Winston by Murraythehuman

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Winston

By: Murraythehuman
Last Updated: May 7, 2020
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Winston

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A Ranged Tank who can cross long distances to aid his allies and provide substantial buffs.

Winston thrives when teams are grouped up, providing immediate buffs to his nearby allies, while also having a surplus of Area of Effect moves that punish enemies who like to stick together. While somewhat lacking in damage and crowd control, his talents have a high amount of flexibility, letting him fix whatever problems his team may be facing.

Attack Type: Ranged
Attack Speed: 4.00
Attack Range: 5.5
Attack Damage: 13
Health: 3050
Health Regen: 6.2

Strengths:
  • Long-range mobility.
  • Largely unperturbed by Crowd Control.
  • Teamfights.
Weaknesses:
  • Single-target damage.
  • No Poke.
  • Limited Crowd Control.

Gameplan:
Winston is a Tank who is effective in lane, and even more effective at the Objective. He can change the flow of an awry teamfight by dropping in unexpectedly with Jump-Pack and following up with Barrier Projector or Wild Roar. The armour granted by the barrier can declaw burst and sustain damage alike. Alternatively, he can leave the barrier with the heroes who need it, before leaping away to finish off a retreating foe or save the life of a split-pushing ally.

While not especially powerful, the 2 second cooldown of Tesla Cannon ensures Winston can deal consistent damage to groups of enemies, even if its channel is interrupted. Out of battle, it can clear entire waves of minions with relative ease, while Jump-Pack makes maintaining map presence such a breeze. However, his low damage makes it difficult for him to deal with structures, and so after winning the objective, it can be an effective strategy to leave the Barrier behind and split push instead.

When fighting against Winston, it's important to remember that he struggles against single targets and that Jump-Pack can't be used to hurt nearby enemies. In a teamfight, make sure you take his Barrier Projector into account, and keep your best tools for destroying it on hand if you find its damage reduction difficult to deal with. Remember to keep Jump-Pack's cooldown in mind if Winston is at low health, and only commit to killing him if you're confident that he won't be able to leap away.

At level 10, make a note of Winston's Heroic, as each brings a very different reason to be careful around the big ape. Discharge should make you wary of standing in his Tesla Coil, as it gives Winston access to scary amounts of burst damage. On the other hand, Primal Rage can let Winston survive if he's pinned down, as well as let him disrupt entire teams with his newfound crowd control.

Combat Trait

1
Wild Roar
CD: 30 seconds.

After .5 seconds grant 15% increased movement speed and damage to all nearby allies for 4 seconds.

Primary Abilities

1
Tesla Cannon
CD: 2 seconds.

Winston channels his Tesla Cannon to rapidly electrocute all enemies within a cone area, dealing 84 damage per second. Winston can move while channeling but has 30% reduced movement speed. Winston can channel for a maximum of 5 seconds.

- The cone covers roughly a 75 degree area. The reach is a bit further than Jaina's Cone of Cold.
- Hits four times a second.
2
Barrier Projector
CD: 12 seconds.

Winston places a Barrier Projector beneath him that lasts for 6 seconds. The Shield Generator has 470 health and grants 30 armour to all allies within its radius, decreasing damage taken by 30%.

-Barrier has an area comparable to the reveal area of Hanzo's Sonic Arrow
-The Projector's health scales with Winston's level.
3
Jump-Pack
CD: 10 seconds.

Winston leaps to a distant location, dealing 142 damage to all enemies in the impact area and slowing them by 50% for 1.25 seconds. This move has a minimum range equal to roughly 40% of its overall range.

-This move's range, both in terms of minimum and maximum, are about 15% greater than Medivh's Portal range. This absurd distance is offset largely by the move's lack of close-range application and trivial damage output.
-Uses Clamping.

Heroic Abilities

1
Primal Rage
CD: 100 seconds.

Winston enters Primal Rage, granting him a shield equal to 100% of his maximum health. While in Primal Rage Form, Winston loses access to all abilities except for Jump-Pack, which has its cooldown set to 4 seconds. Additionally, his attacks become melee range and cleave for 50% damage, with the main target receiving a small amount of knockback. Lasts for 12 seconds.


