Overwatch - Brigitte used FLAIL!

[Nayrz]

I doubt Sombra will be viable on attack, but defense on 2cp/hybrid seems to be her ideal area from the games I've played alongside her so far. She seems very high skillcap and a useless Sombra appears to show out above anything else in the game - I do not recommend learning her in ranked if you value your elo/team/sanity, as your team WILL notice and WILL call you out for it for the same reasoning as "useless Tracer", only Sombra has way less kill potential. QP will have 1HL next patch so that might help but I'm avoiding this character for now. PTR is a real shithole for any sort of quality games which really impacts people's opinions of heroes and buffs - i lost like 6 placement games due to 4 dps (one of them sombra obviously) and it still put me at 3300 for whatever reason... are Blizzard sure they knocked people down a peg for S3? My PTR rank was like 3000-3100 the entirity of S2 so idk what happened there...

Bottom line is, don't take PTR or anyone elses opinions from PTR changes as gospel. Its not a competitive environment. Wait till the stuff is released and get a bunch of games with the new stuff before throwing stuff out.

 

[sandshrewz]

re joim. Sombra is as strong as her team's coordination. Don't really have specific opinions about her on 2cp attack. But for w/e gamemode she does have a disadvantage on attack b/c defending Sombra can always hack packs before her. Also chokes forces her to use her movement skills more carefully. Going invis into a choke is the same as with TF2, you have to do it when teams aren't poking. There's also the option of TP, or TP while invis. That's if you feel that burning both abilities are worth it.

anubis is considered her best map. tons of places you can get where other heroes can't for flank routes, limited health packs that you can continuously keep hacked, etc. you can't expect to walk through chokes; you'll have to cloak first and use your teleporter on first point attack most likely.

ooo there's already opinions as to what map shes good at? And yeaaa 2cp maps tend to have super open points to just EMP everything too. I think the only exception is Hanamura A where it's more closed and the bell blocks LOS.

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Yea Sombra's definitely one of those heroes that's going to tilt your own team if you pick it on S3 early. Like how Ana wrongfully tilts teammates in S1. And yeaaa PTR is really bad to gauge things properly based on gameplay experience. I'd say some proper theorycraft is even more reliable than personal experience.

LOL Nayrz you placed 3k in PTR? That's cool. Might be interference from your own other hidden mmrs, and PTR ranks are pretty whack all the time anyways. There's been like PTR masters and stuff who are like gold/plat in the end when S2 hit live. Too small pool of players. I think S3 placements are meant to be more conservative and tries to underestimate more often than not ? Maybe your own hidden mmr is that high that it's still 3k after that, we can hope right? hahaha :p curious though, were your placement games with like unranked players or were they already ranked like diamond and stuff.

--

Also yea I experienced comp players like purposefully throwing games with real bad picks and doing weird things. Like :/ we'd have won if the guy just stays in spawn and idles lolol. I briefly dropped back to plat mmr and had a game on Gibraltar where the enemy was accusing our Bastion as an aimbot. Idrk man though I was playing Mercy I didn't pay enough attention to how much he was missing. He was in a group of Ana/Rein/Bastion. And they had suchhhhh bad game sense??? Like Ana would completely forget to heal Bastion (lol), and really bad set up locations. If the enemy team had some skill they'd have easily countered it el presidente, like I wasn't even really pocketing Bastion either lols. Mostly doing my own thing and getting gold heal, and also bronze elims for the most part (lol). If the enemy team is bad enough for me to just pew pew them to bronze then eh I can't really tell for myself if what they said was worth anything. I also didn't die enough to spectate Bastion soooo :0 Anyway both sides were mostly koreans so I can't tell their exchanges unless someone wrote in english. It's not hard to counter a Bastion supported by brain dead teammates anyway.

How often to hackusations get thrown around that you guys see?

