Okie dokie. So it was only a short open beta, so I’m by no means an expert, but some things I did pick up from my time in game, I thought I’d share for newer players to the genre. If you’ve played similar games before, this is probably like teaching you how to suck eggs, but feedback and criticism is welcome, so please feel free to add to it. Always game to learn new things.
Disclaimer: I didn’t play all of the characters, I spent a ludicrous amount of time on Mercy, with some of the others just for variety. Made a lot of observations on others playing though.
If you're unfamiliar, there are several maps and different scenarios, but the basic idea on each is to capture the objective and hold it until the timer ticks out, or the objective reaches its destination. One thing I did pick up on heavily during the beta is how easily some players forget that you have to actually be NEAR the objective in order for it to be controlled. You can't claim it and then bugger off to get kills and expect to win (Rather like PvP on SW:TOR. Don't capture the turret/pylon, leave it undefended and act all surprised when the enemy takes it from you with ease. Common sense, you know)
So, to start with. Group layout. Now, players have to note that some teams work better than others, and as ever some heroes are more powerful and more difficult to play effectively. Soldier 76, for example, is a hell of a lot easier to play than Reaper or Genji. The heroes work in different ways with their own strengths and weaknesses. Make note of the abilities of each when and where you can, learn how each will work against you and your method. And, specifically, take note of the ultimate ability of each character (Default keybind is Q)
So you really want a nice and balanced layout, a team that will work well together. No more than two of each class, except damage. You need plenty of damage. Above all, you need a healer. I can never stress this enough. There are four support heroes: Lucio, Mercy, Symmetra and Zenyatta. Symmetra is NOT a healer. She can provide shields, set up turrets and create a teleporter, but she cannot heal. Also, Mercy can resurrect in a small area, but only heal one ally at a time. She can also boost damage. The other two can aoe heal and put out respectable damage and support the team in other functional ways. Tanks are also recommended. Not needed exactly, but it becomes a lot harder to push without one. They can all soak damage for the team in their own way with their own strengths and weaknesses. Well, except Roadhog. He doesn't exactly shield the team, but rather acts like an enormous irritant for the enemy. His damage is good, even though it's aoe. He can hook enemies and pull them to him, which makes it much easier to kill a specific enemy, and he can self heal in a pinch. For defense(slightly different than tank, read up on the defense heroes vs the tank heroes), you want one or two of them. Please, don't both go Bastion. He's tough, puts out massive damage but has a serious weakness. Outside of his ultimate (tank mode) his best damage is when he's in turret mode. This makes him immobile. Also, his hit box is considerably larger than his field of vision. Some good positioning and clever use of the environment, you can shoot him safely without him even being able to see you. If one person goes Bastion, the other should really take something else. Snipers are a good bet, as they can give you vision of your enemies through walls. Torbjorn is very useful for fortifying an objective as he can build self targetting turrets (but they have the same weakness as Bastion in turret mode, I've found). As for damage, pretty much anything will do, so long as you're not all going for the same thing. Three Tracers, for example, isn't going to do you as many favours as a Tracer, Genji and Soldier.Plan your teams accordingly, and you will have a better chance for success. And please, don't switch part way through if you're healing. If you want a lot of kills, don't start with a healer and get disappointed when you can only get 5+ as and when convenient (I hit 11 once on Mercy, but that was because I spent a lot of time hiding behind Reinhardt's shield and picking off Bastions and turrets set up be Torbjorn in between healing the team.
If Defending: You typically have a minute or so to set up defenses. So get to your objective quickly, get a lay of the land. Learn where the paths in and out are, and which ones lead to the enemy team's spawn point (there is usually a red line leading from the objective to the enemy team's starting location). Some teams can instantly begin fortifying the objective by setting up turrets that have vision over the entry points, moving snipers into high, easily defensible locations to pick off enemies when they are unaware. Other damage classes and the healer can group around the tank and prepare for a group of enemies coming in. Other teams start setting up right outside the enemy team's starting point and pick them off as they leave the safety of the base. This is great for containment, but has a weakness. Heroes like Tracer and Reaper can teleport, so they can get out without you realising and claim the objective before you know what's happening. Then you have to race back and reclaim it, allowing the enemy a short break to reorganise themselves.
If attacking: This is where you're at the disadvantage. Often, the enemy team has had the aforementioned setup time, so you need to plan quickly. As I mentioned, Tracer and Reaper can destroy a containment strategy if used effectively. Also, if you want to clear out a well fortified objective, you can spend some time building ultimate charge and make a big dent in the enemy's defense strategy. D.Va can clear out an objective real fast if she charges with her Mech active, sets the self-destruct while charging and blowing up whatever is there. Junkrat is much the same, but instead of a Mech, it's an explosive Riptire (I call if the death yo-yo from hell) that you control and detonate at a desired location. Hanzo is a sniper, but his ultimate will go through walls and annihilate anyone who's unaware. However, it can be avoided if you spread out enough. You really want to make a push quickly. That timer will tick very quickly if you're not concentrating on it.
There are some maps that blur the lines a bit on attack/defense, but you'll know which one you are by whether or not you own the objective. If it's your objective, you're defending. Simples. If it's an escort scenario, same rules, but the objective moves. The direction depends on who owns it.
