Overwatch

[Bleck]

I think the sleep dart is less for trying to stun a person in a big firefight and more for quietly shutting down that flanker that came to kill you

also I've played her on the PTR, here's some info;

Biotic Rifle

• left click heals teammates for 75 health and damages enemies for 80; both of these effects happen over one second
• right click to scope - scoped shots are hitscan, nonscoped are projectiles
• clip has 6 shots
• does not headshot

Sleep Dart

• puts enemies to sleep for five and a half seconds
• any damage dealt to a sleeping character wakes them immediately
• cooldown is 12 seconds
• also does 5 damage

Biotic Grenade

• can be tossed really far, like a Junkrat shot almost
• does 60 damage to enemies, heals teammates (herself included) for 100
• prevents enemy healing and increases teammate healing for 5 seconds
• 10 second cooldown

Nano Boost

• is a targeted hitscan, like Zenyatta's Orb of Harmony
• boosts a teammate's damage and speed by 50% and 30%, respectively, and reduces damage taken by 50%
• lasts 8 seconds

 

most importantly, one of her unlockable voice lines is WITNESS ME

[Sir_NutS]

I tried her for a while yesterday, my thoughts so far:
 

• Her unscoped shot is just as powerful as her scoped shot.  If you need to be in the thick of battle at some point because there's no vantage point to defend your team from, you'll be shooting non-scoped shots for the most part at both enemies and allies, which feels really weird.
• There's a small delay before her damage takes place, I don't know what the purpose of this could be, felt a little awkward to me.
• There's 0 mobility in her kit so perhaps the video where she's up at the top of Anubis entrance was just bullshiting people?
• Her shot doesn't really do much damage.  She can't headshot either
• Sleeping dart is powerful.  It's sort of a mccre flashbang, harder to aim but with more payback.  Even if your allies do dmg to the enemy and wake him up, the dart is still a knockdown that requires a small amount of time to stand up.  It will be insane to stop most ultis in the game.
• The grenade is very powerful as well.  The range is not too long but it does have some reach.  It does a lot of dmg/healing, if you need a burst of either it's great, also in high ranks this will be a very powerful tool to stop lucios/roadhogs/s76
• Nano boost is powerful, but then again all ultis are.

She seems really strong to me.  I still have to wait and see how she'll do but I can already say she'll be better than a zenyatta at healing, damage, utility and survivability.  She won't be picking people off like a WM, but she will be a real nuisance.

[Sir_NutS]

Good recap

[AngelCityOutlaw]

You guys see what happens when you mix Ana's ult, Reaper's ult and Lucio's speed boost?

 

[DarkeSword]

Spinning top?

[Neifion]

I don't know about her being more powerful than Zen, especially after he gets buffed (anybody have the specifics on this, btw?) I can do a lot more damage and healing on Zen than Ana (with discord he's a freaking tank-wrecker, and he can pick off squishies like crazy), but then again, I've played Zen a lot more and I naturally suck at sniping.

Edit: Nevermind, saw the Zen buffs. I liked him even before the buff, so yeah, definitely going to be using him more.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

9 hours ago, DarkeSword said:

Spinning top?

of death

8 hours ago, Neifion said:

I don't know about her being more powerful than Zen, especially after he gets buffed (anybody have the specifics on this, btw?) I can do a lot more damage and healing on Zen than Ana (with discord he's a freaking tank-wrecker, and he can pick off squishies like crazy), but then again, I've played Zen a lot more and I naturally suck at sniping.

Edit: Nevermind, saw the Zen buffs. I liked him even before the buff, so yeah, definitely going to be using him more.

Depends on how you're defining "powerful".

I'll admit that I haven't spend that much time with her or others playing her, but even with what I have, I would say that she is the most useful support as long as your aim is sharp and it's MUCH easier to hit your own team than the enemy since your teammates aren't actively avoiding being shot by you.

She does not suffer from the inherent weakness of the other supports thus far and that is range. As long as she can see you, she can heal the whole team very quickly whereas the others must either focus on one at a time or have to wait to charge an area effect and they risk being killed since they must be in the heat of battle. The Winston/Tracer/Genji etc. strategy is also not reliable on account of the tranquilizer dart. You basically need another sniper or pharah to take her out from a range. 

