OverwatchOverwatch Genji Guide and Overview

Younger brother to Hanzo and close friend of Kiriko, Genji utilizes his cyber-ninja skills to jump, climb, and dash around the fight! One of the two original flanking DPS heroes, Genji remains a great choice for those who want to play behind enemy lines. Wielding his Dragonblade and Shuriken give him some of the highest burst damage in Overwatch.

The combination of wall climbing, double jumping, and dashing makes for unmatched agility and mobility. Regardless of map or team comp, Genji always plays best as a flanker or dive hero. When receiving help from teammates, such as coordinating a backline attack with his Tank or getting resources from a Support, he assassinates the enemy backline like no other.

Although Shurikens can be used from any distance, Genji primarily wants to take fights up close and personal after catching enemies by surprise.

TLDR

Play As

• Target Supports. Genji’s primary function is assassinating backlines. Use your mobility to bypass the enemy frontline, get close to the Supports, and kill them first.
• Always flank. Genji shouldn’t ever be standing in the front or middle of objective areas. Position on the perimeter of the fight, and attack from the side or behind the enemy.
• Support players know to save ults like Sound Barrier to counter Blade. If you suspect they have a defensive ult available, hold on to Blade until your team has forced out their ult.

Play As

• Don’t get isolated. Genji is one of the best 1v1 duelists in OW, so stay close to your allies so he always has to fight at least two enemies.
• Force out Deflect by dealing damage with your standard weapon, then use your cooldown abilities to punish him when he doesn’t have it. 
• Dragonblade is extremely lethal and can instantly win team fights. Plan how you will personally survive it, and how you can help your teammates survive with your healing, burst damage, or CC.

Strengths

1v1 duels

As one of the best duelers in the game, Genji wants to take on isolated targets as often as possible. Shurikens are easiest to hit from close range because of their slow travel speed. Double jumping over and around his target makes aim tracking a Genji very difficult. The threat of Deflect makes it very difficult for enemy players to use their abilities. Getting their ability Deflected means certain death for the enemy.

Mobility

Combining his three mobility tools enables Genji to take paths around the map that are only available to very few other heroes. Genji’s mobility can be used defensively to evade damage, escape fights, or offensively to quickly approach enemies.

Team Kill Potential

Dragonblade on its own is a decent ult. When combined with a Support ult like Nano Boost or Kitsune Rush, Genji can realistically wipe out the entire enemy team.

Weaknesses

Low poke damage

During the Poke phase of a fight, when both teams are still a good distance from each other, Genji provides little value. Spread out Shurikens with slow travel speed are one of the weakest long-range abilities.

Heavily reliant on his cooldown cycle

When Genji has already used Deflect and Swift Strike, he becomes a sitting duck defensively, and barely a threat offensively. Players who are able to chain Swift Strike Resets together are incomparably stronger than players who have yet to master the skill.

Vulnerable to beams

Because Deflect is Genji’s primary means of surviving, he struggles against heroes with beams. Winston jumps on him, he'd better have dash to get away. If he lets them get into range, heroes like Zarya, Sym, and Moira quickly eliminate Genji.

Primary Fire: Shuriken

Tips for Shuriken

• Poke
• • Shurikens have no damage falloff. If you see a stationary target like a scoped Ana, a triple headshot deals a quick 162 damage. putting them at critical health.
• Small targets
• • Against small targets, primary fire may feel more difficult to land but the damage potential is much higher than the fan.

Secondary Fire: Shuriken (Fan spread)

Tips for Shuriken (Fan spread)

• Large body enemies
• • Secondary fire deals consistent high damage into larger body Tanks and DPS. At close range, switch to secondary fire.
• Easier final blows
• • When your target is literally one-shot, secondary fire is typically easier to hit a single Shuriken than primary fire.

