Topic: Battleboverwatch FPS Thread of Doom

[Soren]

I've logged well over 150 hours on Overwatch. Up until a few weeks ago I had yet to start playing characters like Genji and McCree. I honestly feel like I can keep playing this well into the new year. I kinda want to play it on PC as well.

[lolmonade]

I've logged well over 150 hours on Overwatch. Up until a few weeks ago I had yet to start playing characters like Genji and McCree. I honestly feel like I can keep playing this well into the new year. I kinda want to play it on PC as well.

I just can't get consistent enough with Genji or McCree to feel like I'm adding value to the team.  I've been gravitating towards bastion on defense rounds, Pharah or Solider 76 on attack rounds, and Reinhardt or Mercy if we're missing tanks and heals.  My best games have been with Bastion or Mercy, though.


Let me know if you ever make the switch to PC.  I've got a group of friends I roll with, never hurts to have another person to team up with.

[lolmonade]

I've ran about 15 rounds or so in season 3 of competitive, man, that stuff is intense.


Each team gets a turn to attack and defend a point, and the attacking team gets points depending on how far in the map they get.  If it's tied, there's a tiebreaker round with a shorter time limit to determine winner.  If points are still tied after the tiebreaker round, it ends in a draw. 


You cannot make progress without working as a coordinated group, even in a pick-up-group.  I've been primarily playing mercy, both because I think I'm most effective as healer currently, and most people seem to prefer tanking or DPS.


the end of map choke points get ridiculously frantic and crowded as you try and push the payload to the last goal.


It's almost a grind, but so satisfying when you end up with a win (or even a draw, if it was hard fought).

[lolmonade]

Update - I've continued to play competitive with a few of my friends as they've been online.  I've gotten to the point where I've exclusively ran as Mercy, because I've pigeonholed myself in competitive to only be useful as her, coupled with the fact that barely anyone ever voluntarily chooses a support role like healing that's needed to have a good team composition.  My win/loss record is about split, but I'm finding my ranking is trending lower as I play rounds in competitive.


Quick play is the good place to try out different characters and get good at one, but unfortunately it seems like people take those a little too seriously, too.  Getting angry if people don't follow the metagame and choose the "perfect" team composition.  Cmon people, I just want ot see if I can find a way to enjoy playing as Tornbjorn or Zarya without consequence. 


Finally, the winter event has a fun little side game where everyone plays as Mei (ice power character) in a 6v6 snowball fight.  Fun for a few rounds, at least.

[Soren]

Season 3 is pretty much over for me. Went from Gold 2100 SR to Platinum 2700 SR season high. Final SR will be 2595. Most of it was playing Mercy, but after a while I began running more Zenyatta, Ana and Lucio into the mix. I'm pretty much a support main on competitive, which is totally fine by me, as I suck at Tanks and can't really do much DPS. I've been slowly weaning myself off Mercy and choosing Ana more often. In part because of the Tank meta but also because after a certain level Mercy's Rez ultimate just doesn't have the same impact and you'd rather have Ana's nano boost and her ability to anti-heal opposing characters. She does require more skill than Mercy, but it's a challenge I'm welcoming with open arms. I actually can't wait to give Season 4 a run because I feel I can improve more.

[lolmonade]

Season 3 is pretty much over for me. Went from Gold 2100 SR to Platinum 2700 SR season high. Final SR will be 2595. Most of it was playing Mercy, but after a while I began running more Zenyatta, Ana and Lucio into the mix. I'm pretty much a support main on competitive, which is totally fine by me, as I suck at Tanks and can't really do much DPS. I've been slowly weaning myself off Mercy and choosing Ana more often. In part because of the Tank meta but also because after a certain level Mercy's Rez ultimate just doesn't have the same impact and you'd rather have Ana's nano boost and her ability to anti-heal opposing characters. She does require more skill than Mercy, but it's a challenge I'm welcoming with open arms. I actually can't wait to give Season 4 a run because I feel I can improve more.

Wow.  I went in the opposite direction, starting at about 1700 and ending at about 1500.  I get the sneaking suspicion that if you fall lower in rank, it gets pretty damn hard to rise back up in rank, especially if you're using PUGs to get matches, because you'll be matched with other people who aren't going to be quite as organized as a group of dedicated people.


I'm a Mercy main, and can agree with you that the Resurrect is really only valuable in comp for either extending point battles you know you can win if you resurrect the 2-3 people who are dead on the field or if you have a tank down and know your team can keep a good wall up from the other team if you pop them.  Resurrecting as a move of desperation usually just results in those people dying twice.  That said, in matches where things are running smoothly, I'm usually getting my resurrect ultimate so often that I'll be pretty liberal with it.


For Comp, I don't feel very good about many other characters to play as, just because I know as Mercy I'll get a dependable output of heals.  I feel comfortable rotating with Lucio, Rein, Dva (less so after the nerf) in quick play, or I'll switch to those if the need arises in comp.  I have not found a good DPS or defense character that I can be reliable with, although I've had a few good rounds with Bastion (which is usually pretty easy for a team to counter).