And eh people keep questioning Nano Boosts when they don't have ult. Like >:| lmao. You don't always have to combo it and sometimes I'm annoyed by people building their ult so slowly so I decided to forcefully make them build it haha. But had a last comp game today pretty chill as Ana. No idea how I maintained over 80% on both scoped and unscoped for the most part before it dropped to over 70%. Didn't even bother shooting Rein shields too lol. Nano blade and nano blossom are still good stomp things woo. Also lmao sleeping a Genji trying to cast blade tilts them so bad they just focus you all the time afterwards. And then I die to them when I don't save my nade for myself xD

Also Mercy on PTR is so fun and abusing the 25% ult change is great with a friend. We backfilled a game and lmao just wrecked with Mercy/Genji combo and I got silver elims by pivoting around Genji and killing stuff while healing. That 1s heal is really awesome.

Apparently most/all of the PTR changes are hitting live too though. Not too sure how I feel about that. Thoughts etc?

 

[Nayrz]

Pretty much all of my PTR placement games were like 5-8 dudes unranked but the ranks i did see was mad. The first game was bronze elo... interesting win. After 5 or so placements it was vs diamonds and masters but due to lack of competitiveness everyone was ok just running 4 dps 1 tank 1 healer just so they could play their silly sombras or practice hitscan aim or what have ya... wrecked the winrate but it didnt seem to actually affect anything if it placed at 3.3k.

I've yet to see any hack callouts in EU masters and there are hitscan mains there that will make you definitely wonder whats going on. The only guy i remember i kept facing was like a widow/mccree only player with a shitload of hours so i didnt think anything of it.

All the PTR changes seem alright to me besides Widowmaker's who i will never be happy to see a buff for.

 

[Joim]

I think rank is heavily influenced by your current rank and who you happen to get on your placements on ptr. We'll see on live!

 

[HailFall]

The pharah knockback reduction is the only change that Definitely Should Not Go Live as thats such a heavy nerf to her. Juggling hitscan was her only real defense against them. The other changes are definitely good for her, but reduced knockback really sucks.

Really like the widow buff. I know a lot of people hate playing against her but shes a blast to play

I also REALLY like the dva changes. I think they really turn her into a top tier tank which im glad to see. I'd rather they make her crit box a little less ridiculous than buff her HP but idk its fine either way.

 

[sandshrewz]

As usual I like his stuff, and he's still bold to call out on pros for their limitations and limited innovation/playstyles. Which I do agree too lol. Stuff like playing a more hybrid/grounded Pharah. Also yea he brought up the dislike for 25% ult nerf as well, and I had the same sentiments regarding like nerfing ults itself as a possible option, rather than the charge rate. It's a different approach but if they want a flat global change that would be better than a flat rate change. Rate change has to be done on a per hero basis basically if that's the approach to be taken. If not, you quantify the 25% 'effectiveness' of each ult and nerf that, like ult duration, damage, etc.

And yes EMP is an 'end the map' ult as what he says. I don't particularly think it's compulsory to combo it with another ult? It's very possible to just dry push after an EMP, but most of the time it'd be more efficient and ults just guarantee the push. Same sentiments regarding Sombra being possibly run on dive comps etc. Also omg the burn of saying the meta got stale because of limitations of players rather than of the game itself. So bold. But heck I do see that possibility and don't deny it. Ideally both DPS players should be able to play both projectile and hitscan, but isn't the case for most people in the pro scene atm. This leads to people exploiting comps etc where if a team has a more flexible comp they can just abuse that. But for the most, part teams aren't as flexible as they can be.

Yea I'd like there to be some counterplay against health pack hacks. It's just really boring to play with and against. Like at least Mei walls don't last forever and can be destroyed if you have a high energy Zarya, Reaper, etc, and I still don't like Mei walls cos it still takes forever to break it.

