Moira Abilities and Strategy

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Overview of Moira
  • 2. Moira's Strengths
  • 3. Moira's Weaknesses
  • 4. Moira Synergies
  • 5. Moira Counters
  • 6. Moira Is Strong Against
  • 7. Moira TL;DR Tips
  • 8. Reading Further for Moira
  • 9. Changelog
• ×Abilities and Strategy
  • 1. Moira TL;DR Tips
  • 2. Moira's Abilities
    • 2.1. Biotic Grasp
    • 2.2. Biotic Grasp (Secondary Fire)
    • 2.3. Biotic Orb
    • 2.4. Fade
    • 2.5. Coalescence
• +Playstyle
  • 1. Introduction to Moira
  • 2. Offensive Combos for Moira
    • 2.1. Moira Combo 2
  • 3. Defensive Maneuvers for Moira
  • 4. Team Healing & Positioning as Moira
  • 5. Ultimate Usage for Moira
    • 5.1. Great Times to Use Coalescence
    • 5.2. Wrong Times to Use Coalescence
• +Synergies and Matchups
  • 1. Synergies for Moira
    • 1.1. Brigitte & Moira
    • 1.2. Reaper & Moira
    • 1.3. Reinhardt & Moira
  • 2. Moira Counters
    • 2.1. Hanzo & Moira
    • 2.2. Mei & Moira
    • 2.3. Roadhog & Moira
  • 3. Moira Is Strong Against
    • 3.1. Genji & Moira
    • 3.2. Winston & Moira
• +Maps
  • 1. Best Maps for Moira
    • 1.1. Moira on Temple of Anubis
    • 1.2. Moira on Route 66
  • 2. Worst Map for Moira
    • 2.1. Moira on Watchpoint: Gibraltar

On this page, you will find a detailed overview of the abilities that Moira has access to. We also explain how to best use these abilities.

The other pages of our Moira guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

• Moira can deal damage to enemies, but players must make healing allies a priority if they want to take her to the next level of play.
• Moira's Coalescence is easy to charge, and should be used to ensure victories in challenging team fights, or to split enemy teams for easy picks.
• Moira should use Biotic Orb sparingly due to its high cooldown, relying on Biotic Grasp (LMB) to get the job done in most cases.
• If Moira's team wins a fight, she should use her Biotic Grasp in spurts to heal her allies, rather than holding down the trigger and wasting precious biotic energy. Players should let Biotic Grasp's 16 healing a second do the grunt work of healing allies when outside of a fight.
• Coalescence should rarely be used as a counter to deadly burst damage ultimates like Barrage and RIP-Tire. Her team will most likely take too much damage to prevent with Coalescence alone.
• Fade can be used to chase enemies, but it should typically be saved for dodging crucial enemy abilities like Flashbang or Chain Hook.
• Moira has to keep her Biotic Grasp stream directly on allies to regenerate 80 health a second on her teammates. Therefore, it is better to focus on healing a tank who is getting focused rather than topping off semi-wounded offensive heroes.
• The healing properties of Biotic Orb are stronger than its damage-dealing properties. Remember that out-sustaining the enemy is sometimes more effective than out-damaging the enemy.

Although Biotic Grasp is the name of Moira's primary fire and secondary fire weapons, the two fire types are entirely different from each other. Biotic Grasp (LMB) is Moira's primary fire ability that heals her allies at a rate of 80 health a second.

The primary fire of Biotic Grasp heals allies using a stream of biotic energy that stems from Moira's left arm. This stream is technically a projectile, and its mechanics are similar to that of a projectile dps weapon. The stream spews forth at a pace of 30 meters a second, but its maximum effective distance ends at 15 meters. Therefore, if an ally is 15 meters away from Moira and on the brink of death, Biotic Grasp will possibly fail to reach the ally before he or she succumbs to enemy fire as it will take half a second for the biotic fluid to travel the distance from Moira to the ally. In regards to the width of the stream, the flow of liquid is pretty forgiving for players who struggle with exact aim. Watch the video below for an example.

When an ally stands within Moira's Biotic Grasp, they are healed for 80 health a second. However, when Moira turns the stream away from an ally, the previous target of the stream will continue to regenerate health at a rate of 16.66 health per second for an additional duration of three seconds. This means Moira can "burst heal" an ally who is dangerously low with focused blasts while "spot healing" other allies by directing the stream at them for a brief moment.

Biotic Grasp is one of the few abilities in the game that has no formal cooldown. Although Biotic Grasp has no cooldown between uses, it does have a brief channel time of 0.3 seconds. Therefore, Moira may need to anticipate incoming enemy burst damage in order to stop teammates from dying. Additionally, the primary fire of Biotic Grasp has a gauge which shows how much biotic energy Moira has to pour out on her allies. At full capacity, Moira can heal her teammates for nine seconds before the ability runs out of juice and can no longer be used. The ability will take a staggering 45 seconds to recharge on its own, but the gauge can be filled by dealing damage through the use of Biotic Grasp (RMB).

It is also worth noting that, although the weapon begins to recharge immediately after use, the in-game HUD shows a red bar next Biotic Grasp's gauge that, when Biotic Grasp's charge is under the red bar, makes the ability un-startable. Moira can only use Biotic Grasp once the charge is above the red bar. See the video below showing that it is impossible to start the Biotic Grasp primary fire until the resource gauge is above the red bar.

