Winston

Winston is a Tank hero in Overwatch.

Overview
Winston wields impressive inventions—a jump pack, electricity-blasting Tesla Cannon, portable shield projector and more—with literal gorilla strength.

Strategy
Strength

Winston is one of the game's most mobile Tanks, capable of crossing vast distances in a single leap to bring the fight to his enemies. His Tesla Cannon can't be blocked by a general barrier, given its splash effect, making it very dangerous to most low-health heroes. The agility provided by his Jump Pack makes him a persistent menace that can easily disrupt any enemy team through constant harassment. Barrier Projector is his method of defense for himself or his teammates for a short duration. With the barrier being bubble-shaped, it can be one of the best barriers in the game. Primal Rage not only saves his life by increasing both his current and maximum health, it also greatly reduces the cooldown of Jump Pack and replaces his Tesla Cannon with melee attacks that can disrupt any enemy hit by it. He is of great use for diving into an open space and disrupting enemies.

Weakness

Much like Reinhardt, however, he is only capable of fighting at short range, and he is not nearly as consistently durable as the other Tanks. His damage output is considered to be lowest of its class, as any enemy healer will reduce the effectiveness of his weapon or even negate it. His personal barrier is very weak and has a very lengthy cooldown, not suited to be used as a main defensive tool. He has to make use of his Primal Rage to disrupt the enemies as much as possible; otherwise, it is a great ultimate battery due to his higher health and larger collision.

Weapons & Abilities

 * Tesla Cannon: Winston's primary weapon. The Tesla Cannon causes continual damage in a cone in front of Winston as long as the primary fire button is held down.
 * The Tesla Cannon automatically targets any enemies who are within the cone. Even evasive targets like Tracer cannot avoid being damaged by Winston so long as they are within range of the Cannon.
 * The Tesla Cannon has fairly low damage compared to the weapons of other Tanks. It's best not to go head-to-head with other Tanks unless they're already low on Health.
 * Tesla Cannon is not blocked by barriers or Genji's Deflect.


 * Jump Pack: When activated, Winston performs a massive leap forwards. When he lands, he deals damage to all enemies in a small area and knocks them back.
 * With Jump Pack, Winston can easily reach distant enemies in a single bound. If your team is being harassed by Widowmaker or Hanzo, don't be afraid to leap onto them and take them out.
 * Jump Pack will immediately end if Winston collides with a solid object like a box or short wall when first activating Jump Pack. Make sure you have ample distance to vault over obstacles before using Jump Pack.
 * Once in the air, Winston has a small amount of air control, allowing him to curve around in the air. Use this to both evade enemy fire and to land on certain platforms.
 * Jump Pack goes in the direction Winston is looking, not straight in the air. Keep this in mind when trying to make longer jumps, as looking straight ahead will not get you as far.


 * Barrier Projector: When activated, Winston drops a small projector that creates a bubble-shaped barrier, absorbing a certain amount of damage from the enemy team before being destroyed. The bubble is hollow, meaning an enemy inside the bubble can still hit Winston or his allies if they are also inside the bubble. The barrier will disappear automatically after a few seconds.
 * Barrier Projector does not inherit Winston's momentum. If he drops it while in mid-air with Jump Pack, it will fall straight downwards.
 * Winston can "dance" between the edge of the bubble in order to keep himself safe for its duration. When an enemy enters into the bubble, move outside of it so that the enemy has to exit the bubble to attack you. Once they do, move back into the bubble. This lets you deal constant damage while the barrier absorbs most of your enemy's damage.
 * The barrier is rather fragile for a shield, and is best suited to short-term blocking or breaking up a control point. Winston should not rely on this ability to be the only shield on his team, as Reinhardt and Orisa are much more effective.