[Bleck]

13 hours ago, AngelCityOutlaw said:

You guys see what happens when you mix Ana's ult, Reaper's ult and Lucio's speed boost?

appropriate musical accompaniment

edit: it doesn't say as much in the patch notes, but on the ptr, the hitboxes on hanzo's arrows have been reduced significantly

that's a huge nerf to a character that already wasn't that great - looking more and more like he's the top candidate for a league-style kit rework

[BardicKnowledge]

8 hours ago, Bleck said:

appropriate musical accompaniment

edit: it doesn't say as much in the patch notes, but on the ptr, the hitboxes on hanzo's arrows have been reduced significantly

that's a huge nerf to a character that already wasn't that great - looking more and more like he's the top candidate for a league-style kit rework

I agree -- the only reason he was playable at all was because his arrows had a cheating hitbox.  Is it his arrows or the player shoulders that got fixed, incidentally?  Either fix would screw him.  His ult is solid, but he is simply not reliable for anything else compared to the others.

[Neifion]

16 hours ago, AngelCityOutlaw said:

Depends on how you're defining "powerful".

This:
 

On 7/13/2016 at 8:03 AM, Sir_NutS said:

I can already say she'll be better than a zenyatta at healing, damage, utility and survivability.  She won't be picking people off like a WM, but she will be a real nuisance.

Also, Zen is an amazing sniper, at least for me. I've found it easier to put down Tracer at range with Zen than with Widow or anyone else. And he can absolutely murder at medium range.

Basically, if you know how to play Zen, he can be just as powerful as Ana, and vice versa, on all counts. It just comes down to play style, comp, situation, etc.

[Nutritious]

On 7/13/2016 at 10:22 PM, Bleck said:

appropriate musical accompaniment

edit: it doesn't say as much in the patch notes, but on the ptr, the hitboxes on hanzo's arrows have been reduced significantly

that's a huge nerf to a character that already wasn't that great - looking more and more like he's the top candidate for a league-style kit rework

Wow, that really sucks.  Hanzo is my strongest pick right now, but he's not exactly OP or anything right now.

[Garpocalypse]

Wronchi Animation just posted this today.  Had to crack up at mei's dance near the end.

 

[Sir_NutS]

oh btw guys, ZENYATTA IS SO GOOD NOW!.  I've always loved the guy but since they made him fragile in the beta he lost a lot of viability.  He's pretty good now and I'll be using him a lot now.

[BardicKnowledge]

18 hours ago, Sir_NutS said:

oh btw guys, ZENYATTA IS SO GOOD NOW!.  I've always loved the guy but since they made him fragile in the beta he lost a lot of viability.  He's pretty good now and I'll be using him a lot now.

This absolutely.  If their team has too many tanks, running Zenyatta+Ana as your support duo absolutely melts them.

Worth a mention: If Zenyatta is using his ult to allow his allies to push they payload or storm a point, Ana's grenade will make all of them vulnerable again.  Got a very nice PotG recently by using Ana's blast to allow our Roadhog to clean up with an empowered ult during Zenyatta's ult.

Edit: Since no one has mentioned this yet, IMO these are the two best uses for the sleep dart.

1) Shutting down Pharah, Reaper, Roadhog, or Soldier ults right as they begin.  McCree is also possible but you likely go down in the process.

2) When someone comes to flank you, dart them -- and then have your whole team charge the point.  It's a 5v6 at that point, and without their Tracer/Reaper they are very likely to lack the damage they need to kill you.

[Kat]

So, getting back into Overwatch. Ana is pretty fun. She has a great kit. Being able to interrupt most ults and disrupt almost any form of healing is great. It's especially awesome that sleep dart can disregard Zenyatta's ult and sleep them anyways. Nanoboost can be scary on almost anyone. She has several glaring problems, though:

1) No escape or mobility. Her only defense is her sleep dart, which takes a full second to fire. This is more than enough time for anyone to kill her. Sleeping enemies can be woken up by any damage, too, making this a pretty weak defense. It's often best for interrupting ults, because it's stupidly hard to hit flankers that it would be helpful against(Tracer, Genji, etc). Her primary weapon can't even headshot and both her primary and her sleep dart have relatively small hitboxes. Compare this to literally every other support - even Mercy - who are able to defend themselves to a degree.

2) As her primary weapon is a sniper rifle, it requires a lot of accuracy. The hitbox is more generous with allies to encourage healing, but this also means you'll often hit an ally instead of an enemy or hit an ally who didn't need healing. Players are also likely to be dashing or hopping around, making it even harder to accurately heal. This works doubly against her thanks to the above mentioned lack of mobility. She can't get to any sniper spots and getting to higher ground requires taking the stairs, which both exposes her to potential wandering flankers and takes far too much time.