While the primary fire of Biotic Grasp (LMB) heals allies, the secondary fire of Biotic Grasp (RMB) deals damage to enemies. In fact, Biotic Grasp is an auto-locking beam weapon that heals Moira and regenerates the primary fire Biotic Grasp. Biotic Grasp's secondary fire deals 50 damage per second and heals Moira for 30 health per second. The weapon's maximum range is 21 meters, and replenishes the primary fire Biotic Grasp gauge at a rate of 11% per second.

Biotic Grasp is Moira's primary source of damage while not using her ultimate. Although the damage is weak in comparison to other heroes, it is consistent and easy to deal. Therefore, Biotic Grasp can be used to take on enemies who are low, or to duel enemy flankers should the scenario arise.

Biotic Orb allows Moira to throw out a healing or damage dealing orb that follows a direct path from wherever Moira is looking when she releases the ability. Moira must decide on the type of orb she wants to send out before releasing the ability onto the map. Once it is out on the map, the orb will interact and deflect off of objects in the Overwatch universe, sending the orb in various directions based on the surface of the object it runs into.

Regardless of the type of orb (damage or healing), it exists on the map for 10 seconds, or until the energy held within is entirely used up. The orb travels across the map at a pace of 20 meters a second, but when the orb is interacting with a hero in the game, it will slow down to a pace of 5.5 meters a second. Since the orb slows down when it interacts with heroes, Moira can set up chain damage or healing by using the orb during close quarters combat situations where multiple allies or enemies are bunched together.

The damage dealing orb is less potent than the healing orb in both DPS and overall energy. The attacking version of Biotic Orb can deal a maximum of 200 damage at 50 hit points per second, while the defending version can heal a maximum of 300 hit points at 75 health a second. Due to the discrepancy in damage and healing outputs, it is crucial that Moira choose her orb based on the current scenario. Overall, the healing orb is more potent, and Moira is better off relying on the healing orb in situations where her team has enough damage without Moira's help. However, in scenarios where a damage dealer is dead or unavailable, it may make more sense to throw out a damage dealing Biotic Orb to make up for the lost DPS while using Biotic Grasp (LMB) to heal allies from incoming damage.

Other mechanics of Biotic Orb:

• Biotic Orb will tether to any number of allies or enemies as long as they are within a 5 meter radius.
• Biotic Orb has a 10-second cooldown, which starts when Moira releases the orb.
• The orb can fly off of the map or up into the air, so be careful about sending it skyward or towards cliffs.
• Full-health allies are unaffected by Biotic Orb, and the orb does not slow down or deplete while traveling through uninjured allies.
• Biotic Orb damage will not regenerate Biotic Grasp (LMB).
• Biotic Orb's hitbox is smaller than its visible graphic, which means it may travel through the corner of a wall.
• Biotic Orb is a like any other projectile, which means Genji can Deflect it and D.Va can erase it from the map with Defense Matrix.

Fade is one of the better healer mobility abilities. Fade takes Moira out of the playing field, giving her immunity, stealth, and increased movement speed for 0.8 seconds. When Moira enters Fade, she loses all attached buffs (like Zenyatta's Orb of Harmony) and drops anything stuck on her (like Hanzo's Sonic Arrow and Tracer's Pulse Bomb). However, Moira will keep Ana's Nano Boost through Fade, and can still be healed by area of effect healing. Moira can also be healed by ally projectiles if they hit her location in Fade, and she can pick up health packs while in Fade. It should also be noted that Moira can disappear, but not escape from, Junkrat's Steel Trap by using Fade. Fade has a 6-second cooldown which begins immediately after Moira reappears from a previous use of Fade.

Some common uses of Fade:

• escaping enemy fire;
• dodging enemy abilities like McCree's Flashbang;
• dropping enemy abilities like Tracer's Pulse Bomb;
• jumping over gaps;
• changing position;
• getting back from the spawn room;
• chasing low enemies.

Coalescence is Moira's ultimate that, after a short delay, fires a giant swirling beam of biotic energy that stems from Moira's position and continually shoots at wherever Moira is currently facing. Coalescence is an intriguing main support ultimate, as it interacts with any hero it touches while in Moira's line of sight, having the potential to heal multiple allies and simultaneously harm multiple enemies. Coalescence deals 70 DPS to opponents and heals allies for 140 hit points per second.

Some of the intricacies of Coalescence:

• Coalescence lasts for 8 seconds.
• Coalescence heals Moira at a rate of 50 health a second.
• Coalescence increases Moira's movement speed to 9 meters a second
• Coalescence has a maximum range of 30 meters.
• Coalescence travels through all barriers.
• Coalescence is technically a channel ability, which means it can be interrupted by stuns (like McCree's Flashbang) and Sombra's Hack.

About our Author

Mournflakes is a flex Grandmaster Overwatch player who boasts a career high SR rating of 4433. His favorite heroes are Roadhog, Soldier: 76, and Ana. He has played Overwatch since its initial release, and has put over 700 hours into competitive play. When not writing guides, you can catch Mournflakes streaming on his Twitch channel.