GAMERS DECIDE - blizzard entertainment

[Top 10] Overwatch Best DPS Heroes That Are Great (Latest Patch)

Sntry — Tue, 31 May 2022 14:07:23 +0000

The Overwatch hero pool is ever extending and it can sometimes be a bit overwhelming to choose a hero. So here is an article summing up the 10 best DPS heroes to help you choose the right one.

Symmetra — Overwatch DPS

#10 Symmetra

Overwatch - Symmetra Gameplay trailer

Symmetra, due to the lights-bending technology of her ‘Photon Projector’, is able to build barriers and shields for her allies. Her main damage of 60 - 180 is supported by 3 Sentry turrets, that she can place anywhere on the map.

Symmetra is a good hero to choose for a slow moving team, since she can create a teleporter pad, which will allow her allies to make up some ground. Especially in lower ranks when it’s all about getting to know the game, she is a great first choice.

Additionally, her ultimate ability ‘Photon Barrier’ is a giant shield that splits through the entire map. Therefore,she is most advantageous when defending a stationary point.

What Makes Symmetra Great:

Teleporter
Turrets
Easy mechanics

#9 Soldier 76

Overwatch Cinematic Trailer - Soldier 76

The artificially enhanced super-soldier ‘Jack ‘Soldier 76’ Morrison’ is an American vigilante and an ex-commander of Overwatch. With his experimental ‘Pulse Rifle’ and his ‘Biotic Field’, he is a dangerous flanker and can support the team during quick dives.

His rifle shoots ‘Helix Rifles’ that causes a small explosion and can cause self-harm if fired too closely. His passive ability enables him to ‘Sprint’ across any distance. This makes him a good flanker, but lets him regroup with the team fast to dive together.

Soldier 76’s ultimate ability ‘Tactical Visor’ is in line with the principles of aimbot. For 6 seconds the automatic rifle aims at the closest enemy target in sight that isn’t covered by a shield. This makes him deadly for flankers like Tracer or flying heroes like Pharah and Mercy.

He is a fan favourite in the silver ranks of Overwatch, because he teaches new players the fundamentals of movement and healing yourself in battle.

What Makes Soldier Great:

Independent
Self-reliant
High damage
Good for quick dives

#8 Reaper

Overwatch - Reaper Gameplay trailer

Gabriel Reyes, known as ‘Reaper’, is a genetically enhanced super soldier like Jack Morrison. The two were friends before power dynamics and visions changed. After the end of Overwatch, Reaper joins the world as a mercenary.

With his two ‘Hellfire Shotguns’ and the ability ‘Shadow Step’, which enables him to teleport through the map, Reaper makes for the ultimate tank killer. His high damage output and the chance to fall back and repeatedly poke at the enemy gives him an advantage over the bulky tank line.

Aside from farming tanks, Reaper is also excellent in DPS battles. ‘Wraith Form’ allows him to fade into an invincible smoke like form and turn the battle in his favour or even retreat from it.

Due to his passive ability called ‘The Reaping’ , he heals himself at a rate of 35% of the damage he deals with his guns. His ultimate ability ‘Death Blossom’ turns Reyes into a tornado of bullets and smoke, killing everyone within 8 metres of him.

What Makes Reaper Great:

High Damage
Wraith Form
Tank killer

Hanzo — Overwatch DPS

#7 Hanzo

Overwatch Cinematic Trailer - Hanzo

Hanzo is a sniper, formerly belonging to a Japanese Yakuza-Family and brother to hero , Genji. He uses a bow and arrow, can wall climb and is in general ,a highly mobile character.

His long range and high damage makes him dangerous for all heroes. Without a scope, he is one of the harder snipers to play and the way his arrows fly takes some getting used to. But even with the fairly high skills required for his play style, he can totally make or break the game.

His abilities are ‘Sonic Arrow’, an ability with which he can make enemies visible through walls for his teammates, but only in a section of the map, and ‘Storm Arrow’, which allows him to shoot upto 5 arrows in quick succession even though he usually has a 0.5 second recovery time between shots.

On the bright side, Hanzo can achieve both headshots, even from a long distance,whilst dealing adamage power ranging between 27.5 to 125. This can easily give heroes with small health bars the finishing shot.

The strongest part of him is probably his ultimate, since it can tear through the map, doing damage even to heroes further away. Additionally it is so big,that it can help clear the enemies of a point or corner them for a quick team kill.

What Makes Hanzo Great:

Long range
High Damage
Powerful Ultimate
Special abilities

#6 Cassidy

Overwatch Cinematic Trailer - Cassidy

The young cowboy Cassidy was a member of the Deadlock Gang before joining Overwatch. His incredible marksmanship was what caught the attention of the higher ups.

His ‘Peacekeeper’ has two firing modes, one allowing him to empty the entire barrel into the target. He carries a ‘Magnetic Grenade’ with him, which when thrown can attach to an enemy to deal additional damage.

Cassidy can be played as a flanker, especially against teams without shields, but when Cassidy doesn’t have the protection himself, he is a bit tricky to play. In the silver ranks he is commonly played to learn about positioning fundamentals.

What Makes Cassidy Great:

Easy mechanics
Teaches Positioning fundamentals
Deadeye

#5 Doomfist

Overwatch - Doomfist Gameplay trailer

Doomfist’s passive ability allows him to generate shields out of 30% of the damage done by using one of his three active abilities. His ‘Hand Cannon’ is a shotgun, but he can also use it to punch and slam the enemies through the map.

This makes him an excellent support hunter. In the platinum rank he is the best chosen hero, due to the lack of coordination in many teams. Doomfist’s independence from his own team and the freedom of movement through the map enable him to prey on the enemy when they aren’t coordinated.

When playing Doomfist it is important to learn the enemy team’s routines and changes as well as pay attention to their ability cooldowns, for example when stalking Mercy, it’s important to pay attention to her resurrection ability, since it leaves her vulnerable.

Doomfist’s ultimate ability makes him jump up and slam down on his enemies. When hit directly, heroes with 200-300 health points will be killed on impact.

What Makes Doomfist Great:

Independent
Strong hunter

#4 Echo

Overwatch - Echo Gameplay trailer

In the diamond ranks Echo is the most played hero of the DPS. The flying evolutionary robot uses her ‘Tri-Shot’ to fire three pellets at the enemy, causing 51 points of damage.

Her mobility is high, due to the ability ‘Flight’ that enables her to chase down retreating enemies or single out supports from their team. She can shoot ‘Sticky Bombs’ at her enemies or use the ‘Focusing Beam’ to make extra damage.

Her ultimate ability allows Echo to take on other heroes in the form of a hologram and copy their abilities. Even their ultimate abilities are copied, enabling Echo to have the copied hero’s ult several times.

What Makes Echo Great:

Flight
Ultimate

Widowmaker — Overwatch Sniper

#3 Ashe

Overwatch - Ashe Gameplay trailer

Ashe’s semi-automatic rifle ‘The Viper’ is used comfortably on the hip for short distances or for sniping with its aim down sights. Ashe in contrast to Widowmaker can jump while using her sights.

For added mobility, Ashe carries a ‘Coach Gun’ that allows her to push back enemies and knock herself backwards. With her ability ‘Dynamite’, she can set a time bomb in the map, that will explode after a moment and set enemies within range on fire, dealing additional damage.

Ashe is mostly used within the Grandmaster rank, for her high damage output. She dominates on the high ground and it’s a dream for any Ashe player to have their own pocket Mercy.

Ashe’s ultimate ‘BOB’ is a giant omnic robot that serves as Ashe's butler and partner in crime. He fires on any enemies on sight and has his own health bar.

What Makes Ashe Great:

BOB
High damage

#2 Widowmaker

Overwatch - Widowmaker Gameplay trailer

Widowmaker is equipped with a poisonous mine and a big sniper rifle called ‘Widow’s Kiss’. Her scope allows her to accurately snipe down her targets.

With her ‘Grappling Hook’ she can scale any walls to reach the high ground. Her ultimate ability ‘Infra-sight’ enables her to detect the heat signatures of her enemies and make them visible through walls.

Widowmaker takes a lot of mechanical skill and is only really played in the top 500 of Overwatch. She is not recommended for beginners, even if you bring a lot of mechanical skill from previous games, the strategies and tactics surrounding Widowmaker are very advanced and when not played properly, it can cost the team more than it gains.

Nonetheless, Widowmaker’s 3.6 - 120 point of damage can be a big carry in battle and if played correctly, her headshot damage bonus of x2.5 makes her the ultimate killer.

What Makes Widowmaker Great:

High Damage
Headshot Damage Bonus

#1 Tracer

Overwatch Cinematic Trailer - Tracer

From all the DPS Heroes, Tracer is probably the one requiring the highest skill. But she is still the most played hero in the current meta. Her mobility is unparalleled and the way she can keep disrupting the enemy team and taking out the enemy support makes her probably the strongest damage hero in Overwatch.

Tracer is a British adventurer aiming to right wrongs all over the world. With her twin pistols and the ability to travel through time, she is almost impossible to keep up with in battle.

Her abilities include ‘Blink’, a quick burst of movement that lets her zip through the map, and ‘Recall’, a skill that enables her to rewind time to three seconds before. Her health returns and she is returned to the place on the map she was three seconds ago. This allows her to keep returning to poke at the enemy repeatedly.

Her pistols rapid fire 20 shots before reloading. With a quick reload time of 1.15 seconds she is one of the fastest heroes and due to her short range, headshots can still be fatal even though the damage of the bullets is a mere 1.8 to 6.

Tracer is mostly played as a flanking hero and is especially effective in dealing with the enemy support. Her strongest counter is Brigitta with her ‘Rocket Flail’, but even if the enemy supports are too guarded, Tracer can still push together with the team and make use of her fast charging ultimate.

Tracer’s ultimate ability ‘Pulse Bomb’ can be stuck to an enemy for maximum efficiency. It can blow up a whole team and with the speed it recharges when Tracer keeps poking the enemy team, it is a powerful tool in battle.

What Makes Tracer Great:

High Speed
High Mobility
Recall
Her ultimate
Good for flanking

Main Image caption:

Overwatch DPS - Pharah conquers the skies with her rocket launcher

Sale Tags:

More on this topic:

Share this Article:

[Top 10] Overwatch Best Roadhog Skins That Look Awesome

JZall — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 22:19:57 +0000

[TOP 10] OVERWATCH BEST ROADHOG SKINS THAT LOOK AWESOME

In a fast-paced game such as Overwatch, Roadhog wins by slowing it all down. Landing a hook as Hog often means a free trip back to the respawn room, and even if you manage to corner him it seems he’s always able self-heal and slip away. A great pickup for any form of solo playstyle as a tank and a terror when facing in a 1 vs 1. But love him or hate him, there is no denying that Roadhog has some of the coolest skins in the game! With Overwatch 2 on the near horizon, we look back on the 5-year run of the original to check out some of the most awesome skins for Roadhog the game has to offer!

10. Pigpen

Apt to its name, this skin is an epic recolor of Roadhog’s default skin with one touch up: mud (and lots of it). For a character that already looks like he hasn’t found out what a bath is yet, this skin turns it up a notch seeing the one-man apocalypse getting even dirtier. A subtle but welcomed change to Hog’s overall feel and an epic pick up for anyone’s skin arsenal.

The mud is the pinnacle of the skin and does a great job giving an awesome feeling to an already spectacular hero design.
Keeps what made the original Hog skin so great!
A low-priced easy pick up for anyone looking for a cool Hog skin.

How to get Pigpen: Normal loot boxes or buy in the store for 250 credits.

See Pigpen in action:

9. Toa

Toa transforms Hog form an Australian Junker into an epic looking Pacific islander. Taking inspiration from New Zealand’s Māori Warriors, this skin proves just how much effort the Overwatch team put into their skins and the historical significance of what they are portraying. Toa displays a menacing presence on the battlefield and a true nightmare if caught out by this skin in a 1 vs 1!

The hook is one of the gnarliest looking that Hog skins have to offer, and the shark teeth cap off the badassery of it all!
The mask looks awesome and adds a great touch to the overall theme of the skin.
The red, green, and white contrast very nicely together and great a great color scheme.

How to get Toa: Normal loot boxes or buy in the store for 1000 credits.

See Toa in action:

8. Mako

embracing the pirate theme, we see Raodhog don a shark mask before casting out into the fight. Decked with all the essential pirate tropes, this skin makes Hog feel like a one-man-battleship ready to take down any unlucky enemy that gets in his way. Overall an Awesome skin and one of the best pirate skins the game offers!

