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I still don't know if I like sombra (only played her like 3 times, just mean in general) i do know that her presence and ult on a KOTH map can make lucio feel useless though, especially if she waits to unbreak it down. 
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Dec 26, 2016 19:53
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SectumSempra posted:I still don't know if I like sombra (only played her like 3 times, just mean in general) Sombra's problem is that Blizzard was (rightly) terrified of putting a stealth-based character into an FPS game, and she consequently feels weak at her role's main job of dealing damage. Her SMG has high DPS, but only if you're either standing right next to someone or if the target has a broad enough hitbox (Torbjorn, Zenyatta) that the spread will consistently hit them. In theory, her playstyle is supposed to involve getting into the backlines with stealth, dropping a beacon, stealthing up behind the enemy team, finding a target to harass/kill, and then teleporting away with Beacon when things get too hot. In practice, she ends up feeling like a ghetto Tracer with more vertical mobility. Her lack of in-combat mobility and the high TTK of the SMG on most targets means that you can't apply harass as consistently as Tracer can, nor can you assassinate targets quickly like Reaper can. The fact that Hack can be interrupted by damage also makes her feel clunky to play, like you're banking on the enemy team to be dumb enough to not check over their shoulders every so often or that you won't get dinged by a single bullet while trying to execute it. I also don't understand why Beacon has a quarter-second delay on the teleport actually executing, such that I've been hit by a loving Roadhog hook during the TP and been pulled back from my Beacon location.
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Dec 26, 2016 20:02
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How to Play Tracer or Zip zip, pew pew pew. Tracer's job is to take teams apart one person at a time. You're not AoE and you're exceedingly squishy. But you can put out a ton of damage in a short time and shred almost everything in the game. You're also going to lose multiple person fights because enough winging shots will take you down quickly. You've got three real tools: blinks, a recall, and a pulse bomb. Generally, you're going to want all three blinks for a fight. Your blinks will recharge every three seconds and the key thing is to use all four directions when blinking. Bad tracers just blink forwards and backwards. Good tracers blink sideways. You blink once to get in, you blink during your fight, you recall out. Your recall is both your "oh poo poo" button and your source of healing. If you're fighting without a recall, chances are you're going to die unless you kill the other person first. And even then, you're a sitting duck if someone else sees you. People can still chase you down if you blink. A recall is how you ideally disengage. Positioning It's rare you're ever going to run straight up into a fight. That's a great way to die. Ideally, you're going to be approaching enemies from the flanks. Use the side routes. Alternately, you can use your blinks to blink through the crush but this is risky. What you want to do is get to the side or back of the crush and pick a target. Your best target is Mercy. Mercy holds teams together, she doesn't have a lot of health or offense and she's mobile. You can down mercy in a single clip and if she escapes, you can blink to her and keep shooting her. Basically, take out the healer. If the healer is Ana or Lucio, you're going to have more trouble. If the healer's already down, you can either focus on solo DPS or one of the tanks. Shoot them in the side or the back. They'll have a lot of trouble with you, mainly because they don't have ways of dealing with you. Your favorite tank should be Winston. Winston is a huge bag of squishy HP, he's a huge target and you can down him in two clips. Plus, he can't catch you. Reinhardt is also a great target because he'll be focused on holding his shield and you can easily blink out of range. Surviving Fights You're more mobile than everyone in the game except Lucio. If you play it smart, you should be able to win almost every fight. The key is Avoid stuns and one hit kills. Every character, upon seeing tracer, will try his or her best to stun you or just get you to stay still. And they'll do it quickly. Anticipate it and blink sideways. If you blink backward, they'll still be able to get you. If you blink through them, you can't shoot them. McCree will always flashbang you. Roadhog will always try to hook you. Mei will always try to freeze you and Hanzo will always try to aim and one hit kill you. Anticipate the shot, blink sideways and shoot them in the head. After that, they'll have a hard time catching you. Fights You're Not Going to Win There's some huge disadvantages to playing Tracer in that Torbjorn and Symmetra are both hard, hard counters to you. Torbjorn's turret is a serious obstacle and symmetra's turrets both stop you and melt you. If either one of them is there, either get your teammates to take them out or switch. You're that hampered by them. You can take either in a