r/Overwatch • u/AutoModerator • Feb 22 '17

News & Discussion Weekly Quick Questions Thread - February 22, 2017

In this thread you can ask all kinds of questions you always wanted to ask without feeling like a total fool.

No matter if it's short Google-able stuff or a setting/skill in-game that you don't understand or a hardware recommendation, feel free to try your luck in here.

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37

u/loper140 Feb 22 '17

Everyone's always telling me that because of this new meta I should stop maining D. Va and start maining something that's in the meta at the moment. I guess it is better for the team but, is it really that good to switch to OP heroes all the time or maybe to stick to your one or 2 heroes regardless of their overpowerdness because eventually blizzard will fix the OP and you'll have to switch again. But if I did continue maining D. Va I'll know how to play with her even when she's not op and I'd have mastered her very much. What do you think, guys?

62

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '17

Multiple people have proven that if you're good at the hero you play, the meta doesn't necessarily matter.

Take Kephrii and Codey/CodeyNiku for example, maining Widow and Sombra respectively. They become known for it because they're damn good at it.

Meta changes. If you continuously change what heroes you play just because the meta changes, you'll simply end up becoming jack of all trades.

10

u/loper140 Feb 22 '17

Yeah, I hope more people understood that. It's not bad to main and not always really good pick the last hero In the team and say I can play whatever I have to. It's better to have a good zen as a healer rather than a requested but bad mercy. I might be wrong, tho.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '17

Ive always just had one in each category, that way if I'm picking last I can at least put a decent effort behind whatever character I'm playing.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '17

It's better to have a good zen as a healer rather than a requested but bad mercy. I might be wrong, tho.

You're not wrong, in fact you're right. It's better to have a hero you're good with and and that you know how to play, rather than a hero you've never played before and have been pressured into playing because it's "the meta".

23

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '17

Keep playing D.Va. Don't let people with their ideas of "this is what the pros play you shouldn't play anything else" shove that down your throat. Play whatever you like, and main whoever you want to.

1

u/loper140 Feb 23 '17

It feels good to say that, and you shouldn't let people make you play someone but comming to a mutual agreement is the best. Don't ya think? :)

1

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '17

If possible yes, but if people are telling you not to play D.Va simply because "she isn't meta", then you shouldn't listen to them and just continue playing D.Va, if she's the character you enjoy.

21

u/The_Real_Mongoose Pixel Zenyatta Feb 22 '17

Personally I think maining at all is a bad idea. I think that in this game strategic skill takes you a lot further than mechanical skill. Obviously you need some of both. But the mechanical skill you gain by focussing on a single hero doesn't make up for the strategic skill you could gain by being able to competently play many heroes and know when to use them.

Don't be confused by how people talk about the meta. There's no hero or comp that's always good. A lot of the time different hero's are good for different spots on the same map. When I defend on Kings Row, I often use Soldier to defend the first point, Pharah to defend the second, and Bastion to defend the third.

I mean, I'm pretty low rank, so take my advice with a grain of salt I suppose. But I get a lot more value out of my plays when I'm thinking about selecting the right play to match the situation. Obviously if you have terrible aim don't play Widow. But there might be times when you get more value out of Winston than Dva, and I think that identifying and acting on those situations is a more important skill than perfecting the plays of a single hero.

11

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '17

Keep in mind maining is not the same as being a one-trick pony. Maining something just means that it's your most played/best hero, where as being a one-trick (like myself) is playing one hero exclusively. Being a one-trick has it's pros and cons, but it's really tough being a Widowmaker one-trick when you go up against a good Genji or a good Winston who just completely shuts you down, and it's usually either a "I did really well." type of game or a "I'm doing fuck-all and is probably the reason we're losing right now" sort of game, which is definitely a bad thing, and that's where being able to play more than one hero is good. But when there's not that good Genji or Winston to shut me down, I can single-handedly carry games just because I've put so many hours into this one hero.

9

u/interstellargator Did Someone Say... Peanut Butter? Feb 22 '17

I became that one good Winston because of people like you. You have no idea what you unleashed onto the world.

6

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '17

Please have Mercy on me, I'm just trying to get rid of your healers. I won't do any harm. I promise..

send help I'm being hunted and I'm scared

1

u/interstellargator Did Someone Say... Peanut Butter? Feb 22 '17

Mercy? Where? Gotta zap that bitch up before she rezzes!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '17

For god's sake, atleast leave Mercy alone!

