Blizzard's Overwatch Catch-All

I feel compelled to rank in competitive. Sometimes I play plenty more, sometimes I just do the placements and stop. I amid placing now, and I'm about at my wits end for teammates who feel the need to tell others what to do and then get mad when you don't. And then madder still because you don't do it and they accuse you of throwing. The negativity is intense.

This is why pro sports teams invest heavily into management. Keep morale high, work on the positive, and head into the match up with solid expectations and the ability to adapt. One person is clearly in charge and the rest of the team isn't sowing discord making calls as if they were able to observe the whole game instead of just from their point of view.

/rant

The more I play role queue, the more I hate it. Flexing between DPS/Healer/Tank seems to be what I liked most about this game.

Valmorian wrote:

The more I play role queue, the more I hate it. Flexing between DPS/Healer/Tank seems to be what I liked most about this game.

I’m with you, when you need a hard counter to an opponent that’s tearing up your team it’s very frustrating that you can’t switch. As I said upthread I’m ok with it in comp but in QP it’s driving me crazy.

I amid placing now, and I'm about at my wits end for teammates who feel the need to tell others what to do and then get mad when you don't.

As someone who tries to get some sort of organization going in my games I guess I'll play a bit of devil's advocate here. At almost every level the team that work together the most will win. There are clearly exceptions for hard carries and pure luck, but if you can get even half the team doing the same thing or in the same place shooting the same things you can swing a team fight and take the point or whathaveyou.

I'm not the best player. I'm not the smartest player. I might call the wrong play, or focus on the wrong thing. But to my mind, if I can get 2 or 3 of the people on my team to go with the vision it might increase our chances of winning. I certainly don't get tilted if people don't follow, or if someone else has a better idea, so perhaps that's your beef. But just having people try to get some teamwork together or playcall? That's bad?

In my mind, the possible situations are, from best to worst:

1.) Team is working together and following a good plan
2.) Team is working together and following a bad plan
3.) Team is not working together or following any plan
4.) Team is not only not working together, they're actually pissed at each other

Now, I can't control the rest of the team, and sometimes I'm going to wind up in that worst-case scenario no matter what I do. But I can at least act in such a way as to make the best-case scenario more likely and the worst-case scenario less likely.

So if someone proposes a plan or strategy, ANY plan or strategy, I make it my goal to agree immediately and enthusiastically, even if it sounds like the worst idea I've ever heard. If I propose a plan or strategy and someone disagrees and proposes an alternative, I immediately and enthusiastically agree with them, even if my idea was great and theirs sounds like the worst idea I've ever heard. If I propose a plan or strategy and folks either disagree or ignore me, I endeavor to shrug my shoulders and do my own thing.

There's not enough time to have an in-depth and respectful debate in the select screen and spawn room, and I'd much rather be in the first, second, or even third situations than the fourth.

ColdForged wrote:
Minotaar wrote:

I am amid placing now, and I'm about at my wits end for teammates who feel the need to tell others what to do and then get mad when you don't.

But just having people try to get some teamwork together or playcall? That's bad?

Nope, not the intended message, my apologies if I wasn't clear. I was more venting about the way people go about communicating themselves. I've got no beef with people who are real leaders that take it upon themselves to enact a plan. But when people don't do this - and then proceed to comment with condescension or sarcasm in their voice with comments like "why don't we get this tank instead? Are you throwing right now?"

To reference hbi's options, I see it go to #4 so quickly, because any comment like this is just casting blame. And it'd be hard for someone in the midst of a game to see the bigger picture all the time, if ever. Yet people throw blame so quickly, because there's no established leader to listen to. No respect leads to a quick dissolution of the team dynamic ever so quickly.

That's fair. I've run into that kind of thing but it hasn't been super common. I recall one main tank that just had the most negative way of saying everything. Full of criticism, not necessarily right, etc ("you guys have to follow up on my shatter, nobody followed up and we got nothing out of it"... no one was in position to follow up because you were around a corner and didn't tell us you were going to shatter... "you have eyes, you can see"). I simply said "bud, you need to work on your delivery... even if you're right your tone is going to put people on the defensive and you're not goinig to get the effect you're looking for".