-This move could be seen as a more targeted version of Chen's Barrel, with the ability to isolate a single target.
-Due to the extreme Crowd Control this ability naturally provides, the damage numbers are hard to give precisely, and it's likely it would see a lot of tweaking, perhaps even seeing a channel time added to the transformation.
-The Storm upgrade "Apes of Wrath" causes the move to end after Winston gets a kill, but refunds the cooldown. To make sure he doesn't die because he lost his shields at an inopportune time, he will retain them for the intended duration of the transformation.
--The application of this Storm upgrade is that it makes it a viable option to use Primal Rage to pick off single opponents who are trying to escape, as well as giving Winston a way to not 'waste' the heroic if used to save his own life. It can also enable teamwipe combos where he's consistently getting back his massive shields.
2
Discharge
Cost: 200 Charges.

Every time Tesla Cannon deals damage to an enemy, gain 1 charge of Discharge, increased to 4 versus heroes. By expending 200 charges, Winston fires a concentrated burst of electricity that deals 380 damage to all enemies in its range.

Holds up to 200 charges.


-Discharge's range is slightly lower than that of Frostbolt, but travels at instant speed. Additionally, the blast hits in a widened circular area in front of Winston that ensures a point-blank shot won't miss.
-Discharge gives Winston the ability to periodically fire off burst damage, provided he can consistently land hits with his Q, bringing a more immediate sense of tangible impact to the character.
-If one were hitting all five enemy heroes, they would be receiving 80 stacks per second, causing this move to be ready to fire every 2.5 seconds.
-The Storm upgrade allows Winston to fire this move while channeling his Q, which causes him to immediately cast Q in that direction. This effectively lets him fire his Q constantly, and re-direct on the fly. Combined with the Full Recharge Talent and an optimal Level 16 Talent, Winston can become absurdly difficult to kill provided he can keep the combo up.

Special Mount

1
Mount
Winston cannot ride Horses, bikes, or other mounts that require him to sit in a saddled position. As such, he has a unique mounted animation where he puts his Cannon on his back and begins running like a gorilla. Additionally, a Summer Games skin may provide him with a skin-specific mount that sees him use his Tesla Cannon as a hoverboard.

Level 1 Talents

Winston's Talent tier for making his trait more interesting and defining him as either more offensive, defensive, or lategame oriented.


D (Trait): Call for Help - Wild Roar also grants allies 15 armor, decreasing damage taken by 15%. Stacks with Barrier Projector.

D (Trait): Welcome to the Jungle - Quest: Collect 20 Regen Globes. Reward: Allies are healed for Wild Roar's Bonus damage.

D (Trait): Dig Deep - The duration and bonuses of Wild Roar are doubled, but so is its cooldown.

Level 4 Talents

Winston's Sustain Tier. Talents that keep him alive. The Imperius's Press Forward Talent sees itself become a Generic Talent, though he doesn't get the armor bonus Imperius does due Winston's safer range.


Q: Full Recharge - Tesla Cannon grants shields equal to 50% of the damage done to enemy Heroes. Shields last for 2 seconds after Winston stops channelling Tesla Cannon.

E: Ready and Able! - When Jump-Pack is off cooldown, Winston Regains 2% of his maximum health every second.

Passive: Press Forward - Dealing damage to enemy heroes sets the duration of any active Regen Globes on Winston to 8 seconds (unless it is already higher).

Level 7 Talents

Winston joins the vaunted club of characters who augment one specific ability at Level 7, in this case his Barrier Projector. Version 2.0 (alpha) helps the Generator survive longer, while the other two talents are a choice between anti-burst and anti-sustain.


W: Version 2.0 (alpha) - Barrier Projector's health is increased by 50%, and explodes in a wide radius when destroyed, dealing 215 damage to all enemies within its shield radius.

W: Shield Generator - Allies within Barrier Projector's radius gain 33 shields per second. Shields last for 1 second when not under Shield Generator's effects.

W: Emergency Rescue Device - Barrier Projector can now be thrown a moderate distance when casting. Additionally, Shield Generator now grants 60 armour, decaying to 30 over 1.5 seconds.

Heroic Talents

Described Above, Winston's Heroics are polar opposites. One gives the ape access to what is basically a fourth basic ability that lets him add some burst damage to his kit, while the other gives him a second option to escape danger that fixes up his lack of crowd control.

Level 13 Talents

Winston's flex tier. All three options patch up specific problems that Winston or his team may be suffering from, though Apes a Hoppin' is a fairly safe choice in most circumstances.

E: Watch out Below! - When leaping at or over 80% of Jump-Pack's maximum range, Winston stuns enemies instead of slowing them.

D (Trait): Uproar - Wild Roar cleanses Roots and Slows. Additionally, it casts for free when a nearby ally dies with no cast time.

