Overwatch - Brigitte used FLAIL!

[sandshrewz]

Mizuhime you're playing in a league or something ?

Anyway yea to iterate more on that map. The first point seems really bad, not just having very inaccessible flank routes. The first choke doesn't really have a proper 'safe zone' to regroup after pushing through it. Volskaya has the left/right room where they can push through and hold. Hanamura has viable left and right options or speed boost to the point. King's Row has the statue you can use as cover, go to hotel, or the forward spawn room. Numbani has high ground for attackers to take. Hollywood has the left balcony, or behind the health pack room.

Eichenwalde has like... nothing viable to push towards to ? It's just if you break through choke you have to fight an uphill battle all the way to the point with minimal cover, and the defending team has the luxury of deciding which direction you push too if they have even numbers. The left small healthpack room is really crammed and easy to get trapped indoors. It's quite the distance to go to the right stairs and I highly doubt Reinhardt shield can even last that long even with a speed boost. That leaves with the choke around the center pillar which is still pretty open and favors the defending team. It's basically breaking two points of choke that favors the defense, and without much chance to regroup/regen shields.

Said it before and I will say it again that the second point choke after door closing is worse than Gibraltar. Its only saving grace is the healthpacks.

 

[Matthew]

I love the feel and fucking way the map plays honestly. In this game where offense is always favored (if teams are equal) it's cool to have a straight defensive map and that map is literally bringing a battering ram to the front doors of a damn castle. It SHOULD be an anti offense map and it should feel like a (literal) up hill battle. Sorry you can't go crazy with DPS, aside from Phara who loves the map, but other characters are made for it (rein, junk, winston)

 

[aVocado]

btw if anyone plays on EU hmu Arikado#21678, I'm around ~2500-2600 and trying to climb

 

[Nayrz]

The new map is defense favored but I don't see that as a bad thing. Point A is a straight up chokepoint, as the only way to flank is to know how to use the sliding rooftop areas and only a few heroes can do it. I think a hybrid map with an actually defendable (even then... its not a hard choke to break through) first point is a good thing. Generally the playerbase is increasing in skill which in addition to a lot of tweaks Blizzard have done that make attack/defense less of a one sided shitshow, it makes defending more of a "we can stop them pushing completely" rather than "just waste as much time as possible and defend at the favorable areas". Sure, the new map has a shit load of high ground to defend from, but that is barely used in solo queue even at diamond/master level (and you need to suggest the idea to the team rather than it being a default option...) Most of my rounds on that map do end on the first payload checkpoint tho.

As for ranked... the system seems to have the exact same issues as Season 1 just with some shiny (and out of place!) icons. The main issue is that the majority of the playerbase are placing between 2k-3k (compared to 45-55)... on a system that has 5000 (compared to 100) ranks. PTR was really bad for placements, as there were players that were rank 45-50 getting placed in DIAMOND due to sheer luck (this is still happening on live but much rarer btw)... what purpose does that serve? Its immediately obvious they are out of their depth and would normally drop like a stone which simply fixes all issues of being badly placed... oh wait, they can't drop in the S2 system. In an attempt to have some "feelsgoodman" in their ranked playlist they removed the ability to even drop out of these tiers, even if their SR number drops like 2 tiers below it. A bell curve distribution and the ability to not drop out of anything but Master/GM works directly against their plan to have a system that is already similar to LoL's, but even more casual focused. The game itself overall is drastically improved each season, but it still has a decent ways to go in terms of "outside the gameplay". If this game truly wishes to appeal to casuals (dudes that jump ship when the next hot thing comes out and can be very risky to balance gameplay experience around) then i suppose season 2's system is fine? If they want to get a better ranked system they need to ditch these silly ideas of a bell curve giving fair matchmaking for everyone and actually being fufilling to play. Or ditch the skill tiers - they serve no purpose other than a "reach this number once for x gold gun points". Bell curve barely even affects me because I'm in the higher end rather than the middle of the curve but that doesn't mean the system doesn't need more work for like 80%+ of the playerbase.

Balance wise i think we are in the best state yet. A combination of any of the 4 healers are viable which opens up team comps more than you initially assume. Zarya being a must-pick in regular play is still silly but perhaps she is the one that is meant to hold teams together and isn't gonna be touched as a result? Lucio nerf makes defense heroes a little bit better, but they are still largely unpicked at Diamond+ due to the holes they can leave in team comps - to use Mei you ditch a tank, which means no Zarya (as she needs a second to work best). To pick Hanzo/Widow/Bastion, you ditch a dps, which can limit counterpicks to the enemy comp as well as being highly skill reliant moreso than even McCree. To pick Torb, you tend to ditch your chances of winning, which means no elo. My playtime for everything will probably take a large hit with school starting back up today... rip me.

