I've decided to try and solo queue one-trick Freja to Legend in Season 17 (Stadium S2). I could have done it about 20 games earlier if I didn't go on a huge losing streak one game before Legend but that's the Overwatch experience. I'll continue to update this build if big changes occur in S18 and onward. She's a really fun, versatile and strong hero so I'm surprised I don't see more people playing or making builds for her. I won't assume you have one for this build but a Mercy Pocket obviously makes Freja a lot stronger, as it does for most DPS.

I'm aiming to provide a good all-rounder build for, well, all rounds. I'll also go into a lot of detail and give tips for matchups and her general playstyle below, since most of the Frejas I do see seem pretty lost on what to do with her. In her current state a Weapon Power build is a lot stronger than Ability Power Bola. In this build I'm aiming for her burst playstyle, where hitting 2 Bolts in a row usually results in a kill on squishies (DPS/Supp) and you can make the tanks life hell. This build shares some similarities to ReyMercuryYTs Freja build since Weapon Power builds usually have the same base, so shout outs to them!

Lots of yapping below this point.

Continue to the builds if you don't care about playstyle tips and matchups.

Frejas general Gameplay

TLDR: Use your mobility, play long sightlines, spam spam spam your damage.

Freja is an incredibly mobile and fast hero, so using that to your advantage is key to her gameplay loop. You also have a lot more long range capabilities than most other DPS so far, so you'll especially shine on maps with long sight-lines. Even with survival items you'll never be as tanky as a Cass for example, so actually using that long to mid range will make your life a lot easier. But, depending on the enemy comp, getting close isn't too bad either. See what I mean with flexible?

In it's most basic form you just want to be shooting your crossbow and spamming Bolts at all times. Even if you don't hit every shot you're applying a lot of pressure and force the enemies to actively look at or avoid you. Your play to win is bursting the enemy squishies down by hitting two bolts in quick succession. Frejas most important combo with that in mind is Bolt - Dash - Bolt - Dash - Bolt where you spam out multiple deadly bolts in a second or so. Doing this will leave you without a lot of mobility for a short time so make sure you're not falling into the entire enemy team. This doesn't mean to fully ignore tanks in favor of squishies either, Freja is great at making the tanks life miserable, especially in later rounds. You have to judge the situations yourself but usually easy squishie kill shooting tank chasing a risky squishie kill but again, you just want to be shooting at all times and make your presence known. Disengaging is also pretty easy so if a fight is definitely lost, not before that, don't be afraid to disengage and regroup with our team instead of engaging the feed drive to warp speed, especially if you have a bounty.

Matchup Tips

For a lot of the matchups you'll face the most you just need to apply a bit of common gamesense. I'll only highlight some of the more interesting matchups for Freja and how to deal with them. With only one exception, Freja doesn't really have a hard hard counter. These are only starting points, good players on bad heroes can still kill you, same the other way around.

Tanks

[Zarya]. From my time playing, Zarya felt like the hardest tank to play into, since you'll be constantly feeding her energy with bolts and there's not much to do about that. Even if you ignore her personal bubbles, she can bubble teammates you stick for lots of energy. The best way to handle Zarya is to just burst her bubbles, then herself down in one go with your team so she can't utilize her energy too much. Stay away from her, play back!

[D.Va]. Not as big of a threat as Zarya but she can eat a lot of your bolts so make sure to not combo everything into her Matrix. If D.Va focuses you she usually has to leave her team unprotected and your team can follow up on that.

DPS

[Reaper]. Since you are usually a little split from your team, Reaper can sneak up on you quite easily. When in the air he's not too big of a problem but you won't have 100% airtime. In a neutral 1v1 with Reaper you really need to track his cooldowns. Only once he has used Wraith Form you should use your burst combo, since you'll be a very easy target if he avoids that. Teleport also cleanses so your Bolts don't follow him through that.

[Soldier: 76]. Solider can absolutely shred you so you need to make sure to play around cover and to not stay in the open air for too long. If he's using his Healing Station power [On Me!] that also usually negates your ability to two-shot him so pay attention to that. Going into a straight duel with Solider isn't something I'd recommend. You absolutely have the power to kill him but be smart about it. A lot of this also applies to [Cassidy]

[Mei]. While Mei herself isn't too big of a threat, you need to be watching for her cooldowns again, so she doesn't negate your burst combo with Iceblock.

[Genji]. Don't be stupid and shoot his deflect. Also, try to keep either one of your Dashes or Updraft available so you can put some distance between Genji and you once he dives you. Otherwise a pretty equal matchup.

Support

[Mercy]. Mercy enables a lot of counters to you, a Solider with Damage Boost and Pocket will be a much bigger problem. She's also flying around a lot so you need to get comfortable with hitting targets mid-air. Pay attention to where her teammates die so you can prevent her from rezzing by bursting her down. With somewhat fast reactions two Bolts can kill before she gets the rez off.

[Kiriko]. Kiri is for sure Frejas biggest counter. The double cleanse from [Two-Zu] plus fast teleport means she is almost impossible to kill and can care her teammates very easily. There's honestly not too much to do except spamming more and hoping something goes through, except Track Cooldowns! Once her cleanses are out she is the most vulnerable. One little neat thing is that her clones from [Clone Conjuration] count toward Frejas Passive, letting you build Bolas pretty fast. Too bad she can just cleanse and negate those too.

[Juno]. You need to be comfortable hitting flying targets, similar to Mercy. A Torpedo build can be pretty tricky, since Juno herself doesn't need to aim and can burst you down even when in the air. Play a little safe and smarter if that's the case. Otherwise not too big of a threat.

[Moira]. Most of the things mentioned for Reaper also apply to Moira. You need to watch for Fade cooldown and only burst her down afterward. She's only a big threat if she catches you off guard. When using Coal, you can Bola her to prevent her from fading and try to burst her down together with your team.

If you've made it this far, thanks for listening to my yap talk :). I hope you have as much fun playing this awesome hero as I do.