Overwatch 2’s newest hero is Kiriko, the dynamic support character from Kanezaka, Japan. And although she isn’t yet available in competitive play, Kiriko is a stellar addition to the game’s cast of support heroes and is sure to find her way into the meta. With her unique and powerful abilities, there are certainly some heroes that she can assist and play alongside better than others.
Kiriko is a hero that can thrive in chaos, but who can also be a great companion for heroes with a strong frontline presence. She does well in assisting flankers but always needs to be able to make it back into the fight. One of her best characteristics is the balance she can achieve between her healing and damage output, almost acting as a third DPS if needed.
After playing Overwatch 2 for two weeks before its release, here are our opinions on the best heroes to play alongside Kiriko, by role.
The best heroes to play alongside Kiriko in Overwatch 2
The best tanks to play alongside Kiriko
The best tanks to play with Kiriko are Roadhog, D.va, and Orisa, but you can’t go wrong with Junker Queen either.
Roadhog pairs well with Kiriko because she can help nullify crowd-control (CC) effects and anti-heal, both of which can be detrimental to Roadhog’s survivability. Using her Protection Suzu wisely is key to playing with a Roadhog. Additionally, Kiriko can provide more long-range damage to a composition featuring the scrappy tank that favors close-range engagements. Roadhog is also one of the slower, clunkier tanks in the game, so Kiriko’s ultimate is particularly useful for him. It makes him faster and enables him to pump out even more damage.
D.va is a strong solo tank in Overwatch 2, which is good news to seasoned off-tank players from the original game who were concerned about her viability. Her big perk as a tank is her mobility, which allows her to outmaneuver her enemies despite being one of the largest characters in the game. Kiriko pairs excellently with this mobility, and she and D.va can peel for each other harmoniously.
D.va’s other strong ability is her Defense Matrix, and without it the team struggles. Therefore having the Protection Suzu to nullify hacks onto D.va can be the difference between a won or lost fight.
Orisa benefits from playing with Kiriko in a similar way that Roadhog does. Orisa is probably the slowest tank in the game, and though she has more mobility after her rework, she still struggles to escape quickly from threatening situations. Kiriko’s ultimate turns Orisa into a powerhouse with her rapid-fire projectiles and increased movement speed.
Junker Queen isn’t a bad pick to go with Kiriko, because the sheer damage output and peel ability between these two is also on point. Kiriko also works well against Junker Queen, because she can nullify the anti-heal.
The best damage heroes to play alongside Kiriko
Kiriko can almost feel like a DPS hero herself but paired with the right ally, will shine in her support role. She works well with her fellow Japanese hero and childhood friend Genji, and can also support other flankers and highly mobile characters like Tracer, Soldier: 76, and Sojourn.
Overall, the DPS hero picks are the most flexible part of any composition and can change the most often, and there aren’t really any characters we see that are awful with Kiriko just yet. It probably isn’t ideal to try to have your Kiriko supporting a long-range sniper, however, because while she can easily get up to their location, it takes a long time to get back to the team.
Kiriko’s ultimate combined with heroes with a fast fire rate makes them completely unstoppable. We anticipate one of the new best ultimate combinations is going to be Kiriko’s Kitsune Rush with Soldier: 76’s Tactical Visor. The aimbot ultimate will shoot even faster and Soldier: 76 can move to different angles quicker, so it can easily wipe an entire team.
Tracer and Kiriko work well together because Kiriko can peel for Tracer to offer healing. She is good with Genji for mostly the same reasons, but also because some other support heroes have a hard time healing Genji due to his rapid movement. Kiriko can fling her Ofuda papers in his general direction and not have to worry about aiming completely as they lock on.
The best supports to play alongside Kiriko
Our favorite support combination with Kiriko is Ana. Slightly unexpected, since many were expecting Kiriko to be considered a flex support, but this combination works really well. She also works well with Lucio and Brigitte, however, so there are several options. Pairing her with a Baptiste feels redundant and unnecessary, and putting her with a Zenyatta doesn’t always give your teammates enough healing.
It’s important to know that Kiriko’s healing, while powerful, is slow. It’s not like Moira’s, where you can unload an entire supply onto your tank and have them healed in seconds. The papers also have a small travel time before they reach their target. Keep this in mind when crafting your team composition and engagement strategies.
Ana and Kiriko make a winning combination. Skilled Ana players are great at healing up tanks and DPS quickly, and most importantly, can hit faraway targets that Kiriko’s healing can’t reliably reach. Ana also has a diverse set of abilities that provide a different way of supporting her teammates than Kiriko’s.
While Kiriko’s abilities help buff her own teammates, Ana’s abilities limit her opponents by putting them to sleep and anti-healing. Kiriko and Ana both also have two of the more powerful ultimate abilities in the game, so they can be cycled well to win teamfights. We wouldn’t suggest using them both at the same time. Overlapping support ultimates, in general, is a bit of a competitive taboo but especially here.
Kiriko can be super powerful working alongside Lucio because the speed boost enables her to have even more mobility. Especially paired with a tank that struggles with movement on their own, the backline of Lucio and Kiriko can provide the support needed to succeed in rush compositions. With this support combination, you can blow right through the entire enemy team.
Kiriko also works well with Brigitte if you are playing Kiriko in less of a protective peel-style but more as a flex support, healing tanks, and doing damage to enemies when you find the opportunity. Brigitte can both stick with your tank and protect the DPS players.
Kiriko and Moira might be a popular combination in ranked just because of the sheer burst healing potential. If you need to heal up a dying Reinhart as soon as possible, this might be a winning combo.
These combinations could change once the professional players get their hands on Kiriko and test her out in the Overwatch League. For now, everyone is still learning the newest hero and understanding how she can best serve her team.