Blizzard Developers Reveal Their Favorite Overwatch Heroes

At BlizzCon 2026, GameSpot spoke with Overwatch game director Aaron Keller and associate game director Alec Dawson to find out which heroes the people making the game actually enjoy playing. Their answers highlight a varied mix of original roster staples and newer additions that have won over the development team.

For associate game director Alec Dawson, his first main was Lucio. Dawson pointed to Lucio's impressive movement capabilities, such as wall riding and area-of-effect speed boosts via Crossfade, as the primary draw. He noted that Lucio allows players to quickly reposition, escape danger, chase enemies, or return to objectives. Dawson also admitted to using Lucio's Soundwave to knock opponents down the well in Ilios.

Game director Aaron Keller favors Tracer as his original main from the original roster, praising her close-range Pulse Pistols, Blink ability for rapid teleportation, and Recall ability for resetting health and ammo. While Keller now queues flex and mostly plays tank, rotating through Reinhardt, Winston, Zarya, and Orisa, Tracer remains his top pick when playing damage.

When discussing newer heroes, Dawson highlighted Doctrine as a successful combination of an unexplored techno-vampire visual archetype and gameplay bundled around drones. Keller agreed, noting the mix of backstory, visuals, and gameplay supporting the sci-fi vampire fantasy. Dawson's personal favorite among the newer roster is Shion, an over-the-top character inspired by action movies who features a slightly villainous personality. Meanwhile, Keller praised Emre for having a satisfying primary fire through the Synthetic Burst Rifle, making him a straightforward and approachable hero.