Overwatch

[Jeremy Blackman]

Starting this thread for KJ, who has just picked up Overwatch.

I've played it on PC for just over a year (since May 8th 2017). It's essentially the only video game I play.

I had no FPS background aside from Goldeneye, so I started off pretty mechanically weak. But I had other skills that transferred from WoW PvP: healing/tanking roles, teamwork, callouts, positioning, line of sight, game sense, etc.

I ended up being a support main, focusing on Moira and Mercy (over 100 hours on each), and recently Brigitte. Apparently I'm in the 92nd percentile on Moira. Lately I've been refining Mercy and feel like I can carry a lot of games with her.

I know a fair amount about most heroes, though, so if you have Qs I can try to A.

[WorldForgot]

Play this game so sporadically (cuz it's raptoroblivion'z ps4, not mine) that I haven't racked up any significant hours, but having come into it off of countless FPS' it's always fun to take people to town with McCree and D.Va ~

Mercy and Torbjörn are the only support I can offer, but I'm a nimble assist when it counts. 

[Jeremy Blackman]

I'd recommend Mercy to anyone, because she's a lot of fun and can have a huge impact on a match. Mercy is one of those heroes that's easy to learn but hard to master. Positioning is everything. Mobility is everything. At any given time, on top of healing and damage boosting, you should have three things in mind. Am I behind cover? Are there flankers? What is my next escape (i.e. who am I flying to next)?

I remember trying Mercy when I first got the game. I set her aside because I felt like I was constantly under attack and didn't enjoy being the #1 target. How naive I was. A good Mercy is very slippery. It's all about escape routes and using terrain cleverly.

[Robyn]

thanks!

same here, I didn't have any FPS experience as well, so I started playing Mercy because 1) it seemed easy and 2) nobody else wanted to heal, lol. soon I realized how fun it was, and I have barely touched another hero since.

it's very satisfying when you learn how to position yourself and be able to be in a middle of a fight without dying.  I need to improve my decision making though. I die sometimes trying to revive people in impossible situations, and sometimes when I see an opponent with low HP I try to use my gun instead of healing my team mates which often just ends with me getting a kill and my team mates dying. I tried some competitive matches, but that was way to hard at this point.

moira seems fun too, and Lucio is crazy when you can handle him. I want to try them out sometimes. having a good healer in your team can do all the difference it seems.

btw, I just got play of the game with Mercy. what the fuck did everyone else doing??

[Jeremy Blackman]

Nice!

You have to realize when a teammate has gone too far (overextended) and can't be saved. Don't let their bad positioning get you killed too. This is rough at early levels, but it doesn't go away. People will have bad positioning for as long as you play Overwatch.

At the same time, it's possible to pull off some very tricky resurrections. My best rezzes happen either instantly or after a waiting period when the enemy team has moved on and assumes the rez is not happening.

You can do some fun things with line of sight. If your teammate died on one side of a pillar or wall, you can start rezzing there, and move behind during the cast. The resurrect only breaks from distance, and the distance is generous. Also try this vertically. Let's say your teammate died on a bridge or overhang. You can fly up from below, start the rez, and (holding jump to fall slowly) swoop underneath. I've done this at times when the fight is still happening above.

Mercy's pistol is the least important part of her kit. Use it occasionally or during downtime, but usually you will have something more important to do. I use my pistol less if I'm grouped with a damage-dealer I really trust... because I would rather be damage boosting them.

Don't get frustrated if you die rezzing, especially right now. You have to test the limits.

Youtube has a lot of good Mercy guides if you're interested.

I would not worry about competitive anytime soon. I definitely started it too early and should have waited. In the mean time, don't fret too much about wins and losses. There are 12 players in a given match, and sometimes you just can't do enough. Instead of getting frustrated with dumb teammates and losses, focus on self-improvement and think about what you could have done better. This is a good mindset to have on Mercy, because much of your job is compensating for or reversing your teammates' mistakes.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Since we're on the topic, here are a couple recent fun rezzes I did, from my friend's POV.




In this one, I fly in from the right side (you can't really see me), to a hidden spot kind of below the corpse. Then I fly to my team.






This is a pretty safe rez, using the pillar, getting in and out quickly. My Zarya was there to bubble me, but it wasn't needed, because the enemies didn't notice me. By the time they realize what happened, you should already be flying away.

[Robyn]

thanks for the tips. they where really helpful. I don't use the gun as often now, and pulling of sneaky rezzes has become one of my favorite things to do! using the flanks to hide behind while rezzing was a great advice

I am level 48 now and my avg healing is 8k after 9h.  I didn't follow your advice to not play competitive  because it's more fun and it seems easier to improve you're game when everyone is taking the match seriously. you can see my stats here if you're interested: https://overwatchtracker.com/profile/psn/global/betweenthebars1?mode=0 maybe these stats doesn't say anything though.

