Overwatch tips

Going off of the point about counters, you’ll want to be comfortable switching heroes all throughout a match. You can do so any time you’re in the spawn room, so get in the habit of constantly changing things up when things aren’t going well. Far too often will players complain about the current state of the game without seeming to realize switching to another character is all they need. Struggling against a Widowmaker? Switch to a Genji to counter. Does your team need a healer? Become a healer yourself! Does your team consist of six of the same character? It’s probably a good idea to switch that up. Remember: the only downside of switching heroes is that you lose whatever ultimate you had built up. Otherwise, there’s no reason not to. Head to the 2nd page to get the rest of these essential Overwatch tips.

VideoVideo related to ‘overwatch’: top 10 tips and tricks you need to know2016-06-08T14:42:15-04:00 Once you’ve got your ultimate ability fully charged, you don’t want to just use it immediately. Instead, get in the habit of communicating with your teammates so that two or three players can unleash ultimates at once. By yourself, an ultimate might do some damage, but a few being set off within seconds can completely devastate the other side. Some ultimates, as with Zarya, particularly rely on teamwork. If the rest of your team isn’t communicating very well, don’t worry; you can still tell when the other players have ultimates fully charged. That checkmark next to each player’s name indicates who has an ultimate ready to go, so next time you’re ready to use yours, it might be a wise idea to assess your team and plan a more strategic attack.

VideoVideo related to ‘overwatch’: top 10 tips and tricks you need to know2016-06-08T14:42:15-04:00 Tracer’s Blink ability allows the player to quickly traverse the map and evade enemy fire, but it’s even more useful than that: each map has specific pathways and shortcuts that are basically only accessible using this feature, and memorizing them will help you get around incredibly efficiently. The embedded video from “Learn Overwatch” outlines the pathways you should know. There are only a few, so memorize these shortcuts and then the next time you play as Tracer you’ll be more unstoppable than ever. The same hidden passageways are also useful for those playing as Genji using the passive double jump.

When playing as Junkrat, consider placing one of your traps on a health kit the enemy might go after. If the enemy inadvertently tries to grab it, they’ll be trapped, and if they destroy your trap, the health kit is automatically used up. Either the other player will be trapped or they’ll be without a health kit, so you’ve trolled them pretty hard no matter what. This same trick also applies to Torbjorn’s turrets, which can be placed on top of health kits in order to have the same effect.

This might be obvious to some, but a surprising number of players just assume that Reinhardt’s shield is totally invincible for the time that it’s up. In fact, it can easily be destroyed, especially if you’re playing as a Bastion or Lucio. Get a few members of the team to join in on the effort and that thing will go down faster than you could imagine. Winston’s tesla cannon and Symmetra’s orbs can also permeate the shield. One other factor to remember about this: you can shoot through the shield of a Reinhardt on your own team. When you first start playing, it’s natural to assume you’d have to shoot around it regardless of whose side its on, but luckily that’s not the case with Overwatch.

Roadhog’s Alt Fire has always been a powerful move and thankfully it’s still quite potent after the 1.12 patch. Roadhog’s increased fire rate now allows him to more consistently land this powerful mid range attack that can still one shot targets if spaced correctly. At around 10 meters you can still instantly kill a 200 health hero if the rounds are almost all critical hits. This means you will need to be more accurate in not only judging your distance, but consistently landing headshots. Given his new fire rate, Roadhog’s Scrap Gun has a far higher chance of landing these kinds of death blows to squishier targets. However, since his damage is now more inconsistent, we recommend focusing on targets that are either already weak or are bound to take a lot more punishment in a team fight such as healers or DPS. His Alt Fire is a fantastic way of whittling your foe’s health down to the point where anyone, including Roadhog, can easily follow up and finish them.

Roadhog’s gun has one of the biggest spreads in the game, which allows him to now suppress a team trying to push into a chokepoint. It’s always been important to attack enemy barriers, but Roadhog’s gun changes allow him to absolutely shred through Reinhardt, Orisa, and Winston’s defenses. Roadhog is no longer a viable flanker tank that can pick targets and then vanish around a corner. You will need to play closer to your primary tank and other team members if you want to have a bigger impact. Start learning to join in “barrier fights” between two enemy teams and focus your attention on cracking their shield first. Open firing with either your primary or alternate fire can also make it difficult for squishier targets to advance towards the enemy without cover. Always be firing down the primary choke point when enemies are around, as his Scrap Gun can be an obnoxious weapon to dodge. His increased fire rate has also turned his Scrap Gun into a surprisingly effective flak cannon for fighting Pharah. While it certainly can’t be considered a counter, the increased fire rate allows you to force Pharah players back or prioritize you over the healers they usually jump on. Don’t be afraid to look to the skies and open fire with a hail of bullets.

Since Roadhog can no longer consistently one shot non-tank targets you will need to start focusing on hooking less mobile heroes. Characters like Tracer, Genji, Pharah, Lucio, and Winston can be extremely hard to consistently kill thanks to their escape mechanisms. Because of this, you will want to start focusing on heroes that have no way of running away from your team when you reel them in. This will not only allow players to focus fire their hooked targets, but ensure a kill if the first Scrap Gun blast doesn’t kill them. Here are some prime targets you should start prioritizing for hooks:

• Zenyatta
• McCree
• Bastion
• Hanzo
• Orisa
• Soldier: 76
• Symmetra
• Torbjorn
• Zarya
• Roadhog
• Reinhardt These heroes will typically not have enough time to escape your effective range once they’re pulled in. You should always try to land hooks when you can, but in big team fights prioritize these targets first to ensure they can be killed without any issue. Also, learn to be more vocal and call your hooks out so when you land one your team should focus fire that hero quickly. If you have played Zenyatta before this will act the same way as calling out Discord Orb targets.  Speaking of, hooking any target that is Discorded will virtually negate the damage reduction that Hog’s gun suffered.

VideoVideo related to ‘overwatch’: top 10 tips and tricks you need to know2016-06-08T14:42:15-04:00 You might be used to playing online shooters while listening to music, chatting with friends, or otherwise ignoring the audio, but paying close attention to Overwatch‘s sound can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing a match. Blizzard put a tremendous amount of work into the sound design of this game, and every character has his or her own unique-sounding footsteps. The footsteps of those on the enemy team are also a good deal louder than those on your side, so if you’ve got the audio turned up and know what to listen for, you can always know exactly who is nearby at any given moment. The sound design is helpful in more ways than just the footsteps, though. The line a hero utters after releasing their ultimate is different depending on what team they’re on. So you may be tuning out what the characters are shouting as mere background noise, but if you get to know all the pieces of dialogue, you can react to what’s happening around you considerably faster.