DS’ Overwatch Quickplay Roadmap - part 2
One single hero cannot do everything. They will have a harder dealing with certain situations while having an easier time with others. A balanced team composition that covers the enemy team’s strategy is one of the biggest factors in Overwatch. That said, each hero must do their job competently with awareness and initiative for any strategy to work. The following is a list of tips for each hero as to how to best use them.
Genji: A precise character that requires a lot of tracking aim. Your best asset is your mobility, use it. Always keep running, and if being shot, keep jumping and mixing up your double jumps. He should always be finishing off kills or assisting kills from a flank. However, remember that Genji is mainly a counter character for projectile/hitscan bullet users due to his reflect ability. If there are not many projectile users, and don’t have a Bastion, you’re better off choosing another hero.
Mccree: Another precise character that requires aim, namely headshots from the hip. You have a powerful revolver, but it doesn’t do jack if you can’t hit anything. That said, flashbang does wonders on outright stopping hero ults such at Roadhog’s and Reaper’s, but you need to watch out for them. Just remember that if you catch them as their are starting the ult, they will retain a high percent of their ult and will use it again soon after they respawn.
Pharah: Learn when to fly and when not to fly. If you fly too early, you’re giving away your position and can easily be sniped. Use flight as a means to move to higher platforms and to stay out of the line of sight as you rain justice or regular rockets from above. Just remember to keep in mind where you want to land. Most cover is near the ground, not in the sky.
Reaper: While slow as hell, he does have a great teleport to get into flanking routes. Always use these routes and never eat bullets from the front. You need to be in their face to do optimal damage and it only gets harder to do if the enemy sees you running up to them. Also, do try to kill the healer first before the other team knows what’s going on, so as if you do die, they at least cannot heal from your team’s damage.
Soldier 76: Like in CoD and other FPS games, Soldier’s rifle actually has weapon spread, where if you keep firing your shots become more inaccurate. If dealing with long range targets, fire in bursts to hit them consistently. Keep in mind when to burst and when to spray, such as fighting against small targets vs large tanks.
Tracer: The fastest hero that should aim to annoy the shit out of the other team. Be a nuisance. Make your presence known and gun down the enemy team starting from their back. If you’re damaged, Recall and take a breather for a bit. Play safe until Recall is off of cooldown, and then go nuts again. Rinse, repeat, congrads. Also when given a choice between heroes, go for the ones with the least health as less guns firing at you means you’re likely to survive longer.
Bastion: Best played with in pairs with heroes that can defend it, such as Rein, Zarya, and Winston. A healer is good too for when you’re being shot as you cannot heal yourself while taking damage. Remember to move when you take the first shot of a sniper arrow/bullet or a rocket as you will not live through the next second if you don’t run. Also remember that you become less effective at long range, so try to position yourself in places where there’s NOT a long sight-line.
Hanzo: Dragon’s Eye is your best asset to your team as it marks potential threats, allowing you and others to deal with them before they actually become a problem. Hanzo is also better played on the ground as his arrow is a projectile and can potentially hit anyone in a group, whether you aimed there or if they moved into it’s trajectory. And, unlike Widowmaker, Hanzo does have peripheral vision to look out for flankers and can deal with them accordingly.
Junkrat: Honestly, Junkrat is unironically great for attack or defense. He does a crap ton of damage and basically 2 shots most heroes that are not tanks if he directly lands his bombs. Being caught in his trap is basically a death sentence if anyone is near, and should always be placed in high traffic areas or narrow areas of flanking routes. He only has a real problem vs Pharah, Winston, Mccree’s combo, and Roadhog’s combo, but for the rest of the cast he has tools to deal with them.
Mei: Don’t be afraid of using Ice Wall as it disrupts an enemy’s push or escape. Use it to buy time or to trap. Also, when invincible in icicle form, you can help protect teammates from damage, while your teammates can shoot through the icicle.
Torbjorn: The two most important words in to Torbjorn (and Symmetra) is “Time Management”. Always keep a turret up, that’s where a lot of your damage will come from, but make sure you can get it to level 2 before enemies start shooting it. Level 1s are too weak to do much but be a brief distraction. Also, learn the range of your turret as it’s best to place them as far away from the incoming enemies as possible while being able to shoot them. Enemies have a smaller target to shoot at while taking damage.