Active: Apes a Hoppin' - Activate to refund Jump-Pack's Cooldown. This ability is recharged by dealing damage to Heroes with Jump-Pack 8 times. Immediately recharged when hitting 4 or more heroes at once with Jump-Pack.

Level 16 Talents

Winston's Tesla Cannon up 'til now has seen very few talents, but it's here that it becomes a dangerous tool in Winston's arsenal, bringing increased power, Crowd Control, or a way to further punish enemies who like to stick together.


Q: Circuit Board - Tesla Cannon deals 10% increased damage for each enemy Hero in its radius, up to 50%. Additionally, Winston receives no movement penalty when channeling Tesla Cannon.

Q: Lock, Shock, and Barrel - Tesla Cannon slows enemies hit by 3% for 1 second, stacking up to 30%. Getting hit by Tesla Cannon refreshes the slow duration. Enemies slowed for the maximum amount have the slow's effect and duration doubled.

Q: Monkey Electrical Engineering Business - After damaging enemy heroes with Jump-Pack, the next cast of Tesla Cannon within 3 seconds gains 50% increased range. Additionally, enemies hit by Jump-Pack take 25% increased damage from Tesla Cannon for as long as the bonus range is active.

Storm Talents

Winston's upgraded Heroics are both moves that can potentially start a teamwipe combo should the opportunity come up, allowing him to act as a one-man cleanup crew, or as an indominable force. His Brought a Spare grants his W all the talents it could ever want, while Monkeying Around is an effective niche talent for games that require lategame map control.


R1: Apes of Wrath - Primal Rage ends after getting a takedown, instantly refunding its cooldown. Shields gained from Primal Rage persist for their usual duration, or until Primal Rage is re-cast.

R2: Ad Infinitum - Discharge can now hold 400 charges. Additionally, Dicharge can now be fired while channeling Tesla Cannon. Hitting enemy heroes with Discharge immediately recasts Tesla Cannon in that duration, resetting its duration.

W: Brought a Spare - Gain all Level 7 Talents. Barrier Projector gains a second charge.

E: Monkeying Around - If Winston neither takes nor receives Hero Damage for 4 seconds after using Jump-Pack, its cooldown is refunded.

Passive: Winston's basic attacks and Tesla Cannon deal 100% increased damage to minions and structures.

Conceptual Talent Builds

We have no healer: Welcome to the Jungle > Press Forward > Shield Generator/Emergency Rescue Device > Primal Rage > Uproar > flexible > Brought a Spare

Press Forward keeps Winston alive in lieu of a healer, and encourages him to pick up as many globes as possible so that he can provide his team with healing. Given that his team has no healer, ally deaths are likely, and so Uproar might give the rest of the team a fighting chance.


I wanted to play a Bruiser: Dig Deep/Call for Help > Press Forward > flexible > Discharge > Watch out Below! > Monkey Electrical Engineering Business > Monkeying Around

This is a Winston who really only cares about pushing lanes, probably two at once, and will try to bully away any enemy solo laners who encroach on his territory.


Life Saver: Call for Help > Ready and Able > flexible > Primal Rage > Watch out Below! > Lock, Shock, and Barrel > Brought a Spare

The Winston who will leap towards any and all allies who seem like they're in danger, crossing entire lanes to do it. The only question is which shield is right for the job. This Winston always tries to keep his Jump-Pack ready, so Ready and Able will do its job well.


Objective. Gotta take the objective.: Map Specific > Ready and Able > flexible > Primal Rage > Apes a Hoppin' > Circuit Board > Apes of Wrath

A calm, collected Winston who wants to win objective above all else. Everything here is focused on waiting for the right chance to strike, and/or holding the line while the team finishes the job.


Lategame King (Kong): Welcome to the Jungle > Full Recharge > Shield Generator > Discharge > flexible > Circuit Board > Ad Infinitum

Your gameplan here is simple. Get to level 20, then get into a fight against the entire enemy team. Thanks to Ad Infinitum, you can continuously fire Tesla Cannon without any downtime, potentially charging up enough power to fire off Discharge multiple times. The Tesla Cannon feeds you constant shields, while Welcome to the Jungle heals you for it all if things look dire. Always remember that crowd control can only stop you for 2 seconds at a time.


I Hate Kel'thuzad: Call for Help > flexible > Emergency Rescue Device > flexible > Uproar > Monkey Electrical Engineering Business > Heroic upgrade

The enemy team has a Kel'thuzad and you just want to shut down any and all of his combos. You feel especially good that Uproar will make Deathchill useless... or at least you think so. You haven't seen how the two talents interact.

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