[Soren]

Finished my season 4 placement matches, got low 2300s, already back up to low 2400s. Going full support main this time and trying to have equal playing time with Ana, Lucio, Zenyatta and the now Bastion pocket healer Mercy. There's plenty of interesting play going on in the comp meta but with the Bastion changes and the incoming Orisa things are going to be in flux this season.

[lolmonade]

My placement for S4 started me in the 1400 range, even though I won 7/10 matches.  Guess I don't quite understand how the placement works. 


That said, I've worked my way up to mid-1600/silver range, mostly playing as either Mercy or Rein.  I've gotten to the point where I'm pretty much non-viable as DPS after spending so much time between tanks/healers and other players really refusing to switch from their preferred DPS.  I know it's hard to fix this problem, but the toxic players are really the worst part of this game.  People who refuse to play another character for the sake of team balance, talking trash, blaming everyone else even when they exhibit the above traits. 


One of my friends who has in the past would main Rein has switched almost exclusively to Junkrat, to the point where he wont even switch to Tank if there's a need in the team.  It's that kind of inflexibility of people I end up playing with that's somewhat killing the game for me.

[Soren]

Your previous SR and hidden Matchmaker Ranking have way more influence than what you do in your placements. Placements are basically meaningless which is why some people are lobbying for a hard reset of SR or MMR. If you make a new account your MMR and SR have a chance to be better because you're mechanically better at the game now than when you started, but your current SR and MMR takes into account when you started at the game and sucked at it.


I wouldn't go as far as doing a hard reset, but I do think there needs to be some level of reset between seasons otherwise what's the point of seasons? Also these constant patches, balances changes and the addition of new heroes in the middle of a season does nothing for consistency. Toxicity exists on all skill levels in competitive and I think Blizz needs harsher penalties for leavers and toxic players.

[lolmonade]

It'd be great if there'd be a one-time hard reset for a future season, I get the feeling I'll be stuck in the lower/mid tier perpetually unless something like that happens, as there's no way I'm buying a separate copy of the game just for the opportunity of a hard reset.


They should definitely be doing a balancing freeze until off-season for competitive, as well.  I think they're definitely learning as they go on this, considering they delayed allowing Orisa in comp for the first week of the season, but I think more can be done on this, and given the way the game's evolving, I expect them to continue taking some of this in the right direction. 


I do wonder if they add-in a "report" option so that perpetual negative people would be flagged in certain modes as being uncooperative.  I do find it funny they already try to discourage bad communication in the text section. 


Regardless, Overwatch will be in rotation for some time for me, but it's gone from a "several matches a week" to "a couple a week" game.

[Soren]

I still play it once every 2-3 days for a few hours. The game is fun and I feel like I haven't reached my peak but man, people's unwillingness to communicate can be such a pain. I dropped nearly 200 SR last night after a string of terrible matches and uncooperative teammates.


EDIT: https://www.overbuff.com/players/psn/fotoeme?mode=competitive


1-7 last night and my SR dropped like a rock because of losing streaks. Streak gain/loss should never be a thing.

[lolmonade]

Oh, I still have plenty of fun with the game, I've just have a lot of good single player games on my plate right now, too.  it's also good for the sake of my blood pressure for me to take intermittent breaks of the game, especially after I suffer an awful losing streak.


It's pretty clear to me you're rolling the dice with any PUG.  Only way IMO to have a consistent win/loss ratio in this game is if you have dedicated group of players you know are reliable, which is tough to obtain.

[Soren]

Solo Queue is a beast, but six-stacking is also pretty messed up. This video actually does a pretty good job of explaining just what makes this matchmaking so broken.

Best thing to do would be to Duo with someone you trust (and is near your skill range) but I've yet to find a person I trust enough for that.

[lolmonade]

Had a good 5 matches last night.  Went 3-1-1, the loss was mostly attributable to a team that was just dominating all around (must have been a coordinated group), the tie from a team that didn't know how to push the point to save their life, but played good defense.  My rank is now at 1726, I think.


Let me know if you're ever interested in matching up for a few rounds sometime.  I main Mercy, but think i'm also a competent Rein or D.va

[Soren]

You play PC right? For now I'm stuck in PS4 limbo but I really want to make the Switch(ha!) to PC. I like this game so much I actually want to get good at it, even if I'm just a support main.


Played with a 6-stack that was mostly silver/bronze. Man, it was rough. Very little coordination, even with us being pretty good friends. Had to totally leave support and play either a heavy DPS Zenyatta or Pharah and I was unprepared to be the carry of the team. Managed to make up a bit of the lost SR after the group disbanded. I'm trying to just be chill about my rank and not worry too much about it. I just want to get good on as many heroes as possible and at least I got a little practice on Pharah and felt good about myself when I managed to win points almost by myself.