3) Her actual place on the battlefield is questionable. With the abundance of AoE attacks and projectiles with huge hitboxes(along with the already large hitboxes on characters), her low health pool and the aforementioned lack of mobility mean she is amazingly easy to kill. Her best position for healing is far back due to her range and lack of damage/healing falloff. The fact that her scoped shots are hitscans rather than projectiles reinforces this. It's also the worse possible position for her because she relies on her team to protect her from flankers.

But, you know, other than dying any time someone so much as looks at me she's ok.

[BardicKnowledge]

Ana is my new go-to counter to Bastion, by the way.  Her sleep dart not only stuns him, but even if he wakes up right away, he wakes up in walking mode!  So you are guaranteed 3 seconds where he's not gunning your team down, usually enough time (especially in conjunction with Ana's ult on someone) for your team to close distance and eliminate not just him, but the whole team.

[Bleck]

Every time I play this stupid game I pick Zenyatta and I put my heal orb on folks that are dying and put my hurt orb on enemy folks that need to die and the chimps that matchmaking has decided that I need to play with shoot neat little bullet hole outlines around the entire enemy team, and we get steamrolled.

And if I dare say anything critical of any teammates performance - like "perhaps, friend, you should not play McCree, buddy, if you cannot aim very well, pal" - the response I get is some schlemiel screaming at me through a ten dollar microphone, "way to blame the team, man! It's a team game, man! It's not anyone in particular's fault, man!"

[Kat]

How do you deal with Mei? I see 2-3 every game. Last game's play of the game was a Mei ulting the enemy team while freezing the enemy Mei.

Frankly, I can't stand playing against Mei. All she has to do is clip me with her freeze and I'm suddenly too slow to avoid being frozen solid and shot in the head. I'm not saying it's overpowered, but it's too damn fast. The only challenge I encounter when playing as her is "How do I get within 10 feet without being shot?", because once you start freezing they can't even turn.

 

She's flat out unfun to play against.

[Bleck]

you deal with Mei by staying away from her and staying with teammates - fighting her one on one is a chore and a bad idea, so stick with the team to lower her effectiveness

that being said yeah she's unfun to be against and poorly designed

[Triad Orion]

17 hours ago, Kat said:

How do you deal with Mei? I see 2-3 every game. Last game's play of the game was a Mei ulting the enemy team while freezing the enemy Mei.

Frankly, I can't stand playing against Mei. All she has to do is clip me with her freeze and I'm suddenly too slow to avoid being frozen solid and shot in the head. I'm not saying it's overpowered, but it's too damn fast. The only challenge I encounter when playing as her is "How do I get within 10 feet without being shot?", because once you start freezing they can't even turn.

 

She's flat out unfun to play against.

Mei's entire kit is about disruption and being as aggravating as possible to the enemy team.  So yeah.  She's pretty not-fun to play against.   But you can deal with her.

Bleck's advice is solid.  Above all, you have to keep your distance unless you're positive you can kill her before she freezes you.  Her projectile attack is strong but it has delay and its velocity isn't as fast as a bullet.  If you're a good shot, McCree can counter her reasonably well due to his good range on his primary and his flashbang if she does manage to close the distance to you.  Soldier 76 can work in a pinch too at medium to long range, but his pulse rifle's damage might not pile up fast enough to kill her without blowing your Helix Rockets.  Widowmaker obviously is a decent choice against her too, given her predilection for long-range combat.   Needless to say, Pharah can be a nightmare for Mei, especially if you can maximize air time so she has to rely solely on her alternate fire to bring you down.  Just don't pop rocket barrage if she knows where you are and keep moving erratically and you should have the advantage there.

If you're in a situation where you're a short range character, your options are more limited.  Reaper and Tracer have escapes, as does Winston, and should be used liberally if you're in a disadvantageous situation.   I've had some success with Reinhardt against Mei thanks to the large health pool and shield, and if you have a good sense of timing, his charge can level a Mei coming out of Ice Block if they don't wall up the instant they get out.  Even if you flub the charge and hit the block, you're still in hammer range, and with a teammate backing you, you should be able to finish her if you land at least one swing. 

Relatedly, I've found that against low to mid level Meis, that saving your burst damage for after she ice-blocks tends to punish her reasonably well.   But I don't play all that often and Meis may have gotten smarter since then.

And importantly, I want to stress what Bleck said: when facing one or more Meis, stay with your team.  Ganging up on her if she's out of position is one of the best ways to deal with her.  Without her ult, she can generally only freeze/headshot one of you at a time.  She may be sturdy, but she probably won't have enough health to weather two or three people wailing on her before she goes down.