Ranked stats

100% solo queue

S1

Placed: 52
Peak: 69
Finished: 67

S2 (PTR)

Placed: 3188 (Diamond) 7-3
Currently: 3534 (Master)

S2 (Live)

Placed: 2984 (Platinum) 7-3
Currently: 3159 (Diamond)

 

[Joim]

I love the new map.
I'm right now hovering in the 2300~, peak being 2500~, so hit me up if you want: Joim#2125

 

[ShootingStarmie]

Yea I play EU as well, Joim and I had a great session earlier today, we were winning loads in quick play games. I haven't done any placement games yet but I plan to soon

MythicalMark#2186

 

[remlabmez]

Nayrz way ahead of me but I finally see some light to diamond cause of the way win streaks work. I was able to finally string a ton of wins together and started getting 50 points a win. I'm starting to play with people who were 60 in s1 instead of 40 so matchmaking is getting better, but I shouldn't have had to deal with a rank 40 getting placed 2800. I like everything else about season 2 though. I don't mind draws on 2cp maps since I dislike them anyways and would rather start a new game than sit there forever like s1

 

[Minwu]

I'm not sure if Pharah is actually *that* great on Eichenwalde, maybe on specific parts with specific strategies and support; but this map has some ungodly sightlines, particularly on the bridge, and this game is basically still McCreewatch as a whole. Love Pharah but she's definitely more niche than the other offense heroes ime

 

[remlabmez]

I'm not sure if Pharah is actually *that* great on Eichenwalde, maybe on specific parts with specific strategies and support; but this map has some ungodly sightlines, particularly on the bridge, and this game is basically still McCreewatch as a whole. Love Pharah but she's definitely more niche than the other offense heroes ime

I feel all the offense heroes are viable and generally in a good spot. I've been having success with Pharah this season. Discord isn't as bad anymore and Mercy is popular again.

I feel the game is actually pretty balanced at the moment. Offense isn't always a steam roll anymore. I don't have enough experience with the new map yet. Every time I played the map in ranked we always held them in the first choke cause I was at rat elo and they couldn't cordinate.

 

[Joim]

Pharah sharpshooter potg un Eichen:

Gate's not closed yet, fuckers! Eat rockets!

 

[Salt]

just a heads up, if anyone has xbone/ps4, the game is free to play on console for this weekend so if anyone was thinking about trying it out on console, now's your chance. I'm normally on xbox but i'm going to play on my ps4 to see what the difference is with a fresh account.

 

[sunny004]

I dont really use the battle.net friend system but hit me up if you live in east/central US: Sunny004#1862

 

[Joim]

Zenyatta dropping some balls:

I'm starting to get how Hanzo is played:

 

[sunny004]

Just wanted to show you this pentakill I got recently

 

[jumpluff]

Like rem I'm starting to hate 2cp maps but I'd honestly hate them less if draws were reduced on them and they probably will in s3. Comp feels really good especially with the draw and overtime changes and the current high balance state and I feel like the majority of my games have tolerable skill matchmaking, but still unhappy with how the game handles party sizes (not a happy camper getting a six stack as 4-2 or 5-1)

Right now solo q utterly ignored I feel like if I win on offense I'll win on defense as long as I defend correctly and that's good imo. I feel like I'm improving a lot and for the first time in a long time I feel okay with things even though I'm a shitter with lots of room to grow

The only thing I don't like balance-wise is how situational the defensive characters are since they form a large part of the roster but that's a design flaw with most of them and the better designed area denial characters like Junkrat and Mei (very niche but decent at certain map segments) are used when necessary. Widow meta was oppressive and stifling I guess this the trade off.

I'm fine with Zarya being a must have cuz she's very flexible to pick a roster around being rather supporty herself and quite a healthy hero, since it's a two tank min meta it's not fucking over other tanks. people need to get used to exploiting her downtime tho

The healer meta is perfect imo

 

[Joim]

Almost back up to 2500s and I still get people with attack bastions/torbs and such. Sigh.

 

[SgtWoodsy]

Almost back up to 2500s and I still get people with attack bastions/torbs and such. Sigh.

But Joim, Bastion has a minigun which means you can kill everyone super fast which means you can push!

I got nothing for Torb.

 

[sandshrewz]

Btw you can parry Genji's Dragonblade with Genji's reflect now. Quite the undocumented change.

 

[Minwu]

deflect always neutralized melee attacks and hook (not quite sure why blizzard wants this), so this just makes it more consistent with other hero interactions

 

[Joim]

Several losses in a row, mainly due to people throwing in purpose.
I just wish Blizzard permanently banned those idiots.

 

[aVocado]

deflect always neutralized melee attacks and hook (not quite sure why blizzard wants this), so this just makes it more consistent with other hero interactions

It makes sense logically, if Genji is deflecting projectiles with his sword surely he can block other objects like rein's hammer or a punch

 

[Joim]

I don't know if I want to play again. Matchmaking doesn't work, leaver penalty means shit when I get 4 leavers in a day and thus I get 120 rank raped just from them. It's so fucking unfair I don't want to play anymore.

 

[Harsha]

Hide

realistically find some friends to play with, game is much more fun (and bearable) in stacks

 

[aVocado]

I agree but I also think solo q is pretty much just a dice roll tbh, a lot of the time I would get a lovely team of 6 people willing to join team chat, even if only to hear me literally talk to myself, but they actually follow shotcalls and instructions etc. Other times I'll be queued up with a 3 stack while solo and they're absolute cunts, don't join team chat, expect everyone else to pick according to their picks, and more often than not blame everyone else and never change their hero if we need them to.

But I do like playing with a couple friends, a lot. I think of it like this: If I queue with one other person I know is decent, I can guarantee at least 2 people that aren't retarded on a team. If I queue with two other people, that's 3 guaranteed to not be retarded/trolls/throw game after failing once etc.

When you play in competitive use the "Prefer this player" and add people who you think did very well, and when they're online and solo just ask if they wanna group. Works every time for me.

 

[Joim]

I do play with friends often, but when they aren't online, I solo q. I don't understand why I keep getting leavers and trolls, I went from almost back to 2500s to 2050.