Overwatch

Associate
Joined
29 Mar 2011
Posts
119
I have opened so many boxes that there is no more items to collect. So any box I open just gives me $$$.

The new character echo vids are looking pretty good. The balance is back towards where it should be.

She looks a lot of fun if you have the mechanical skills to use her.

That really is a lot of game time you must have racked up! :D She looks like a lot of fun to play, but looks like a challenging foe to go up against especially with that crazy special she's got.
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Apr 2011
Posts
14,761
Location
Barnet, London
I thought up and interesting question last night, how would you build your own hero, using the skills of any of the characters? Also, choose your weapon. You can only have one 'Shift', 'E' and Ult.

Interestingly I'd be really tempted to take both of Ana's E and Shift. Hmm, maybe Torb or Reapers Ult. Maybe Lucio or Mei's gun?
 
Associate
Joined
9 Jul 2012
Posts
694
Location
Nottingham
I'd make a tank version of sombra but make it so that when the tank hacks they instead get the person's abilities so if you have rein you get his shield and rein is shield less for the duration and if you hack a turret make it so the turret fights for you for a duration and ultimate. Create a duplicate of you that does the same spells as you do but deals less damage
 

Stu

Stu

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
2,737
Location
Wirral
Oof... a day of games with instalock Echo picks, being told not to worry because Echo is OP (and he refuses to change)... lost 4, won 1. :(

To be fair, there are some good Echo players out there, but none of them were on my team. The specific game where the guy said not to worry, he only got 9 elims on defence of Anubis, and finally finished on 21, while the Echo on the other team finished on 46 elims.

I'm finding the poorer players are spending most of the game on the ground, and are positioning behind front line playing more like a (poor) S76, Mcree or Hanzo... not even getting on high ground, never mind using her flight ability. It's going to be a tough couple of weeks in gold.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Aug 2012
Posts
4,277
How longs echo been on here?

I have played her a couple of games today, she is a lot of fun and easy to use.

I can see her being really popular.
 

Stu

Stu

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
2,737
Location
Wirral
She's been on PTR for a few weeks, but only went live on Tuesday. She is good fun, and can delete squishies with right click/beam combo. I think players with good game sense will really shine with her, using her mobility. I can see her replacing Pharah as a new combo with Mercy.

Her ult can really swing a fight, and I think it is a bit broken that if you "kill" her when in duplicated form then she reverts back to normal Echo (you don't actually kill her). That means she could effectively have her 200 health, can then ult to Winston (for example) with 500 health, quickly get ult and jump to 1000 health, then revert back to Echo with full 200 health... 1900 health total.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
13 Aug 2012
Posts
4,277
She's been on PTR for a few weeks, but only went live on Tuesday. She is good fun, and can delete squishies with right click/beam combo. I think players with good game sense will really shine with her, using her mobility. I can see her replacing Pharah as a new combo with Mercy.

Her ult can really swing a fight, and I think it is a bit broken that if you "kill" her when in duplicated form then she reverts back to normal Echo (you don't actually kill her). That means she could effectively have her 200 health, can then ult to Winston (for example) with 500 health, quickly get ult and jump to 1000 health, then revert back to Echo with full 200 health... 1900 health total.

Yeah that surprised me when she died that she just switched characters. As you say it's very OP.

I have been playing mercy today on comp, she seems good right now with everyone picking echo.
 
Associate
Joined
11 Feb 2019
Posts
100
I played for a few weeks this season, hadn't played the game since season 2. Role Queue is interesting, definitely feels more focused teamplay wise with a clearer meta than I remember it. But I dunno, I just couldn't really enjoy it. After placements I was 2300 ish, fell to 2000 and over 3 weeks managed to grind up to 2650 on all roles. Role Queue forced me to learn to play tank and support properly, but I dunno, ranked just doesn't ever really feel satisfying, win or lose. Always feel like I have only moderate impact in the game, no matter how well I play. Having a solid 55% winrate across all roles, yet it just feels like I am just slowly climbing due to the law of averages, rather than "beating" the enemy team.

ie felt like I was climbing just by playing smarter than one counterpart on the enemy team in almost all of my games, which gives the extra 5% winrate on top of the 50/50 chance whether the rest of the team do their bit properly or not, so always feels too much out of my control/influence whether we win or not. And tank is really not my cup of tea to play. Only DPS feels impactful/satisfying to play (even though I know Main Tank is impact, I just don't enjoy it).

I really hope they change it up for Overwatch 2 and actually try and innovate / evolve the gameplay, rather than just add a few more heroes and a graphical engine update and continue unchanged.
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Apr 2011
Posts
14,761
Location
Barnet, London
I really hope they change it up for Overwatch 2 and actually try and innovate / evolve the gameplay, rather than just add a few more heroes and a graphical engine update and continue unchanged.

Don't we already know this is what they've done?

I personally still think this is a fantastic game. It's not so much about your individual input. It can't be, there are six of you and you're playing with others of a similar rating. In some ways, if you were that big an influence, something has gone wrong. That doesn't mean you can't have great games, make great plays that swing things, I've definitely experienced this quite often. I also know I've blown ults that have probably cost us games.

I think it is more about how you can function as a team and react to what the opposition give you. I had to polar opposite games a couple of days ago. One with a toxic DPS who used voice chat to blame everyone for everything... and I let it wind me up more than I should, mainly because he had voice but just wouldn't work with me (I was Zarya and he was Reaper then Junk). Right after that game I went into one with a DPS who was positive, wanted to help others, wanted to adjust to whatever we needed and generally lifted the team. Such a different experience.

I usually play with at least two, sometimes up to four other friends, so we can almost guarantee the teamwork and team spirit, which might be why I have a different view of the game than many other people...
 