He mentions that the counter to EMP would be good positioning. I've been pretty vocal and saying that positioning isn't a counter to EMP. He brings up the Graviton against Transcendence without Pulse Bomb to combo. Yea I see that a lot in pro play and just roll my eyes 9.9 unless their win condition is simply to force out Transcendence. He says 'saying that there's no counterplay to EMP is like saying there's no counterplay to surviving Graviton'. But the keyword here is surviving. Graviton without an instakill is pretty survivable with a support ult. And no EMP radius is sooooo goddam bigger than Graviton it's not even a fair comparison lols. And there's a huge difference between the execution of EMP and Graviton. Zarya can only Graviton wherever she can shoot it at. EMP instead can be literally any part of the map. You see the Zarya, you see the intention to EMP from her possible angles she can shoot it at. As with Sombra, nope she can do that anytime anywhere she wants. Good luck avoiding EMP cos that's literally unavoidable because it's up to Sombra to screw it up. Also even if you don't group up within a >10m radius, which lets be real it puts you at like what over 20m apart. It cleaves your team so much if you have to split up your positioning that much. And a good EMP doesn't necessarily need to EMP the whole enemy team. Most likely you'd just need to EMP the supports and make sure your own team doesn't get wrecked by Earthshatter/Graviton. There's no condition to force out EMP like how you force out Transcendence, unless the team is using EMP as like a defensive ult, which isn't ideal anyway.

I think later on he mentions like using Mei Wall to break LOS? I don't know what he's thinking but that's never going to happen. Anyway, I don't see anything regarding EMP that doesn't address invis > ult or TP > ult as valid. Because with that you literally get to choose whoever you want to EMP. And if you EMP whatever is holding back your win condition, you basically win, that's why it's the win condition. There's nothing to stop that bar your own team screwing up somehow.

But yea overall it's a good video, worth watching at 1.5x speed haha. My only problem with it is how he addresses EMP, and I myself have a really huge bias against it since I never really see a proper argument to countering it. So take my stuff with a pinch of salt etc. He addresses and provides insight to a lot of things for whoever interested.

 

[Joim]

Tip: Seems that people are getting on PTR after placements with 4 to 6 wins about 200 SR within the SR you ended S2 with (on PTR).
Also I agree with most of what you've said, sandz!

 

[Bowtie Power]

I just started playing yesterday, level 14 right now. Can someone give me some really solid starting tips? So far I like Dva, Ana, and Roadhog

 

[HailFall]

Kinda hard to think of specific tips off the top of my head (unless youre looking for tips specific to the characters you mentioned) but this is what i got:

Youve probably done this some already but take some time and try out playing every character, one of them might not seem appealing to you but could be something you really enjoy playing once you give them a try.

A lot of other shooter games like cod or whatever have a very individualistic style of play, but overwatch is all about teamwork. The more you group up and work together, the more successful you should be.

I dont recommend playing competitive until youre more experienced. I think the level requirement they have now for it (25) is way too early tbh, youre not going to really have a full understanding of how the game works that early on. Another problem is that if you do your placement matches that early you could end up in like bronze or something and have a really hard time climbing out.

If you have any specific questions about the game feel free to ask, but I hope I helped with what I said here.

 

[Bowtie Power]

Kinda hard to think of specific tips off the top of my head (unless youre looking for tips specific to the characters you mentioned) but this is what i got:

Youve probably done this some already but take some time and try out playing every character, one of them might not seem appealing to you but could be something you really enjoy playing once you give them a try.

A lot of other shooter games like cod or whatever have a very individualistic style of play, but overwatch is all about teamwork. The more you group up and work together, the more successful you should be.

I dont recommend playing competitive until youre more experienced. I think the level requirement they have now for it (25) is way too early tbh, youre not going to really have a full understanding of how the game works that early on. Another problem is that if you do your placement matches that early you could end up in like bronze or something and have a really hard time climbing out.

If you have any specific questions about the game feel free to ask, but I hope I helped with what I said here.

Pretty much sums up everything I did, lol. I took my first five hours of gameplay to learn how to do well with at least two characters of each class.

Sadly, I feel like the classes don't matter. Characters like Soldier 76 or w/e can heal their team more and more effectively than some healers tbh...It's just not their Focus which is fine. I feel like down the road they should do some changes to every character, or have hybrid classes and put characters like Zen and Soldier into those hybrids, an example of offense/healer.

 

[Joim]

Soldier's heal is basically useless when you learn to play a little, don't worry. Classes are very important and relevant to the meta :) But for now have fun, learn to play, learn to play the objective, and try to set up your sensitivity and crosshairs to something comfortable.

I got a new high of 2900, maybe I can get diamond this season...!

 

[Bowtie Power]

Anyone on PC maybe wanna play some time?