But, that's been the minority for me. Maybe it's because I try to kick every match off with a greeting and positivity, maybe I've just been fortunate. The handful of assholes I mute if necessary and try to rally the rest of the team, then "avoid as teammate". Happened yesterday with a guy who felt he was god's gift to DPS and was railing on our Hammond (played by a girl, I feel it must be noted) to switch the entire time despite the ball doing serious work. That was a weird one from the start as both tanks noted they were not good shield tanks and went Zarya/Hammond. I put the best face on it and tried to get the team to have an open mind and we did okay overall... but lost. Yep, was harder without a shield and we had to play corners but it wasn't a slaughter, and had the negativity not been there I bet we could have worked around it.

I'd say I usually find myself in some middle ground. Very rarely do I get jerks, very rarely do I get dream teams. But I usually have decent teams with people who want to win and who aren't asses about it.

hbi2k wrote:

In my mind, the possible situations are, from best to worst:

1.) Team is working together and following a good plan
2.) Team is working together and following a bad plan
3.) Team is not working together or following any plan
4.) Team is not only not working together, they're actually pissed at each other

You forgot one thing here. People not playing their role. You can get everyone going in and following the plan but if you have an Ana standing on the front line, even if she's with the group, playing dps, your plan will probably fail. I'd rather have the team not working together than everyone playing DPS.

I think a team with people playing their role is more important than working together (though you could argue that playing your role IS working together and I'd be okay with that).

EvilHomer3k wrote:

(though you could argue that playing your role IS working together and I'd be okay with that).

I'd consider "not playing your role" to be covered under "not following the plan," unless the plan is explicitly for folks to play against role.

Which is rare, but it can happen. Say a Pharah is running roughshod over us and neither of our DPS players feels comfortable swapping to a hitscan to counter. I could definitely see the off-healer offering to swap to Ana and focus on keeping Pharah in check, acting as a de facto DPS, while the other support acts as de facto solo healer with something like Moira. Technically that comp would be running double main healers, but in practice they're doing triple DPS, and that might be preferable to expecting, say, a Reaper main and a Sym main to try to switch to hitscan heroes they're not very good with.

It's not necessarily an A+ meta-approved optimal comp, but you go to war with the army you have.

Am I the only one who never noticed until now that Moira totally naruto-runs?

fenomas wrote:

Am I the only one who never noticed until now that Moira totally naruto-runs?

I can totally see her as an anime fiend.

fenomas wrote:

Am I the only one who never noticed until now that Moira totally naruto-runs?

She did it before area 51 kid, Moira is OG

Marsh made Phara Sleepy

Medmey wrote:

Marsh made Phara Sleepy

I am delighted that you recorded that, thank you.

Just popping in to say that this game is just so good that it’s always fun to come back to. Been letting my 4 year old play it in practice mode vs bots and he loves the characters and different skins for them. It’s ok with me since it’s vs robots so no blood and it also helps him get used to k/m.

Just a standard DPS comp game for me... on Ashe and Hanzo?! Yeah, I was surprised too.

ColdForged wrote:

Just a standard DPS comp game for me... on Ashe and Hanzo?! Yeah, I was surprised too.

Heck of a game! Minus the whole awkward idiot pubbie question between rounds. I recall we had a good and a bad Comp match duo queuing one afternoon. Need to do it again sometime. Fun video.

Minus the whole awkward idiot pubbie question between rounds.

I cringed so hard. How edgy.

I recall we had a good and a bad Comp match duo queuing one afternoon. Need to do it again sometime.

Yes please!

Big raft of buffs and nerfs on the PTR.