Widowmaker: If you can’t aim, don’t play Widowmaker, you’re better off with Hanzo. Even if you miss headshots, continuous 100% bodyshots does impact the enemy team greatly. You should also be on the high ground as you need to be scoped to be effective. While on high ground, your only main enemies are heroes with the mobility to reach you, such as Genji, Dva, and Winston. It’s much harder trying to shoot something higher than you, and it also goes the opposite where it’s easier to shoot something below you.
D.va: Do not play D.va for damage, her mech practically has airsoft shotguns. Instead the best thing you can do is deny ults by using Defense Matrix. It completely eats bullets and projectiles around where she looks for 3 seconds, and that’s usually enough for your team to shoot down the enemy using the ult. Ults that are most affected by Defense Matrix include Pharah’s, Roadhog’s, and Reaper’s. It also helps with Bastions if your team shoots while you Matrix. When not Matrixing, she should be helping finishing off weak enemies by boosting at them for damage, knockback, and then shooting them in your weapon’s prime range. If out of the mech, pistol headshots do great damage.
Reinhardt: While you do have a charge that 1 shots, remember when to charge and when to defend your team with your shield. Letting your team die does not help you, instead it’s going to get you killed. If you’re doing something behind enemy lines, it doesn’t matter if your team’s dead. Also, when you ult. use your Fire Strike first before charging as to get the most damage out of the ult.
Roadhog: You are mainly a counter to mobile heroes. You gotta be on point with your hook accuracy to be effective. Also, remember to hold your fire button while hooking so as to be the first to do anything. Do not react shoot or that how Tracers will Recall, Reapers turn into Wraith, and Pharahs will boost.
Winston: While a great distraction, remember to use your barrier to kite enemies so they are hitting the barrier, not you. You also do not deal with tanks well, so focus on heroes with lower HP. If there’s a healer, they need to die first or else they will out heal your DPS. Also, despite what people are saying, Winston does not counter Tracer. Tracer has more than enough mobility to stay out of Winston’s tesla range while shooting him, either killing him or farming him for Sticky Bomb ult. Winston is more of a counter to Genji, who’s Deflect does nothing to lightning.
Zarya: You should be shielding your teammates before yourself for several reasons. First is that you have a shield, you can take a few hits and shake it off. You teammates mostly have HP that does not regen and should be kept as plentiful as possible. Second is that you gain charge so that you can deal more damage while you barrier yourself, gaining more charge and basically melting enemies. Zarya’s ult is also a great setup for most other hero ults, basically killing everyone who gets sucked into the black hole. Keep in mind of other people’s ult charge and call out your own ult’s % with Z so you can coordinate the attack.
Lucio: I have seen people using speed boost while people are dying around them. This is very bad. Speed boost is best when running to objective points and after that, should be kept on healing unless you are alone and going to teammates to heal them. The passive healing and healing boosts only works in line of sight, but it does help greatly by keeping everyone alive and healthy. About healers in general, you need people on healing duty or else your team will continue to be damaged until they are dead. It doesn’t matter if it takes 2 to 3 waves, teams without healers are more likely to be rolled.
Mercy: Know when to damage boost and when to heal. If given a choice between healing and damage boosting a teammate that is noticed by the enemy, go with healing as he needs longevity to either win the encounter or to have time to run to cover. Also, keep in mind whether you are tethered to someone while using your dash as you will dash to whoever you are healing, even if you are not looking at them or pointing to another teammate.
Symmetra: Know when to switch off of this hero if you are being hard countered by Winston. Teleports do help with rushing capture points, even if it’s final. But you are not doing much if all of your sentries are down.
Zenyatta: Discord is a very powerful tool, allowing you to ward off attackers aiming for you while potentially killing them. Just remember to rotate who you are healing with the harmony orb as healing a full HP teammate isn’t productive unless you are increasing their longevity as they are taking hits. Remember to stay near teammate that can defend you or you will be attack or bullied out of team fights.