I have added a section to the guide explaining the theory behind Roadhog as a DPS pick and when to pick him in a DPS slot. Thanks to @alkusanagifor the suggestion!
@almostswedish: Thanks! I almost mentioned that on Symmetra, but that might encourage more people to play Symmetra. I kid. It is oddly effective on her though, yeah.
@adequatelyprepared: Quite true. I find it particularly useful for keeping track of where Tracer is Blinking to. I've gotten pretty decent at fighting off Tracers who don't seem to get Discord Orb lets me track their movements. Actually, after playing Zen for a while I have gotten pretty decent at knowing exactly where she's going to be after each Blink even minus the Orb as the distance is fixed. So maybe as a side note to anyone having trouble keeping track of a Tracer, try playing Zen for a bit.
@slax: Completely agreed on the changes. I think Blizzard is getting a much better handle on tweaking the game with these past two set of changes. I wouldn't go so far to say Zeny needs much tweaking though. We'll see. He's still one of the most popular picks in the Meta right now since he's so versatile. I think him and Zarya are the two characters that most work in any mode and any comp right now.
@mikelemmer:That's some great advice on the Sleep Darts! I'm not sure what the full animation time is before she actually fires, but it feels like about .3 to .5 seconds or so. I actually put up the below video yesterday just because it was kind of hilarious, but it should help demonstrate your point. Granted, in the below example that Tracer just made a beeline for me, so it was a lot easier a correction to make than some of those shots you're referencing.
One thing I also might mention: I use a Razer Deathadder and have remapped a lot of shift and E commands to the side buttons. That helps a ton on characters like Ana and also Zeny where I can switch orb sup without moving off WASD as much.
Yeah, it's really annoying how her shots are blocked by teammates. It's especially annoying if you're all grouped up behind a Rein shield and you can't find a good angle to fire through your teammates. That goes hand in hand with the "I hit Q just as the Mercy/Lucio/Zenyatta walked right in front of me" issue.
Yeah, that change to her grenade is huge. Honestly, I think this is only going to make her better for the majority of players. The Zen player in me really worries about how much better it's going to make her at nullifying my Ult. Meanwhile, if you think of how fast Mercy's Ult charges, it's still plenty fast enough. I think that portion of the change is pretty much focussed on countering the triple Support/triple Tank Meta.
This is a pretty great article, Bruno! Thanks for writing it.
As someone who plays way too much Overwatch and is decent but not great at the game (level 121 on PS4, level 53 PC currently and 2794/Platinum), there is a lot I could say about the game's MMR system and the general Elo hell they have created for both themselves and the player base. I think you covered a good chunk of the QP dilemma. It especially gets messy given the complex nature of the different classes in the game. So the matchmaker might try to put me for instance, a good support player, into a game to fill the support role on a team. But on that night, I want to work on say Zarya or Reinhardt. The result often is support falls to the last person to select a character because a) people want the glory of playing an attack character and b) people get tired of being blamed for the failings of their teammates as support players.
Many players describe Elo hell as being the Gold and Platinum levels (in Season 1 this was also the rank 50 through low 60s area). The top 3 tiers (Diamond/Master/Grandmaster) are currently the top 7% of the player base. The bottom two tiers (Bronze/Silver) are 8%. So that's 5 of 7 rankings devoted to just 15% of the player base. With 85% of the player base being in the same range,
Then there are the expectations the matchmaking throws on you in competitive. For example, say you're in competitive and you're a Gold tier Reaper main. You get into the match and a Bronze tier player quick locks Reaper and refuses to move. Now, you probably should have some backup options, but let's say your team needs a Reinhardt and you rarely play him. if the player of equivalent skill on the other team got to pick their best character, there is often a gap your teammates will have to make up if you want to win. And things kind of spiral from there. And we haven't even taken into account "player toxicity." Honestly, I find the Overwatch community has its issues, but it is generally better and better policed than a lot of FPS communities. The problem is, in any given game of Overwatch you are matched with 11 other players. If you play 10 games in an evening and even 1% of the player base is toxic, you're likely to run into at least one toxic player.
There is a lot more that could be written on the subject. It is fascinating to think about the broader applications and issues raised by these types of algorithms though.
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