The anchor as a hook is very suitable, we would have been disappointed with anything less.
The details on this skin show a veteran pirate with quite a few treasure chests under his belt.
The colors fit nicely with this skin and give off a nice ocean feel.

How to get Mako: Normal loot boxes or buy in the store for 1000 credits.

See Mako in action:

7. Militia

This skin sees everyone’s favorite pig dressed in camouflage overalls and cleans him up a bit compared to his default skin. Presumably a younger Hog (hard to tell with the mask), this skin looks as if he has everything he needs to survive in the Australian bush for a few months, come back, and still kick ass! A true survival expert and an Epic skin!

Replacing Hogs belly tattoo with a grenade hanging on by a pin lets us know that while he may clean up nicely, this is still the same reckless Piggy we love!
The hook looks deadly and more realistic than any other hook he has in the game.
The hat and undershirt add a nice touch to the overall skin, nailing the Australian feeling.

How to get Militia: Open Archive boxes or buy for 1000 credits during the Overwatch Archive/ Anniversary event.

See Militia in action:

6. Lacrosse

Added in the Summer Games event, this skin sees Raodhog the most terrifying lacrosse player in the world. Decked out in padding and a lacrosse racket/hook Hog seem a little too big to be guarding the small goals in lacrosse…And definitely too dangerous to be playing a contact sport!

The helmet/ gasmask adds a nice menacing touch to the skin.
His lacrosse racket looks terrifying to get hooked by and is for sure not up to code for the sport…right?
The belly tattoo being replaced by a team logo makes it a little more visible in a battle.
The color scheme is great, and really gives the feel of a sports team.

How to get Lacrosse: Open Summer games boxes or buy for 1000 credits during the Overwatch Summer games/ Anniversary events.

See Lacrosse in action:

5. Junkenstein’s Monster

Adding another notch in the belt of Junkrat/ Roadhog duo themes, this skin sees Roadhog turn into a Frankenstein monster inspired atrocity. A creation of Doctor Junkenstein’s, Roadhog embodies the Halloween theme with this stitched together green-skinned bowl cut wearing monstrosity! A truly menacing skin and a great addition to any skin collection!

The stitches literally hold this skin together and give a great menacing feeling to this skin.
The purple and green color scheme fits perfectly with this skin.
The resemblance to Frankenstein’s monster is uncanny and an awesome skin added to the Halloween collection.

How to get Junkenstein’s Monster: Open Halloween boxes or buy for 1000 credits during the Overwatch Halloween/ Anniversary events.

See Junkenstein's Monster in action:

4. Ice Fisherman

Looking like a polar hunter, this skin turns Hog into a friendly-looking walrus-like creature with a giant fish hook ready to reel enemies in! An awesome looking winter skin that makes Hog look chummier than ever, this skin plays into the theme perfectly creating a silly but terrifying skin to add to his collection.

The fish hook looks terrifyingly awesome, an apt choice for this skin.
The tuna barrel on his back adds to the overall comic feel of this skin.
The walrus mask is a nice touch and gives another unique look for everyone’s favorite pig.

How to get Ice Fisherman: Open Winter boxes or buy for 1000 credits during the Overwatch Winter/ Anniversary events.

See Ice Fisherman in action:

3. Toxic

The most unique skin Hogs wardrobe has to offer, this skin genuinely takes a creative approach to the design. Seeing Roadhog turn into a seemly possessed suit of toxic sludge there isn’t a skin quite like it in the game, and we love it! Not only does it look like a sludge coming alive, but it also looks ready to inflict its enemy with the same sludge through its hook! An awesome concept that is perfectly executed in this epic skin.

The animal skull in the helmet adds an awesome touch to the skin and adds to even more of the mystery behind the skin.
The hook looks gnarly, with a syringe on the tip ready to inflict his foe.
The belly tattoo is replaced with a valve saying, ‘shut off’.

How to get Toxic: Open Anniversary boxes or buy for 1000 credits during the Overwatch Anniversary event.

See Toxic in action:

2. Butcher

Resembling a boss from Diablo, this badass skin realized alongside the blizzard world map shows just how iconic Blizzard games have become! Resembling a demon, this skin turns Hog into a terror on the battlefield! This game cross over is what we love to see in skins, and it fits Roadhog like a glove!

The helmet is super awesome and adds a face like feeling which most Hog skins lack.
The design and the butcher’s apron give off a menacing personality.
The badass hook looks like it would hurt…a lot…

How to get Butcher: Normal loot boxes or buy in the store for 1000 credits.

See Butcher in action:

1. Bajie

This legendary skin is truly a sight to behold and the best Roadhog skin the game offers! Taking inspiration from Zhu Wuneng whose name translates into ‘resurrected pig’, Bajie follows just that as we see Roadhog stitch a dead pig head to his face like a gas mask. Being released during the Chinese new-year event, this skin is packed with small details from Chinese mythology such as the rake Hog uses as a hook…a deadly one. This skin reaches epic proportions and turns Hog into a literal hog. A win in our book!

The pig head makes this skin awesome and really offers a unique variation compared to other Hog skins.
The small details along the skin are awesome and let people know just how much effort was put into making this skin.
The gardening tool for a weapon is an awesome touch and makes for one of the most terrifying objects to see flying at your face.

How to get Bajie: Open Chinese new-year boxes or buy for 1000 credits during the Overwatch Chinese new-year/ Anniversary events.

See Bajie in action:

You may also be interested in:

Main Image caption:

Check out the coolest skins for everyones favorite pig!

Image Gallery:

Sale Tags:

More on this topic:

Share this Article:

Is Overwatch Dying? Here Are the Facts

KateL24 — Mon, 13 May 2019 22:16:44 +0000

Is Overwatch Dying? Here Are the Facts

If you’ve queued for a game lately, it’s easy to notice that there seems to be an unfamiliar trend with Overwatch’s matchmaking.

A service that once generated games for even the highest level players in a minute or two has started to grind out into longer and longer queue times for ranks stretching from Gold to Masters. With the sudden shift away from lightning fast games, it’s natural to wonder if after two and a half years, Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment’s titanic Hail Mary at the end of a troubled development cycle, is finally starting to lose its charm.

It appears that there are several antagonizing factors that are currently dogging Overwatch’s matchmaking system, not the least of which is the gargantuan and heavily marketed release of Activision’s hit Call of Duty Black Ops 4, whose popularity has dominated the Twitch TV scene since its release on October 12th. Even casual viewers of the more popular Overwatch streams, such as Surefour, AimbotCalvin, and IDDQD, have noticed their hours in their native game declining before hopping over to Activision’s new hit into the Call of Duty series.

But what do the numbers show?

Blizzard Entertainment is remarkably tight lipped about their actual numbers unless they serve a broader marketing purpose, yet clues remain across the internet about the state of Overwatch’s viewership.

According to metrics from Sully Gnome, there has been a brief decline in Overwatch’s Twitch’s viewership, which coincides with the increasing queue times that even the game’s latest Halloween Terror event has not been able to compete with. Within the past 30 days, viewership numbers are down across the board, bringing Overwatch to an average rank of 12 on Twitch TV’s most watched list.

Of course, this is hardly a meteoric decline. After all, in 2007 Blizzard Entertainment announced reaching a milestone of 30 million players, leaving the game with enough space to lose the kind of populations most video game companies would kill for, only to remain one of the top First Person Shooters on the market.

Yet at the same time, Overwatch is starting to show its age. Users on reddit and the official Battle.net forums have regularly complained that the bloat of updates have resulted in poor optimization for the game and tanking frame rates. Once lauded holiday events, such as the Overwatch Summer Games and Halloween Terror, are starting to be hated for their lazy repetitions. Lucioball, once met with excitement in 2006 as a new and refreshing minigame in a platform that had a noticeable lack in such diversions from the competitive grind, is a frequent source of complaints among fans.

Additionally, the Overwatch League wrapped up its debut season in August of this year. With relatively weak front end support from Blizzard Entertainment for non-sanctioned tournaments and its off-season competitions, such as the World Cup, there has been less drive for viewers to participate in these various extracurricular events. In fact, when not handling the Overwatch League, Blizzard Entertainment seems very content to allow a “fend for yourself” policy when it comes to discovering Overwatch events.

Some players have shared their views of the game’s current state.

Brandon “Seagull” Larned has expressed on his Twitch TV stream that he is simply feeling “burned out,” which is understandable after being the face of the pro season since the game’s early beta days. His stream has frequently found itself the source of various other games, including Warhammer 40k: Space Marine as he takes something of a break from Overwatch.

There also appears to be some fatigue about the more blatant shift towards monetization that has occurred over recent months as it pertains to cosmetics, an upsetting trend for a game that lauded itself for its easy access to content through play. After fan outcry at locking what is argued to be the best in game emote for the character Lucio behind an All Access Pass for the Overwatch League (a hefty $30 investment), Blizzard Entertainment eventually conceded and allowed the emote to be purchased for real life money, which has left a sour taste in some players’ mouths.

Lucio’s game emote.

“I can’t even get the skins I want for this event,” player Ashplzz explained when asked about their take on the current state of the game, admitting a growing interest in Call of Duty Black Ops 4.

At the same time, however, the game continues to go strong as it looks at its third year on the market. With frequent balance changes, which have seen old, familiar heroes take on entirely new kits to make them near unrecognizable from their original form, Blizzard Entertainment’s developers are showing a keen interest and devoting the necessary effort to keeping the game topical, relevant, and engaging.

Additionally, its winning formula that brought it to a peak of 30 million players, remains steadfast. As player Kamicakes said, “It’s good to come back and just have that solid anchor to play in.”

Overwatch’s death, though sometimes bemoaned on the official Battle.net forums, seems a far way off, even if player and viewer numbers appear to be noticeably down. We’ll have to wait and see what the holidays bring in and if Overwatch League’s Second Season, said to bring seven new franchises to the fold, revitalizes the game, or if perhaps this is simply the new standard for Blizzard’s latest IP.

Main Image caption:

Will Overwatch's legacy pop soon?

Image Gallery:

More on this topic:

Share this Article:

Breaking News:

Sombra Guide: How To Be The Best Sombra In The World

RachelKeeth — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 05:45:43 +0000

Sombra has a diverse kit that can be incredibly helpful to a team, but only if you know how to use her. She is wonderful at sneaking behind enemies, hacking them, and then taking them out. And if the enemy team has a Pharah or Bastion you can really shine as Sombra. If your team needs a good all-purpose DPS hero or someone to interrupt the firepower on the enemy team Sombra is for you. She can be a little tricky at first, but don't worry, with this guide you will be a pro in no time.

Strengths:

Opportunist:

Sombra's powerful passive ability allows her to see all enemies who are below 50% health through walls, it also allows her to see the health bars of enemies who are not at full health.

Machine Pistol:

Sombra's weapon is a short-range fully-automatic machine pistol that has a widespread. It has a spread angle of 2.7 degrees, falloff range of 15-25 meters, HP damage of 2.4-8, 20 rounds per second rate of fire, 60 ammo capacity, and reload time of 1.5 seconds.

Hack:

The hack ability is very powerful, being able to prevent enemies from using most of their abilities for 6 seconds, stopping Torbjorn's turrets for 10 seconds, revealing the enemy's health bar and ultimate status to all allies for 20 seconds, and causing health packs to regenerate faster and preventing enemies from using them for 60 seconds. When health packs are hacked it will display Sombra's signature skull above them, purple for allies and red for enemies, and it will display with a meter showing how long the hack has left. Small health packs regenerate in 2.5 seconds and large health packs regenerate in 3.75 seconds when hacked. Hack has a maximum range of 15 meters, casting time of 0.65 seconds, and cooldown of 8 seconds. The secondary fire button must be held down for the entire hack if an enemy goes out of view or you release the button it will cause the hack to cancel, but will not result in a cool down. If you are injured while trying to hack, therefore stopping the hack, it will result in a 2-second cooldown.

Stealth:

Sombra is able to briefly turn herself invisible, which also boosts her speed. Her movement speed is boosted to 10 meters per second, duration lasts up to 5 seconds, it has a casting time of 0.7 seconds, and a cooldown of 6 seconds. The cooldown does not start until the ability is deactivated. Brushing up against an enemy player or target will reveal you, but not break the stealth. Sonic Arrow and Infra-Red Sight will reveal Sombra, making auto-aimed abilities, such as Deadeye, able to target her. Taking damage will disable Stealth.

