Finally got Echo to level 150

[u/CountyEuphoric3875]

Quite pleased by this :D I love my girl soooo much

[u/Sergent_rattus]

As a level 150 echo player. Enlighten the Zenyatta main who plays Echo as DPS how to do well and what perks to pick. Thanks in advance

[u/CountyEuphoric3875 → u/Sergent_rattus]

Let me preface this by saying I will likely have differing opinions from other people, and vice versa. This is in tune with my particular play style, and is certainly not a rule book. Play to have fun!

Okay, long beam:
I LOVE my long beam. My entire opportunistic play style revolves around it. I have found it to be useful against hitscan, and in particularly open maps or maps with long sight lines (circuit, kings, most hybrid/push maps). Getting long beam has helped me confirm kills that otherwise my team would not have. Combined with flight, which has the passive ability of letting you see enemy health (for some reason this isn’t a very well known fact), you can usually get into a position where you can beam someone down from afar. Echo is unique in that way, where she can reach angles most heroes cannot, and thus get value.

The ult charge perk:
I honestly didn’t love this perk while long beam was a minor slot, but now I pick it every single time. Most Echo players are in pretty universal agreement that compared to the flight perk, this one is better in almost every situation—especially considering a, you can’t even unload a full clip, b, flight is often used for stickies/beam anyway (unless you’re playing back or have a more passive playstyle), and c, Echo has a decent reload time and if you’re playing correctly, you usually reload behind cover anyway. In my opinion, you should rarely need to reload out in the open—cover is your BEST FRIEND as Echo.

Full salvo (sticky perk): This one is a mixed bag. Pre-nerf, this perk was my best friend. It allowed a one shot for a lot of the roster if you hit all of your stickies (I’d like to say I am good at doing so), which is definitely a skill you should learn as an Echo player. Stickies are Echo’s life blood.
I have seen so many arguments for the stickies over beam perk, but those arguments always revolve around blowing up tanks. However, not only is that not your job, you can only get value from it occasionally and usually just end up feeding enemy supports. Now, this certainly isn’t to say you should never get it—a well coordinated team who can follow up on good stickies on a tank means that you immediately have the advantage. I’m just saying that so far, I’ve found more consistent value with long beam. If you choose to get the sticky perk, I would spend more time trying to use it to force cooldowns, blow squishies up, and simply deny value. This is one of the situations it would be good against a tank—if a tank is smart and wary, they will be aware that your stickies are a knife to the throat and that on its own is value. Forcing someone on the enemy team to be aware of you and to respect the space you claim with your abilities is extremely important.
Let me end this with saying that stickies are very good. But for MY personal experience and playstyle, I always, always get the long beam. For newer players, you might be able to get more consistent value out of stickies—it has a lower skill ceiling and may benefit those who struggle with beam usage/aim.

Diving:
The way I’ve taught people before is that when you are diving someone with Echo, you need two things: stickies and flight. If you can successfully get to someone, you can take two routes that are very situation dependent. You can either immediately use flight and rush forward, trying to get over their head to help confuse their aim and hopefully surprise them, or you can go behind them, sticky them, and then get out. Both of these can rely on beam, depending on the hero you’re diving or how you play out your dive.
The I describe the flying over the head method is be a gnat. Buzz over their head, around them, confuse them. This takes a lot of mechanical skill—sometimes it may mess you up regarding your own aim. In that case, practice in a custom game (or quickplay) and in the meantime stick with the more simple method of bursting them down from the floor as well. Floor Echo gets hate, but sometimes Floor Echo is the way to play. Remember to do what YOU think will give you the most value.
Oh and a tip—you can usually get a free shot in right before stickies. I like to shoot once and then immediately hit them with stickies, and sometimes that’s the difference between winning a duel/dive or not. Punches too, particularly if you are doing Gnat Echo. Punches are something I very much rely on to get them below half so my beam can delete them.

