Ultimate ability

Ultimate abilities are powerful abilities that must be charged before using. Progress is shown on the Ultimate Meter.

Ultimate types
Ultimate abilities can be classified under four basic categories.


 * 1) Cast-Time: These ultimates have a brief time in which they are cast before being used. In general, these can be interrupted when casting, but once active, they can no longer be interrupted. For example, Reinhardt's Earthshatter, Tracer's Pulse Bomb, and Lúcio's Sound Barrier are ultimates that are cast.
 * 2) Channeled: These ultimates are constantly being channeled and the user cannot use their weapons or abilities. In general, these can be interrupted at any time. For example, Roadhog's Whole Hog, Pharah's Barrage, and Moira's Coalescence are ultimates that are channeled.
 * 3) Transformation: These ultimates modify or change the user's HP, weapon, abilities, and/or provide other benefits (e.g. seeing through walls via Infra-Sight). These cannot be interrupted. The difference between transformation ultimates and channeled ultimates is that transformation ultimates allow their users to use their weapons (potentially a different weapon) and/or abilities. For example, Winston's Primal Rage, Genji's Dragonblade, and Mercy's Valkyrie are ultimates that transform them.
 * 4) Built: These ultimates first prompt the user for a location before being built by the user. The prompt can be interrupted or manually cancelled while the actual building of the ultimate cannot. The ultimate is not paid for until it is actually built, meaning if the prompt is interrupted or cancelled, it can be used again immediately. The only ultimates of this type are Symmetra's Photon Barrier and Baptiste's Amplification Matrix.

The above are guidelines and exceptions exist. Zarya's Graviton Surge and Ashe's B.O.B., for some reason, cannot be interrupted while casting. D.Va's Self-Destruct is effectively a hybrid between a cast-time ultimate and a transformation ultimate, and cannot be interrupted. Doomfist's Meteor Strike brings him out of the map, so even though that it is channeled (Doomfist cannot use any of his other abilities throughout the duration), it is not feasible to interrupt. Zenyatta's Transcendence renders him immune to Crowd Control effects, making it impossible to interrupt despite being channeled. Sigma's Gravitic Flux is initially channeled, but after the area is selected, he "transforms" (he can fire his weapon). Previously, this meant that it cannot be interrupted once the area is selected like all other transformation ultimates, but due to balance, it was changed so that it can be interrupted.

Ultimate charge
Ultimate charge is the currency used to pay for an ultimate ability.

Ultimate charge is gained in the following ways:
 * Heroes gain 5 charge every second.
 * Heroes gain charge equal to the amount of damage they do to enemy players, including by environmental kills. (Self-damage and damage done to non-heroes do not count.)
 * Exception(s): Damage to shields created by Wrecking Ball's Adaptive Shield does not give any charge.
 * Damage from ultimate abilities do not give any charge. (Genji does not gain any charge from ultimates he deflected.)
 * Heroes gain charge equal to the amount of healing they do to themselves or their teammates.
 * Exception(s): Reaper does not gain any charge from The Reaping. Mercy does not gain any charge from Regeneration. Sombra does not gain any charge from hacked Health Packs.
 * Healing HP lost by self-damage does not give any charge.
 * Healing HP lost by the environment (e.g. the passing cars in Oasis) does not give any charge. (Note that environmental damage is usually fatal. The only way to survive is with Immortality Field.)
 * Mercy gains charge equal to the damage she amplified against enemy players. (Amplifying her damage boost target's self-damage or damage to non-heroes does not count.)
 * Mercy does not gain any charge if she damage boosts an attack that cannot be boosted.
 * B.O.B. is an interesting case because damaging or healing him does not grant ultimate charge, but amplifying his damage with Mercy does grant Mercy ultimate charge.

The automatic ultimate generation over time is the passive ultimate generation. The ultimate generation from doing damage or healing is the ultimate generation from combat. The ultimate generation from Mercy's damage boost appears to be its own category, because modifying Mercy's combat and/or passive generation in custom games does not affect it.

Most heroes cannot gain charge while their ultimates are active. Ashe, D.Va, Hanzo, Torbjörn, Tracer, and Wrecking Ball are the exceptions. In the case of D.Va, she gains Call Mech immediately after Self-Destruct finishes, regardless of her charge.

Echo can also gain ultimate charge while using her ultimate, but to charge the ultimate of the hero she is duplicating, not Duplicate itself. Additionally, if Echo is using Duplicate, the amount of charge she gains from all sources is multiplied by 6.5.

Ultimate cost
The ultimate cost is how much charge an ultimate requires. Each ultimate has a different cost.

Higher costs does not equal longer charge times when ultimate generation from combat is accounted for. Coalescence is considered a fast-charging ultimate despite its high cost due to Moira's immense healing capabilities. Whole Hog has a far higher cost than Self-Destruct, but Roadhog usually gets his ultimate faster than D.Va because he has better damage output and can self-heal. To judge how fast an ultimate charges, the hero's entire kit must be considered.

(The max. charge time is how long an ultimate takes to passively charge, without any damage or healing.)
 * List of ultimate costs:

Trivia

 * Passive ultimate generation originally did not exist and was implemented in the February 9th, 2016, beta update to replace ultimate generation from damage taken.
 * Ultimate costs were increased by 25% in patch 1.5, then again by 12% in patch 1.39.
 * Most ultimate costs are multiples of 70. It was 50 originally, then it became 62.5 with the 25% increase, and now it is 70 with the 12% increase.
 * The five exceptions—Call Mech, RIP-Tire, Molten Core, Dragonblade, and Duplicate—are due to hero balance changes.
 * Call Mech's cost was reduced by 20% ( → 320) during the open beta. It was reduced twice to counteract the two global cost increases. It is now.
 * RIP-Tire's cost was increased by 10% ( → 1718.75) in patch 1.34. It became 1925 with the 12% global cost increase.
 * Molten Core's cost was reduced by 10% ( → 2142) in patch 1.42.
 * Dragonblade's cost was increased by 15% ( → 1932) in patch 1.58.
 * Duplicate's cost was increased by 15% ( → 2254) in patch 1.60.
 * In Snowball Deathmatch, Mei gains 125 ultimate charge for catching snowballs thrown at her.