Blizzard's Overwatch Catch-All

ColdForged wrote:

I used to think that they'd eventually allow some sort of role swap with role queue. I may have even mentioned it in here. I think that idea won't come to fruition, though, primarily due to the separate ranks per role. You just know there would be a way to game the system so that a gold support/diamond DPS player queues as support and gets a gold DPS to swap. Poof, now you've got a ringer DPS one-clipping your supports every 20 seconds.

In other news I've almost dug out of silver on tanks behind a 77% win rate on the Russian Lady of Destruction... sitting at 1960 after last night. I'm really concentrating on improving with her, especially with bubbles. After every match and especially after losses I go through the replay and step through at 0.25 speed and critique my play, especially around useless bubbles.

Congrats! I have been playing her a lot again lately with the addition of Sigma, another good partner for her. There is such a natural instinct to "pre-bubble" or putting it out there in anticipation of incoming damage rather than actual damage. With >100 hours on Zarya, I still catch myself doing that from time to time. She is so reliant on beam power that wasted bubbles just feel really bad.

Timing bubble use properly is rough, especially on her projected bubbles. With her self-bubble it's easy enough; just use bubble right around when her health bar has dropped out of the blue (shields) portion and into the white (hp), or when you see a big slow-moving damage wave like a Firestrike / Junk spam / Sym orbs headed toward you.

With the projected one, though, it feels like such a small window between when an ally isn't taking damage at all yet and oops, waited too long, they're dead. Even if you get it on them perfectly just as they're actually taking damage, that tends to be RIGHT when they back off behind cover and stop taking damage for a moment.

I feel almost all of my bubbles are bad bubbles. Every third or fourth game with her I get her buzzing for more than 5 seconds at a time. But when you do it feels so good.

Zarya really needs an indicator sound or effect to let you know you are out of shield bar health. Needing to glance down at your health meter constantly is annoying.

hbi2k wrote:

Even if you get it on them perfectly just as they're actually taking damage, that tends to be RIGHT when they back off behind cover and stop taking damage for a moment.

This. So much of this. I have started talking in our groups to my fellow tank/Mei to stay out or drop shield if Sigma to try and charge. On the healer side, I see a Zarya with a big beam, sorry most everyone else, she is getting most of my attention. Moira, Ana, Mercy, Brig can make big bank and ult charge just healing up aggressive tanks.

^ I usually don't bother asking people to stay put so I can bubble them and get charged, because by the time the words are out of my mouth, the window has passed.

I'm 100% with you about pocketing a high-charge Zarya when I'm playing healer. Anybody else dies, they respawn and come back. A high-charge Zarya dies, she respawns and has to start building charge again from zero. Also, a decent enemy will see that she's high-charge and try to focus her down, meaning she probably needs the attention more (and that healing her will net me more ult charge). Also also, the fact that she's high-charge means she's doing well and building ult charge herself, so I want to keep her alive and try to help her build grav, which is a super high-value ult that can easily swing an entire round.

Catching up on OWL a little, and it's interesting how role queue turned Reaper into a staple dps pick more or less overnight.

This felt good. My DPS placements have been rough... 3 games played, 2 featuring leavers. This one had a leaver late, but we managed to pull out the 5 v 6 win.

Not my best game... as called out I frontlined out of position (and got punished) too much. Had a few bad Mei walls. But, that's why I watch the replays. Maybe next time I won't stink it up.

ColdForged wrote:

This felt good. My DPS placements have been rough... 3 games played, 2 featuring leavers. This one had a leaver late, but we managed to pull out the 5 v 6 win.

Placement leavers are annoying. Except for my support run I had multiple games with leavers.

ranalin wrote:
ColdForged wrote:

This felt good. My DPS placements have been rough... 3 games played, 2 featuring leavers. This one had a leaver late, but we managed to pull out the 5 v 6 win.

Placement leavers are annoying. Except for my support run I had multiple games with leavers.

4 DPS placements now. 3 with leavers (latest was on other team). Pathetic.

Last night I had a game where after the first round, both healers quit. With no ability for any of the remaining 4 of us to go healer, and the new queue system meaning that the chance of 2 new players being added as healers much lower, the second game was a throwaway. How incredibly frustrating.

Valmorian wrote:

Last night I had a game where after the first round, both healers quit. With no ability for any of the remaining 4 of us to go healer, and the new queue system meaning that the chance of 2 new players being added as healers much lower, the second game was a throwaway. How incredibly frustrating.

I think they're going to have to bump the punishments. Kick 'em out for an hour to start. Second? Day. Third? Week. Etc. Comp and QP.

ColdForged wrote:
Valmorian wrote:

Last night I had a game where after the first round, both healers quit. With no ability for any of the remaining 4 of us to go healer, and the new queue system meaning that the chance of 2 new players being added as healers much lower, the second game was a throwaway. How incredibly frustrating.

I think they're going to have to bump the punishments. Kick 'em out for an hour to start. Second? Day. Third? Week. Etc. Comp and QP.

As someone who has occasional connection issues, that'd be frustrating. I got suspended for 10 minutes yesterday because my wifi dropped and I couldn't rejoin the match in time. I'd hate for it to be an hour or more.

And with the thousands of players on at any given time, I hardly think it'd stop people from doing so, especially the random rage quit. Harsher penalties might affect frequent abusers, but there's no guarantee that the people who do such a thing are those abusers. Likely they're just normal folk who go frustrated.

Or play while connected via a Hotspot.

ColdForged wrote:

I think they're going to have to bump the punishments. Kick 'em out for an hour to start. Second? Day. Third? Week. Etc. Comp and QP.

I've never seen punishment of that sort ever work in any videogame. The fix to this problem isn't to punish people being frustrated and deciding they don't want to play anymore.

