Overwatch Tips!

Have you changed any settings on your computer, mouse, gaming software, controller/etc? There is so much to troubleshoot here I’m not sure how helpful I can be.  If you’re looking for drills, load up the bot-filled practice area and jump on one of those moving platforms. As you  move, try for headshots, and practice practice practice!

I haven’t played Hanzo much, but I’ve had similar thoughts when they made changes to McCree. What I had to learn was that my take on how McCree should be played was different from how the devs intended McCree to be played. It’s not so much better and worse as it is different.

Again, haven’t played him much, but I’m betting they are trying to move him into a mid-range sniper position rather than a long range. We have Ana and Widowmaker for long range, across the map stuff. Hanzo is different - he doesn’t scope, his ult has a narrow window for countering, and if not countered, it’s a near-guaranteed kill on everyone it hits. 

I am torn, TBH. I want a golden weapon like everyone else, but it’s not because they are visually appealing. I want one because it’s so special and hard to get. So if it was easier to get? I wouldn’t care as much. It’s a bit of a catch 22.

I’m thinking Blizzard could capitalize on the concept and offer purchasable weapon skins. Maybe make multiple tiers of lootboxes like some of the EA titles, where the rng biases towards characters or guns. That way fans who want fancy guns can still get them by playing a lot, but the golden guns are still reserved for those folks who win competitive games.

Sure! D.Va, Mercy, and Mei are my biffles. (Side note, I adore that Mei actually speaks Chinese. 中文是惊人！) I love getting challenging plays off with them. All other characters are more niche; I’ll pick them for a specific map/counter/team comp rather than general usage.

Best moments: 

Boosting D.Va over one of the buildings in Ilios just as the opposing team walked by. I landed behind their Mercy, took her out, and then swept I think two more characters before their tank realized what was happening. It was pure luck on my part - I thought it was a shortcut to the control point.

Going mano-a-mano with Reaper as Mercy and winning xD

Backfilling a badly losing defense team on Eichenwalde as Mei. It took the attacking team so long to adapt to my tactics that I single-handedly contested the payload in front of the final point three times, at least once for so long that I was able to use two ice walls, two ice blocks, and an ultimate. So much fun.

I haven’t played competitive mode this season. I will before it ends. Based on my season one performance I’d probably top out somewhere around the equivalent of a 60 from season 1, depending on me getting better and the changes to the ranking system. I do not know the conversion to their 5K system.

It may sound weird to hear but in Overwatch, skins matter! If you’re trying to flank people as D.Va, try some of her less flashy skins. The junker skin can take people by surprise.

Adapted from comment by sword0fstorms

Conversely, if you’re trying to draw your opponents’ fire, get as garish as possible!

An interesting take on D.va is to continuously fire at choke points. Enemies tend to stay away from lines of fire at all cost to preserve health even though they know D.va doesn’t do too much damage. Not only that but if you have a healer on your side they can heal you and you can draw a giant amount of damage by using your shield and your mechs health.

Alas! Here: Most players who aren’t hitting their targets are aiming at the past. As a Hanzo main, you need to aim for the future. 

It’s common for video game players to shoot at what they currently see. Problem is, their target is moving, so by the time your arrow gets over there, your target is somewhere else. Two aspects for coping with that are Anticipating and Averaging. Take this with a grain of salt, I haven’t played Overwatch on console so I’m not aware of what changes they have made to make it friendlier to controllers, but I’d bet this contributes.

1) Anticipating is guessing where the target will be by the time your arrow reaches them. To do that you need to get a feel for how fast they are moving and their most likely path. Aim down that path a few seconds, and if you get it right, you’ll tag them.

It’s common for new folks to pause between lining up their target and pulling the trigger. In the delay between aiming and firing, your target has likely moved, so your job is to keep moving your reticle along their future path.

2) Averaging is aiming where you have the greatest likelihood to hit. Headshots are great, but sometimes all your team needs is your contribution towards a kill. Aiming lower may help.

Other tips:

3) Always keep your reticle at about the height you expect your enemy to be at, or for Hanzo, a little above. His arrows drop remember, so you need to aim above. Sometimes people keep their view down on the ground or up in the sky. By the time they react and aim at their target, the target has moved.

4) Get comfortable with travel time and distance of arrows fired from partial draw. Sometimes it may be better to release before you are at full draw so that you score some damage, then to wait too long and miss your chance entirely.

5) The peek. Some people naturally fall into patterns, including how often they peek around a corner. If they know you are shooting at them and doing that hide-peek-shoot routine, if you can guess their frequency you can fire an arrow before you see them, and when they stick their head out, boink. It’s hard to pull off, but is so great when you land it. Your reveal arrow works wonders here too.

6) Really think about mobility. I see a lot of Hanzos who just sit in one spot taking shots, and sure, some of them are good enough to keep their opponents at bay. But the truly terrifying ones reposition and set up traps. You can climb walls for goodness sake! Use that!

7) Speaking of traps - if you think the enemy is likely to come through a particular hallway soon, throw out your radar arrow and ready your magical splintering one. You’ll know when they’re in the right position and you can unleash a devastating ricochet right through them.

Oh man, I’m sorry to hear that. People get all sorts of feisty when imaginary video game points are on the line. Here’s my advice: Set expectations with your team. Volunteer for a job, suggest a tactic. If you’re playing DPS, something like “Hey Tank, I’m going to stick to you like rotten peanut butter to a 10 year old’s ingrown tooth.” Or maybe as defense “Hey, team, I’m going to hang pack and focus on flankers, that good?”  Maybe there’s a passage way you can guard, maybe a particular opposing character you can focus on countering. Announce that.

Then, assuming you do what you say you will, the team will (hopefully) yell less at you personally, and make tactical decisions for themselves. It won’t stop people from being rude, but after a few runs you might find good, dependable positions the team can trust you’ll stick to, and you’ll be setting a good example of tactical thinking that others can learn from.

There’s a lot of chaos and disorganization in Overwatch, especially at the lower ranks. Bring some order to that chaos and you might find a better dynamic. I’d bet the people on your teams are experiencing similar frustrations, but haven’t figured out what to do. Discussing the tactics you’ll try might help your teammates think differently about how they are playing too.

Hello! I am not super familiar with Xbox1, but I’d bet they’re using an attachment. Maybe an attached keyboard. This guy had similar questions and that’s what they seemed to figure out.

Thanks for writing! Cheating does exist, but also remember that the shooting mechanics in Overwatch were designed to be different from most other games. The game is meant to be played fast and loose - headshot boxes are big, corners don’t always block shots, etc. The main spokesmen/developer talked about it in an interview hither. To loosely quote: 

“Our goal has always been to make shooting feel great in the game. A lot of times what a lot of players will do is they’ll kind of treat the game as a realism simulator…

Players will point it out always from a victim’s point of view like, “This is so unfair. It takes the skill out of the game.”… our intention was never to make the game feel low skill. I think skill means a tremendous amount in Overwatch, but we’re trying to make a game that feels great to play. That doesn’t always mean that we’re going to perfectly simulate real world, pixel perfect physics and hit reactions all the time. Sometimes it means we take artistic liberties.”