 

[ShootingStarmie]

Bowtie, if you wanna add me I'm MythicalMark#2186. Keep in mind I play on EU servers, so if you're American we might not get a chance to play much :x

As far as tips go, when I was starting out for me learning maps was very very useful. Learning where health packs are in a pinch and knowing where you can escape (if you're a really mobile hero like Genji or Tracer) can be life saving. Also combining ultimate can be game changing, so try to communicate to your team as to when your ultimate is ready. Some combos include Zarya's Graviton Surge and Pharah's Barrage, or Graviton Surge and Tracer's Pulse Bomb.

You'll learn loads just by playing c:

 

[aVocado]

Yeah learning map layouts is suuuuper important. you wanna know where enemies might hide or where health packs are, which flanks you can take, etc.

Also another big thing is to mess around with your settings. I recommend playing on low everything to get maximum amount of FPS and because it removes shit like random plants and grass which can obstruct ur vision sometimes. Also a lot of heroes have specific settings, like mercy has a setting on whether to let her healing/buff beams be toggle (press to start, press again to cancel) or let them so as long as you're holding the button you're healing/buffing which is the default.

Turn on ally health bars and if kill feed isn't on already, turn that on too.

Also classes super matter tbh, some roles CAN overlap (for example junkrat and mei, in addition to being 'defense' heroes, are also classified as DPS, and they take a DPS' role), but for the most part a healer's still a support and a DPS is still supposed to kill stuff. Zenyatta's job is still to support his team through buffs and debuffs but he can also dish out good amounts of damage, same goes to Ana. You can't replace a healer with a Soldier because his E can heal

 

[Minwu]

Since you're trying Ana and Roadhog I'd say practice good positioning. This is always important but since neither of those heroes can really dash out of a bad situation it's even more important for them. With Ana you want to be focus healing your tanks from safely behind them. Throw your grenade wherever the heat is; the healing boost is enough for your tank to shrug off the entire enemy team sometimes and if you're being dived you can hit yourself and the divers. As Roadhog: keep line of sight with your healers. Also save hook for targets you can kill; don't hook a full health tank into your team.

 

[HailFall]

just a few other tips for roadhog/dva

general target prioritization rules for roadhog (and just in general) are ana=mercy>other healers>damage heroes>tanks. You can cancel the time in between shots by using your hook too. Idk much else as im not a big hog player.

As dva you can fly directly into someone and melee them at the same time for a little extra damage. Also you probably know this already but just in case, you can start flying and then activate your ult to launch it in the direction youre facing. You can ult as youre being ejected from your mech to get a second one for free. Also your defense matrix is one of the best parts of your kit so make sure to use it. Its especially important for diving mccree and widowmaker, but you can also use it to allow your team to push into a bastion/junkrat, absorb roadhog soldier and mccree ults, and protect your teammates.

 

[aVocado]

general target prioritization rules for roadhog (and just in general) are ana=mercy>other healers>damage heroes>tanks.

i really disagree with this. I would agree ana is absolute top priority if you can kill her cuz she's such a game changer, but taking out a reaper or a monkey can be huge, or that mccree that's on high ground harassing everyone. it entirely depends on the situation and it's one of the skills you need as a roadhog, to tell when and who you should take out. If a monkey jumps on your team but theres a lucio way at the back, you should kill the monkey first not the lucio.

honestly the only tips he needs is to mess around with settings, learn map layouts, and play the game more, everything else will come with experience

 

[HailFall]

well yeah its not applicable to every situation its just a rule of thumb. just trying to help the guy out :/

 

[Matthew]

I mean, in a team fight on equal ground hopefully people flag supports first, though whomever gets the first pick is generally going to win

 

[sandshrewz]

Played more soloq, had some really dumb games where dudes like don't even hide they're throwing when the composition doesn't go their way, some games where people throw hackusations (it's asia/korea so it's more common here). Then had some really close games etc.