 * Primal Rage (Ultimate): Winston's Ultimate ability. When activated, Winston transforms into a berserk ape, gaining a massive amount of maximum Health, greatly shortening the cooldown on Jump Pack, and changing his primary weapon into fast-hitting hand swipes that deal damage and knock enemies back a great distance. Winston cannot use Barrier Projector while Primal Rage is active. Winston returns to base maximum Health after Primal Rage ends.
 * Primal Rage causes Winston's Health to be immediately refilled to the new, higher value. Use Primal Rage when you're in danger of dying.
 * Primal Rage has rather low damage output for an Ultimate, but the knockback from his hand swipes is impressive. Use this with frequent jumps to disrupt enemies and push them off objectives.
 * Jump Pack will immediately come off cooldown both when activating Primal Rage and when Primal Rage ends. This guarantees a safe entrance and exit to a skirmish.

General Strategies

 * Winston is a great Tank for new players. His Tesla Cannon automatically hits any enemies in front of him, minimizing the amount of aiming you need to do, and his Barrier Projector gives both him and his team extra survivability.
 * Winston is a fantastic counter to mobile enemies like Tracer or Genji. The autohit nature of Tesla Cannon prevents them from dodging the constant stream of damage from Winston, and Barrier Projector gives Winston more than enough Health to deal with them. When up against a good player using Tracer or Genji, consider switching to Winston.
 * Winston excels at bypassing chokepoints and attacking control points. He can force a defending team to fall back and defend the objective, allowing your team to pass through the chokepoint. Use Winston when you need to be able to get into an enemy's backline and break them up.
 * Barrier Projector is weaker than Reinhardt's Barrier Field, though still capable of absorbing a good amount of damage. When it comes to guarding a chokepoint or an objective, Reinhardt is the better pick.
 * Don't stay in one place as Winston, as he's squishier than he seems. Use Jump Pack to constantly engage and disengage, retreating when you get low on Health. Memorize the location of large Health Packs, as this will help you get back to fighting more quickly.
 * Primal Rage is best used in cases where you need to force an enemy team away from a position. If they've heavily entrenched themselves in an area, use Primal Rage to knock them back so that your team has an opportunity to move in. Remember that you gain a massive amount of Health, and you fully heal to the new health pool when Primal Rage is used, so try to delay using it until you are low on Health to maximize the amount of time you spend in the fight.
 * Although Winston may seem as an easy class to play, he is quite difficult to master. Winston can be eliminated rather quickly if he jumps into a new area headfirst without teammates. Consider sticking with teammates and launching at solo targets like Widowmaker, Genji, Tracer, etc.
 * Winston is perfect for taking out Support heroes that are alone or have wandered from their team, so don't hesitate to go after them. Make sure you are quick, as the enemy will soon rush to save their Support.

Mechanics

 * Using melee attacks to repeatedly interrupt the Tesla Cannon fire does the same damage per second as simply firing the weapon. When attacking a single target, this technique is optimal, because it conserves ammunition and is more efficient against armored targets. The risk is that Winston needs to get closer to his target than he would usually have to, potentially making him miss out on damage if he loses track of his target.
 * After using the Jump Pack, a standard melee attack right before landing will cancel the melee animation while the damage of the attack is still applied. While the visual animation of the melee is cancelled, Winston still is unable to use his Tesla Cannon until 0.5 seconds after he used the melee attack. This makes using melee right before landing no more or less efficient than interrupting the Tesla Cannon with melee attacks while grounded.
 * To perform particularly short jumps with the Jump Pack, look straight ahead and press and hold backwards right before using the ability. To jump straight up, look straight up and press and hold backwards right before jumping.

Story
"Imagination Is The Essence Of Discovery."

A super-intelligent, genetically engineered gorilla, Winston is a brilliant scientist and a champion for humanity's potential. Since a young age, he has shown limitless curiosity for the world around him, but also has a fondness for stories, especially those passed down from generation to generation. By his own admission, he tends to overthink things, is a perfectionist, and tends to ramble. As an ape among humans, he gets regular remarks on this subject, including references to old video games.

When Winston loses his temper, Winston becomes a raging ape. In his off-time, he enjoys peanut butter and bananas. He has stated/joked that his love of the former is due to his genetic therapy. Due to the amount of time he spent on the moon, he has to take supplements to keep his bones in good condition.