EDIT: For example you could just lock two slots to each character type such that when a slot is emptied anyone in the game can select that Role type.

EDIT: For example you could just lock two slots to each character type such that when a slot is emptied anyone in the game can select that Role type.

Then you'll have people game the system. Bronze support/Plat DPS queues support, gets bronze level game, swaps to DPS.

Also,

. (Now I'm the silver DPS/gold tank you've always feared!)

ColdForged wrote:
EDIT: For example you could just lock two slots to each character type such that when a slot is emptied anyone in the game can select that Role type.

Then you'll have people game the system. Bronze support/Plat DPS queues support, gets bronze level game, swaps to DPS.

That would require them to 1.) partner with a Bronze DPS who is willing to leave games and eat the penalties for leaving, and 2.) win the game 5v6 after their partner leaves.

Can't imagine it would be all that common.

hbi2k wrote:
ColdForged wrote:
EDIT: For example you could just lock two slots to each character type such that when a slot is emptied anyone in the game can select that Role type.

Then you'll have people game the system. Bronze support/Plat DPS queues support, gets bronze level game, swaps to DPS.

That would require them to 1.) partner with a Bronze DPS who is willing to leave games and eat the penalties for leaving, and 2.) win the game 5v6 after their partner leaves.

Can't imagine it would be all that common.

Likely not all that common but I could do it myself. I have my old pc next to my new pc. I have 4 accounts (2 of my own and my 2 kids). Heck, I have a laptop I could use as well.

You'd still have to be able to consistently swing a 5v6 solo.

The system could also be set to prevent you from switching into a role at which you're of significantly higher SR than the match, while still allowing you to switch to a role that is roughly equal or lower if it's vacated by a leaver.

Having spent a bit more time with RQ in QP it’s really reinforced my dislike of it. I still think it’s a big improvement for competitive but my experience in QP is so frustrating that I find myself thinking I’ll end up quitting playing. I seem consistently to find myself in matches where one side’s DPS is ineffective and that drives the match outcome. It’s not like the tanks or support are always perfect but the DPS seems to be a common problem. Pure speculation on my part but I wonder if the issue is that QP attracts starting and low experience players and they are also attracted to DPS roles. Also the large number of DPS characters means there’s a higher chance the 2 selected DPS characters are not the best fit for the map and the opposing team’s picks. This combined with the inability of other players to prop up the DPS by taking additional roles is what drives a poor outcome.

It probably doesn’t help that I’m playing in a lower population timezone which may also undermine good matchmaking.

Good Tele placement by Marshlights!

Chavyn wrote:

Good Tele placement by Marshlights!

That Sexy Mercer McCree "Takin' the point" at the end was the real cherry on top. And the "300 IQ" comment from the opponent!

Question for you all - how often are you seeing an incentive for picking a particular role?

In my experience there is pretty much always an incentive for playing tank and often one for playing support. I've been able to fairly reliably pick up a loot box per day since RQ went live. It seems like you can only get one loot box per day and then it reverts to 25 credits .

EvilDolphin wrote:

Question for you all - how often are you seeing an incentive for picking a particular role?

In my experience there is pretty much always an incentive for playing tank and often one for playing support. I've been able to fairly reliably pick up a loot box per day since RQ went live. It seems like you can only get one loot box per day and then it reverts to 25 credits .

Not sure about the loot box part, but it is always for Tank and/or Support and usually 25 credits.

EvilDolphin wrote:

...Pure speculation on my part but I wonder if the issue is that QP attracts starting and low experience players and they are also attracted to DPS roles...

It probably doesn’t help that I’m playing in a lower population timezone which may also undermine good matchmaking.

I wouldn't think that would matter, as QP still places, to the best of its ability, players in similar skill brackets. Perhaps you hit upon it in your last statement with the lower player count. Have you been able to find people to queue up with so you aren't forced to run solo? That certainly helps to mitigate to some extent.

I usually get a tank loot box once a day mentioned. Then 25 gold.
Not sure I've seen support bonus yet.

I think the loot box for playing tank once per day is fixed right now - I've seen it every time I've played, even at times when things seemed balanced (when I'd queue for all roles and get placed as heals or dps).

A great C9 today in a fight against Lijiang (we are the red team)

If you aren't familiar with what a C9 is, here's a really good explanation:

In the video we crumble in the last team fight and Marsh ends up alone on a 4 on 1. She drops her nuke and despite the enemy team having the numbers advantage nobody steps on the point and we win. It could be argued it wasn't a true C9 since Zarya's personal bubble might have been up and they had no defense against the nuke, but I'd like to think that if she or Moira died on point it would have triggered overtime and they could have then flipped it as the rest of us were running in from spawn.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/M4SV6Hj.jpg)

bhchrist wrote:

I wouldn't think that would matter, as QP still places, to the best of its ability, players in similar skill brackets. Perhaps you hit upon it in your last statement with the lower player count. Have you been able to find people to queue up with so you aren't forced to run solo? That certainly helps to mitigate to some extent.

There's a couple of reasons I don't group that much. Generally I'm in for a couple of games then I need to go do something else but the bigger reason is that I find it takes way longer to get into a game as part of a group than as a solo. I think a lot of pain is sitting here in Perth may be one of the worst place in the world for this sort of game. It's the equivalent of being in San Diego and having the closest cities be Vancouver and New Orleans.

First world problems of course

The big mystery to me about Overwatch is what Korean players talk about. Sporadically I find myself on an all KR team, and usually the chat window fills up immediately and keeps going steadily all match. But usually nobody's in voice, it's all rapid-fire text. Always makes me curious what's going on.

Pretty dope collab with cool rewards.