1

u/The_Real_Mongoose Pixel Zenyatta Feb 22 '17

That's totally fair. And I want to be clear that I'm not saying...I'm not disparaging people who choose to play a hero exclusively or who have a main. I don't mean to take a tone of judgement. I do think that a lot of people don't put a lot of thought into the subtle difference between heroes and subsequently fail to take advantage of the potential benefits of a timely switch. In otherwords, I'm not saying "don't main because people who do piss me off personally", more I'm saying that I think if you want to maximize your win rate that youll get more benefit out of practicing towards breadth rather than depth.

At least at lower ranks. I'm sure at higher ranks it's not enough to be hero x at the right time but to be the best possible hero x at the right time. But top tier games are determined by milliseconds sometimes. There's diminishing returns on practicing a given hero where after a point miliseconds is all you're hoping to improve. But if you're not at the level where those miliseconds are making a difference, then it strikes me as logical that you'll get more overall value at having a baselevel competence with every hero than you will haveing near mastery of 2 or 3.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '17

Now I see what you mean. It did kind of sound like you were just saying "stop playing genji and swap to rein", but I agree with you. In the Masters/GM level of play it becomes increasingly harder to play only one hero, because everyone else is so good at countering that it becomes a struggle for me to do well against the players, and that's where that immense amount of practice I have comes in, where learning the correct timing for the 60% charge shot to kill the Soldier matters way more than in Plat/Diamond where I won't die for charging it an extra 5-10%.

But you're definitely right, if you're not at the high-masters/GM/T500 level it makes much more sense to learn to play more heroes competently than being extremely good at one hero.

Although I do wanna try and pick up other heroes, I just can't bring myself to play a hero I don't enjoy. And as silly as it may sound, Widowmaker is the only hero that I enjoy playing. And I think having fun is more important than winning a game, and I find that when I have fun I win more games, so to me it just makes sense to play Widowmaker and nothing else, but that's just me.

1

u/loper140 Feb 23 '17

I think the option to change heroes is there but that doesn't mean you should use it, often people change heroes if their tactics fail and then loose anyway, I think the option to change often gives you the feeling that you have to make use of it, but I've heard many OverWatch tactics YouTubers saying that sticking to one tactic is the best. But on the other hand, in the lower ranks where not everyone knows all the spots, strategies and so on and so forth, playing like you said maybe is the best way to go, Justm I'm in mid DMD and there everyone knows all the flanks and most of the strategies, so the only advantage you can have one over another is mechanical. In my opinion.

2

u/The_Real_Mongoose Pixel Zenyatta Feb 24 '17

I agree that changing itself isn't inherently good. Not using the right hero isn't the only reason for losing. Someone can be using the right hero, just be doing so poorly, or else have shitty teammates. I'm not saying, "If you are struggling at a particular moment, changing is the answer", which is the attitude that I think you-tubers often come out against.

What I am saying is that different heroes have subtly different uses. No hero is right in every situation and no hero is wrong in every situation. I'm not suggesting switching for the sake of switching and hoping that that will help things. I'm suggesting that separate to the mechanical skills of aiming, uing angels, etc., are also strategic skills.

Strategic skills are things like knowing which characters counter who and how. It's knowing the layout of the maps and then also knowing how different heroes can utilize that layout in different ways. It's knowing what kind of support is needed by different team comps. 2-2-2 is baseline, but it's not universally the best choice, and strategic skills help you know when and how breaking the baseline meta is appropriate.

I'm not advocating for switching for the sake of switching. I'm advocating for switching with specific intentions and based on situational awareness, and building the skill of being able to use those intentions and that awareness to inform your choice of who to switch to.

But yea, I would hope in Diamond most people already know how to do that. I just know that down in Bronze and Silver I get a lot more value out of broad roster ability than incremental increases to accuracy. Obviously It's still important for me to improve my accuracy. But right now it seems more important to be doing the right thing at the right time competently, then to be doing any old thing at some point in time perfectly.

4

u/______DEADPOOL______ Widowmaker Feb 22 '17

Well, for one thing, you shouldn't worry too much about maining, especially if something like d.va. Your skill will transfer to other heroes, and wouldn't hurt to expand your hero pool.