It's really annoying when there's teammates and stuff who question every single thing you do even though they don't know any better, question the composition, question anything but themselves, and blame the dps for whatever. Poor dps players getting all dem blame even if they were decent. Had this lucio complaining that he's a dps main and he's getting gold elims etc. And I'm like Zen and have even more healing than him despite not having a fat transcendence lmao. He fed a lot tbh, but people don't know anything so 9.9 hahaha. Worst game I had was Eichenwalde like we can't even push A choke when they had Mei Torb Sym. Like lol, that setup is instantly a steamroll set up. Ofc the throw hog (like he ulted the air and stuff) did nothing but feed Molten Core. It just brings back my strong disdain for soloq hogs they are the worst. By the time I got 1 sound barrier the torb had like 3 molten cores lol. I do think hogs are worse than junkrat in soloq just due to the screw up potential, haha. Good hogs are a different matter but yeaaaaaaa most hogs are really ??? questionable.

I try my best to untilt my own team, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. People seem really hung up on composition and the results. They don't see that some pushes are meant to fail, and will fail unless conditions are met. And shush I think I lost more games where people got annoyed when I picked zen than those who rolled with it lols. Still have highest win rate on lucio even though I dislike playing him so much because he isn't really that good at healing despite having the highest heal number usually, and he can't triage outside of sound barrier. But Lucio is so influential and swings games better than Zen :S Whatever I had fun booping people off the map (woo!) and saving Ana and stuff. It's nice when boop actually saves people. Zen is more engaging though, I don't even care if he's harder to play. The only time I ever die to Genji/Tracer are when I'm reloading or for some reason people double dive me and McCree wonders off. Speaking of McCree lmao it's really annoying when I kill Pharah more as Zen than McCree ever does >_> I sometimes wonder if I should keep McCree alive or like some other dude alive when the situation rises. Impressions matter guys!! The support can choose to save the other dude on impression xD ahaha.

I think the funnest game was Volks when we ran some really awkward composition, like really awkward. I think it was Pharah Mercy Zen Rein Zarya Genji? Some switches here and there idk but lmao. We attacked with like 4.30 left and we thought we did fine, like idk how we failed A push so hard but just rofl stomped B. I did land a fat Trans to cap A though. Then when the enemy attacked they had 6.30 left xD We fell so flat ahahaa. I think we ran something more normal on our next attack? I think it was Winston/Hog Rein Pharah Lucio Ana Genji/McCree something like that ?? Anyhow, idk how but I performed pretty well as Ana, like better than usual but not the peak. Slept people here and there, oh and the hog missed a hook on the sleeping Junkrat xD!! I'm like lmao thankfully no one saw that but me ahahaha. We capped A in overtime. Had 6.30 left to defend B points for a draw. Our defense on A got demolished once again rofl and I'm last to die as Ana, though usually Ana should be first if the opponent is good (they aren't really but w/e haha). I think I slept like 2 people during that defense but it cratered so w/e. Defending B was so intense rofl. Tracer so annoying trying to Pulse Bomb me all the time >:| Oh gosh I managed to nano blossom the reaper at a super weird angle and died but it blocked the point and I swapped to Tracer myself cos I thought we needed to drag it already xD Turns out I had to swap back. A whole lot of back and forth. Rein v Rein was interesting to watch to say the least. Also Ana vs Ana who could heal block who could sleep. We did defend it with 2/3rds conceded and drawed. But hey I think everyone had a lot of fun and were really happy with the outcome haha. Ana is so ridiculously good and fun.

Would be nice to see more appreciation for Zen though! I really dislike the heavy influence the 'meta' has though. Most people can't even play at the level required to play the meta and they still try to emulate it even though other strategies are better suited for them. Zen seems really teammate dependent for them to not die even if you murder everything yourself. Like triple gold Zen is pointless when somehow your team dies so fast ;o; Lucio/Ana seems like the only way people don't die as quickly.

And I fulfilled my dream of playing Sym on comp!!! It was a throwaway game, we couldn't even breach A Hanamura lols. Someone picked Sym on defense so I offered to do that instead since there was alr and Ana and I don't feel like tanking. Plus Hanamura is a p good Sym map. Got tele but D:< Genji has to come in and kill it and sym is so thin she cant even bodyblock rip. Also Genji attacked from the most dumb angle because he literally had to walk past every teammate to do that. (ofc he did.) I usually don't guard that particular angle with turrets because a) no one should really get to there b) you can't actually turret them to death there. Was referring to the upper left room btw. I literally put my face into his and :( rip tele. buff sym so she becomes fatter ahahaha.