Translocator:

Giving her the ability to quickly disengage from a deadly situation Translocator is a valuable tool. It is an arching projectile device, that once thrown will stay where it lands, it can't be destroyed, but enemies can see it. Once translocated somewhere Sombra is very briefly invincible. Translocator has up to a 20-second duration and a 4-second cooldown.

EMP:

A powerful ultimate to initiate a team brawl, Sombra releases an electromagnetic pulse that disables shields and hacks all enemies caught in the blast. EMP has a 15-meter radius of effect, 6-second duration, and requires 1250 points to charge. 1% ult charge is added passively every 2.50 seconds. Shields and barriers will not protect enemies from EMP, and it will remove all armor HP from heroes such as Zarya and Zenyatta, making them easy to kill.

Weaknesses:

Team Dependence:

While Sombra is a wonderful addition to a team, that doesn't mean it can always work out. You need a team that is willing to communicate, work together, and listen to your call-outs, and able to follow up on your attacks such as EMP.

Inefficient Long-Range Damage:

Sombra's machine pistol is powerful, it shoots off many bullets in a short period of time, making it deal a lot of damage. However, it has a lot of spread. This means if you aren't close to your target you won't get much damage in. You have to be right up on them to successfully do much.

Lack of Ultimate Damage:

While EMP is a powerful ultimate in the game, it alone won't do any damage. So, if your team can't follow up or you panic ult it will have been wasted.

Difficult to Master:

There are a lot of tricks to playing Sombra that many people don't understand, she isn't as straight-forward as she might seem. It requires a specific mindset, good game sense, studying up, and a lot of practice.

Strategy Overview:

Sombra is one of the hardest ranked damage heroes on Overwatch, and for good reason. While she is incredibly powerful, when you know how to use her, there is also a lot of knowledge that has to go into using her, and she isn't as straightforward as say a Soldier 76. But, she is worth learning how to use well, and when using her there are three things you want to keep in mind, positioning, attacking, and communication.

Positioning:

Many people try to position Sombra like you would a majority of the damage heroes, on your front line. But, she doesn't belong anywhere near the front line, she actually belongs on the enemy's back line. Using her Stealth and Translocator she is perfect for making quick sneak attacks and then disappearing. Now, of course, there are some instances where you may have to fight on your front line, but you can't get nearly as much out of her that way, and it will usually be wasting better opportunities.

Attacking:

When using Sombra it's important to learn to utilize her kit, her fighting style is completely different from any of the other DPS heroes on Overwatch. As already stated you don't want to fight from your team's front line but the enemy's back line. But, more than that you don't want to go in front of an enemy and start battling with them if you can help it. Sombra is about stealth.

When battling sneak behind the enemy, hack a health pack and place your translocator on it, find your target, use stealth, and sneak up behind your target. If you're behind the target it will give you an advantage because they will have to turn around to shoot back, and it may even take them a moment to realize where they are taking damage from.
When attacking there are a few heroes you should target first. As always you want to first target healers, then tanks, and then DPS. But, as with any hero, there are specific heroes Sombra excels at eliminating and she specifically should target. Sometimes you will want to target these heroes before healers and tanks, depending on how they are affecting your team.

Pharah is a difficult hero because she stays in the air most of the time and can do quite a bit of damage to your team, but Sombra can hack her which will disable Pharah's jet-pack. Once she falls down to the ground you can pick her off with your gun.
Bastion has quite a bit of firepower and can eat through your team's shield, but if you sneak behind him and hack him it will disable his sentry mode and lessen his firepower, making it easier to take him out.
Reinhardt and Orisa both have shields that can make it hard for your team to push through, and while you can't hack through a shield or barrier, if you sneak behind them you can hack them. Reinhardt's shield will instantly go down and Orisa will be prevented from placing a new shield. This makes a great opportunity for both you and your team to focus fire on them.
Mercy is unable to use Guardian Angle when hacked, so if you hack her before you begin attacking her mobility will be greatly decreased and you can deprive your enemy of their main healer.
Doomfist is unable to use most of his abilities (Seismic Slam, Rising Uppercut, Rocket Punch, and Meteor Shower) when hacked, making him an easy target.
Mei is prevented from using Cryo-Freeze when hacked, making it a great way to target her without her being able to heal herself, but she can still freeze you, so keep a bit of distance.
Tracer is incredibly weak when she can't move fast, so being hacked and unable to use her abilities makes her an easy target.

Communication:

A Sombra who either isn't communicating with their team or who's team isn't communicating with them won't get the most out of her. Her EMP doesn't do any damage in itself, and usually after activating the EMP Sombra will have to either translocate away or die, so it's vital for her team to follow up on her ultimate for it to be of any use.
Her ability Opportunist also will greatly go to waste if you are unable to tell your teammates which enemy team members are low and therefore whom to target.
Make sure you use a microphone when playing her and work with a team who is also communicating with you. Try to call out who and where low health enemies are; before you use your EMP; try to double up on ultimates, such as first using your EMP and then immediately following with Reinhardt's Earthshatter or Reaper's Death Blossom; and while you don't need to be calling out everyone you hack, do let people know if you hack a high-priority target, such as Reinhardt.

Taking Advantage of Sombra's Strengths:

Opportunist:

As previously stated, to take full advantage of Opportunist you really need to communicate with your team. However, you can still get a lot of use out of it on your own.
With Sombra being a flanker keep an eye out while you're sneaking around the map for any enemy team member you can see are critically low, they will make easy prey and it's best to take them out before they can get healed. Even if they aren't a high-priority target, any enemy team member you take out will help your team.

Machine Pistol:

A lot of people will try to use Sombra from a distance, but her pistol has so much spread that it's hard to get any reliable damage out of it this way. Try to get within a couple feet of your target, otherwise, they are less likely to die and they'll have more of an opportunity to kill you instead.
Try practicing your aim in custom games and quick play, if you can get good at headshots you will be able to take out the enemy faster. Practice until you can reliably get 50% or more accuracy.

Hack:

You consistently want to be hacking, if you don't have 15 or more hacks for quick play and 30 or more for competitive on average you aren't using her hacking nearly enough.
While Torbjorn's turrets and Orisa's Supercharger can be hacked, Symmetra's turrets and teleporters can not. Neither can Widowmaker's Venom Mine, Junkrat's mines or traps, Sombra's translocator, or Mei's Blizzard device.
Choose your hacking targets wisely. It has an 8-second cooldown, you don't want to needlessly hack health packs your team is unlikely to use if you can hack and kill enemies. Hack one or two health packs near your team and leave it at that.
Only hack people you know you can. If you miss a hack it gives them an opportunity to fight back.

Stealth:

Don't just use Stealth as a mobility tool. A lot of people will use it to move around quickly when that generally wastes it. Wait and use it after you have a targeted enemy and to get into position behind them.
Just because you're invisible doesn't mean you are safe. Even when using stealth you can take damage, which will disable stealth. Don't run through high-fire areas with it, instead weave around them to reach your target.

Translocator:

One really big mistake is using translocator to get into a fight. If you do this you then won't have it to escape. Use Stealth to get into the fight, and then you can use Translocator to escape to either reload or get some healing.
If you have been hacked by an enemy Sombra you can't throw a new Translocator, but you can still teleport to one that is already placed.
The Translocator is visible to everyone, and sometimes an enemy may camp beside it so that they can kill you when you transport back. To reduce the risk try to place them in areas that aren't visited as often or that are harder to get a visual on.
When you use the Translocator it is not an instant teleport from the moment you press the button, there is a fraction of a second before it takes effect. Keep this in mind and don't wait to take too much damage before you teleport.

EMP:

Sombra's ultimate is a wonderful battle instigator, try to save it until someone on your team has a high-damage ultimate such as Self-Destruct, Tactical Visor, or Dragon Blade.
EMP is able to pierce through shields and barriers and hack nearby health packs that have not previously been hacked by an enemy Sombra.
When using EMP it's important to try to stand in the middle of the enemy team to get as much effect out of it as possible, so make sure you place your Translocator beforehand, otherwise, you'll quickly be killed. Transport yourself, and then run back to help your team finish everyone off.
EMP can really help with a dive comp, if your team is having a hard time making a push Sombra can set off her EMP in the middle of the enemy team and then the dive heroes, Winston and Tracer work well, can quickly and easily dive in and eliminate the enemy team.

Tips and Tricks:

Whenever you're targeting heroes who can inhibit movement or get easy 1-2 shot kills, such as Roadhog, McCree, or Hanzo, hack them before attacking.
When playing as Sombra you can't play passively. Always be pushing up against the enemy, hacking them and assassinating them from behind.
If you have more than 6-7 deaths or 10-11 in longer competitive games, you're not playing Sombra properly. Make sure to use your toolkit well.
Within the support heroes, category Sombra can pair really well with Brigitte. While Brigitte is fighting the enemy team with her flail and shield she can keep herself alive, and also act as a distraction while Sombra sneaks behind the enemy.
Sombra is weak against Winston, McCree, and Brigitte. Winston's weapon can lock onto her even after he's been hacked, McCree can still get quick kills with a headshot, and Brigitte can prevent herself from being hacked by blocking it with her shield and she can also use her flail to injure Sombra thus stopping a hack.
Getting stuck in a Junkrat trap will cause Stealth to deactivate.
If you hack someone who has been Nano-Boosted it won't stop the Nano-Boost, but it will stop them from using their abilities.

It will take time to get good at Sombra, but if you give it time and practice she will be an asset to have at your fingertips. If used properly she can turn a match around, and be a thorn in the side of your enemies. She is a lot of fun to play, and well worth it. I hope you enjoyed this guide if so be sure to check out these other articles:

Main Image caption:

“Everything can be hacked... and everyone.”

Image Gallery:

Sale Tags:

More on this topic:

Share this Article:

Brigitte Guide: How To Be The Best Brigitte In The World

RachelKeeth — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 05:12:15 +0000

While most of the healers require you to keep a distance from the main battle, Brigitte really shines when you are surrounded by both allies and enemies, swinging her flail and bashing with her shield. But, if you don't use her flail correctly you may not be able to heal your allies. If you don't know when to time the amazing abilities of her shield you can miss out on opportunities to completely change the tables in a tight battle. In this guide, I will teach you how to be an outstanding Brigitte and all the tips and tricks you could hope for!

Strengths:

Inspire:

This is Brigitte's passive ability. When damage is dealt to enemies with Brigitte's flail it activates Inspire. Inspire has a 20-meter radius, heals 16 HP per second, has a 5-second duration, and a 1.5-second cooldown. Inspire doesn't stack, so each time you deal damage with your flail it will reset the 5-second duration instead of increasing healing speed.

Rocket Flail:

Brigitte's melee weapon, which she has in place of a gun. It can do damage to multiple enemies at a time, has a range of 5-6 meters, does 35 HP damage, and does one swing per 0.6 seconds. It has a horizontal range of 3 meters on the side she swings it towards and 2 meters on the opposite side.

Whip Shot:

With a maximum range of 20 meters whip shot shoots forward and can knock an enemy backward 5-10 meters while dealing 70 HP damage. Whip shot travels 40 meters per second and has a 4-second cooldown.

Repair Pack:

Brigitte can burst heal an ally by tossing them a Repair Pack, which heals 150 HP, but any extra healing goes towards giving them some temporary armor, up to 75 HP that lasts for 5 seconds and can be stacked with another shielding. When thrown Repair Pack shoots as a projectile towards your targeted ally. It travels at 30 meters per second, and also has a 30-meter radius. It will track your targeted ally either until it makes contact or they die. Repair Pack has a 6-second cooldown.

Barrier Shield:

An energy barrier that's a personal shield for Brigitte, it is about the same size as she is. It can take 600 damage, has a cooldown of 3 seconds after being broken, and regenerates 100 points per second after being down for 2 seconds. When open her shield slows her movement down to 3.85 meters per second, or 30% of her usual speed.

Shield Bash:

Brigitte can dash forward up to 6 meters with her shield up and bash into an enemy, dealing 50 HP damage and stunning them for 1 second. Shield Bash has a 60° front cone angle radius and a cooldown of 6 seconds. It will slightly knock an enemy back, but not as much as Whip Shot. It can stop most ultimates if timed properly, however not all of them.

Rally:

Brigitte's ultimate helps her move faster, and supplies her and nearby allies with armor that sticks around until it is destroyed. It has an area of effect of 8 meters, provides 15 armor per .5 seconds up to 100 armor, and has a 10-second duration. To charge Rally requires 2,250 points.