one-on-one fight (especially Torb; symmetra is tough because she locks on and your low health is a huge detriment) but the turrets will melt you. You're also going to have trouble with Mei if you're within range. Ana is going to wait for you to get close and AOE you. You're going to want to lead her into using her heal grenade and then attacking her seriously. Otherwise, just pepper her until she uses it. Don't waste your time on Phara. You're at a stalemate unless she's on the ground. Everyone else? Avoid the stun or one-hit kill or reflect and melt them. Pulse Bombs Pulse bombs are great but the key is you need to stick them to people. You're already a close range fighter. If you've got a pulse bomb, burn blinks getting in, stick it on someone's face and recall out. It'll at least kill them but hopefully others will be there with them. Don't stick them to Mei or D.Va. They'll be ready for that. And pulse bombs are a fantastic counter to a bastion sitting somewhere. When You Should Use Tracer Tracer's actually great on any map. Zipping out of the base, circling around, and shooting at their healers will dissemble teams. The key is to look at the other team composition. If there's a mercy, use her. If there's a zen, use her. If there are squishy tanks, use her. The only time you may want to avoid her is on attacking payloads because you can contribute more by staying on the payload and zipping around. Alternately, if there's a torbjorn or symmetra. They counter you that hard. The key thing about tracer is this: a great tracer is loving annoying. Zip everywhere. Focus down the healers. Take out the squishy targets then focus on the tanks. You're nearly impossible to catch if you play it right. G-Mawwwwwww fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Dec 26, 2016 |
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Dec 26, 2016 20:16
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Tenebrais posted:Ult charge should reward good play, and good play for a healer is doing healing. The poor design decision is that except for Ana, none of the healers have enough healing power alone to really matter in a teamfight, and they don't get ult charge for the more powerful abilities everyone actually uses them for. For example, Lucio doesn't get ult charge for speed boosting people, booping enemies off cliffs, or using his survivability to stall objectives. The only things he gets ult for are peppering people with his crappy gun and using his awful heal to top off his victorious teammates after they win the teamfight. Mercy's only useful ability is her rez, and healing is just what she does to build up her ult meter so she can use the thing that actually makes her worth picking. Zen is a murderbot that also has a really weak healing ability tacked on for some reason. Also, healing abilities are completely no-skill on OW - aside from Ana, all the healers have to do is stand near their target and try to not die - so the amount of ult charge you get is mostly dependent on your teammates' skill level rather than your own.
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Dec 26, 2016 20:31
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I think you're overstating Symmetra as a counter and it's weird to say Tracer is good "even on defense" when she's significantly better on defense than offense. Looks good otherwise though.
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Dec 26, 2016 20:33
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How do you blink sideways, don't you just blink towards your crosshair
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Dec 26, 2016 20:37
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:I think you're overstating Symmetra as a counter and it's weird to say Tracer is good "even on defense" when she's significantly better on defense than offense. Yeah, i'll toss that out. Symmetra's a very difficult fight because you're fighting in similar ranges and she doesn't have to aim. You do. You've got to engage her at the edge of your range. CharlieFoxtrot posted:How do you blink sideways, don't you just blink towards your crosshair You blink towards the direction you're holding.
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Dec 26, 2016 20:38
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:How do you blink sideways, don't you just blink towards your crosshair You blink in whatever direction you're moving.
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Dec 26, 2016 20:38
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Oh wow. Uh, that definitely changes how I'll be playing
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Dec 26, 2016 20:41
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CaptainScraps posted:Yeah, i'll toss that out. This is true, but maintaining that range is fairly normal for Tracer anyways -- you almost always want to be right at the edge of your own falloff because that's where you can track the best while still dealing full damage. Symmetra raises the stakes a little but if she gets in, you can always blink out. Basically she can zone you but she doesn't really have any way to put pressure on you like McCree, Hanzo, or even Mei can. (The latter more because of her ability to 1HKO you on a headshot than her close range M1, but still.)
