I'm relatively new to the game. Level 31 atm and my placement matches put me at 2365 in competitive. What's the general consensus on Soldier 76? He is in every single game I play and can dominate it completely in the right hands. He can singlehandedly kill my enjoyment of a game. Is he just straight up OP or are there specific ways to counter him? I play a lot of support myself but switch it up when needed.
He's strong and some people say he's OP. I'm not sure myself. He's good at everything but he's not infallible. I don't think he has hard counters because he's a well-rounded character.
He's fairly bad at close range, and has a disadvantage in close range fights against people like McCree (flashbang combo works on him), Tracer, Genji, Reaper, etc. He can still fight back against these targets though, and can kill them if he lands a rocket (bad against Tracer because she can bait the rocket with rewind). Soldier functions best at mid range, not close range.
Roadhog hook combo oneshots him like any other 200 hp hero.
D.matrix shuts down absolutely everything Soldier can do. The one thing I look out for the most if I have my ult is whether there's an enemy D.Va paying attention to me.
Part of Soldier's job is to wear down the Rein shield. If the shield is down, the enemy team is free game for Soldier's ult. If the Rein shield or D.Matrix is up, then the ult is useless.
Soldier is a great deterrent for Pharah, but is NOT a hard counter on his own, especially at longer distances. He can usually hurt Pharah, but she can usually get to safety before dying if Soldier is the only one shooting at her. Plus Pharah can twoshot Soldier if she's watching out for him. Pharah + Mercy is basically a big "fuck you" to any team that thinks they can leave both of them to Soldier alone.
