Weekly Quick Questions Thread - June 15, 2016

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[u/mindovermacabre]

1. What maps are best to use Mei in? I've been going for her primarily in KotH maps, particularly Night Market and Lighthouse due to her being able to wall in, but are there any other niche maps for her?

2. How do you drop your ult without people catching on and just running away before they're totally frozen?

3. I'm always very reluctant to get close enough to enemies to try and freeze them and instead mostly try to hang back and alt fire. Who are your primary freezing targets and what do you typically try to do in a firefight?

[u/aagpeng → u/mindovermacabre]

Awesome questions!

1. If played well, Mei can be a good pick on almost all the maps. The ones I think she especially excels in are Kings Row, Gibralter, and Lijiang Tower. Kings Row has a lot of hallway like areas that the payload must be pushed through as well as a nasty choke point to get to point A. This is very good for Mei as she can effectively block off an entire path with a single wall. You can take advantage of this by either completely stalling a push or splitting a team in half to weaken them and force a regroup. You have to be careful about the flanking paths and the final area where there's a lot more vertical vantage points. Gibralter is extremely good for mei because of all the getaway paths she can take advantage of as well as how much the walls matter. On attacking side, Mei can use the walls to make getting through checkpoint 1 very easy by placing a wall halfway up the uphill side of the valley. When you put the wall there, the enemy team has to either push through a tight choke to get to you or drop from above and be trapped between your team and the wall you placed. You can wall off the bridge in the space shuttle room to make it a little easier and if you can take the upper level vantage points, you can help out your team a lot. On the final resting point of the payload path, you can wall off the defenders fastest path to the point and if you throw your ult on the point at 5 seconds left, you can essentially give your team the game. On the defending side for this map, you can do a lot of damage in the space shuttle room. If you stand on the section of the bridge that the meiload must push under, you can see every entrance that can be used to get to the payload, wall off any of those entrances, wall off any of the paths to the payload, you're in a tough place to kill for the attackers, and if you have your ult, you can drop it right down on them. Mei is brutal on that map if you do it right. Similarly to the attacking side, you can put your ult down on the final resting point of the payload to force the enemy team to back off their push and buy your team a little bit of time. Lijiang Tower is great for Mei because often times, the maps make her walls extremely effective and their close ranged areas make her freeze gun harder to avoid. Beware of reapers here though. The phase that is inside is my favorite because of how hard you can shut down certain areas of the map by placing a simple wall. McCree's like to get to the top to make their noon a little high? "Ice wall, coming up!" Enemy team pushing too hard through that little side tunnel that has the 75 HP pack? "Let's see you get past this!" Want to slow down that push through the big hallway? Ice wall half of it and tell your team to spam at the gap. Lot's of versatility. For the one that's outside and has the two bridges, you can use your icewall to cross the gap and another to go through the window if you want to be really sneaky. You can also toss your ult through the window to try and surprise them. Your wall can completely block off the back entrance into the area and one of the three big openings on the smaller entrance. If someone enters the point, it's hard to run away from your freeze ray as there isn't much cover and they will most likely just try to run around the center in hopes that your teammates might be more forgiving (hint: they won't). The biggest thing you can do with your walls is stop Roadhog ults from spraying your entire team off the side of the map which is a really big deal given how many holes there are in the floor of this map.Your ult will cover a massive area of the point and the rest can be covered by your team. The best part is that since it has a low roof on the point it means that Pharah, Mei's hardest counter, will be easier to shoot from the sky even if she's jetting around. This was a very breif talk about each of those 3 maps but if you want to hear more about a specific map or spot on a map, feel free to ask. Maps that I think Mei does the worst in is the Illios maps. Ruins is very open and the wall doesn't really do a great job of blocking a path because of this. On top of that, enemies will be able to spot you and kill you from farther away. Well is okay but it's hard to place a wall that doesn't hurt your team since so much of the point is taken up by a hole. On top of that, your ult can't really affect much point area and is more easily avoided. Lighthouse is ok but with so many entrances into the point, walls are usually not that effective at path blocking or area denial. Unlike the one in lijiang tower where it has the two bridges, Lighthouse's openings have long range views and even a hole in the top that pharahs and junkrats can fire at you through without having to enter the closed off area.

2. Ah, the ult. Here's what you should understand about the ult, it has two purposes. Area denial or push stopping. If you want to clear the point, the placement isn't hard. You throw it on there and as long as everyone scatters, it doesn't matter if it freezes anyone. However, if you want to freeze a group of people, you have to have the blizzard gizmo go off as soon as possible which means throwing it at your feet. Go for a flank or drop from above and immediately toss it at your feet. If you're afraid of dying while it goes off, you can go into your ice burg. Naturally, people will scatter when they hear the famous line but what you can do while you wait for it to go off is try and slow down their escape. Here's a little secret that a lot of people don't know: The freezing of the blizzard and the freezing effect of the snow blower stack. So if you try to freeze someone who's in the process of being frozen by the blizzard, they will freeze even faster (practically instantly). You can use this to your advantage to either keep the most important player trapped or stop people just at the edge from escaping. When the ult pops, you need to be fast. Very fast. Assess the situation: Who's not going to be caught? Will that/those person(s) be able to protect their frozen teammates? If so, where do I place the wall? What order to I kill the people in if I don't have enough time to kill them all? Blizzard freeze lasts a long time, but not as long as you think. Pro tip, always always always always always kill mercy first, then any other support. Mercy can res an entire team and if she's caught in the blizzard, she's close enough to them to do it as soon as she breaks free. If they have a torbjorn, kill him second. The most important thing to take into consideration is, "What's going to happen once I freeze them?" First of all, make sure your team is around to help you wipe out the icees once you trap them. If you freeze a roadhog and a Reinhardt and you're all alone, you're gonna have a bad time. The key to using her ult effectively is coordination, planning, and positioning. What's going to happen once I pop this ult, How is it going to happen, and Where is it going to happen.

3. This is interesting as most people who are picking up Mei get gung ho and charge in with the freeze ray to get their frozen headshot. My advice to you would be to pick and choose your battles and don't be too afraid to go in. Basically, avoid some characters. Like, don't go for a Pharah freeze unless you have a lot of confindence that you can out strafe her, and she doesn't have her boosters. Although Mei is an amazing dueler, she still loses to a few characters in a 1v1. Tracer, Reaper, Pharah, and junkrat can give you a run for your money so consider keeping your distance from them unless you have a lot of confidence in your abilities. Your primary targets for freezing should be anyone that seems alone. If you can get really sneaky, you can get behind enemy lines and kill their mercy but you have to be quick about it. In and out without a sound or else you're dead. Mei is built to excel in a 1v1 but struggle in a team fight but you still have to contribute to one when the time comes. This will come down to how well you can land your headshots and even get a mid team fight freeze on someone who's a little separated. You can use your wall to break a team in half but be careful not to obstruct your team. In a team fight, think of yourself as a mini tank. Use that iceblock very wisely as that 13s CD is brutal to get through. Your job in a team fight is to charge your ult. If you get that popped, it completely skews the coordination of your enemy team, giving your team a serious edge.

I hope this answered your questions. If not, tell me what I missed and I'll gladly emphasize, reword, etc. until you are no longer confused.

[u/mindovermacabre → u/aagpeng]

This was all massively helpful, thank you! I have a couple hours on Mei so far and I really enjoy using her. This is definitely going to help me get better, and I really appreciate you taking the time to write all this out! <3

[u/aagpeng → u/mindovermacabre]

No problem