to aid your team’s poke damage. You can ricochet both orbs off of walls which helps in reaching friends or foes from a distance.
Fade
- Movement Speed: +250%
- Max Range: 15m
- Cooldown: 6s
A brilliant get-away tool that makes Moira temporarily invisible and invulnerable. When cast, Moira can suddenly move at a high speed. She can not be targeted by anything and will cleanse herself of all negative effects such as Ana’s Biotic Grenade. Moira will then reappear wherever you moved to during this time. It’s easy to use and very evasive.
Fade away at a moment’s notice
The key to using this ability is to jump during the fade. It actually allows Moira to launch herself into the air to gain decent verticle mobility. You can reach platforms you wouldn’t be able to normally. This makes your Fade less predictable, too. You can also use this to engage a surprise attack on an enemy or even to chase one down. Be careful, though. Using this to go aggressive leaves you without an easy escape, so choose these moments wisely.
Ultimate Ability: Coalescence
- Damage: 70dps
- Healing: 140hps
- Self-Healing: 50hps
- Max Range: 30m
- Duration: 8s
Moira channels both her medical and destructive outputs into one source, firing a large, long-ranged beam of juxtaposing energy out in front of her. It passes through barriers, simultaneously hurting or aiding depending on which targets it touches. This means you can be aiming it through allies to heal them, while also dealing damage to enemies. Moira will channel this beam until the duration ends or she is interrupted.
Unleash pure chaos
A top tip for using this ultimate is to fire a Biotic Orb just before using it. Depending on which element is needed more at that moment. If your allies are low, fire her yellow orb and then execute the ultimate to ensure you’re getting the most out of her kit. As you can’t fire orbs during the ultimate, it’s a great way to deal more healing or damage in the moment.
Playstyle & Situational Tips
In Overwatch 2, Moira is a main healer with high resource output. Your primary focus should be ensuring that your team is healthy as these outputs allow you to stabilise allies even in the most heated battles. However, you need to ensure that you are not wasting your biotic energy when it isn’t needed by managing your resources properly. In this section of our Overwatch 2 Moira guide, we’ll be going through just that.
Healing
As established, this is the scientist’s primary function. She has several ways of healing as discussed earlier. What you want to be doing is using Biotic Grasp to remedy allies when they’ve taken some damage. Do not hold this for long periods of time, though. After spraying an ally with this, it lingers, restoring 35hps for 2s. Avoid discharging energy for longer than necessary. Use your damage function of Biotic Grasp to replenish your energy.
Don’t get carried away with her offensive capabilities
When allies around you are on critical, take burst damage or are under heavy fire, use your Biotic Orb on top of your primary fire to maximise your output. With the lingering effect, an orb and Coalescence all at once, Moira can deal a colossal amount of healing under these very specific circumstances.
Damaging
Serving as her secondary function, Moira is capable of dealing high amounts of damage to enemy players. She has several ways of causing harm as discussed earlier. Primarily, you’ll attach your Biotic Grasp to enemies to steal their HP, fill your biotic energy meter and assist your team in focusing down enemies to get eliminations. Throwing your purple Biotic Orb into a cluster of enemies when possible is a great way to build your ultimate, too.
Wrack your enemy’s health to restore your own
When in a 1v1 situation with an enemy DPS or support hero, you have a very fair chance of winning in most situations. Throw out a damage orb and use your biotic grasp to not only take their health but to replenish your own at the same time. If you see an enemy take a lot of damage, you can throw a damage orb and use Coalescence to deal a burst of 120dps, which could definitely get you an elimination if they don’t heal quickly enough.
Resource Managing
A key feature of Moira’s kit is learning to keep her biotic energy meter nicely balanced in order to help her teammates during crucial moments in each match. If you run out of biotic energy, healing will be inconsistent, leading to your team’s subsequent deaths. You want to ensure that every chance you get to start re-fill it, you take it. If the enemy has Dva as their tank, you have a constant opportunity for recharging right there as she can not use her Defense Matrix to stop your grasp.
Learn to balance your gameplay
You also don’t even need to be low on charge to go into offence mode. You just want to always be looking for opportunities to deal damage. If you’re not sustaining others, look for chances to deal damage. Once you get a strong grasp of this, you’ll feel much more flexible as Moira, balancing these elements so that both playstyles come naturally to you. Note that all healing numbers in this Overwatch 2 Moira guide could change and will be updated if needed.
Movement
In terms of movement and positioning, Moira will mostly be further towards the back of her team. This gives you a nice view of not only your own team to see their health, but also the enemy team. Here, you can also protect your other support from flanking enemies. Don’t be afraid to get a little more aggressive when your team has the upper hand, though. With excellent self-sustainability and defensive capability, Moira can survive rather hectic situations that heroes like Ana or Zenyatta would not.
Cross sightlines and reach high ground safely
Don’t start front-lining, though. This is usually not a good idea. Despite having great sustain, she still only has 200hp, and taking burst damage from enemy abilities will eliminate you very quickly. You can go more forceful when you use Coalescence, but try to stay behind your team until you see an opportunity to go further.
When Should I Swap?
Despite her raw numbers in damage and healing, this hero has one fatal flaw: her lack of utility. Ana’s Biotic Grenade debuffs enemies so that they can’t recover. Lucio’s speed boost buffs allies’ movement speed to go aggressive. Moira, on the other hand, has nothing like this. No Overwatch 2 Moira guide is complete without reminding you that healers with more utility exist.
Sometimes, another hero is just situationally better
Despite this, she is really strong right now. If you do happen to notice that the enemy has an Ana or Baptiste that is providing game-changing utility, and your team is losing, then definitely consider switching to another support that will aid here. An enemy Roadhog that has an Ana, for example, will be scarily strong. Consider your team composition and adjust as you see fit.
Supports Pairings With Moira
- Ana – As both of them are main healers, you’ll be competing for ultimate charge when it comes to supporting. Try not to step on her toes, and instead, focus a little more on damage than you would normally. Biotic Grenade plus Biotic Orb can equal dead enemies.
- Baptiste – These two both have very large healing outputs which can be pretty effective, but also means that, much like when paired with Ana, they’re competing for ultimate charge. You’ll want to focus on damaging a little more here. This is definitely not the best pairing.
- Brigitte – With this hero, your team will have consistent AoE (area of effect) healing. It’s a slower composition but has strong foundations. Try to stay near your Brigitte.
- Lucio – Moira/Lucio as a support line-up is brilliant. Speedy, AoE healing to give your team the sustain to mow down the enemy without fear of being eliminated quickly.
- Mercy – While they can work together, there isn’t much utility, so if it’s not working, you’ll definitely need to switch it up.
- Zenyatta – Moira can help to defend Zenyatta who can be pretty defenceless, especially against the likes of Genji or Tracer who can both struggle to defeat the scientist.
Final Thoughts
We’ve made it to the end, now you should have, at the very least, a little more knowledge about Moira’s kit and her numbers. While she isn’t the most intricate or mechanical hero, she can be very effective and rewarding to play. Be sure to keep that resource management in check, and you’ll be just fine.
A support’s revenge is sweet
Check out Moira’s origin story, which describes her morals and background. She’s sarcastic, sassy and quite stubborn, making for an amusing hero to play. I hope you found this Overwatch 2 Moira Guide useful. Look out for our future hero guides, coming soon. If, for some reason, you haven’t yet tried out the FPS’ reborn sequel, check out our review and then download it yourself, available for free on all major platforms.
Check out this VOD review by Duckeeh to see some top-level Moira gameplay analysed and explained.