  • Dva matrix regens 30% faster, starts regen 0.25s sooner
  • Orisa barrier gets another 1s cooldown (now 10s)
  • Roadhog ammo increased by 10 like it ought to be 1
  • Sigma projectile catching thingy no longer blocks hook/whipshot (duh)
  • Sigma barrier -15% regen, now 1 second cooldown after recalling it
  • Sigma ult fixed not to ignore line of sight
  • Winston barrier +100hp, +50% duration
  • Lamp -50hp (now 200)
  • Lucio speed boost and speed amp up a bit, wall ride boost down a bit
  • Mercy ult's beams now ignore barriers
  • Moira right click self heal cut by a third
  • Doom right click charges 40% slower, -15% barrier from specials
  • Doom can no longer ult out of gravitic flux
  • Sombra translocator cooldown now 6 sec, but cd now starts when you throw it (or an enemy destroys it)
  • Symmetra ult -20% health and duration
  • Sym turrets -20% dps
  • Tracer effective range increased by 3m

The upshot of the Sombra change is you can now throw a translocator, and six seconds later you can recall (or destroy it) and instantly throw another one. But if an enemy shoots it the cooldown restarts.

The Doomfist changes are intriguing. Makes him more of a "one-punch" sniper who is going to get melted with more focus, which I don't think is a bad thing.

The Winston changes seem like they'll make him broken at our level. Imagining Medmey just hanging out in his unbreakable bubble murdering forever

I like pretty much all the changes. Roadhog could use 2-3 more shots but 1 is a good start. Just wish they would add more charges to Winstons cannon.

Sym changes aren't huge. The ult lasts a long time and going from 5000 to 4000 health isn't a big deal since it's still 4000 health. Dropping her turrets is 20% but it's from 50DPS to 40DPS. Sounds bigger than it is.

Sombra changes will be very nice. I'm often sitting around waiting, doing nothing, while waiting for my translocator to recharge. This won't make Sombra any more effective in fight but will help a lot to make her more fun to play.

Wonder when DVa DM will go back to 4 seconds. That thing has been nerfed more than Mercy.

Muh Doomfist! Don't touch mah boy!

Really though that charge increase might be the biggest change on him and my gut reaction hates it.

As bad as it feels when a skilled Doomfist is running roughshod over my team, I'm not sure that nerfing the character who ignores barriers is a great idea in the middle of the biggest barrier meta the game has ever seen.

Other than that, most of the changes look good. Mostly subtle changes, but all of them pushing in the right direction.

It will be interesting seeing the effect of the Tracer buff though. That might low-key be one of the most impactful in the bunch.

Maybe I jynxed myself, but I've had some of the worst games over the last two days with negativity and toxicity. Blame, bad attitudes, "your pick sucks and you suck", "team is trash", "damage is trash, I have gold damage on dva", "I'm getting no heals"... just awful. I take back everything I said and I hate everything :D.

ColdForged wrote:

Maybe I jynxed myself, but I've had some of the worst games over the last two days with negativity and toxicity. Blame, bad attitudes, "your pick sucks and you suck", "team is trash", "damage is trash, I have gold damage on dva", "I'm getting no heals"... just awful. I take back everything I said and I hate everything :D.

I would chalk this to law of averages. 5-10% (admittedly not data driven and probably an over estimate) of the people out there are toxic or enjoy toxic chat. If you play 10 games that’s 50 people. Which means just by rule at some point you’ll hit a streak of good games, and horrendous ones.

I think Karma (who I don’t think is on the forums but fréquents our OW matches) put it best: “Mute, report and avoid teammate as fluidly as possible. You can't get those obnoxious minutes back but can reduce the impact and the occurrences ahead.” We can’t hope to control others, only our actions and reactions to them.

True, but boy do I need more than 3 avoid slots. I've found I have to rotate daily.

I'm only dubious on the Winston changes. He needs love, but... more barriers?

ColdForged wrote:

True, but boy do I need more than 3 avoid slots. I've found I have to rotate daily.

Actually, avoid is almost unnecessary now. If you have a toxic dps but you are queing for tank there is 0 chance you'll get that dps the next game. From your video you seem to be in silver which is a lot of people. The only people you really need to avoid are those queuing for the same role. Otherwise que times are different enough that you won't get matched with them again the next game. It's one of the hidden benefits of role que (at least for silver/gold/plat).

fenomas wrote:

I'm only dubious on the Winston changes. He needs love, but... more barriers?

Ehhh, there's already a lot of 2 barrier games, you can't get 3 barriers, and his is still the weakest of the barrier tanks..