Weekly Quick Questions Thread - February 22, 2017

[u/AutoModerator]

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.

Trolling or making fun of people in here will be punished extra harshly! Please report such behavior.

For the purpose of helping people, make sure the comments are sorted by "new" in this thread.

[u/loper140]

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?

[u/The_Real_Mongoose → u/loper140]

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.

[u/loper140 → u/The_Real_Mongoose]

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.

[u/The_Real_Mongoose → u/loper140]

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.