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Dec 26, 2016 20:43
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Main Paineframe posted:The poor design decision is that except for Ana, none of the healers have enough healing power alone to really matter in a teamfight, and they don't get ult charge for the more powerful abilities everyone actually uses them for. I'm pretty sure this isn't true, I've seen Lucios boop people off of cliffs and get rewarded with a sudden chunk of ult charge.
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Dec 26, 2016 20:43
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:This is true, but maintaining that range is fairly normal for Tracer anyways -- you almost always want to be right at the edge of your own falloff because that's where you can track the best while still dealing full damage. Symmetra raises the stakes a little but if she gets in, you can always blink out. I'll actually try to get in pretty close on most characters. Your gun's still got a spread and if you maximize your headshots, the chances of finishing people in one clip goes up. The only real threat McCree and Hanzo pose are their opening volleys. If Hanzo misses that first arrow, he's usually toast. And most McCrees (barring high end comp ones) will attempt to flashbang you immediately. If they miss, you're good to go. CharlieFoxtrot posted:Oh wow. Uh, that definitely changes how I'll be playing Yay! My efforts were worth it. Glad to hear it man.
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Dec 26, 2016 20:46
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Main Paineframe posted:
Though in general, you're right that ult rate for most healers isn't based off of their actual healing, but other factors.
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Dec 26, 2016 20:50
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SectumSempra posted:As much as i like lucio, i feel like when i play everyone I play with just wants to shoot and press the buttons, and everyone also believe they are their own personal rambo. Keep playing Lucio if you like him. If you've got an Army Of One team, it doesn't matter if you switched off Lucio; you're gonna lose (unless the other team Rambos harder.) Or, just say something polite if you regularly play with friends. It's all too easy to not acknowledge what classes your teammates are playing during a match, or maybe they've just seldom/never played Lucio and don't realize his healing relies on decently close proximity and line of sight.
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Dec 26, 2016 21:34
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SectumSempra posted:I still don't know if I like sombra (only played her like 3 times, just mean in general) I still maintain she's quite effective to secure kills against distracted tanks, since you can prevent their escapes or defenses with Hack. Incidentally, EMP now hacks health packs in LoS, which is cool I guess 
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Dec 26, 2016 22:03
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Re: Tracer, the thing that really seems to separate skilled from unskilled Tracers in my experience is map awareness. Blinking sideways is a good start but if you're simply blinking into walls and getting hung up on geometry then you become an easy target. Watching pro Tracers play it's like they have a sixth sense for their map surroundings. That's the sort of thing that only comes with practice but you can load up maps in custom games and get a feel for them.
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Dec 26, 2016 23:14
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You know you've arrived as Tracer when you can blink backwards into a health pack and pick it up on the first try without looking.
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Dec 26, 2016 23:25
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Papercut posted:You blink in whatever direction you're moving. Well that's loving game changing. Gonna have to roll with Tracer a few rounds, I think.
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Dec 26, 2016 23:45
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well that takes the cake as the new pressing e breaks your icewall early
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Dec 26, 2016 23:47
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Cowcaster posted:well that takes the cake as the new pressing e breaks your icewall early I'm about 90% sure the game never makes you aware of either of those, as the detailed tutorial is for Soldier 76. You'd never know that it's a matter of blinking in the direction you're going rather than looking if you never blink unless you're moving in the direction you're facing. I wasn't even aware you could blink backwards. Blinking is suddenly something goddamn useful and not "I can move forward really, really fast for a really brief period, ho ho hum".
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Dec 26, 2016 23:55
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I knew that, but mostly end up panic blinking into both walls of a corner when I don't look
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Dec 26, 2016 23:59
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I'm a little confused how you can play her for more than a few minutes and not just stumble upon it... are you all still pressing e to do it as well?