Associate
Joined
11 Feb 2019
Posts
100
Don't we already know this is what they've done?

I personally still think this is a fantastic game. It's not so much about your individual input. It can't be, there are six of you and you're playing with others of a similar rating. In some ways, if you were that big an influence, something has gone wrong. That doesn't mean you can't have great games, make great plays that swing things, I've definitely experienced this quite often. I also know I've blown ults that have probably cost us games.

I think this is the issue that I have with the game. in SoloQ there aren't 6 of you playing with similar "skill levels", there are 6 of you playing with a similar skill rating, which are largely innaccurate compared to the real skill level of the players, as can be seen by watching the replays and seeing the crazy differences between players within the same rating.

I believe it works over time as the season progresses, but the system takes SO many games for people to get to where they need to be, due to the design that you can't influence the game much even when you are playing with/against players at a lower level of capability/skill/game knowledge, so it makes the ranked experience feel to me like wading slowly through thick treacle, it's not fun to climb at all. It just a case of playing enough games.
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Apr 2011
Posts
14,761
Location
Barnet, London
it's not fun to climb at all. It just a case of playing enough games.

I guess this is the logic I see people talk about and what I don't understand. Why should I climb if I play more games at this point? In my case, for example, I've been playing for 3 years, about 1,000 hours at a guess, I'm unlikely to improve much at this point. Why would I think I can climb?

All my roles are between 1950 and 2200 at this point, this is where I've been for quite some time, I believe it's where I should be. Why should I not be winning about 50% and staying there?
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Mar 2011
Posts
5,417
If the above is the case then why bother having a ranking system at all? i.e. if everyone who has played for a while is simply stuck and should never expect to climb or fall then they might as well just bin the ranking system completely. Progression in a competitive game is practising and improving over time as you learn the game more - only in Overwatch its meaningful skilful mechanics are so horribly shallow and the entire thing is so woefully unbalanced that you can't ever hope to learn anything... The game shouldn't really be about climbing to begin with but with the games being so one sided in most cases at virtually all ranks leaves that as the only compelling reason to play - unless of course you enjoy absolutely destroying a team who can't offer you a challenge, or being completely steam-rolled by a team you have no chance against (and clearly for a bit percentage of players that's what gaming is about these days)
 

Stu

Stu

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
2,737
Location
Wirral
I think Andy means he should be winning about 50% and just staying there with all things being the same... obviously if he commits additional hours compared to normal, or does some new training of some sort then he climb, but right now he is just enjoying the game where he is, which is OK.

@MentalSharps it sounds like the game is working as it should... placements have put you in roughly the right place, so progress should be slow. You are progressing because you are relatively "new" to the game and your experience from each game is contributing to you improving. Andy and I have plateaued, so we need to change something to climb more. If you were able to carry the game now, then you are at the wrong rank, and your SR would increase quickly... if you are getting 20-30 SR per win, then you are probably at your correct rank, but it you are averaging >40 SR per win then you are not yet where you should be.

I'm fairly late to PVP games, and find the mindset interesting... I was always considered to be good at computer games when I was younger, and could beat any game, all the time competing against the computer. However, once you shift from PVE to PVP then often the bar shifts... you are competing against other gamers who also beat PVE games, and in PVP not everyone can win every game... you need to get used to losing some games. You might also find that you're not as good as you thought you were!
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Mar 2011
Posts
5,417
The above is all very sound in theory and holds true in a lot of PVP games but I'm afraid Overwatch just isn't one of them... you only need to look at the extreme knee-jerk reaction style of patching and making changes to see that even the dev team have literally no idea how to properly balance this horrible mess of a game they have created...

"errr buff this hero through the roof, oh no now the game is even more ruined, nerf them into the ground and buff something else... oh no... lock everyone to 2-2-2... oh no wait maybe lets try 3-2-1... oh I don't know lets just outright ban heroes every week, but we have no idea which ones to ban..."
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Aug 2012
Posts
4,277
I think the rank system works well. I normally solo q.

If I play 10 hours a day and watch youtube tutorials my rank normally goes up.

If I play casual 5-10 games a day my rank stays about the same.

If I pop on for the odd few games a week my rank usually goes down.

The game has long matches and a pretty big skill curve so getting a higher sr takes time. If you want to rank up you have to put the time and effort into learning the latest tactics and practicing your aim and movement.

My tank seems stuck in plat for 100's of games but I do believe if I studied more and watched more rein guides I could get into diamond.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Aug 2012
Posts
4,277
The above is all very sound in theory and holds true in a lot of PVP games but I'm afraid Overwatch just isn't one of them... you only need to look at the extreme knee-jerk reaction style of patching and making changes to see that even the dev team have literally no idea how to properly balance this horrible mess of a game they have created...

"errr buff this hero through the roof, oh no now the game is even more ruined, nerf them into the ground and buff something else... oh no... lock everyone to 2-2-2... oh no wait maybe lets try 3-2-1... oh I don't know lets just outright ban heroes every week, but we have no idea which ones to ban..."

I think they are starting to get to grips with the balance changes now and listening to the feedback more from the fans.

They tried map rotation but it was a bit boring and they have taken that off now.

The hero bans seem a great addition to the game, the tactics and game changes a lot every week. It's exciting to come on each week and have things play out differently.

I'm really enjoying the hero bans.
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Mar 2011
Posts
5,417
I think they are starting to get to grips with the balance changes now and listening to the feedback more from the fans.

They tried map rotation but it was a bit boring and they have taken that off now.

The hero bans seem a great addition to the game, the tactics and game changes a lot every week. It's exciting to come on each week and have things play out differently.

I'm really enjoying the hero bans.

lol and now they've announced they're dropping the hero bans for low ranks - knee jerk away boys!
 
Back
Top Bottom