[Neifion]

Also, Zenyatta. His ability to discord and snipe at medium range can bring her down quick without you needing to get in range of her freeze. Just make sure to watch her and not let her get close. And of course, stay with your team. A discorded and focused-down Mei is one that doesn't survive very long. Finally, if your teammates get frozen in her ult, you can Transcendence between them.

[Nabeel Ansari]

After playing 60-ish hours of Hanzo I feel compelled to say he still needs some work.

I think the problem so far is that they're trying to focus on his damage output and methods to try and balance him and not enough on his overall kit. So they're doing this weird dance where they're playing with his hitbox and arrow speed to figure out what makes him technically "balanced".

However playing Hanzo is still only kind of viable and generally kind of unfun, because he has really bad movement problems. Hanzo's only mobility is his wall climb, and the wall climb registration is inconsistent af in this game. If you're caught as Hanzo, generally speaking, you're pretty much dead on the spot. You don't really have a lot of escape opportunities, or things that can viably buy you time to get out, unless you're in a location where the wall situation is convenient. Contrast with Widowmaker, who has a grapple hook, and Ana, who has her heal grenade that can give her a decent tipping of scales.

While he's technically very strong in the math, the experience of playing him still leaves a bit to be desired. I don't really feel the same kind of confidence and control as I do when I visit some other Heros. And I'd have no issue with them nerfing some of his damage aspects in order to grant him better control and versatility. I think buffing his damage to compensate for his rigid gameplay style would imbalance it too much, especially for the "git gud" players who don't care.

tl;dr His ideal style right now focuses too much on preventing bad situations, and basically leaves hollow his ability to react to bad situations already occurring. I think they could keep his balance where it's at right now but shift the playstyle to be more accommodating.

[Newt]

2 hours ago, Neblix said:

After playing 60-ish hours of Hanzo I feel compelled to say he still needs some work.

I think the problem so far is that they're trying to focus on his damage output and methods to try and balance him and not enough on his overall kit. So they're doing this weird dance where they're playing with his hitbox and arrow speed to figure out what makes him technically "balanced".

However playing Hanzo is still only kind of viable and generally kind of unfun, because he has really bad movement problems. Hanzo's only mobility is his wall climb, and the wall climb registration is inconsistent af in this game. If you're caught as Hanzo, generally speaking, you're pretty much dead on the spot. You don't really have a lot of escape opportunities, or things that can viably buy you time to get out, unless you're in a location where the wall situation is convenient. Contrast with Widowmaker, who has a grapple hook, and Ana, who has her heal grenade that can give her a decent tipping of scales.

While he's technically very strong in the math, the experience of playing him still leaves a bit to be desired. I don't really feel the same kind of confidence and control as I do when I visit some other Heros. And I'd have no issue with them nerfing some of his damage aspects in order to grant him better control and versatility. I think buffing his damage to compensate for his rigid gameplay style would imbalance it too much, especially for the "git gud" players who don't care.

tl;dr His ideal style right now focuses too much on preventing bad situations, and basically leaves hollow his ability to react to bad situations already occurring. I think they could keep his balance where it's at right now but shift the playstyle to be more accommodating.

My experience with hanzo is pretty dissimilar to yours. The arrow speed buff helped him out quite a bit, and I don't have a lot of problems in the near game 1v1 except vs tracer, genji, mei, and reinhardt. Scatter arrow can 0-100 just about the entire cast, and his ult charges at a really dumb rate. I've found he's best on payload maps (attacking and defending), because you have mobile cover or an easy target. The vision is also useful for setting up headshots; doubly so on flanking areas.

His problem is that he isn't a 'sniper' even though he's billed as one. Comparing him to widowmaker/ana doesn't make a lot of sense because he doesn't do the same things. His kit is built for area denial, but on most maps junkrat is just better at that.

Have you tried just.. playing him differently? It sounds like you're just hiding behind a wall at distance and shooting arrows, which doesn't work nearly as well in my experience.

[eggsngaming]

The new Halloween Brawl is fun, even though it gets old fast. The game has some serious PvE potential for the future. Those new skins and victory poses are awesome except for that goth Soldier 76 skin. Why god why

[DusK]

31 minutes ago, eggsngaming said:

Those new skins and victory poses are awesome except for that goth Soldier 76 skin. Why god why

Just in case you legitimately don't get the reference of that skin: