overwatch
Zarya's passive is Energy, which allows Zarya to gain more damage on her Particle Cannon, the Plasma Bomb, and her Ult as she absorbs damage on her shields.
Visually, the orb on her weapon becomes larger and glows brighter. But nowhere in-game, or on the wiki does it state how the damage scales as she "stores" more damage.
Up to how much damage can Zarya dish out in addition to the base damage as she absorbs damage?
I just spent some quality time with Pharah in the Practice Range, and it looks like the primary target will take the base damage and secondary targets will take splash, falling off with distance.
According to this (message 4),
when Zarya is on the enemy team. She is lightly glowing red when at 50 charge. Heavily glowing at 100, also meaning you typically want to get rid of her quickly before she melts your team.
Best Answer
Zarya's damage scales with Energy with a 1%:1 ratio. Once at 100 Energy, she deals double damage with her Particle Cannon. Her primary fire goes from 95 DPS to 190 and her alternate will deal anywhere from 45 to 90 damage.