Pre-Overwatch
"Ah. The Moon. I grew up there, looking down at the Earth, dreaming about what life would be like. But I loved my time there. The scientists were my family. I learned so much from them. I had so many great memories. We were working together to build humanity's future amongst the stars. And of course, Doctor Winston. He was like a father to me. It was home. But it wasn't to be. Not everyone liked life on the moon. Of the tests, and the rules. The others hatched a plan. No more injections. No more experiments! Then the doctors, my friends... they were all gone. There was nothing left for me. I couldn't stay, and they didn't want me anyways. So I escaped to Earth, my new home. But they're still up there, and someday, we'll have to go back."

- Winston, reflecting on his life on Horizon

The Horizon Lunar Colony was established as a first step for humanity's renewed exploration of space. Among its residents was a group of genetically enhanced gorillas that were intended to test the effects of prolonged habitation in space.

One gorilla, designated Specimen 28, displayed such rapid brain development from the gene therapy that he was taken under the wing of Dr. Harold Winston, who taught him science and inspired him with tales of human ingenuity. One day, after the young ape had stolen Harold's glasses, Harold showed the ape Earth just as they were over Africa, as it appeared from the moon (prior to this, the ape had only seen the barren moonscape). Harold told him to not see the world how it was, but how it could be.

The young gorilla passed his days assisting with the scientists' experiments, watching the distant blue world outside his habitat window, dreaming of the endless possibilities that awaited him there. He enjoyed life at Horizon, and regarded the human scientists as his family, and Dr. Winston his father. In time, he also became good friends with the hamster subject designated Specimen 8, or "Hammond". Lexigrams were used as part of his education process, and one day on Lunar New Year, Winston challenged the young ape to read Journey to the West. The gorilla's imagination was captured by the heroic monk Tang Sanzang and his ragtag group of disciples' quest for redemption. As a result, the ape was reminded of his younger days every Lunar New Year; Dr Winston telling him the story remained one of his most treasured memories.

But his life was thrown into chaos when the other gorillas led an uprising, killed the mission scientists, and claimed the colony for their own. With nothing left, and unwanted by his fellow gorillas, the ape took on the name of his beloved human caretaker. So named "Winston," the ape built a makeshift rocket using Emergency Pod G-42 and and escaped from Launch Bay 14 to Earth, landing at Watchpoint: Gibraltar. There he found a new home with Overwatch, an organization that represented everything he had come to admire about humanity. Winston was finally able to live up to the heroic ideal that had been instilled in him. However, he knew that one day, he would have to return to his former home.

Overwatch
While in Overwatch, Winston looked up to Ana Amari. Gabriel Reyes appears to have detested his presence within the organization. Hollywood once asked him to feature in a movie. While a member, he paid his taxes to the Swiss government. Overwatch enforced restrictions on his research, and while Winston chaffed at this, he understood that a measure of caution was needed.

Tracer
Winston was responsible for designing the chronal accelerator, providing a solution to Tracer's chronal disassociation. Winston would watch over Tracer's training at the Overwatch Headquarters, with the help of Dr. Ziegler, and believed that if she showed no signs of trouble, she would be ready for active duty.

Storm Rising
"Remember, we need Maximilien alive. He's our only good lead on Talon. I'm not the one you should worry about."

- Sojourn and Winston during the operation

Under the command of Captain Sojourn six years before the present day, Winston took part in an operation in Havana alongside Mercy, Tracer, and Genji. Their objective was to apprehend Maximilien, who was travelling through the city in an armored convoy. The Overwatch team engaged, with Winston destroying a number of Talon vehicles. This included Maximilien's limo, but when Winston got to the wreck, he found that the omnic had fled. Tracer reassured him that he wouldn't get far on foot, but Sojourn warned them against overconfidence.

The team tracked Maximilien down. In exchange for leniency, he agreed to arrange a "meeting" with Doomfist, informing them that Talon's leader would be in Singapore in three weeks.

Doomfist
"Primal punch! Gorilla from the moon saves the day!"