Weaknesses:

Long Distance Attackers:

While strong with close to mid range attacks Brigitte has little to no capability to fight back long range. She may occasionally get a Whip Shot in, but it's difficult to get a long-range moving target and it typically won't do enough damage to help. Therefore, Hanzo, Widowmaker, and Pharah are all bad matches for Brigitte.

Splash Damage:

Pharah's rockets and Junkrat's grenades do a certain amount of direct damage where they hit, and then extra “splash damage” in the general area of the explosion. Even with Brigitte's shield up, if the rockets or grenades explode around it the splash damage will hit Brigitte and she will take damage. These two heroes can take her down more easily than some others and are a bad match for her.

Limited Healing:

While a very helpful healer to have, her healing ability is at the lower end of the spectrum of support heroes. This is important to keep in mind when choosing your composition and positioning.

Strategy Overview:

Succeeding as Brigitte is largely about five things: positioning, team composition, communication, use of Repair Packs, and awareness of your surroundings. Her abilities themselves aren't hard to control, so what really sets Brigitte players apart are these things. Once you learn to keep these in mind when gaming you will be a top-notch Brigitte!

Positioning:

Unlike most of the other healers in Overwatch, Brigitte does not belong on the back line of a formation. With her melee attacks and the healing radius of Inspire only activating when dealing damage with the flail she generally belongs up front and in the fray. There are two different placements among your team you can move between:
1. Among the tanks. With Brigitte's shielding, melee attacks, and Inspire you can really see her shine up front with the tanks. Unless you're hitting something with the flail every 5 seconds you won't be getting very much out of Inspire, so up front, you can protect your tanks and keep them healed up, along with any of your other team members who are within 20 meters of you.
2. Middle of the pack. Your goal here is protecting your main healer and additional off healer, if using one, from flankers. But, while doing so try to keep as many team members as possible in your Inspire radius so that you aren't wasting it. Thankfully, the 20-meter radius is rather large so it gives you a bit of leeway.

Team Composition:

It's really important not to use Brigitte as a solo-healer, and even pairing her with Lúcio wouldn't be enough solid healing for your team. She needs to be paired with a main healer such as Mercy, Moira, or Anna. Regarding tanks, she doesn't pair well with Orisa, who is a tank that needs to keep their distance, but she really shines with Reinhardt.

Communication:

A very important aspect of any team, no matter what your role in it is, is communication. However, when playing a healer communication is especially important. If a lot is going on or you lose track of someone, when you are communicating through your microphone your teammates can update you constantly on the state of their health and tell you exactly where they are. You can also more easily watch each other's backs, let them know quickly when someone is flanking them, and make a plan of attack or defense.

Use of Repair Packs:

It's important to learn when to use Repair Packs, however, this can come largely from experience. This ability is on a slightly longer cooldown of 6 seconds, which may not seem long but when you are trying to keep a large portion of your team healed in a tight spot it can be difficult. It helps if you are communicating with your other healers so that you can constantly be making call-outs on which healer needs to heal which hero.
But, in general, you want to heal players who are more critically low first, and also those who are more critical to your team. So, if your Reinhardt is holding back the enemy team you would rather heal a low Reinhardt than a low flanker because if Reinhardt goes down it will leave an opening for the enemy team to exploit.

Surrounding Awareness:

A large part of being a healer is being aware of your surroundings. You need to learn the details of all the maps, keep an eye on the health of all your teammates, and try to know approximately where all your allies and enemies are located. Healers are regularly targeted, so keeping an eye on the enemy and their movements will help you stay alive and know where to position yourself.
Being keenly aware of your surroundings also makes you the ideal person to make call-outs. Let your team know who's on the enemy team and their locations, let them know if you're being attacked and need backup if you see an opportunity to take advantage of the other team's weaknesses call some shots.
If you notice your team is getting picked off learn to know when it's best to disengage, and as the healer don't hesitate to tell the few remaining members of your team to fall back so that as the healer you can survive and keep the remaining members alive until your full team can regroup.

Taking Advantage of Brigitte’s Strengths:

Inspire:

To make sure you're positioning yourself to use Inspire to its maximum effect on healing your teammates remember the radius is 20 meters. Since Whip Shot also has a 20-meter range you can easily find your radius for Inspire if you use Whip Shot and note how far it goes.
You also don't have to be causing constant damage with your flail to keep Inspire activated, as long as you damage an enemy every 5 seconds with your flail it will stay activated.

Rocket Flail:

Unlike most weapons in Overwatch Brigitte's flail doesn't require aim, aside from being pointed in the right direction and within 6 meters, and you don't run out of rounds and have to reload. So, you don't have to worry about wasting ammo or getting headshots.
Your only goal with the flail is to get in as much damage as possible. Get right up in front of the enemy and just swing, hitting as many enemies as you can. Being a melee weapon Brigitte thrives in this environment. This will also keep Inspire activated.

Whip Shot:

Not only does Whip Shot cause a decent amount of damage, but it's great for knocking back enemies who are more of a danger to you, such as Junkrat. If you see a teammate being cornered it's also a great way to come to their rescue and give them a chance to either escape or get the upper hand so they can then attack.
It's best not to try to use it for fighting against long-range attackers such as Pharah, Widowmaker, or Hanzo. You're more likely to miss, and even if you don't you probably won't finish them off. Usually, you want to leave this job to your DPS, but of course, there are always exceptions.

Repair Packs:

Keep an eye on cooldown times, to make sure you're using Repair Pack, and the other abilities, to their utmost. But, that doesn't mean you should use it as soon as the cooldown is over. If an ally is near a health pack let them use that instead.
Or, if in the midst of battle prioritize heroes who don't have self-healing. For instance, Roadhog and Soldier 76 can heal themselves, so try to focus your healing on allies that can't, unless they specifically ask for help.
Some people will ask for healing when their health is still almost full. Genji is especially known for this. In this situation, it's usually better to tell them to use a health pack or get healing from a healer who doesn't have cooldowns, such as Mercy, if that healer isn't busy. Because, if you waste healing on that hero who doesn't need it then you won't be available when you are needed.

Barrier Shield:

Brigitte's shield is very helpful, it has saved me many times, especially from D.Va bombs or Rip-Tire. But, it is important not to overestimate it and put yourself in compromising situations. Her shield only has 600 armor, unlike Reinhardt's who has 2,000. It will not outlast Bastion or Pharah's Rocket Barrage.
While the shield is only large enough to protect yourself, sometimes an ally can save themselves by hiding directly behind you. This is especially helpful in protecting your fellow healers who have low mobility.

Shield Bash:

This is arguably the best stun in Overwatch. It's easy to use, works in many circumstances, and lasts for 1 second. A second may not seem like long, but if you work quickly it can be long enough to eliminate an enemy.
If you can get close to a turret, whether one of Torbjorn's or Bastion, you can Shield Bash them, which leaves a great opening for both you and your teammates to gang up on them and take them out.
If both teams have a Reinhardt you can coordinate with your team to Shield Bash the enemy's Rein which will stun him and drop his shield, and then your team's Reinhardt can Earth Shatter the enemy team so that your team can swing in and wipe them out.

Rally:

Rally is a preemptive ultimate, it likely won't help if you are only using it to respond to an enemy's ultimate such as Dragon Blade or Rocket Barrage. The armor and healing Rally provides builds up over time, so it's best to learn when to use it.
For instance, if your team is going to attack the enemy team activate Rally about 5 seconds before your team attacks, and try to get as many of your teammates near you as possible so they will be in the radius of effect. It also works the same if your team is trying to hold down the point from the enemy team, try to activate it about 5 seconds before the enemy attacks.
Try not to use Rally if the enemy team is trickling in. This makes them easy to pick off. Try only to use Rally when the enemy team is making a coordinated or group attack.
When using Rally both you and your teammates need to be super aggressive to get the most out of it, focus on getting as much damage in as you can.

Combating Brigitte’s Weaknesses:

Long Distance Attackers:

Brigitte has few options when it comes to long distance attackers. Usually, you will want to use your shield to protect yourself, and leave the long-distance attackers to your DPS. This is another instance where communication with your team is important. If you and your teammates are on microphone you can tell them who is attacking you and from where, and ask for help.
However, sometimes in lower levels, they will make obvious mistakes. Sometimes a Widowmaker decides to stand on the ground in the middle of the battle, or a Pharah isn't staying in the air. In this case, your Whip Shot is more likely to help you, and if they are close enough even Shield Bash.

Splash Damage:

If you are getting a lot of splash damage from Junkrat's grenades or Pharah's rockets there's not much you can do unless they mistakenly get into your attack range. Otherwise, it's good to rely on your teammates or use your surroundings to your benefit. D.Va's Micro Missiles are more easy to handle since she's close range and you can Shield Bash her to stop the attack.
You never want to let yourself get cornered, wherever you position yourself to have an escape route. So, if you start taking too much damage take that escape route, find a health pack, and then flank back towards your team.

Limited Healing:

It's important to remember never to solo-heal with Brigitte. You need a main healer: Mercy, Anna, or Moira. It's currently meta to have three healers, one main healer, and two off healers. For instance: Mercy, Zenyatta, and Brigitte.
You can't heal allies with Inspire when they are on the other side of a barrier, such as Winston's barrier, or on the other side of a wall. So, keep that in mind.

Tips and Tricks:

Her name is Brigitte, not Bridget, it's Swedish and pronounced Brig-eet-uh
A really powerful attack combo: melee, shield bash, melee, whip shot. If done correctly it does 190 HP damage.
It's important to know when not to play Brigitte. If you have to solo heal, Orisa is your only tank, or Brigitte can't counter the enemy's composition, she really won't fit into your team's comp. In that situation, it's better to pick something for the team, or talk to your teammates and see if they can switch things up so that she will fit into the composition.
Don't panic Rally, it's unlikely to keep people alive. Rally slowly builds up over time, so if you die quickly it's not going to give your team any benefit and it will have wasted your ult.
Brigitte isn't a tank, and can't be used as one. While she is great at melee, her shield is only 600 HP and won't take much damage before it shatters.
Animation canceling is when you can shorten an action, such as reload time, by using another action. If you want to learn more about it check out this great video.
You can use Shield Bash to jump high by using it on a surface, such as an angled rock, to jump into the air. It takes some practice and has been nerfed from the PTR, but it can be helpful to learn.
If D.Va is propelling her suit forward to be a bomb or Reinhardt is charging you can Shield Bash them to alter or stop their momentum.
Brigitte is especially effective against dive heroes such as Tracer or Winston.
Most ultimates can be canceled with Shield Bash, but not all of them, such as Doomfist's Meteor Strike.
If you hear Sombra start to hack, quickly turn around with your shield blocking the hack.
You can eliminate Tracer by using Shield Bash (50 dmg) to stun her, and then quickly before it wears off use Rocket Flail (35 dmg) and then Whip Shot (70dmg).
You can prevent yourself from being pulled into Orisa's Halt if you face it with your shield before it latches onto you.
If the enemy's Brigitte stuns your Reinhardt you can wait and Shield Bash the enemy's Reinhardt right as he tries to Earth Shatter in order to cancel his ultimate.
Try not to face Moira 1v1, she will usually win.

It will take a lot of practice, but learning to integrate this knowledge into your gameplay will help you become an awesome healer, top-notch Brigitte, and an asset your team can't do without. I hope you enjoyed this guide, if you did you may want to check out these other articles from Gamers Decide:

Main Image caption:

“I’ll knock some sense into you!”

Image Gallery:

Sale Tags:

More on this topic:

Share this Article:

Lúcio Guide: How To Be The Best Lúcio In The World

RachelKeeth — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 04:32:48 +0000

Lúcio may not be a good choice for solo-healer, but he has some great healing abilities, a marvelous speed boost, and he can pack a punch when taking out the enemy. Once you learn everything this guide has to offer your team will be thankful to have an amazing Lúcio among their ranks!

Strengths:

Wall Ride:

When holding down the jump button and facing a wall Lúcio can jump onto the wall and skate along it at a 20% speed increase, as long as the button is held down or until you hit an obstacle. If you go into the settings you can enable a setting to allow backward wall riding, which will improve mobility and add more options for use in combat. You will gain a burst of speed from jumping off of the walls.

Sonic Amplifier:

Lúcio's weapon and primary fire, a pinpoint linear projectile with 20 ammo, 4 rounds per shot, 20 HP damage, a projectile speed of 50 meters per second, reload time of 1.5 seconds, and it shoots 4 rounds over 0.5 seconds, 1 shot every 0.125 seconds. It may be a low-powered weapon, but Lúcio packs a punch when you know how to use him!

Soundwave:

His secondary fire, it gives Lúcio the ability to knock enemies back with a wave. It deals 25 HP damage, has an 8-meter maximum range, reload time of 1.5 seconds, and a 4-second cooldown. Genji is unable to deflect it, it doesn't use ammunition, and it can even be used during reloading of the Sonic Amplifier!

Crossfade:

Lúcio continuously plays music, unless he has been hacked by Sombra, that aides himself and his allies. He can switch between two songs, one for healing and one for speed. It has a 10 meter radius of effect, casting time with a 0.8 second animation duration, when healing it will heal allies 16.25 HP per second and it will heal himself 12.5 HP per second, it will charge his ultimate 19 points per 15 HP healing, and when on the speed boosting song it will boost speed by 30%.

Amp it Up:

Lúcio has the ability to boost the volume of his speakers, therefore also boosting the effect of his song. It has a duration of 3 seconds, a cooldown of 12 seconds, improves speed by 70%, and boosts healing to 46.8 HP per second on allies and 35.1 HP per second on himself.

Sound Barrier:

When Lúcio pops his ult he will jump into the air and slam his amplifier onto the ground, releasing a wave that will briefly protect himself and his allies. It is one of the strongest ultimates in Overwatch, but it is also the highest costing ultimate. Sound Barrier gives all allies in line of sight within 30 meters temporary armor that quickly decays. It adds 500 HP barriers, has a 6-second duration, casting time of 0.8 seconds when on even ground, and has a charging requirement of 2,625 points. Once fully cast there is about a 0.5-second window where it can be applied to allies who come within range. Sound Barrier cannot be applied to allies on the other side of an enemy barrier.

Weaknesses:

Low Healing:

Lúcio, tied with Brigitte, is the lowest healer in Overwatch. He is incredibly powerful and lacking many weaknesses when you know how to use him, but if you aren't familiar with him you won't get much out of him. He should never be a solo-healer or as a two-person healing team with Brigitte.

Low Damage:

While dealing only 20 HP damage Lúcio's Sonic Amplifier is a semi low-powered weapon, so if you don't know how to use it it won't make much impact. With it being a projectile it can also take a bit of forethought into how your enemy is going to move, especially against fast moving heroes such as Tracer.

Being Hacked:

When hacked by Sombra Lúcio is especially weak. It slows down his speed, stops his healing, prevents him from wall riding, and of course prevents him from using his ultimate. Sombra's EMP can even cancel Lúcio's Sound Barrier.

Strategy Overview:

There are many things that are important to Lúcio gameplay, however, some of the most important are to keep moving, peeling, 1v1 combat, communication, awareness of your surroundings, and calling the shots. In this portion of the guide, I will teach you how to use these to win more games, be a better teammate, and overall a top-notch Lúcio.

Keep Moving:

It can not be overstated how important it is for Lúcio to keep moving. This is what makes him such a hard-to-hit hero with a high survive ability rate. You want to constantly be wall riding, jumping, and crouching to gain speed and move in unpredictable patterns. You want to rely on Lúcio's ability to slip through the enemy's grasp.
While you want to stay moving, make sure you are positioned properly. You want to generally stay around the back line with your other support heroes or a bit behind the tanks. Lúcio's speed allows him to move back and forth between these two locations smoothly and quickly.
It will take practice to learn how to keep moving, but it is well worth the time you invest in it. Try practicing around the practice arena, in custom games, and in Quick Play. You won't get good at it overnight, but if you practice it will soon become second nature, especially if you set up the settings and controls to work well for you.
You can find some great videos to help you set up your controls, such as:

Peeling:

Peeling consists of protecting your other support heroes, such as Mercy or Anna, and stationary DPS, such as Bastion. As an off-healer, it's not only Lúcio's job to do damage to the enemy team and heal your own, but you need to protect your main healer. While Lúcio moves around in position more than the other support heroes, you still need to keep an eye on your main healer and make sure you are close enough to them that if they are in danger you can protect them.
If you see your main healer or stationary DPS are in danger, put yourself in the line of fire so they can escape and try to defeat the enemy using all the tools in your arsenal.

1v1 Combat:

With his mobility and self-healing, Lúcio can really excel at 1v1 combat when done correctly. Watch for the enemy to overextend or get separated and go after their weak link. When trying to decide if you should risk 1v1 combat ask yourself a few questions: is the enemy out of position? Are they at full health? Do you have an escape route? It will also depend on what hero they are playing as. For instance, a Sombra would be much more dangerous to go up against than a Doomfist. You have to decide if the benefits out weight the risks.
Learn to kite. This means keeping out of range of the enemy while you attack, being able to wall ride smoothly greatly helps with this.
Practice 8v8 Deathmatch, this will help you improve at fighting enemies and will also help you know what situations you can and can't win.
Prioritize targets who are low on health that you can finish off, you don't want to give them the chance to heal or disengage.

Awareness of your Surroundings:

As a healer, it is your job to constantly be aware of what is going on. Your allies positions and health, where the enemy is and whom they are playing, the map surroundings and where the health packs are located, escape routes, you need to be aware of everything.
You especially need to keep an eye on your fellow support heroes, to protect them, and your tanks, to keep them healed up so they can take damage for the team.
Also watch closely for enemies who get close to the edge of the map or holes that you can boop off with Soundwave.
Try to keep track of how long it has been since each enemy has used their ultimate so that you can prepare for when they use it next to protect your team.

Communication/Calling the Shots:

Since the healer has to be aware of everything that is going on this also makes them the ideal person to shot call. The DPS is often focused on flanking and the tanks are at the front line, so the support has the best visual on everything that is going on.
Try to learn good game sense so that you can make better calls. For instance, if you see the enemy is grouped up and you know your team has their ultimates you can ask Zarya to use a Graviton Surge and then ask Pharah to use Rocket Barrage to wipe them out. Or ask Mei to use Blizzard and then D.Va to use Self-Destruct. You can also suggest positions where to group up or ask your DPS to flank in a certain way. It can really help you learn better game sense if you watch the pros, so try to watch the Overwatch League matches and take note.
It is important not only to stay calm and level-headed yourself, if you start getting upset you'll get tilted and play badly, but you want to make sure your team is also staying level-headed. If they hear you yelling, cursing, or sounding stressed it can impact the mood of the whole team. Try to be encouraging, telling your teammates when they make good plays and help out if your team fails let them know you can try again, and try to make sure that while you want to take it seriously that you aren't letting the emotions affect you and others negatively.

Taking Advantage of Lúcio's Strengths:

Wall Ride:

Learn to ride precisely and consistently jumping from wall to wall. If you can jump frequently and smoothly from one surface to another it gives you a speed boost and makes you a harder to hit target.
Practice jumping and gliding around the point and payload, if you make yourself a hard target to hit you can dodge around keeping the enemy from taking the point or moving the payload.
You can jump to a higher area if you keep the camera focused all the way up.
When wall riding randomly switch between healing and speed, jump, crouch, anything you can do to break up your pattern and make yourself more slippery and harder to hit.
But, make sure you learn how to target your enemies while you are jumping and wall riding.
If you go into settings you can enable backward wall riding, this is essential, so make sure you turn that on.

Sonic Amplifier:

The shots from Sonic Amplifier can seem a bit slow, watch your shots closely and learn to guide them with your enemy in the direction they are moving.
Headshots cause more damage, so when possible target the head. However, if you can't hit the head it's more important to just get the damage in, so sometimes you just need to target the torso where you have the largest hit area.
Try to spam the turrets so that they don't hit your teammates.
Put pressure on the enemy support, if they lose their support or get tilted your team will have a big advantage. When possible take the enemy support out, but even if you can't take them out just try to send a few shots at them every few seconds so they feel more pressure. In general, you will want to troll the enemy team to make them anxious so they start making bad moves.

Soundwave:

Obviously, the most flashy way to use Soundwave is to boop people off of the map and into holes, however, there are many other uses for it.
Soundwave can be very versatile both in causing damage and in protecting yourself and your team. If an enemy who uses close range, such as Reaper, gets too close you can use it to back them up. It's also great to give yourself some distance from enemies you are particularly weak against, such as Sombra, Mei, McCree, and Brigitte.
If a Winston jumps in and places a barrier you can boop him out of the barrier with Soundwave so that your team can then focus down on him.
When battling 1v1 it can be helpful to boop an enemy into a wall, into corners, or into the air so that you can then use Sonic Amplifier to finish them off.
When possible try to boop enemies into Graviton Surge, Pulse Bombs, or any other ultimate.
While Genji can deflect Sonic Amplifier he can not deflect Soundwave.

Crossfade:

Whenever your team is fully healed switch to your speed aura so that your teammates can more quickly move around, dodge, retreat, and chase after enemies.
Lúcio's speed is often underutilized when it is the most important part of his pack. Remember, while he is a healer he is an off-healer, and his speed is just as important. When possible allow your main healer to take care of the heals while you speed up your allies.
Whenever you die pull up the scoreboard menu and if you aren't urgently needed and another teammate has died wait for them to respawn so that you can speed them back to the rest of your teammates. You can also go back to the spawn room and taxi allies back towards your team when your team can spare you.

Amp it Up:

When battling on control point maps make sure to use Amp it Up on speed to get your team to the point as quickly as possible, as whichever team gets to the point first will have an advantage.
Don't waste Amp it Up, only use it when your team legitimately needs the speed or healing boost.
If the enemy team is about to use an ultimate such as D.Va's Self-Destruct or Mei's Blizzard use Amp it Up on speed to quickly help your team retreat. It can also be used to help your team quickly and efficiently move through a choke point.
Make sure to tell your teammates to group up with you when you're about to use it.

Sound Barrier:

If you are eliminated before Sound Barrier hits the ground it won't take effect, so make sure you watch out for enemies nearby, especially snipers.
Some people will jump from a high point when using Sound Barrier because it looks cool. But, you don't want to do this, as it gives the enemy a chance to kill you before you activate it. You want to activate it as soon as possible, so it's even better if you're on the ground and when Lúcio jumps to use it you turn in the direction of something higher, such as a car, this way it will activate sooner.
If timed just right Sound Barrier can negate the damage of Pulse Bomb or Rip-Tire, but the timing can be a bit tricky so it takes practice.

Combating Lúcio's Weaknesses:

Low Healing:

Never use Lúcio as a solo-healer, or in a two-person healing team with Brigitte. You really need a main healer, either Moira, Mercy, or Anna. Zenyatta can also work, however it depends on your team, their abilities, and their communication.
Make sure not to waste your Amp it Up or Sound Barrier when they aren't needed.
Remember that teammates on the other side of an enemy barrier will not be healed by your aura.

Low Damage:

Make sure you don't just randomly spam Sonic Amplifier. The damage Lúcio can do all depends on your aim. Practice in the practice range, in custom games, and in quick play to be able to hit enemies even when you're riding along walls and jumping. While you only need to be sure to hit the enemy, you want to work on getting headshots to get in more HP damage, so practice, practice practice.

Being Hacked:

Lúcio is especially weak when hacked, so when there is a Sombra on the enemy team always look out for her. If she is a good Sombra she'll most likely be targeting the support heroes. Stick with your teammates so that you always have someone watching your back and in return watch theirs.

Tips and Tricks:

Try binding your “jump” key to something other than space on PC, “X” on PlayStation, and “A” on Xbox. You want to change it to something you can smoothly push and hold down continuously. You can change this in the settings.
Use your microphone. This is a team based game, and communicating with your team is vital.
Learn when to retreat. If your team is staggering out of spawn one after another and you keep dying because you aren't grouped up retreat and wait for your full team before continuing to fight the enemy.
Call out when you die, so that your team knows it will be a minute before you can continue to heal them, speed them up, or watch their backs.
You can time using your Sound Barrier at the same time Pharah is using Rocket Barrage so that the enemy can't easily shoot her down.
Practice moving around each map. Try to find all the ways you can move around them as quickly as possible and learn all the nooks and crannies you can get into. You want to learn each map like the back of your hand.
If the enemy team has a Sombra keep an eye out when using Sound Barrier, as her EMP can cancel it.

Thank you for reading this guide! If you practice hard and remember everything I have taught you I know you can become a top-notch Lúcio that your team loves and the enemy hates to face. If you enjoyed this article check out these others from Gamers Decide:

Main Image caption:

“Climbing the charts!”