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Dec 27, 2016 00:06
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the game doesn't tell you about mei's wall I don't think but tracer's blink is really something you should figure out naturally after using it a few times
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Dec 27, 2016 00:13
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sleppy posted:I'm a little confused how you can play her for more than a few minutes and not just stumble upon it... are you all still pressing e to do it as well? Wait, as opposed to what? ...wait, Blink is Tracer's lshift.
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Dec 27, 2016 00:30
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Besesoth posted:Wait, as opposed to what?
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Dec 27, 2016 00:31
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I blink with right click, and recall with left shift.
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Dec 27, 2016 00:34
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novaSphere posted:
It always has
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Dec 27, 2016 00:44
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I'll do a Mei writeup too if you kids want.
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Dec 27, 2016 00:56
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Cowcaster posted:well that takes the cake as the new pressing e breaks your icewall early The game doesn't tell you how a lot of things work in detail, like lucio's wallriding for instance.
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Dec 27, 2016 00:56
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CaptainScraps posted:I'll do a Mei writeup too if you kids want. I don't think "You have become Death, destroyer of worlds also land your right-clicks " needs a write-up???
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Dec 27, 2016 00:59
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Doublepost
1stGear fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Dec 27, 2016 |
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Dec 27, 2016 00:59
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Two nights ago I dreamt I was chased by a small, shadowy Mei. It was pure horror.
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Dec 27, 2016 01:10
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Guide to Mei: --have some extra tea time in the spawn room! Wall your team in there so they can enjoy it with you. --Is there a big brawl and some of your team are charging in from respawn with ults? Better wall them back to keep em from wasting it, how useful is a Sound Barrier gonna be anyway? --Who cares if Phara's on your team? ALWAYS keep a wall between her and the targets.
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Dec 27, 2016 01:16
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I was bored so i made this glib and handy flowchart, for every pubbie symmetra I run into that hasn't figured this out yet
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Dec 27, 2016 01:20
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CaptainScraps posted:I'll do a Mei writeup too if you kids want. Every character deserves a write-up. That Tracer one was awesome. I'll toss them on a Wiki or create Offense/Defense/Support/Tank threads or something if we start to get enough attention, too.
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Dec 27, 2016 01:23
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phthalocyanine posted:I was bored so i made this glib and handy flowchart, for every pubbie symmetra I run into that hasn't figured this out yet eloquently put
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Dec 27, 2016 01:23
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I just played couple games as Tracer, trying to follow the write up. I spent my time hanging out harassing the back line instead of rushing in for kills and it was glorious. Didn't die once and had the entire enemy team constantly split up looking for me and looking over their shoulder. I felt like a slasher movie villain. Lol.
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Dec 27, 2016 01:27
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I wish they would put in detailed tutorials for every character instead of just Soldier 76
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Dec 27, 2016 01:44
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phthalocyanine posted:I was bored so i made this glib and handy flowchart, for every pubbie symmetra I run into that hasn't figured this out yet So I do this thing where I main Sym to get diamond, then I drop back down to gold playing regular, balanced heroes. It took a month to peak last season, just a week this time. You have no idea how much poo poo I got for placing the generator instead of the TP. People didn't even hunt down the gen before I hit the high 2900s. The playerbase adapts at the speed of tectonic plates. Attack on Princess fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Dec 27, 2016 |
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Dec 27, 2016 01:57
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Nihilarian posted:I wish they would put in detailed tutorials for every character instead of just Soldier 76 Maybe if they got pros to write them but I have a sinking feeling Blizzard would want to write them themselves and they'd be full of misinformation -- if not immediately, then after a patch or two. Like, think about how many iterations it took for suggested item/skill builds for MOBAs to become sort of useful instead of newbie traps, and that's something way more concrete and granular than "how do I play this hero well?"
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Dec 27, 2016 01:59
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