- A newspaper headline on Winston's defeat of Doomfist

Overwatch acted on Maximilien's intel. Alongside Genji and Tracer, Winston fought Doomfist in Singapore. Winston initially tried to defeat Doomfist using his tesla cannon, but was ineffective, and he was sent hurtling. He eventually came to his feet, but not before Tracer and Genji had been incapacitated. Unleashing his primal rage, Winston charged Doomfist directly, and engaged him in close quarters. Winston defeated Doomfist, who was imprisoned. A newspaper article of the time coined the phrase "primal punch" (even though Winston didn't appear to have actually said that) when reporting on the event. Years after the event, this catchphrase remained associated with Winston's actions.

Post-Overwatch
"Winston saw that the problems in the world were growing, and he saw Overwatch as the solution for everything. I don’t think Winston ever questioned why things had fallen apart. He loved it and needed it too much to see how it had damaged and changed us all."

- Angela Ziegler

After the fall of Overwatch, Winston again went into seclusion, once again cut off from the world he believed in, but longing for the days of heroism to return. In the years that followed, he saw that the world's problems were growing, and saw Overwatch (or rather, its return) as the solution to all of them.

London Calling
"S. Paceape...? Wonder who that could be. You at least might have some idea what to do to fix the grid."

- Tracer after receiving Winston's package

When Tracer attempted to fix the grid of the London Underworld, Winston sent her a regulator.

Recall
"Winston? Is that you, love? Oh, it's been too long! Yes. Yes it has."

- Tracer and Winston after the latter sends out the recall order

While taking a break in his lab at Watchpoint: Gibraltar during the development of the barrier projector, Winston was pondering once again whether he should give Overwatch agents a recall order when the base came under attack by Talon operatives led by Reaper. With Winston distracted by Talon, Reaper infected Athena with a virus and attempted to download the Overwatch agent database, which would give the current location of any agent. Winston managed to best the operatives and Reaper, stop the download and quarantine the virus at the last moment. After the close call and restoring the system, he made his decision and initiated the recall. When Tracer received the signal she immediately called Winston, delighted to hear from him.

Are You With Us?
"The people decided they were better off without us. They even called us criminals. They tore our family apart. But look around. Someone has to do something. We have to do something. We can make a difference again. The world needs us now more than ever. Are you with me?"

- Winston in his transmission

With the intent of reforming Overwatch, Winston prepared a speech to try and get its former agents to come back to the organization. After spending most of his day trying and failing to deliver it, Winston delivered the frank truth that while the world had turned against them, the state of the world showed the need for Overwatch to return. Set to repeat on the Overwatch emergency frequency, the signal reached the damaged satellite dish at Ecopoint: Antarctica, and automatically brought Mei out of cryostasis.

Day at the Museum
"Alright, playtime's over. Get to cover."

- Winston to Brian and Timmy

Sometime later, Winston got back in action when Reaper and Widowmaker attempted to retrieve Doomfist's gauntlet. Teaming up with Tracer however, he was able to stop the heist, and engaged in pursuit of the villains.

Return to Gibraltar
As part of his intent to reform Overwatch, Winston returned to Watchpoint: Gibraltar, an old Overwatch outpost that had once stood guard over the Mediterranean. He intended to launch a satellite drone in an effort to restore Overwatch's communications network.

The drone was successfully launched, and he looked on with pride.

Reflections
"Holidays are supposed to be a time for friends and family. But I'm short on both now. Still... I can't help but wonder how everyones's doing..."

- Winston

During the holiday season after Overwatch's recall, Winston invited Tracer to dinner with him in Gibraltar. Believing that Tracer had missed their gathering, Winston told Athena that they were likely alone again for Christmas. Athena sarcastically began "party mode," causing Winston to chuckle. He then reminisced over a photo of a young him and Dr. Harold Winston, and wondered how everyone else was spending the holidays. Before Winston began eating, Tracer arrived with her girlfriend Emily. Tracer endearingly apologized to Winston, calling him "big guy," before the three of them embraced in a hug. The three then began celebrating the holidays over a special meal.

Blizzard World
Alongside Tracer, Bastion, and Torbjörn, Winston watched an ad for Blizzard World.

Zero Hour
"Monsieur? Does this mean Overwatch is back? Yes. Yes we are."