Image Gallery:

Sale Tags:

More on this topic:

Share this Article:

Mercy Guide: How To Be The Best Mercy In The World

RachelKeeth — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 03:36:32 +0000

Mercy is one of the most popular healers for good reason, when you know how to use her she is the perfect solo-healer, she can stay alive, she has a high rate of healing, and she can resurrect players. However, if you don't know how to use her she can die quickly and have little impact on the match. But don't worry, I will teach you how to be the best Mercy your team could hope for.

Strengths:

Regeneration:

Mercy's passive ability and as long as she doesn't take any damage for a second she will automatically start healing at a rate of 20 hit points per second.
Guardian Angel: due to Mercy's Valkyrie suit she can fly towards a targeted ally. This gives her the ability to quickly get to a comrade and heal them or to escape danger. Guardian Angel has a range of 30 meters and a cooldown of 1.5 seconds.

Resurrect:

With a range of 5 meters, cast time of 1.75 seconds, duration of 2.25 seconds, and a cooldown of 30 seconds resurrect, or often called “rez”, is a powerful ability. However, it can often be wasted. It is important to know how to use this ability well.

Caduceus Staff:

This is Mercy's main “weapon”, but it doesn't do any damage unless you punch someone with it. The purpose of the staff is healing and damage boost, and this is what you will want to use most of the time as Mercy. It has a range of 15 meters (30 during her ultimate), 10-meter radius during her ultimate, 60 healing per second, and it will stay locked on until disconnected or until the target is blocked for 2 seconds. It can also damage boost an ally 30%.

Caduceus Blaster:

Mercy's actual weapon. It's a relatively low-powered blaster with 20 damage per round, 20 rounds per clip, a reload time of 1.5 seconds, fire rate of 5 rounds per second, and it's a linear projectile with no spread that travels at 40 meters per second.

Valkyrie:

Valkyrie is Mercy's ultimate ability. While it has been nerfed, it is still highly powerful and very useful. It gives you the ability to fly at 9 meters per second, projectile speed increases to 80 meters per second, chain healing or damage boost multiple allies at once, resurrect will not be interrupted by damage taken, and it lasts for 15 seconds. It also removes cast time for Resurrect and removes the reduction in speed.

Weaknesses:

Mercy's health is relatively low at 200 hit points. This means if you can't get out of the line of fire long enough for her regeneration to kick in she doesn't last long before dying.
She is one of the slower moving heroes. If you're near your team and can use guardian angel to move around it isn't much of a problem. However, if you get separated it will be very hard to escape enemies.
Mercy tends to have a target on her back. When an enemy team is deciding whom to concentrate fire on, it will generally be Mercy. Until you learn how to evade their fire you may die a lot.
The blaster does very little damage unless an enemy is already at low health it will be hard to get a lot of kills. It is possible, especially if you are good at headshots, but if you have multiple enemies coming at you it's not your best bet for survival.

Strategy Overview:

Playing Mercy is all about positioning, awareness of your surroundings, analyzing whom to heal and when, and staying alive. It may seem as if she is a simple healer to pick up, however, there are a lot of tricks to playing her well. But, I am here to help!

Staying Alive:

Staying alive is the most important, keep this as your top priority. If the healer dies, then the rest of the team dies. Even if one or two of your teammates go down without you being able to resurrect them, if your team works together you should hopefully be able to keep everyone healed up until your teammates make it back to the point. You will have to take risks that may get you killed, but analyze the situation first and decide if it's worth the risk of the healer going down to resurrect another player or to get a few blaster shots in.

Positioning:

When playing a healer, especially Mercy, positioning is vital. This will both help you stay alive and help you keep your teammates healed. You want to stay near the back of the group, but not the very back. It's preferable to have someone behind you, in case you get flanked they can watch your back. You don't want to have your team overly spread out, otherwise, you won't be able to use Guardian Angel to zip from teammate to teammate both to heal and to escape dangerous situations.

Try to position yourself behind objects such as vehicles, walls, or the payload to use as an indestructible shield when possible. This is helpful especially to avoid sniper shots or in case your shield tank loses their shield. But, make sure you don't stay still. It's best to keep moving in seemingly random directions and jumping so that way if someone does fire at you-you're not as easy of a target.

Surrounding Awareness:

Staying aware of your surroundings can help you in every area: positioning, staying alive, and deciding whom to heal. Try to learn the layout of all the maps so that way you know where to escape to or where you might be flanked from. Try to keep an eye on where all of your teammates are at, this way you won't get separated and you can decide who at any given moment is most important to heal. And, try to keep an eye on where all members of the enemy team are and which heroes they are playing.

Who to Heal:

Deciding whom to heal can vary from game to game, but in general, there are certain heroes you want to heal before others. Firstly, if someone is critical you usually want to get them at least stable.
Your tank's job is to absorb damage for your team, so always try to keep an eye on your tank and prevent their health from dropping too low.
If your team has a secondary healer it's also a good idea to try to keep each other healed in case one of you goes down, that way your team will hopefully always have at least one healer alive.
And then, of course, your DPS. They can more easily flank around the map and find health packs, but they also tend to be “squishes” where they don't have very high health, so when possible try to keep their health at least half full. Sometimes you may have to just partially heal everyone when tight on time before working on topping everyone off.

Taking Advantage of Mercy's Strengths:

Regeneration:

Mercy's regeneration will start after 1 second of not taking damage. That might not seem very long, however, when bullets are flying and the enemy is all around it can be hard to stop taking damage long enough. To take advantage of her regeneration try to always have someone you can zip to with Guardian Angle or something you can quickly hide behind.

Guardian Angel:

Guardian Angel has a 30-meter radius, it will take practice, but try to get a feel for how far that is so that you don't get out of range from a teammate. You can also learn to slingshot or bunny hop by pressing jump near the end of Guardian Angel. This will cause you to move further and faster.

Resurrect:

Learning when to and when not to resurrect is important since this is a powerful ability on a long cooldown.
If your team is trying to defend a point and everyone is taking cover and fighting behind your shield tank, for instance, Orisa, and they go down then in that instance you need your shield tank back in order to help keep everyone alive.
If you have two different DPS heroes down then often it is better to choose to resurrect one that can more easily keep themselves alive, such as Reaper who has a passive healing ability instead of Genji.
Another factor to take into consideration is how each member of your team is doing. If you have a Widowmaker who no matter how much you heal her just keeps making mistakes and getting herself killed, it's usually best to stop resurrecting them so that way you can resurrect people who are actually helping.

Valkyrie:

There is little as frustrating as seeing someone waste a Valkyrie when it's unneeded, and then later having your team die because it was already used up. But, when is it best to use?
1. When your team is pushing onto a point. If, for instance, your team is trying to take the point on Horizon Lunar Colony it is good to save Valkyrie for when your entire team is around you and you are storming the point. It will help keep everyone healed up and alive longer, hopefully causing your push to be a success.
2. When being overwhelmed by holding a point. If your team is trying to defend a point, such as Temple of Anubis or a choke point on Blizzard World, but your team begins to lose the high ground and needs a boost to continue holding the point pop your ult and it can turn everything around. Suddenly your team is able to stay alive and outlast the enemy's push.

Combating Mercy's Weaknesses:

Low Health:

Mercy's health isn't very high, however, it's also not abnormally low. She is considered one of the “squishy” characters in terms of HP. But, as the healer, it's often not ideal to have to stop healing or damage boosting your team in order to find a health pack. Thankfully, she has to ability to regenerate HP.
To stay alive it's often best to use obstacles such as walls, the payload, or shields in order to hide long enough for your HP to regenerate. This way you can still stick with your team but take care of yourself as well.
But, still, learn all the health pack locations! These will save your life at times when you get yourself in a tight situation.

Slow Speed:

While Mercy may not be able to walk very quickly, the Guardian Angel and slingshot ability greatly increases mobility. These will help keep both you and your team alive. I can not stress enough: learn to slingshot yourself back and forth across a battlefield. Say your team is storming the point on Eichenwald. Friend and foe are scattered all across the point and nowhere is safe. However, with slingshot, you can sling yourself high into the air from one friend to the next as you heal, and because you're not staying still it makes it hard for the enemy to hit you.

Blaster:

Don't take too many risks. There are some amazing battle Mercys, but you have to remember your primary goal is to keep your team alive. Sometimes that will be with your blaster, but often it is with your staff. However, when the need arises for you to take out the enemy aim and not wasting rounds are what will save you. Practice being able to quickly aim and get headshots, as those do more damage. You also don't want to just hold down the trigger and shoot aimlessly, you may get hits in, but then you will be vulnerable while you're reloading.

Moving Target:

There are some heroes that just always have a target on their back, and the enemy will focus on them. Mercy is one such hero, being a powerful healer with quite a bit of visibility due to her Valkyrie suit. But, you can be less of a target by learning how to take advantage of your surroundings to hide while still healing, positioning yourself correctly among your teammates and not rushing to the forefront, and by not staying still.
A still Mercy is a dead Mercy. When possible try to switch between multiple hiding spots so that the enemy doesn't know where you are. Use slingshot so they have a harder time pinning you down. And, even when staying in the same spot don't stop moving. If you're hiding behind the side of a building step back and forth in a random pattern so that if there's a sniper they have a harder time getting a headshot.

Tips and Tricks:

Configure the individual hero settings to help you play your best. The settings are extremely personal and different for everyone, but here is a great video to help you get started:
Learn when to put your foot down with a teammate. If someone, such as a Reaper, wants you to pocket heal them in a suicide mission sometimes you just have to say “no”.
Use your microphone. This is a team based game, and communicating with your team is vital.
Make call outs. As the healer you have to be extremely aware of your surroundings, this makes you the perfect person to call out where the enemy is and whom they are playing.
Learn when to retreat. If your team is staggering out of spawn one after another and you keep dying because you aren't grouped up retreat and wait for your full team before continuing to fight the enemy.
Remember to damage boost. This is a powerful tool but often forgotten. Just know that if you damage boost Torbjörn or Symmetra it won't boost their turrets and boosting Junkrat won't boost his Rip-Tire.
If you have multiple healers it can be helpful to assign different teammates to each so that you can more effectively divide the work.
Call out when you die, so that your team knows it will be a minute before you can continue to heal them.
Prioritize healing heroes who can't heal themselves. For instance, if you have both a Reinhardt and a Roadhog prioritize healing Reinhardt.

There is a reason the pros still play Mercy even after she was nerfed. She is still a versatile and powerful healer that can turn a game around. With practice, you can become a top-notch Mercy that your teammates don't want to be without.

If you enjoyed this article you may want to check out these others:

Main Image caption:

“Heroes never die!”

Image Gallery:

Sale Tags:

More on this topic:

Share this Article:

Zenyatta Guide: How To Be The Best Zenyatta In The World

RachelKeeth — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 10:20:53 +0000

What to do when you are playing Overwatch and you want to be a healer but also enjoy causing massive damage? You play Zenyatta. In the current three healer meta, Zenyatta shines more than ever before. He is perfect if you want a healer who can help keep all your “squishy” teammates alive but also take out the enemy tanks and healers, all from the back lines. Zenyatta truly is an amazing hero with a great toolkit at their disposal that can benefit many teams, however, they are not the easiest of support heroes to play. But, don't worry; In this guide, I will teach you how to become a top-notch Zenyatta and before you know it you will be climbing the ranks!

Strengths:

Orb of Harmony:

Zenyatta's orbs have great mobility. As long as you are within line of sight and 40 meters you can cast an orb of harmony to a teammate, and it will float around their shoulder constantly healing them. However, if you lose sight of your comrade the orb will return to you after 3 seconds. Zenyatta can use both orbs of harmony and discord simultaneously, but he can't use multiple of each orb, so you can't heal more than one ally at a time. Orb of harmony is a targeted homing projectile with a speed of 120 meters per second, 30 HP healing per second, and it charges your ultimate 33 points per 25 HP of healing.

Orb of Discord:

Making Zenyatta such a difficult hero to battle against is his orb of discord. Instead of healing allies like his orb of harmony, the orb of discord multiplies damage that the enemy takes. Like the orb of harmony, it is a targeted homing projectile with a speed of 120 meters per second that has a range of 40 meters and will return to you if the enemy it is attached to is out of sight for 3 seconds. However, instead of healing like the orb or harmony, the orb of discord will increase the damage the targeted enemy takes by 30%. You can not place orb of discord on people who are being blocked by a shield or barrier.