Anyway, first time ever did my win rate tank so much to below 60%. Cry. But w/e it's for the experience. I hope it doesn't affect my S3 placements cos that would be really annoying. It was quite the experience seeing how people at this rank play soloq. Oh and I got like the same few teammates consecutively for a few games ? Also pity DPS players, thank gosh I'm just a lowly support that no one notices hehe. But I must say, it's really annoying to have to play to a certain way to not tilt teammates in soloq. I find myself purposefully doing some inefficient and bad things just to not look like a dick even though the chances of winning while looking like one is higher. Z_Z I miss partyq haha. Have faith man!! !_!

To end off, yea I did drop back down to plat but w/evs!! It's annoying but variance is high when I don't play that many games. Only way to go up is to grind more games which I don't have the time to do that many !

 

[Matthew]

I was suck in solo for a while, never breaking plat but I'm finally about to do it. Just been instant locking Ana and hear complains about "no real healer" on the team so one of the four dps switch to Lucio or Zen. I've stopped using my mic entirely and my win rate in gold went up, there's no point in communicating or suggesting comp picks if no one will listen and they go full tilt on the mention of a switch.

Anyway Ana is the shit, so much fun to play

 

[sandshrewz]

I was suck in solo for a while, never breaking plat but I'm finally about to do it. Just been instant locking Ana and hear complains about "no real healer" on the team so one of the four dps switch to Lucio or Zen. I've stopped using my mic entirely and my win rate in gold went up, there's no point in communicating or suggesting comp picks if no one will listen and they go full tilt on the mention of a switch.

Anyway Ana is the shit, so much fun to play

Now that you mention it, yea I just realized majority like 3/4 of the voice comms are either toxic, bad, makes no sense etc. I've had Genji ask Ana if nano was ready like, that's some low level awareness right there. It wasn't even mid fight where things were going on lmao. Yea I should stop bothering with voice comms too xD

Are they like stuck in S1 era where Ana isn't recognized? lol. But picking Ana and triggering someone to go second heal isn't bad hahaha. Ana is fun indeed! Also I think Matthew you said you play on console? Are you still on console? I have no idea how voice comms work there. Do you personally think that Ana being harder to aim with on console makes Ana 'not a real healer' a justified complain? Just curious haha.

And yeaaaa Ana's so fun!! Doesn't do as much damage as Zen but her clutch and triage mechanics makes her gameplay intense.

 

[Joim]

Sombra is here boys!
Also take care, I've seen a bronze being matched up in a 2800 game.

 

[Harsha]

yes all the pros are getting put in gold/silver games. avoid matchmaking today until a fix hits.

 

[Matthew]

Now that you mention it, yea I just realized majority like 3/4 of the voice comms are either toxic, bad, makes no sense etc. I've had Genji ask Ana if nano was ready like, that's some low level awareness right there. It wasn't even mid fight where things were going on lmao. Yea I should stop bothering with voice comms too xD

Are they like stuck in S1 era where Ana isn't recognized? lol. But picking Ana and triggering someone to go second heal isn't bad hahaha. Ana is fun indeed! Also I think Matthew you said you play on console? Are you still on console? I have no idea how voice comms work there. Do you personally think that Ana being harder to aim with on console makes Ana 'not a real healer' a justified complain? Just curious haha.

And yeaaaa Ana's so fun!! Doesn't do as much damage as Zen but her clutch and triage mechanics makes her gameplay intense.

The thing about console is two fold though. since aiming is harder for everyone clutch scope heals are less game deciding. that being said my Ana accuracy at the end of a match is generally in the 60 or 70% range for both scoped and unscoped, so I don't think it's that.

I'd probably attest it to console being more casual, people don't understand why torb and bastion aren't good picks and they think Mercy rez is game breaking. Also there's a lot of racism on Xbox, not sure how it is on PC but it's pretty bad.