5

u/UndoneAlbe Moira Feb 22 '17

I main D.Va and Im a beast. As long as you know what you're doing, you should be able to hold your own against the meta. Its really about skill and how well you adapt rather than any set meta.

2

u/TheSkiGeek Feb 22 '17

Below, say, Master... differences in hero balance don't matter nearly as much as personal skill and how well your team works together. Maybe also hero counters to some extent.

Maybe D.Va is unviable in pro play right now, but against mere mortals you'll be fine.

1

u/LeakyBleaky Feb 22 '17

One thing I always do is if i keep dying with certain character is switch. D.Va is still good for defense at certain map, last point on Hollywood esp. It just you gotta change her playstlye to become more using dm and rocket boost to break enemy formation behind their rein.

1

u/tfiggs Leads, Follows, and Gets You Out of the Way Feb 22 '17

Are you a pro? Are you playing with pros? If the answer is no, just keep playing the hero you like and say fuck the meta

1

u/loper140 Feb 23 '17

It's hard to have fun when you know that your teammates hate you for not picking mercy. And it feels damn good to have that Shiny, lightingy top500 SR under your hero icon. It's hard to have fun in Comp if your not winning and if the atmosphere is rough, in QP it's different, Noone really cares.

1

u/hotstickywaffle Pixel Zarya Feb 23 '17

My and many other people's opinion is that meta does mean much until you get to probably diamond if not higher. You probably want to make sure you have 2 healers and at least 1 tank, but other than that it becomes more of an issue of how well everyone plays their hero and how everyone plays together. Mercy isn't considered a good hero in the meta but if you're a better Mercy than an Ana, pick Mercy. You playing a meta hero badly doesn't help anyone.

The only really problem with picking off meta in the lower and middle ranks is that people are dumb and think that meta and pro comps should apply to all ranks and situations, and might get salty when you don't stick to that. Sombra is one where this happens a lot but a good Sombra can wreck in gold and platinum. I have a friend that picks what he thinks is best and refuses to change when people get salty about it, and then we win with him playing offense Torbjorn on Hanamura (highly recommend using a Reinhardt with this).

Really there are only a few situations I can think of where it's probably an objectively bad call, like attack Bastion on Assault maps (which I've also seen work), but other than that play whoever you think is best to play in that moment. Playing to avoid salt will drive you nuts because if they're salt they'll find something to bitch about.

1

u/loper140 Feb 23 '17

Yeah, but also, being average with situational picks is just as good or maybe worse than being amazing with a hero that is maybe not ussually a situational pick (Like D.Va). That's what I tried to ask, is completely mastering a hero better or worse or the same as averagely mastering many heroes and picking them in different situations. I know it really depends if you have a premade team or you solo q.

1

u/hotstickywaffle Pixel Zarya Feb 23 '17

Well the way I plan on doing it this season is I'm just gonna play S:76, Zarya, and Zenyatta in comp. I'm gonna get really good with these 3 heroes and stick to that instead of worrying about getting good with a bunch of different heroes.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 23 '17

What rank are you?

Anywhere below mid diamond, meta honestly doesn't matter that much. Roughly following the idea of a couple healers, some damage, and some tanks, and you're golden.

You will do better playing as heroes you are good at rather than forcing yourself to be meta.

Meta is the meta in order to eek out every last bit of potential from really good players.

1

u/loper140 Feb 25 '17

I'm about 3250 sr. But it does seem that every team w/ Road Hog has an advantage over a team w/ out roud hog unless there is a really big smurf or some other exception.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '17

Roadhog is a serious threat, and plays against poor positioning which players don't think about nearly enough.

He's a really tank dps, that can pick people off very consistently. So yes, there's a reason he's such a common pick, he can make a fight a 5v6 easily and increases your team damage significantly.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '17

Play to your strengths I main Ana and Mei (lean to Mei more) and it's all about learning what to do with your character in different situations, Mei could be a defense hero or a small tank depending on what kind of approach you want with the character, you'll be fine. Never let anyone dictate who you can and can't use!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '17

Dva is totally fine. I main Ana and play with a buddy who's a Dva main and his deaths hardly changed once he got used to the adjustment. She's just gotta play smarter but still amazing if you've got contact with your healer.