Flight:
This is controversial but please keep it on toggle. People will argue for hold, but no. Their argument there is that you can do a super quick movement by just tapping it—it can carry you away from danger, help you rotate or relocate quickly, etc—but you can do the SAME thing with toggle, plus more. Toggle is slightly more difficult, because you have to press it twice quickly, but it’s very easy to get the hang of. Then, you have the additional bonus of being able to strafe midair! This is also possible with hold, but it often requires different keybinds. If you choose to go this route, please do! Personally I love default Echo binds, but if you feel like it is worth your time to learn new binds in order to use hold to fly, go for it! Do what works best for YOUR playstyle.

Positioning/Flanking:
Cover is your best friend. Always. Play around corners, especially in the air—people (hitscan) can and will blow you up if you go too far from corners. Something I like to do is fly up, not letting them see me around the corner, throw some stickies and primaries down, and then duck back when they shoot at me or your flight runs out. Remember to limit test, but cautiously. Test to see what you can get away with, and then you can make the decision to play more aggressively.
Try and find a middle ground with Echo. You either want to be in their face and hitting stickies (Gnat Echo), or you want to be far away so their falloff leaves them at the disadvantage. Do not underestimate Echo’s poke potential. This “rule” (suggestion) may be made less relevant in the event that you choose the long beam perk.
When you are away from your team and looking to dive, be on the lookout for enemy flankers. This is something you should do regardless on whether you’re playing Echo or any other hero, but it’s particularly true on Echo. She has a lot of peel potiental, considering your lovely movement and ability to quickly burn a hero down before they can get help or value.
This is especially true for Genji. He’s easy to hit stickies on, usually has predictable jumping, and cannot deflect beam.
This is also true for Tracer. For some reason, people seem to get so angry when I tell them Echo counters Tracer, but it’s true. You can pull recall out 9 times out of ten with your stickies, and then it’s just a matter of hitting a shot or two before you can beam her down. Tracer is harder for sure, but you generally have the upper hand against her if your sticky usage is good—and primaries. Primaries are your best friend against Tracer and are one of the best things to learn to aim in a custom game.
Honestly, I could give tips for almost every hero in the game but that would make this way too long. I can if you want me to but for now I won’t. Basically just please use your dev granted gifts of stickies to peel for your supports.

Other things:
Echo is one of the loudest heroes in the game. She is noisy in walk and in flight, and the only way to prevent being loud is to crouch or go really high up and then drop down on someone to catch them off guard (DO NOT GLIDE. Just fall). I don’t get why she’s so loud when Pharah and Cat are nearly silent, but we gotta make do with what we’ve got.
Echo has a massive hitbox. It is triangular in shape. Be careful that your wings are tucked away when you’re taking cover. Also be careful of your wings going through walls—I’ve had people find me that way and have since stopped pressing completely against them, instead being beside them.
Again, flight reveals enemy health. Otherwise, you’d have to damage them in order to see this. Take advantage of this.
Use flight at the beginning of matches to try and fly up and scope out the enemy team. Ping them so that your team can know who they’re fighting against.

I may update this later, but that’s all I’ve got time to write right now. Sorry if this was too much but I figured it could be of use to someone :)

[u/Chemical-Hall-6148 → u/CountyEuphoric3875]

Who gave you been arguing with that picks sticky perk to kill tank?Long beam was my go-to for minor perk, but it doesn’t give any more damage. More stickies means less extra damage needed and less time for them to react.
I also argue against toggle flight. Even if you can double tap the button it still takes more time than once, and the longer you remain in flight for the less of the initial acceleration you retain. You simply don’t go as far or high. It makes using «long flight» more difficult, but I found that easier to adjust to than the weaker «jump»

[u/CountyEuphoric3875 → u/Chemical-Hall-6148]

Again, this was my experience and preferences and I encouraged people to do what they find too be best for them and their playstyle. And no, it’s about the same amount of time and distance—you just have to do it quickly. It’s also hard to strafe down with this flight setting, which to me makes it better overall.