[SHIFT]: Swift Strike

Tips for Swift Strike

• Path to engage
• • In general, do not engage with dash. Instead, use your regular mobility to stage and set up your flanks.
• When to dash
• • Focus on saving Swift Strike to confirm eliminations and get the dash reset, or to disengage and escape with your life. 
• Dash Resets
• • Swift Strike’s cooldown resets on eliminations using any ability. You do not have to get the elimination with dash to get the reset. 
  • Learning how to manage your dash resets is Genji’s most deadly tool, so invest the time needed to learn distance and timing.
• One-shot combo against 250 HP heroes.
• • Primary fire → Swift Strike → Secondary Fire → Melee
  • Need to land all Shurikens

[E]: Deflect

Tips for Deflect

• Counter the enemy's highest value ability
• • Save Deflect when you know the enemy team has high-value abilities such as: Sleep Dart, Cardiac Overdrive, Sticky Bombs, Graviton Surge, Bastion turret form, etc.
• Cooldown cycle
• • Do not engage in close-quarters combat without Deflect available. Once you’ve used it, you need to plan how you will survive or escape. 
  • Just saving Deflect creates the threat of its use, which is almost as valuable as having an additional cooldown ability when dueling opponents.
  • When the enemy knows you still have Deflect, they’ll be hesitant to use their abilities. 
• Aiming Deflect
• Deflect’s hitbox is only in front of Genji and does not stop damage from behind. Therefore, you need to be aiming at your attacker to Deflect their attack.
• Example: Deflect a scoped shot from Widowmaker back at her head, and you’ll kill her with a critical hit.

[SPACE]: Cyber-agility

Tips for Cyber-Agility

• Staging and pathing
• • Whenever possible, find ways to engage backline targets by only using wall climb and double jump. This allows Genji to always have Swift Strike available for actual combat. 
  • Get creative and find ways to surprise the enemies by attacking from unexpected angles. This will also minimize the damage you take during the setup phase.

Ultimate: Dragonblade

Tips for Dragonblade

• Track enemy counter abilities
• • Before using Dragonblade, it is extremely important to see enemies use the cooldowns that could shut you down (Ana Sleep Dart, Transcendence, Cassidy Grenade, etc).
  • Likewise, heroes who have high mobility or invincible escapes shouldn’t be targeted unless you’ve seen those abilities used.
• Look for isolated targets
• • Anytime you can find an enemy position far from the rest of their team, they’ll be the easiest to kill and get the first dash reset from.
• Coordinate with ally abilities
• • The classic combo for using NanoBlade is to call for Nano Boost by dashing up into the air, popping both ults, then using the dash reset to dive your target.
  • Depending on your team composition, determine the abilities that will empower your Dragonblade to have the highest chance of getting kills.
• Dragonblade bread and butter combos
• • Eliminates 275 HP heroes: Dash → slash → slash (dash cooldown reset), repeat.
  • (With Nano): Dash → slash eliminates 225 HP heroes.

Minor Perks

Acrobatics

• Not very useful
• • Compared to Dragon’s Thirst, Acrobatics brings very little value to Genji. You’re rarely going to find a use for being able to double jump, dash, then double jump again.

Dragon's Thirst

• Best Minor Perk
• • Lifesteal during Dragonblade enables you to be even more aggressive than normal during your ult.
• Less reliant on team resources
• • When running Dragon’s Thirst, Genji has more agency to make big plays without the need for healing or comboing with ults like Nano Boost.
  • When swinging repeatedly, Genji gains up to ~45 healing per second, and with Nano, it jumps up to ~70 healing per second!
• Still not invincible
• • Always remember that just because you are lifestealing, you aren’t invincible, so take your standard precautions and don’t try to 1v5 the enemy team.

Major Perks

Blade Twisting

• Very situational 
• • Only against the 175 HP heroes Tracer and pilot D.Va, does the extra 25 damage change breakpoints. With Blade Twisting, Genji can elim these heroes with a single dash and slash IF he has already eliminated another enemy first.

Meditation

• Best Major Perk
• • Restore up to 70 health during Deflect. The extra health enables Genji to stay in fights longer, and thereby deal more damage.
  • Far more useful than Blade Twisting.
• Help with beams
• • While 35 healing per second is lower than the damage per second of every beam, it will still help Genji to survive some situations where he would’ve otherwise died.

Best maps

• Numbani
• • The first two points on Numbani have tons of high ground surrounding the point and path of the payload. Superior vertical mobility allows Genji to take advantage of the various high ground areas for both defensive and offensive positions. On the final point, there are multiple strong flank routes Genji can use to set up engagements on vulnerable backlines.
• Dorado
• • Dorado is full of walls in every area of the map that Genji can climb up to take advantageous positions. The defending team's high ground position on the first point is incredibly strong. Genji is one of the few heroes who can reliably contest this position or climb up and bait out multiple cooldowns with Deflect.