Counters: Now, this is more important than most people realise. Heroes like Genji and Tracer are irritatingly fast. So much so that you can start shooting them and before your clip is empty they're long gone. The best way to counter them (short of catching them unaware) is to slow them down. Junkrat's trap, Mei's freezing ability etc. Slow them down and destroy them, and they're out for a few valuable seconds. But, because of their speed, those types of heroes are excellent a harassing healers and snipers. Because of Tracer's triple blinking, she can be way out in front of you one second, and the next be right the fuck behind you and shoot the hell out of you. She has low defenses, mind. Don't be careless when playing her. Standing still is not what she's for. And Genji, well he jumps and runs and climbs and can generally irritate the hell out of you for long enough for the rest of his team to claim the objective while you're slamming your fist on the nearest inanimate object. Communicate with your team, ask for help. And as this isn't always convenient, be mindful of where your healer/snipers are. You might need to help them before they even realise they need it. Countering tanks is about clever damage output. The shields are great, but they don't last forever. Reinhardt has arguably the strongest of the shields, but it only points one way. Get behind him, shoot him as much as you can until he dies or turns around. Exploit that weakness. Winston, and Zarya have shield globes, but they don't take as much damage to crack. I've done it on Mercy numerous times. However, they protect from all directions. D.Va's shield is more situational. It has an unpleasant cooldown (higher than I'd like) and her defenses aren't as good as other tanks, but the shield is so good that it can soak up unlimited damage for the 3 or 4 seconds that it's up. This is enough to soak an entire ultimate from most damage classes. Do not try this with Hanzo, though. His ultimate will chew it up and spit it out and probably everyone behind you. Now D.Va is also unique in that she gets 2 separate ultimates. The mech ultimate is self-destruct, and her personal ultimate will summon a new mech. If you use self-destruct, you get a free new mech summon immediately afterwards. Also, your health resets to full every time you switch in and out from mech. Kind of like a second life. Don't try to exploit too much though. Without a mech, her defenses aren't much better than a healer or damage. And you have no abilities other than a single gun.
Countering enemies isn't always about a class vs class situation. The environment can be your friend. Reaper, McCree, Bastion, Pharah and many other heroes have ultimates that do rapid, monstrous damage in a very short space of time. So long as they have line of sight. Hide from them and they can't hit you. If you hear them say their ultimate line, run and hide behind something. A wall, a barrel, a box. Anything will do, but don't let them have an easy job. It's trickier with D.Va and Junkrat, because it's explosive. You have to find the sweet spot. Often, it's better to just run like hell. Or if you play Reaper, wraith mode will make you completely invulnerable for 4 seconds. That can even be used to survive Hanzo's ultimate. If you see him ghosting his way into your objective, and he isn't on your team, be ready for Death Blossom. It's truly devastating. He can be killed while doing it, but you really need to be quick about it. Countering healers depends on the healer in question. Lucio and Zenyatta flip rapidly between healing and damaging. Mercy can also switch to damage, but she's not as powerful as the other two. If there's a Mercy in play, she WILL rez people frequently. She can build her ultimate very quickly, and the rez is aoe. Try to harass her if you get the chance. Snipers and speedy heroes can take her out real easy. Zenyatta is a pain. His ultimate is an aoe heal. He's also completely immune to damage when he does it. Don't waste firepower on him when he's doing this, there is no point.
While we're on ultimates, it's worth noting that most heroes can be killed midway through casting it. In most cases, this will stop the cast and prevent further damage. There are exceptions. Hanzo, as I've mentioned is terrifying. Killing him does precisely jack to his ultimate once it's been cast. Just spread out and hope it passes by without incident. Technically you can kill Bastion and stop his ultimate from completing, but let's be real. Good fucking luck. Tank mode will do rapid aoe damage and can really mess up your day. Assuming you do kill him, it's likely he'll take you (and half your team) with him. Just run and pray he targets slower than you move.
There's probably a bunch of things I've missed here, but that's what I've picked up.
The main thing to remember is to work as a team. You can't be a one man army in this game. If you're not focusing on claiming/holding an objective and are just looking to kill as many enemies as possible, you're a liability and your team will hate you for it. Use your ultimate carefully. Don't just use it up once it's ready. I learned quickly on Mercy that while the rez will save someone's bacon, chances are if you burn it on one person dropping out of stupidity, two or three more will drop afterwards and you can't do anything about it. Save it for a 2+ person rez (a 4 person rez is almost guaranteed to give you play of the game, so there's that too)
Since I've mentioned Play of the Game, it is worth elaborating on it. The idea is that it highlights the one person that performed the best in a very short space of time. Multiple rezzes, rapidly racking up kills etc. Now, the idea is great, but in reality it is almost always a well placed ultimate from Reaper, Hanzo or (more annoyingly) Bastion just doing his usual thing. Just because you got potg does not, and I mean NOT, mean that you were the best person in the match. It just means you have a good streak for a few seconds. Nothing more. I got it on Mercy a few times for multi-rezzes and some kills in rapid succession, and one time I got it on a 4 way rez and we still lost the match. A little luck is only marginally better than a lot of stupidity. Skill is not measured by the game in any way that really counts.
That concludes what I picked up. Apologies for the huge post and how off topic it is for my usual SW:TOR theme. Thanks for your attention, and please feel free to add anything in if you feel that I've missed something.