Orb of Destruction:

Instead of having a gun Zenyatta throws orbs of destruction to take down his enemies. They are a linear projectile with pinpoint accuracy, fire at 80 meters per second, fire at a rate of 2.5 per second, 20 ammo, reload time of 2 seconds, and each orb does 46 HP damage when fired at a target without an orb of discord. When fired at an enemy that also has an orb of discord attached it will deal 59.8 HP damage.

Orb Volley:

Zenyatta has the ability to put their hands together and gather energy, and then send out orbs of destruction in a volley dealing massive damage. Orb volley is multiple linear projectiles with pinpoint accuracy, they travel 80 meters per second, it uses 5 ammo per volley and Zenyatta has a 20 ammo capacity. Uncharged it has a 1.1-second rate of fire but fully charged it has a 4-second rate of fire. After firing a volley Zenyatta can fire again in 0.6 seconds. Orb volley deals 46 HP damage per orb, with a maximum damage of 230, or 299 HP damage if paired with an orb of discord.

Transcendence:

Zenyatta's ultimate causes massive healing to nearby teammates and can help your team survive many attacks. Transcendence has a 10-meter range, a duration of 6 seconds, increases Zenyatta's movement speed to 11 meters per second, and heals nearby allies 300 HP per second. It is a wonderful boost to your team if timed properly. Transcendence requires a 2062.5 point charge.

Weaknesses:

Low Mobility:

To compensate for all of Zenyatta's power he has an incredibly low movement speed and a large hitbox, making him a very big and slow-moving target for the enemy. It makes it really hard to survive when you are flanked or out of position.

Weaker Healing:

While Zenyatta is a wonderful addition to your team, both for healing and damage, his healing is lower than constitutes as a main healer. Zenyatta's orb of harmony only heals 30 HP per second, whereas Mercy can heal 60 HP per second.

Strategy Overview:

Zenyatta's kit isn't that complex, however, that doesn't make playing him easy. It takes a whole lot of practice, as he is the hardest ranked healer. There are five things you especially need to keep in mind as a Zenyatta player, being: positioning, awareness, communication, healing priority, and aim.

Positioning:

As a healer, it is your priority to stay alive, because if the healer is dead the team dies, and a large part of staying alive is in positioning. This is especially true for Zenyatta since he lacks very much mobility.
In general, you will want to stay on the back line, where you can see most of your team in order to heal them and out of range of the enemies. However, you don't want to be too far removed from your team, because if you are flanked you need to be close by for help from your teammates.
A more risky, but sometimes needed position is right behind the tanks. Ideally, the tanks will be able to protect you, and in return, you can keep the tanks and your squishy heroes healed up.
Make sure that when you position yourself you always have an escape route planned.

Awareness:

Part of being a healer requires being aware of everything. You need to learn the maps, health pack locations, all the heroes' abilities and how they interact. You also need to be aware of whom the enemy team is playing, where each person on both teams is located at during a match, and approximately how long it will be before an enemy uses their ultimate.
It is a lot to keep in mind, especially when everything is moving quickly. But, your position in the back of the lineup does help you to be able to watch everything going on closer, and with practice, you will get used to noticing everything.

Communication:

It is vital to communicate with your team, so use that microphone.
When a match begins start by making a game plan, figure out what everyone is best at and decide how you all need to tackle the upcoming battle. When the battle does begin start calling out who is on the enemy team as soon as you catch sight of them, and warn people when you see them being flanked.
A large part with Zenyatta is calling out whom you have the discord orb on. Whoever is discorded is who the team needs to focus on, and vice versa. So, if the team is focusing on D.Va or Bastion throw your discord orb on them so they can be taken out quickly.
If everyone is fighting without a clear target let them know whom you put the discord orb on so that everyone will focus on that person. Generally, you will want to discord the healers and tanks, but if there is another person who is especially powerful or skilled and causing your team problems, then focus on them.

Aim:

It can be tricky to get a good aim, but as a Zenyatta it really is vital. Getting in any extra damage by not missing shots and by going for headshots really will boost how much damage you can deliver.
Try practicing a lot in the practice range, the arcade, custom games, and quick play. You can not practice enough.
Remember to lead your orbs when your target is moving, you will eventually learn about how far ahead you need to move it before the person gets there so it lands on target.
There are some great ways to practice, and here is a video that will show you how to improve aiming and getting headshots in 10 minutes:

If your aim is terrible or you want to learn how to get those killer headshots, this video is for you!

Healing Priority:

Being a healer it's important to know whom to heal. Generally, you should be teamed up with a Mercy, Moira, or Anna. In that case, you should keep your orb of harmony on your DPS, your squishy heroes with little health, and let your main healer worry about the tanks. Of course, if the tanks reach critical health you can help out your main healer, but with Zenyatta's lower healing rate you will be much better focusing on keeping the DPS healed, when possible.
Whom you heal for DPS varies widely depending on everyone's position, the team composition, and the skill of everyone. You will have to decide who is more important to the team, and also if they have an ability to heal themselves, such as Solider 76 has, that will play a factor as well.
So for instance, generally it would be better to heal Pharah than Soldier. Solider is more likely to be flanking and getting out of sight and he has an ability to heal himself. Whereas Pharah is more likely to stay within sight and it's harder for her to heal herself since she would have to land and find a health pack.
Remember, it's very easy to move the orb of harmony around, so you don't have to keep it on only one teammate. But, don't move it around too often since it does have a slow healing rate, and if you move it around every few seconds nobody will get very much healing.

Using Zenyatta's Strengths to Your Advantage:

Orb of Harmony:

You want to make sure you always have the harmony orb on someone, even if your team is at full health. If everyone's health is fine, prioritize the team members who are about to be in danger.
Orb of harmony is great for Winston since when he gets too far for one of your other healers to go with him the orb will stick to him. It won't provide much health, but it can help give him some valuable time.
If one of your main healers gets low health prioritize healing them over your tanks or DPS since they can help you keep everyone alive, especially since their healing rate is a lot higher than Zenyatta's.

Orb of Discord:

Prioritize whom you need to keep discord on. First healers, then tanks, then problematic DPS such as Pharah, Bastion, Sombra, whoever is countering your team hard.
If someone's health is particularly low, your team's Roadhog has hooked them, or they are otherwise weak in some way that is also a good person to target.
If the enemy team is going with a PharMercy (Pharah + Mercy) combo make sure you first take out Mercy and then Pharah, otherwise, Mercy can help keep Pharah healed and resurrect her.
When you have discord on someone it will show a marker above them, this will make targeting easier when they are at a distance, and you can see the marker through walls if they try to hide, for 3 seconds until the orb comes back to you.
Some heroes have abilities that allow them to remove the discord orb: Reaper when he goes into Wraith, Mei when she goes into Cryo-Freeze, D.Va when she Self-Destructs, Tracer when she Recalls, Zenyatta when he uses Transcendence, and Zarya when she uses a Barrier.

Orb of Destruction:

Shields can really get in the way of your team doing the damage it needs to, so if you have no better target, spam the enemy team's shields to get them down as soon as possible.
Don't thoughtlessly aim just holding down the trigger. You will be a target while you reload, and it's easy to get in the habit of doing that and less of your shots will land. If you only shoot when you think you will hit your target you will learn to take more reliable shots.

Orb Volley:

If you notice a flanker who either hasn't noticed you or doesn't think you saw them, charge your orbs and when you get the chance send them flying, if your aim is right this can often be an instant kill.
Charge up your volley, and once it's ready peek around a corner or a choke point and hit a target before they get the chance to see you.
Volley is also wonderful for the times when there's a troublesome sniper or Bastion. While hidden you can charge your orbs up and then release them on the target quickly, hopefully before they get a chance to target you.
Regardless of how much ammo you have left, even if you only have one orb, you can still charge volley to the maximum of five orbs.
Sometimes it may be better to use volley instead of destruction, such as: when McCree is about to use Deadeye, when Pharah is using Rocket Barrage, when Mei is about to come out of Cryo-Freeze, when Reaper is Shadow Stepping, and when Zarya is using a Barrier charge it and then release when her barrier goes down.

Transcendence:

One important thing to remember is that you can't fight while using Transcendence.
Don't use Transcendence just to save yourself, it would be a waste of an ult. It's often best used while your enemy is using their ultimates, such as if they pair Graviton Surge and Rocket Barrage, you could go into Transcendence and keep all of your teammates alive.
However, another tactic that is riskier but can sometimes be pulled off is when the enemy team uses a healing ultimate, such as Valkyrie or Coalescence, wait and use Transcendence after their ults are over. If both teams use their healing ultimates simultaneously it will probably be a stalemate, but if your team is in a position to get through the attack without using yours you can then use it after the other team has used theirs and your team will be at an advantage to win.

Compensating for Zenyatta's Weaknesses:

Low Mobility:

When you position yourself make sure you let your teammates know where you are, and have at least one team member nearby, so in case you are in danger they can help you out. However, if you learn to use your discord and destruction orbs while aiming well it will greatly increase your chance of survival.

Zenyatta floats, so he is the only Overwatch hero without footsteps. Use this to your advantage to sneak around.

Weaker Healing:

Zenyatta isn't a solo-healer. You really want him with Moira, Mercy, or Anna as a main healer. Sometimes, if your team is really good and not taking too much damage, you can duo-heal with Zenyatta and Lúcio, but Lúcio doesn't give very quick healing, so it's risky.

Let Anna, Mercy, or Moira keep the tanks alive while you focus on keeping the squishy heroes alive.

Tips and Tricks:

Make sure your team is still alive and with you when using Transcendence
Zenyatta's silent floating can be really useful when sneaking up behind someone.
Don't keep bouncing the discord orb around more than needed, use it, eliminate the target, and then move it onto the next target.
Make sure if you get into trouble you go towards your team. Sometimes people will automatically back away to try to get some distance from the enemy targeting them and trying to aim, but make sure you're headed in the direction of your team members.
If you get into trouble tell your team so that they will back you up.
If you die let your other healer(s) know, so that they know what healing they need to do until you get back from the spawn room.
If someone does flank you dodge them by moving around and crouching so they have a harder time hitting your head.
If an enemy gets close and you're having a hard time finishing them off just kick them, which is Zenyatta's melee attack.
Only 50 HP of Zenyatta's “health” is actual health, the other 150 HP is armor that regenerates, so if he takes on damage duck behind something to stay hidden until your armor regenerates.

Zenyatta may not be an easy healer to learn, but he is well worth the practice it will take. With his massive damage potential and healing you don't have to constantly be controlling, he is a wonderful addition to a team. If you practice and follow the advice of this guide I know you will become a top-notch Zenyatta your team won't want to be without!

If you enjoyed this article check out these others from Gamers Decide:

Main Image caption:

“A disciplined mind is your most dependable ally.”

Image Gallery:

Sale Tags:

More on this topic:

Share this Article:

The 10 Best Blizzard Games of All Time- Ranked

smaller — Wed, 30 May 2018 23:52:35 +0000

Any ranked list of Blizzard games is open to controversy, with a passionate community of fans holding out for their favorites. 1-to-1 comparisons are nearly impossible, because of how many different genres and universes their games occupy. This ranking is based purely on their Metacritic scores, with ties broken by userscores. No matter what you think of the final placements, one thing is certain- Blizzard brings to each one these titles their famous game quality and attention to detail.

10. Heroes of the Storm (2015)
Metacritic Score- 86

Heroes of the Storm players choose from 80 different heroes to take into battle with in the Nexus

Released 2 June, 2015, Heroes of the Storm represents a magical world where characters from all Blizzard franchises come to do battle in themed battlegrounds. Players can choose to play versus A.I., or PvP in quick or competitive matches. As a MOBA, it simplifies some of the more tedious elements of other popular MOBAs like Dota 2. Instead of an item purchasing system, heroes level up their abilities based on experience earned by the entire team, leaving players to focus on the fun stuff: entertaining brawls and interesting objectives.

On 8 June, 2015, Arcade Sushi wrote about the newly released game,

“It's strange to think about it in these terms, but Heroes of the Storm is the perfect MOBA for those who don't care for League of Legends and Dota 2. The removal of items simplifies gameplay in comparison to League and Dota, but the focus on teamwork, communication, learning the roster, speed and environmental objectives helps make up for the things MOBA fans may nitpick about Heroes (such as its lack of items).”