I had 24k in one comp match, but that was before I started to save the games so I could watch them later, and I didn't realize at the time how high that would be in comparison to my other matches.  it's like 10k more then my second best game which seems to be a reasonable lever to be at (15k  per match). it's archivable if you are playing with smart team mates. sometimes they are really driving me crazy though. I can't help it.

the 24k game was on Route 66 which is my favorite map right now. there's a lot of good places to escape to in the beginning of the map. I think the middle part is tricky though because I get killed from opponents coming up from behind a lot of the times. advice for those situations?

I want to learn Orsia or Reinhardt. having one in your team seems important in a lot of matches.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Excellent!

1k healing per minute is a good rough benchmark to reach with Mercy. That's not always possible though and depends on your team a bit.

What are your hero settings for Mercy under Controls? I use "toggle beam OFF" and "GA prefers beam target." I've tried the opposite settings for a while and strongly prefer it this way.

I only warned against doing competitive now because of my experience. I started as soon as I could and placed low, so it took me some time to rank up. But if you're not going to worry about rank for a while, it doesn't matter. And you're almost certainly better than I was when I started.

In terms of maps, Mercy is kind of weak on some king of the hill maps, especially Nepal Village and Nepal Shrine. Everyone plays too close together, so you're vulnerable AND your teammates are not far away enough to provide you a safe escape. I tend to play Moira on king of the hill. The only one Mercy is actually great on is Illios Ruins.

And yeah, Mercy is great on Route 66. (Similar to Blizzard World.) The second section of Route 66 is actually the most severe chokepoint in the entire game. The only way to solve that is to have your team run dive tanks, i.e. Winston and D.va. Mercy is a lot of fun to play with Winston and D.va because you can constantly slingshot yourself everywhere.

If you are getting flanked on Mercy too much, the only solution is to have a teammate babysit you, someone who's effective playing that far back, like McCree. The alternative is to play Brigitte or Moira instead, who can deal with flankers a lot better.

Reinhardt, in my opinion, is the most rewarding and frustrating hero in the game. I don't really enjoy playing him anymore. If you don't have a good team behind you, he's almost unplayable. Orisa is pretty great though.

[WorldForgot]

Brigitte seems to work best when there's already a Moira, Lucio, or Mercy, as her support can't do much for the group push or retreat. She is certainly on the more "offense" side of the support characters, though, and her stun/reach-attack work wonders in coordination with your team's backup.

For me, currently, the most 'rewarding and frustrating hero' to develop has been Orisa. If your team is perceptive enough, you can get a strong push together, or hold the payload, and that buff ultimate is quite rewarding. Offense characters elude me, still.

KJ add our PSN: oblivion152 ~ 

[Jeremy Blackman]

Brigitte seems to work best when there's already a Moira, Lucio, or Mercy, as her support can't do much for the group push or retreat. She is certainly on the more "offense" side of the support characters, though, and her stun/reach-attack work wonders in coordination with your team's backup.

In my experience, Brigitte can work well with a Mercy as the other support. But she's best in a triple support comp with Zen/Lucio or Zen/Moira or some combination like that. You'd usually have a solo tank in that case. Having triple support means you don't necessarily need a 2nd tank and more importantly allows you to run Brigitte more aggressively. Her potential is wasted when she has to sit around too much.

For me, currently, the most 'rewarding and frustrating hero' to develop has been Orisa. If your team is perceptive enough, you can get a strong push together, or hold the payload, and that buff ultimate is quite rewarding.

Orisa is a reliable hero. If you're dying on Orisa too much, it's usually your team's fault, or you're not shield-dancing enough. Orisa can often be the best pick to counter snipers. The key is proper use of Halt (depth perception) and hitting as many of your projectile rounds as you can.

That said, I find Orisa kind of boring and clunky. I could imagine getting into her, though.

I'm kind of laser-focused on Moira/Mercy/Brigitte right now. But also working on Zarya, who is an amazing hero once the playstyle clicks.

[Robyn]

thanks for your posts, Jeremy!

I stopped playing Mercy almost all together because it became to frustrating playing her in bad team comps. playing D.Va is more fun if the team isn't good.

KJ add our PSN: oblivion152 ~ 

I added you!

[Robyn]

The new hero teaser made me excited! So it's Hammond, which is a tank, who can turn into a giant ball or something? What is going on in that video...

[WorldForgot]

Looking forward to playing chicken against Junkrat with that giant rolling ball 

[csage97]

I'm a bit Overwatch-crazy lately. Spending way too much time playing competitive games ... but it's super fun. I'm trying to play as a flex DPS and healer and having lots of success.

[Robyn]

the group search thing is amazing! makes the game way more fun.

also, is there anyone else other then Stylosa who makes good Overwatch YT content? I have enjoyed his videos a lot (especially his coaching series), but would be nice to watch someone else too.