Worst Maps

• Circuit Royal
• • The sightlines on Circuit Royal are super long. Although Genji’s Shurikens have no falloff damage, other DPS heroes with more reliable ranged damage abilities tend to outperform him here. First point Circuit Royal tends to be the most difficult map area of any map for Genji to find value on. 
• Havana
• • First and third point are wide open spaces with nowhere for Genji to hide, retreat, or safely attack from. Long-range heroes like Sojourn and Widow have a fairly easy time picking off Genji while he’s still trying to make his way forward. Second point attacking is a bit easier for him, but defense here also makes it hard for Genji to find value.

Team comps built around mobility can best utilize Genji’s power. Full dive team comps can be explosive with Genji, but rely on coordination and timing. A team built around strong mobility abilities can completely control a game and dictate when, where, and with whom fights occur.

Ideal Team Comp built around Genji: 

• Tank: Winston
• DPS: Genji, Sojourn
• Supports: Ana, Lucio

On the other hand, Genji can also play well as the solo dive or flank hero on his team. In these team comps, he functions as an elimination confirmer, following up on team damage. Teammates who output high levels of consistent damage can greatly enable Genji with dash reset after dash reset on low health enemies.

Example team comp: Zarya, Genji, Junkrat, Ana, Baptiste

Individual synergies with other heroes

Winston

• Winston is still the best Tank to pair with the Cyborg Ninja. Jump Pack and Swift Strike pair wonderfully with one another. The pair can match each other's aggression and trade between Barrier Projector and Deflect to survive any retaliation to their dive.

Ana

• The strongest and most famous pairing is based on using both heroes' ults as one: Nano-Blade. A quick YouTube search will flood your feed with countless Nano-Blade montages. Ana’s ranged hitscan healing is also one of the best ways to assist a Genji deep in enemy territory. Landing a big Anti-Nade also allows Genji to quickly follow up with his speed, then dash out to safety.

Kiriko

• Protection Suzu can be used as a “get out of jail free” card when Genji makes a mistake and gets hit with a life-threatening ability. Additionally, Kiriko's target-seeking healing is great for consistently healing Genji as he quickly moves around trying to evade damage. When Nano Boost is not available, Kitsune Rush can be just as deadly of a pairing with Dragonblade, allowing Genji to slash at lightning speed.

Genji struggles against damage types he can’t Deflect (primarily beam damage). The best way for everyone else to shut down a good Genji is by baiting out Deflect. Genji players often save this ability to counter specific cooldowns, so if you can force the use of Deflect to survive against basic damage, you’ll be at a huge advantage. 

If using comms, calling out when Deflect and dash are used can help your team know how aggressively they can target the Genji. Most importantly, tracking when Dragonblade is available can easily make the difference between losing and winning the entire game. Most of Genji’s value in a given match revolves around his use of Dragonblade. Therefore, if you are prepared to counter Blade, the Genji player will probably just swap after being flamed by his entire team.

Specific hero counter

Winston

• The best Tank to pair with Genji is also the best tank to counter him! First off, Genji can’t Deflect his primary fire. Secondly, Winston can peel for teammates the enemy Genji is focusing and chase down Genji when he attempts to retreat. Lastly, if the Monke has insane juggle mechanics, Primal Rage beats Dragonblade.

Echo

• Echo’s mobility is very different from Genji’s, but she has the tools to chase him down. At medium range, these two heroes are similarly matched, but Focusing Beam goes through Deflect and melts a low HP Genji. Echo tends to provide superior value to her team throughout the match when comparing kits without Ults available. Playing Genji into Echo then gives her access to Dragonblade for her Copy, making Echo a devastating foe.

Brigitte

• Whipshot alone interrupts Genji's entire game plan. Swift Strike gets shut down when used as an attack or mobility option when booped by Brig. She also sends out healing packs, which makes it extremely difficult for Genji to eliminate targets in her range. Rally can also counter Dragonblade by giving everyone armor, and if she lands her stun on the Genji.

Moira

• Moira is the classic Genji counter since her Biotic Grasp auto-tracks Genji’s fast movement and Biotic Orb damages Genji during Deflect unless he directly Deflects the projectile. Coalescence gives Moira a third method of damaging through Deflect. Additionally, Fade’s invincibility and movement are also difficult for Genji to deal with and can interrupt him from chaining together dash resets during Dragonblade. Unlike Brigitte, however, Moira struggles to keep her allies alive against Genji. Moira is an easier way to survive against and kill Genji, but Brig is technically the better counter.