A crowd-pleasing hero in Overwatch, Genji was a prominent feature of the original Nexus Challenge in 2016. Now, Genji has become the face of Heroes 2.0, spearheading the game’s relaunch and an accompanying second Nexus Challenge.

Flashy and difficult, Genji already has a reputation as a pub stomper. But after his first week, his win rates landed just shy of "good" near the 46% mark. Even in Quick Match, Genji only rises above 51% at Diamond and higher. Strong individual play with him requires a fairly high skill floor, but Genji’s best results have been in Team League where players can coordinate around his advantages and give Genji the support he needs.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Abilities

Continuing the Overwatch trend, Genji is built to be mobile and has a unique auto attack function. Like Lúcio, Genji’s auto attacks come in short bursts of threes—three shuriken tosses at range, or three strikes of his sword in melee. Unlike Lúcio and Tracer, Genji cannot freely attack while moving. Instead, Genji has his own stutter step rhythm: while he must be stationary to begin his attack animation, once the animation has begun with the first attack, Genji can move during the next two without canceling. The rhythm of Genji’s three attacks is consistent and seamless between ranged and melee, to the point that Genji begins an attack animation at range and moves into melee during it, he will switch from shuriken to sword without issue.

Genji’s killing potential is very focused on diving weakened targets, but he is neither a sustained nor burst damage dealer—he thrives on finishing what his teammates started. In teamfights or ganks, Genji’s chasing capability is designed to secure killing blows and escape back into the fog of war. But while Genji can secure the death of a low-health target, he needs his teammates to bring down the enemy health first.

Because Genji is so defined by his mobility, crowd control hits him particularly hard. Even inconveniences like movement or attack speed slows can feel crippling. When given space to move, though, Genji’s kit shines as cohesive whole. There is no feeling in Heroes of the Storm quite like getting three or four Swift Strikes in rapid succession except maybe Li-Ming resets.

All of Genji’s abilities require precision timing. Before diving on a target with Swift Strike, Genji needs to them to be weakened at range or he might miss the chance for a reset and be caught out of position. Shuriken is his best poke, but the damage offered by a single hit is low. If all three shots on Q hit the same target, the damage is significant, especially if multiple charges are used rapidly. However, the spread on the Shuriken is high enough that it requires melee range against most enemies. A steady player will balance their Shuriken usage to get the most out of each charge.

Deflect is a channeled ability that makes Genji immune to damage at the cost of being unable to do anything else during the channel except move. Offensively, a well-timed Deflect can be Genji’s highest damage ability, but done poorly, it can leave Genji without any defensive capabilities and far less damage. Defensively, the Protected status from Deflect can be like Taz’dingo in an ideal situation, but any stun or silence interrupts the channel and leaves Genji without options. If you were relying on Deflect to survive a risky encounter, sorry—a crowd controlled ninja is a dead ninja.



Each of Genji’s Heroic options interact with his traits in different ways. The iconic Dragonblade from Overwatch briefly transforms him into a melee Hero, replacing Shuriken with a wide strike that gives Genji higher sustained damage and can hit multiple targets. This shores up some of his weaknesses while losing none of his strengths, and provides options for even more Swift Strike resets. But the switch to melee damage makes Genji even more susceptible to crowd control, and the dramatic activation can make him a target. The other option, X-Strike, doubles down on the strengths Genji brings by offering more of the same: an incredibly mobile ability that can strike down fleeing targets or dodge high impact abilities with its invincibility frames.

Talents

Genji’s talent tree has a wide variety of effects. While most tiers center on a theme, such as mobility at 1 and defense at 7, there is no level where Genji players are simply offered a choice between between three different upgrades to the same button. Level 4 talents, for example, iare themed around increasing Genji’s damage, each talent focusing on one of his basic abilities.

Throughout the tree, Deflect talents tend to offer the most raw power, and a full W build turns Genji into a burst assassin. But Deflect is a difficult ability to use, and every upgrade taken for it demands even finer timing to get the most value. Upgrades to Shuriken are more popular, as Genji’s Q is no less important to his kit, and its multiple charges allow those talents to trigger more frequently. Most likely, Genji players will find themselves with a variety of upgrades for each skill, even within a standard build.

Pre-20, Genji’s own damage is weak and reliant on his team to bring targets low enough for him to pick off. But with each talent, Genji’s damage ramps up, and at 20 his teamfight presence increases significantly. All of Genji’s Storm talents make him a terrifying AOE damage dealer, with options to upgrade either Shuriken or Deflect instead of the Heroic abilities. The Dragon Becomes Me can extend long enough to make Dragonblade permanent, while Living Weapon makes X-Strike a spammable ability that combines with Swift Strike for even more resets. Nanosteel Shuriken is simple enough on its own, but can be devastating with earlier upgrades on Q. Zanshin is a game-long W quest, and can be planned for from earlier levels. If players can complete it, Zanshin’s payoff is huge, and since Shuriken and Deflect’s damage upgrades don’t compete with each other, Genji can build up both skills simultaneously and choose the best capstone for the situation. Whichever talent is chosen, Genji gains the ability to apply consistent damage to the enemy team throughout an engagement, without losing his threat of hunting down anyone that tries to escape.

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