- A police officer and Winston after Null Sector's defeat

When Null Sector attacked Paris, Winston, Mei, and Tracer headed to the city in the Orca. Mei asked if the three of them were enough for the mission. Winston assured her that if they stuck together, things would be fine, but looking at a picture of the original Overwatch group, commented that if they were going to show up, now would be a good time. Arriving over the city, Tracer told Winston to clear a spot for them to land, and that they'd be right behind him. He jumped out of the Orca, destroying multiple Nullifiers and allowing the craft to land. The trio made headway initially, but had to deal with the arrival of a Titan. Winston and Mei were both injured by its chest laser, and Tracer said that they couldn't stay here. Outnumbered and outgunned by the advancing omnics, Winston told Tracer to get Mei and the civilians to safety while he held off Null Sector. Mei weakly pointed out that he'd said that they'd stick together, but Winston stated that he'd be right behind them.

Winston faced down the omnics alone, but was saved at the last minute by Genji Shimada. The ninja was just the beginning of Overwatch members arriving to join the fight, including Reinhardt Wilhelm (accompanied by Brigitte Lindholm), Echo, and Angela Ziegler. The new arrivals were able to clear out the Nullifiers, but that still left the matter of the Titan. Winston had the idea of combining Mei's backpack (the power source of her blaster) with Tracer's pulse bomb. The plan worked, as Tracer was able to plant the modified explosive inside the Titan, freezing it, before the behemoth shattered. The day won, a police officer asked if Overwatch had returned. Taking his place as the group's de facto leader, Winston proudly declared that Overwatch had indeed returned.

A New War
"Trouble is cropping up all over the world. It's not just Null Sector. A lot of lives are riding on what we'll do next. We'll have to fight. One city at a time."

- Winston and Ziegler discussing the course of action

After Paris, Winston and the others traveled to Watchpoint: Gibraltar, which they used as their base of operations. As it turned out, Null Sector's attack on Paris was simply the prelude to a global invasion. Winston pointed out that Null Sector wasn't the only threat Overwatch had to deal with. He declared that they'd had to fight their way through one city at a time. Winston personally took to the field at Route 66, supported by Ziegler.

Rio
Winston and the rest of Overwatch deployed to Rio de Janeiro when it was attacked by Null Sector. They teamed up with Lúcio and were able to blunt the initial attack, though Lúcio warned that as long as Null Sector's command ship remained airborne, the omnics would just keep coming. Formulating a plan, Winston and Angela Ziegler worked on getting the civilians to safety, while the rest of the team split up between keeping Null Sector busy and taking the fight directly to the command ship. The plan worked, and the command ship's core was destabilized. Winston and the rest of the team arrived in the shuttle; Winston called out to those onboard the ship that they would have to jump from the hanger into the shuttle. They successfully made it aboard before the command ship was destroyed.

Trivia

 * Winston Specimen 28 skin concept art.jpgWinston Specimen 28 weapon concept art.jpgWinston Gargoyle skin concept art.jpg screen name in Overwatch's computer system is WNSTN.


 * Winston was one of the hardest characters to animate due to the numerous armor pieces he wears. His rage mode also presented problems due to the changes in movement animation. His design was "top-down" (where developers start with story/art/flavor elements and develop abilities around those ideas afterwards).


 * During development he was equipped with a flak shotgun.


 * A statue of Winston was present at GamesCom 2015.


 * A baby Winston pet was made available in World of Warcraft for those who purchase the Origins Edition of Overwatch. Likewise, a Winston portrait is available in StarCraft II.


 * A Funko Pop Winston figurine was released in June, 2016.
 * A statue of a baby Winston holding the hand of Chris Metzen was presented to the latter as a gift to commemorate his retirement from Blizzard.
 * Primal Rage's name is maybe a reference of the 1994 game of the same name, which features two ape-like characters and one of them are named as Blizzard.
 * Winston's Tesla Cannon gets its name from the Tesla Coil, an electrical resonant transformer circuit designed by inventor Nikola Tesla in 1891.
 * Winston is most likely modeled after a silverback Mountain Gorilla.