Moira Guide “Science will reveal the truth.”

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

Moira O'Deorain is a geneticist who specializes in biotic fluids that can both help and harm soldiers during combat. This scientist turned Talon councilwomen fights only for herself and her quest to change the world through genetic mutations. Similar to other mad scientists, Moira wants to push the boundaries of ethics and humanity in order to actualize the highly controversial capabilities of unhindered scientific study.

Moira is a main support who specializes in healing batches of teammates in a short span of time. Her primary fire weapon, Biotic Grasp (LMB), is not a weapon at all, but an energy that flows from her left arm and heals the allies in front of her in a specific area of effect radius.

Although Moira has one of the best AoE healing abilities in the game, she also has the option to deal damage through her Biotic Grasp (RMB). This single-target ability is a flow of energy that sucks the life out of her enemy, healing Moira of any damage she may have sustained on the battlefield.

One of the main decisions Moira players have to make is whether to heal their team or heal themselves while dealing damage. When Moira is attacked with her team, she may have to choose between healing her allies or staying alive. The choice in these critical scenarios is one of the major contributing factors to excellent Moira play (we will touch on this more on her playstyle page).

Speaking of decisions, Moira's other healing/damage ability is called Biotic Orb. Biotic Orb is a ball of energy that Moira sends out from herself in order to heal allies or harm enemies. This Orb travels in a straight path from Moira's point of view when sent out, but interacts with walls and obstacles in the Overwatch universe to change directions. This ability has a long cooldown and can stay on the battlefield for a full duration of 10 seconds. As a result of the long cooldown, Moira must use Biotic Orb efficiently and with a lot of planning, otherwise the ability can travel off the map and be completely useless.

Moira's main mobility ability, Fade, is an instant cast move that takes Moira out off the battlefield and gives her invisibility, invulnerability, and extremely high movement speed for 0.8 seconds. High skill Moira players can use Fade to evade certain-death enemy abilities or to surprise and kill enemy players with low health.

Moira's ultimate, Coalescence, is a large beam that shoots out of Moira's hands that heals all allies and harms all enemies who are caught in its wake. Coalescence is arguably one of the most versatile support ultimates in the game since it deals damage and heals allies at the same time. Due to its versatility, Coalescence's usage can be the difference between handedly winning a teamfight and losing an objective. For this reason, players wanting to master Moira should take a look at our playstyle page for tips on how and when to use Coalescence for maximum in-game impact.

• Has some of the best AoE healing in the game
• Is a decent duelist against enemy flankers
• Is versatile due to her healing/damage options
• Can use Fade to easily escape enemies
• Can use Coalescence to deal damage and simultaneously heal allies
• Can build Coalescence ultimate charge quickly

• Only a viable healer when allies stick together
• Lacks consistent medium and long range healing
• Damage-dealing abilities can be underwhelming against highly ranked players
• Biotic Orb is arguably one of the hardest support abilities to use effectively
• Coalescence is easily countered by interrupting abilities (Roadhog's Chain Hook, McCree's Flashbang, and others).

As Moira plays just behind the frontline of her team, she greatly benefits from playing with other heroes who like to get up close and personal with enemies. Brigitte is a perfect support pairing for Moira, as both healers can hold the frontline and generate massive amounts of sustain for their team (and Brigitte can help Moira deal with any heroes who try to take her out up close). Moira benefits from Reinhardt's Barrier Field, as she can freely heal her allies without worrying about getting picked, and Reinhardt soaks up Moira's healing from Biotic Grasp (LMB) when he runs out of his shield. Reaper has a difficult time getting to enemies when there is open space between him and his target, however, Moira can simply babysit Reaper as he moves about the map, allowing him to deal damage without worrying about getting killed. Moira is countered by heroes who deal instant kill combos. Hanzo is counter number one because he can deal instant kill damage to Moira and her allies without being close to the fray. Additionally, he can use Storm Arrows take easily take out Moira in duel situations. Roadhog is a beefy tank who has little to fear from Moira's Biotic Grasp (RMB). He is capable of tanking her abilities while mowing down enemies despite her attempts to heal her targets. His Chain Hook pulls enemies from Moira's healing range, and he can use his hook to pull Moira out of her Coalescence. For entirely different reasons than the ones states, Mei is an excellent counter to Moira due to her Ice Wall and Endothermic Blaster. Her Ice Wall separates enemies from Moira and breaks down her ability to heal her allies. Ice Wall can also be used to counter the effectiveness of Coalescence, and her Endothermic Blaster can freeze clumps of enemies who rally around Moira's healing abilities. Moira is strong against heroes who lack burst damage due to her Biotic Grasp (RMB). Her ability to suck the life out of heroes while simultaneously replenishing her own causes issues for two heroes specifically: Genji and Winston. Both heroes rely on gap closers to catch their enemies off guard. However, due to Fade, Moira has little to worry about when either hero jumps in and tries to kill her. If Moira's Fade is down, her Biotic Orb can be used to self sustain until help arrives. For this reason, Moira is a direct counter to both of these dive heroes.

• 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.

See our Abilities page for further information

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.

To take things further, we have 4 more pages that you can read:

• Abilities and Strategy: an overview of your hero's abilities and how to use them;
• Playstyle: a detailed explanation on how to play your hero;
• Maps: how to make the best use of your hero on each map;
• Synergies and Matchups: where we detail your synergies, your counters, and the heroes you work well against.

• 14 May 2018 (this page): Guide added.

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