[lolmonade]

Ah yeah, I'm on PC.  This game is becoming such a struggle on PC, as it seems like fewer & fewer people are using mics to communicate.  A lot of bad matches with no one coordinating or focusing on moving the payload, instead running off to get onesie-twosie kills.  One of two of the matches I played, I started as mercy, then switched to Rein when it was clear no-one else was getting anything done, and got up to gold kills at under 5 kills for the team within a couple mins. 


Had several bad matches, so back in the 1600s.  Didn't have my greatest runs myself, but it's tough getting much healing done when your whole team is spread across the map, hence giving up halfway through and trying to brute force the point (did force a tie one game ,so that was nice).

[lolmonade]

Finally edged myself up to slightly above 2,000 and obtained a gold Rating.  More or less had to give up on DPS and playing exclusively Mercy, as healer class is apparently a job no-one wants to do.


I'm finding it's helping a lot to call-out DPS to do the task they're supposed to.  Had to ask a DPS twice in two separate matches last night to switch to Solider 76 in order for them to counter a Pharah that makes it impossibly hard to stay alive as a Mercy to heal.  Direct Tanks to not overextend themselves after we've gotten the point or are moving the payload, ask for protection.  If I'm not vocal about it, they seem to assume i'm getting picked-off as pure carelessness.

[Soren]

I'm tantalizingly close to 3000 and diamond rank. Sitting at 2860 with a 2888 as my career high. Even at this rank basic things like "we need 2 support characters" and "situational awareness" are still not present in most teams.


My only bright spot this season has been my Mercy play. I've had a few good moments with Lucio, Zenyatta and Symmetra but it's hard to be consistent with those character when no one wants to go support and you're forced into either Mercy or Ana. My Ana play has not been good at all though I did have a good game last night. After getting picked on by a crazy good Tracer I switched from Mercy to Ana and we go the final two victories on Ilios. This while one guy on my team was constantly harassing me to switch back to Mercy even though the reason we won was that I was alive long enough to keep everyone healed so they could win fights.


I've bought a PC and I expect to have it in time for Season 5. I'll divide my time between PS4 and PC so maybe we can get some games in together lolmonade!

[lolmonade]

If you end up playing some PC overwatch, then cool deal, let me know..  I've got a group of friends, we all play fairly often, if relatively casually.

[lolmonade]

Fun Fact that I just learned today - If your rank is 1,000 different than someone you group up with, they won't let you queue up together in Competitive. 


Guess it makes sense, but I have a friend who is in the 1200 rank range (He's pretty good at Lucio/Zarya/Junkrat - he must have ran into some bad solo queue matches in our absence) who is not able to join-up with a friend of ours anymore that is in the 2300 range.  Kinda sucks this differential is gonna break-up our most common group of players. 


I've made it back up to 1850 after getting placed around 1500 in the placement matches.  I suspect I can get back to Gold ok, but I might end up just straddling where I'm at so I can play with both of them at some point.

[Soren]

I can understand Blizz wanting to keep players in different tiers from grouping up. I've never really found people near my skill range with the time to duo queue so I've had to keep it solo throughout. But from my experience games in low gold feel a lot more chaotic than games in platinum.

I got placed at 2500 on PS4 after finishing the season at 2968 and I was gutted. I've managed to climb back up to 2750 but that big spike in placements has me in a sour mood.


I'm going to use the double XP weekend to finally get to level 25 so I can do placements on PC.

[lolmonade]

Woof, matches last night.  Got up to 1997, then bumped back down to 1925 after some rough matches. 


Who picks torborn on a capture map and then just stands there off-point when your only healer is the last person holding the point?!?!

[Soren]

Match quality this season has been in the toilet. Played a few comp games and heard crickets all night. No one wanted to go on team chat. We got rolled several times. Other times we barely won. Summer vacation is here!

[lolmonade]

I can't tell if match quality is worse or if I'm just experienced enough to see a lot of the bad decisions.  I feel like many of my wins this season have been attributed more to the opposing team being shittier than mine, rather than my teams being good.  Main one that sticks out from last night - I was the only healer, only had one tank throughout most of it, but we ended up steamrollling them, even despite having one of our teammates lose connection and be out of the match for 2 minutes.  I had something like 51% of team damage healed when I usually average 30-35%.


I got back up to 1991, then slipped down to 1949.  Still on the cusp of gold, but in limbo. 

[Soren]

So I am about equal rank on both console and PC at the moment. But the quality of play on both is miles wide. Went 1-3-1 on console with just some terrible matches. Bad team comps, no strategizing, just the worst kind of matches you can imagine. I switch to PC instantly and I go 5-3 and on pretty much every game there's people talking and some strategies going on. This might be the worst time to play Overwatch on console because it looks like the children on summer vacation are starting to take over the game.