Blizzard released an updated Heroes of the Storm 2.0 in April of 2017 with a brand new Overwatch-esque progression system based on loot chests and changes to the laning phase of the game. IGN, 19 April 2017, wrote about the update,

“It’s clear that Heroes of the Storm 2.0 represents a new chapter for the game. And outside of the steady stream of new heroes and battlegrounds that the game has received over the past few years, this new approach to progression and rewarding players for their time simply amplifies the idea that Heroes represents all of Blizzard.”

9. Diablo III (2012)
Metacritic Score- 88

Diablo III was the controversial third installment of Blizzard's popular Role Playing Game franchise.

Diablo III was released 15 May, 2012 to a stormy reception. As the third installment of a popular franchise game reviewers praised it highly, with Polygon writing in May 2012,

“Games this thoughtfully crafted don't happen very often, and the care that Blizzard has taken with Diablo 3 shows in every facet of its design and execution. It might not be perfect, but after 45 hours, I'm not sure where it missteps, and after 45 hours, I feel like I've only scratched the surface of what it has to offer. Diablo 3 is almost evil in how high a bar it's set for every PC action RPG to follow, and I wouldn't be surprised to see that bar remain for a very long time.”

Players didn’t feel quite the same way. Diablo III earns a Metacritic user score of only 4.1 out of 10. Despite fantastic production value, players protested the linear gameplay and always-online playing system. Metacritic user Brotha gave the game a score of 4 on June 20, 2012 and simply stated,

“The company took almost every single thing that made the Diablo Series and removed it from the game. It is now a hollow shell resembling that which Diablo once was.”

8. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (2012)
Metacritic Score- 88

Hearthstone players craft card decks to face off against other players or AI, as characters from the Warcraft realm of Azeroth.

Hearthstone was released 11 March 2012 as Blizzard’s grand entrance into the world Card Collecting Games, and its first free-to-play game. In Hearthstone, players chose from 9 different classes represented by popular Warcraft characters and face off against each other, the computer, or entertaining campaign and dungeon bosses.

CD-Action described it well on 28 Jun 2014,

“Simple rules, high production values, low system requirements and huge tactical freedom make Hearthstone one of the best card games available. And if you take into account the free-to-play model – it’s the best one.”

The game is well received among CCG players and greeted optimistically by those new to the genre. On Metacritic, user isg1983 summer it up on 27 Mar 2014,

“A good mix of casual and serious aspects. Everybody should give it a go whether if you're a fan of card games or not, this game should be a good starter for everyone who wants to enter the sweet geeky card game universe.”

7. Diablo II (2000)
Metacritic Score- 88

Diablo II leads players through series of dungeons and crypts in pursuit of the Lord of Terror.

Diablo II was released in June 2000, the follow-up to Blizzard’s enormously popular original Diablo title. The entertaining action role-playing game leads players through series of dungeons and crypts in pursuit of the Lord of Terror.

The game expanded on the dark fantasy universe players grew to love in the first game but was not quite as well received as the original. GameSpot noted that,

“In exchange for the additional complexity and size, you'll have to tolerate low-resolution graphics and a few more gameplay problems than you might have come to expect from Blizzard games.”

However, as the years go by, gamers keep coming back to Diablo II. In July 2011, Metacritic user Brumbek wrote,

“I'm reviewing a 11 year old game. Does that tell you how amazing it is?.... I believe this is the very definition of a timeless classic. Gaming's come a long ways with modern hits like Torchlight, but then again I always find myself coming back home.”

6. StarCraft (1998)
Metacritic Score- 88

StarCraft players choose from one of three races, Terran, Protoss, or Zerg, to build their armies.

StarCraft was released in March 1998 and has gained legendary status as the first true king of Real Time Strategy games. Players choose from one of three races, Terran, Protoss, or Zerg and use resources to build their base and rally an army big enough to crush their opponents. Gamers' Temple described StarCraft as,

“One of those rare games that is not overly complex, but provides a challenging and fun gaming experience. It never seems to get old or boring.”

The love affair RTS gamers have had with StarCraft is alive and well, with a Metacritic user score of 9.1, with user Yukle writing on 20 Sep 2017, 19 years after the game was released,

“As close to perfect as anybody can make, StarCraft is the legacy Blizzard has long since tried to replicate. Three balanced races, a stunning single-player story and endless LAN potential make this the definitive RTS. In fact, it's fair to say that it's the only game of the genre that survived the DOTA map in WarCraft III that caused a transition from RTS to MOBA. The game has just been re-released and it is as compelling as ever - a game that is unmatched before or since.”

5. Overwatch (2016)
Metacritic Score- 91

Overwatch spent many years in development, but Blizzard's first entry into the First Person Shooter genre was worth the wait.

Overwatch broke into the First Person Shooter scene in May 2016 after years of development. Overwatch was not the first hero shooter played on objective based maps, but the famous Blizzard production value and attention to detail take Overwatch to the next level. On 31 May, 2016 ZTGD wrote that Overwatch is,

“A gaming experience that’s more polished and exciting than I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing and one I’ll be sure to continue to play for the foreseeable future. If not for the inclusion of microtransactions, this would have been a perfect game in my book.”

Since its release Overwatch was hit some bumps in the road, with developers battling a growing problem of toxic competitive play, and a constant demand for new content from players. On 24 May 2016, kholland65 wrote on Metacritic,

“Overall OW is a decent game, but not perfect.…The scoring seems relatively fair and balanced. The interface makes sense is relatively easy to navigate. However, what holds this game back for me, first and foremost, is the lack of content….There just isn't enough content to keep players hooked for a considerable period of time. Most players will burn out after a month or two.”

This hasn’t been the case. Blizzard has continued to pump new content and heroes into the game and has launched a well-funded Esports league based on the success of the game.

4. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002)
Metacritic Score- 92

Warcraft is famous as the RTS game that inspired Dota and Dota 2.

Warcraft III was released June 2002 to universal acclaim. Warcraft is famous as the RTS game that inspired Dota and Dota 2, and continues to see play to this day. When it was released Pregaming wrote,

“This game is so much fun to play, and does everything so well that it is totally almost impossible to put it down... WarCraft III is the pinnacle of the recent Real Time Strategy Genre and sets the bar for how all RTS games should be developed.”

Warcraft III has a remarkable Metacritic user score of 9.1. User ObsidianFrost wrote on 12 Nov 2013,

“One of the best games ever made. Amazing graphics (for [its] time), music and sound 10/10, epic game play that only got deeper and deeper the more you played the game. Introducing RPG elements into an RTS game was brilliant. The characters and campaign mode were flawless and playing against people online was challenging and rewarding.”

3. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010)
Metacritic Score- 93

StarCraft II provided a highly playable continuation of the hugely popular game StarCraft.

StarCraft II was released in July 2010 as the wildly anticipated sequel to StarCraft. With more engrossing RTS action and a powerful map customization action, StarCraft II provided a highly playable continuation of a hugely popular game. GamingTrend wrote about the release,

“Blizzard was facing a monumental challenge when it came to releasing a sequel for the genre-defining Starcraft, and they have answered that challenge magnificently.”

RTS gamers talk passionately about StarCraft II, with Metacritic user BubblegumImp writing on 26 Nov 2010,

“After years of development, it's finally here. The visuals are sharp, the sound is punchy and the plot at the heart of the single player campaign does a fine job of setting the scene for the next installment in the planned SC2 trilogy. The multiplayer aspect of the first game remains one of the most highly competitive RTS titles in history and Blizzard saw fit to craft a sequel which measures up to the lofty standards set by its predecessor.…Starcraft 2 is here... and it's about time!”

The game supports one of the largest, most devoted player bases in modern gaming, and has remained the uncontested king of RTS games, despite its age.

2. World of Warcraft (2004)
Metacritic Score- 93

World of Warcraft transformed the mythical world of Azeroth into an enormous open-world with thousands of players interacting in quests and missions.

World of Warcraft was released in November 2004 and to this day is one of the most famous and widely played video games of modern times. The Massively Multiplayer Online game transformed the mythical world of Warcraft into an enormous open-world with thousands of players interacting in quests and missions. The Detroit Free Press wrote about WoW,

“Addictive from the moment you begin...It's incredibly friendly to the solo gamer, allowing players not only to gain Levels 1 to 60 without ever grouping with someone else if they prefer, but also to earn the same or more experience playing that way. That means the solo gamer can level nearly as quickly as a group of power gamers playing together.”

World of Warcraft has long operated on a subscription system where players pay a monthly fee to access the game and level up their character. Systems of guilds within the game have developed tight knit communities, and expansions to the game keep players coming back. Metacritic user Fossilitate described World of Warcraft on 25 Apr 2018 as having,

“Infinite replay value. A game which formed communities within itself. Cannot wait for Classic relaunch.”

1. Diablo (1996)
Metacritic Score- 94

The original Diablo title was the first major game released by Blizzard, leading players through a dark, gothic world of exploration, dungeon clearing and role-playing.

Released in 1996 as a genre busting Action Role Playing Game, Diablo was arguably the game that put Blizzard Entertainment on the map. The game invited players into a dark, gothic world of exploration, dungeon clearing and role-playing.

GameSpot described Diablo as “A title that combines the elegant simplicity of an action game and the addictive storyline of an adventure game with the personalization and exploration of an old-school RPG... The best game to come out in the past year, and you should own a copy. Period.”

Diablo has remained an enormously popular franchise and has seen success across numerous platforms and over a span of more than 20 years. In 2012, Metacritic user Lucidanarchy wrote,

“What more can I say about this game other than [truly] groundbreaking and amazing for its time. Diablo introduced me to the RPG franchise and have enjoyed my stay ever since.”

ce.”

Main Image caption:

Blizzard Entertainment has been releasing popular classics across many game genres for decades.

Sale Tags:

More on this topic:

blizzard entertainment

Share this Article:

Starbucks may have 25,000 locations worldwide, but its most epic drinks are reserved for Blizzard employees only

cefpabda — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 21:22:20 +0000

Starbucks and BLizzard Entertainment

What started as a small Seattle coffee shop has turned into one of the most popular coffee shops in the world. Starbucks now has over 25,000 locations across the globe, and one company is now getting special treatment. Blizzard Entertainment, software development company behind the massive gaming titles World of Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch, has opened their own Starbucks at their Irvine, California headquarters.

Blizzard was already one of the coolest companies in the world to work for. Employees are allowed to bring their dogs to work, get free copies of every game ever released plus free game time to gift to friends, have access to volleyball courts, and get invited to the hottest gaming parties and conventions. Opening an on-site Starbucks was not only a genius move for caffeine-dependent programmers, but the drinks on offer make this location almost legendary.

An Instagram account launched on May 23rd, 2017 showcases the exclusive range of drinks on offer to the California residents. So of course, the internet is on fire. Coffee and Blizzard Entertainment lovers alike are endlessly jealous of Blizzard employees.

What’s on offer?

You can still get your favourite tall americano or grande orange mocha frappuccino along with any special offer Starbucks has on. Current special offers are the Midnight Mint Mocha and the S’mores Frappuccino. I mean, those sound delicious, right?

Well.

Starbucks showcase their epic drinks with talented artwork on their Instagram page.

The Irvine Starbucks offers a special range of drinks based on the many Blizzard Entertainment titles. Like the EPIC drink! A cold frothy blend of passion tea, raspberry, vanilla, and soy milk that’s sure to refresh you on those warm California days. Or something to warm you up, you can try The Blizzard Drink, the locations take on Starbuck’s Zebra Mocha, with white and dark mocha sauce, whipped cream, caramel drizzle, and chocolate chips. Sounds like a total sugar rush and I am in.

The Zerg are a playable race in StarCraft.

Or you could join forces in the Starcraft themed drink, Zerg Rush. Another cold offering of a mocha frappuccino with blackberries, a hint of peppermint, and some bright green matcha puree.

WIth professionally trained baristas working full-time, the coffee and tea flavour combinations are endless. I’m thinking they should steam some fresh cinnamon with oat milk and pour it into a salted caramel latte base and call it Uther’s Lightbringer. Hey, Starbucks! Hire me and ship me to California!

How are they doing?

Most people are loving them. With 1370 followers on instagram and 4700 employees across the globe, I’d say they are doing great.

Unless you’re Jeff Kaplan.

Blizzard CEO and senior game developer responsible for bringing us Overwatch was left disappointed after receiving this common drink not long after opening.

Jeff Kaplan sharing the misspelling of his name, and in true style, the internet is funny.

Tough luck, Jeph.

More on this topic:

Share this Article:

Breaking News: