Overwatch - Trailers

There are some free Overwatch Comics that I ran across earlier today:

https://www.comixology.com/Overwatch/comics-series/73107?ref=Y29taWMvdmlldy9kZXNrdG9wL2JyZWFkY3J1bWJz

and the same comics on amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=dc144c80450b11e687c2b26822e66b6d0INT&url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=overwatch+comic+&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Aoverwatch+comic+

6 total comics for free at the moment. I don't know how much story they add to the game, but I'll read them later this weekend and find out.

I played a lot of Tracer today and holy crap I regret not learning her sooner... and I'm glad shes not played heavily on PS4. Your 3 dashes charge separately at a second each. If you time it right you can endlessly dash side to side, back and forward while getting your pot shots and escaping. I read a list of tips for playing her and it really helped out. Shes a considered low damage character, but that's deceptive. Her range is really good, and her recall is like the Mesmer continuum split in GW2. As long as you keep on the move you can get your health back while escaping behind a structure you previously came out of. I'd say Tracer is stronger on console because her dashing makes her harder for opponents to hit with a controller. I know unless I'm Reaper, D.Va, or Torb, its insanely difficult.

Ana Amari is Overwatch's new hero.

Healing sniper is an interesting twist. I wonder how many people will actually play as her considering her alt only benefits another character. If the play of the game goes to the buffed character's attack rather than Ana for using her ult, then I bet she'll become much less popular after the initial spike of interest in a new character wears off.

Play of the game wouldn't dictate who people pick since 90% of the time is Torb running around while his turret gets kills or Hanzo shooting his ult at a wall. This is going to be the most popular support character hands down, bar none. you can support from long distance, snipe, stop ults, and stop enemies from healing. I bet she's pretty OP right now on the test server while they balance her out. That buff on Tracer, Junkrat or Reaper would be devastating. Competitive play is going to put an end to hero stacking, which is a good thing. Quickplay can still have 6 bastions, but funny stuff like that doesn't belong on competitive, because some of the maps are imbalanced to allow certain hero stacking to completely dominate. Lucio's play time will probably get hurt more than Mercy's. Mercy's ult rez is still the most valuable ult in the game, and its neat how Ana's ult has an offensive twist.

After having watched he backstory video and the gameplay one earlier today I so want Overwatch now. This is exactly my type of Support character. She can heal from range, buff allies/debuff enemies, put enemies to sleep, her ult is a massive buff, and she can actually be useful in a fight (I'm sorry Mercy, I love you to death but you're shit in a fight). I can honestly say if she was in the game from the start I would of bought this day 1. I wonder how quickly she'll be adopted into Competitive though since it seems everyone likes to have Mercy or Lucio in the group. If anything you're probably going to see more healer stacking with teams running either a Mercy/Ana or Lucio/Ana set-up since you won't really loose any dps since Ana can pretty much play both rolls and would be more of the back-up healer. I really can't wait to see how she'll change up the Meta (as sick as I am of watching Overwatch streams I'll be glued to them once she's actually released just to learn how good she actually is).

https://www.vg247.com/2016/07/13/overwatch-update-buff-d-va-mercy-zenyatta/

But wait! Mercy and Zenyatta buffs incoming, along with D.Va! Yes!!! so much yessssssss. Mercy's damage boost goes from 30% to 50%, holy shit thats gonna be amazing!

Quote

D.Va

D.Va isn’t being selected as often as our other tanks, and we feel a lot of that stems from the underperformance of her damage absorption abilities. So, we’ve reconfigured her Defensive Matrix, making it more flexible and giving players the ability to use it more often. We’ve also given Self-Destruct a little more oomph, because it felt slightly underwhelming when compared to many of Overwatch’s other ultimate abilities.

Mercy

Mercy’s ultimate is one of the most powerful abilities in the game; however, players would often fly into the fray and die while using it. With this update, Resurrect will now take a bit longer to charge, but Mercy will be a lot safer when activating the ability in the middle of combat. In addition, we always intended Mercy’s Damage Boost beam to be her primary method for dealing damage, but it often felt so weak that you were better off pulling out your blaster. To help address this, we’ve slightly increased its potency.

Zenyatta

 

While Zenyatta has never had the healing abilities of Lúcio or Mercy, he made up for it by dealing more damage. However, his lack of mobility and low health has meant he’s struggled to find a place in many games. To increase his effectiveness, we’ve made several changes, the biggest of which is an increased shield pool. This will allow him to go head-to-head with more enemies. The Orb of Harmony and Discord changes are also a quality of life change, helping Zenyatta move his orbs around and apply their effects more quickly. And lastly, we’ve increased Transcendence’s healing throughput. This ultimate was designed to be the most effective against sustained, high-damage fire and least effective against short, high-damage bursts (like D.Va’s or Junkrat’s ultimates). But, due to the amount of healing it provided, there were times when it was possible for even sustained fire to overcome Transcendence’s output. We’ve made the heal powerful and also allowed Zenyatta to move around more quickly while it’s active.

As well as these three overhauls, Blizzard has also adjusted McCree’s long-range damage upwards after the previous Overwatch update took things too far, and allowed self-heal abilities to charge ultimates – that’s why you’ll see some ultimate costs have increased.

9 hours ago, Strider Hiryu said:

If anything you're probably going to see more healer stacking with teams running either a Mercy/Ana or Lucio/Ana set-up since you won't really loose any dps since Ana can pretty much play both rolls and would be more of the back-up healer. I really can't wait to see how she'll change up the Meta (as sick as I am of watching Overwatch streams I'll be glued to them once she's actually released just to learn how good she actually is).

Have you been watching mostly competitive mode streams? Those should get more interesting once hero stacking is negated.

https://www.vg247.com/2016/07/12/overwatch-competitive-mode-update-will-do-away-with-hero-stacking/

Quote

“We feel that hero stacking is becoming detrimental and leading to some not-so-great player experiences,” said Kaplan. “For example, we’ve seen organized teams on Assault and Hybrid maps use hero stacking to overtake the first point before the defense has a chance to counter.

“We’ve also seen players use specific stacked compositions just to frustrate their opponents or cause indefinite delays in overtime among other strategies. While this kind of thing is certainly possible in any mode, the higher stakes of Competitive Play means these kinds of tactics were popping up more often than anyone would like.”

Competitive mode is all that is streamed now (it's rare to find someone who streams quickplay matches), everyone wants those gold weapon skins (plus competitive actually forces people to play as a team which is what a lot of people wanted from the get go). Honestly the gameplay is boring to watch if you're not playing it which is why I skip Matimi0's stream if he's playing Overwatch now, I'd rather watch someone socially eat over watching Overwatch (yea social eating is now a Twitch category, completely retarded if you ask me). I'm really hoping Ana does change up the Meta to make watching matches enjoyable again.

Based on information I gathered from Matt's stream last night one of his viewers were saying that Ana is pretty weak atm. I can't confirm or deny this since, like I said, Matt hasn't been streaming Overwatch but it seems she suffers in the dps department (something about her not getting any damage bonus for headshots making her extremely weak compared to Widowmaker). It seems I was right when I said she'd be the off-healer of the group as her heal isn't that powerful which would make for a bad team comp without another healer. She's pretty much Zenyatta without the massive amount of damage he can do. This is PTR though so I'm sure they'll iron out her deficiencies before she's released on the live servers (if the thing about headshots is true she needs to be buffed in that department, give her half the bonus Widowmaker gets to even it out since she is still a support character).

After steamrolling with D.VA tonight, I can't wait for her buffs. The shield toggle is gonna be amazing along with not dying from you're own ult. This will negate the need to boost and release.  You can actually stay on point and cap. They are huge QoL improvements without increasing her damage and range. 

Finally made it to 25. I'll try some competitive later in the next few days. I can't wait til they implement no hero stacking. Unless a pug team indicates they want to joke around with 6 of the same heroes, I hate when someone picks who I am after I do... especially when I swap off of them and then they do the same. I'll probably play competitive exclusively if I get matched up good. 

I played with a friend last night and we had some epic matches... there was one escort where every check point was overtime for us and we pushed it through for the win. I had an epic flank with Tracer while he aggroed with Winston for the final push. I wish I would have saved it, but I did save an epic Reaper match tonight where I got 2 near full team wipes with his death blossom. What made it feel great was that it was attack on Volskya Industries and my final death blossom cleared them out for the win after a Lucio foolishly tried to 1v1 CQC me to top off my ult meter. What made it even more sweet is that we didn't even let them cap the first point on defense the match prior so they were itching for revenge with a max cheese team comp of Torb, Bastion, Zarya, Lucio, Phara, and Mei. I'll try to upload it sometime this week.

I'm starting to feel like Torb's turrets are less effective now that people know how to take them down. if the tank can grab its attention, someone else can take it out really fast. I've decreased my usage of him becasue of this. There are a few sweet spots that are highly effective. One of them is on Kings Row at the final touch pad. I single handedly kept my team in it for the win by shutting down Reaper's death blossom twice, and Phara once. I'm enjoying Junkrat a lot more now that I ever did. I'm still pretty shit at hitting targets right in front of me, but I am a pro with that L1 bomb. Plus I'm widow's worst nightmare when shes up in a window. I can spam and it only takes 2 AoEs to kill her.

Speaking off shits and giggles 6 hero stacks. I played against a team that tried to be cute using 6 Meis the first round (which failed horribly), and then 6 Reinhardts the following two. They almost beat us if I wouldn't have swapped to bastion and tore up all their shields as they came in. None of them waited on each other so as they staggered in one by one they're shields met their doom.

btw how are your loot box drops? Are you still getting new things all the time or do things start duplicating after a while?

I've gotten one dupe legendary skin in which I was given currency for. Their system is way better than Blops in which I was getting dupes more than 40% of the time. I bought 10 boxes just to see and that is where I got one duplicate. So out of 35 boxes I've received 1 dupe. I have only received 2 legendary skins for Zarya and Junkrat on the flipside of that. I get mostly voice lines, emotes, and sprays. Sprays are the most common since there are a ton of them.

So after playing post patch here are some thoughts on how the game has changed.

Torbjorn is utter garbage now. The nerf was way too harsh. No one picks him anymore because his turrets suck, and so does his primary. The turrets should have had a 15% nerf instead of a 30%, or Torb's main weapon should get a ROF increase and a significant one at that, because he is built to support his turret, and not really to go head to head with anyone.

Ana sucks, and it sucks that everyone wants to play her. Her ROF paired with her low damage makes her just bad. she doesn't heal very much per shot, and the biotic boost doesn't last long enough to really do anything. The sleep dart is the only thing she has going for her. If shes the only healer on your team, or even on your team to begin with, you might as well be 5v6. They should scale her damage vs. tanks or something, because unlike widow, she doesnt get rapid fire up close, its the same bolt action.

D.VA is a f'n monster now. I love this for my favorite tank. Her defense matrix's 10 second cool down is now toggled and recharges off a 1 sec CD. This makes her survivablility skyrocket, when before it was trash compared to other tanks. Her ult is more useful now that you don't die from it and its a second faster. I'm so happy they gave her some love because shes way more competitive now, and people pick her more often. She doesn't have Rienhardt's blocking ability, but you can get up in Phara/McCree/Roadhog's face and absorb all of their ult.

Zenyatta, holy crap hes a beast now. Having 200HP makes a world of difference. 150 of it being shield, it slowly comes back if you get to somewhere safe. They toned down his primary attack slightly, but its hardly noticeable. I think he is in a great spot right now. The discord orb is such a asset vs Winston, Roadhog, and D.Va.

Zarya, while not many changes if any were made to her, Mercy's new 50% buff makes her hell to deal with. She can mow anyone down with that buff, including D.VA through her shield.

Mercy isn't picked as much anymore because of her ult charge increased, but honestly it needed it. It was a little too OP with how fast it came back... her damage buff and mobility makes her a bigger asset than she was before. Hes hard a hell to kill now. I was getting so frustrated trying to kill her the past few days because she could get away so fast. If you didn't have any gap closers, you were going to get her.

Lucio is still the preferred healer because he provides AOE healing and it takes significantly less skill to use him. His mobility was increased by requiring less buttons to deal with while wall riding. I witnessed a cheese defense method where the other team had 2 Lucios and they kept wall riding and jumping on and off the payload from side to side walls contesting it and making it hard to shoot at them.

Here are a few clips I'm proud of.

This won the match, so I'm proud of it.

Holding down the point with D.Va

1 hour ago, DeathscytheX said:

Ana sucks, and it sucks that everyone wants to play her. Her ROF paired with her low damage makes her just bad. she doesn't heal very much per shot, and the biotic boost doesn't last long enough to really do anything. The sleep dart is the only thing she has going for her. If shes the only healer on your team, or even on your team to begin with, you might as well be 5v6. They should scale her damage vs. tanks or something, because unlike widow, she doesnt get rapid fire up close, its the same bolt action.

Hmm, this must be a console thing. She's a freaking beast on PC (go watch some of Matt's videos, he's a fucking machine with her) because her grenade is hard to contend with (healing boost plus a big heal) and her ultimate make anyone she puts it on into a monster (good god the wreckage I've seen XFactor do as Roadhog when Matt alts him, it's amazing). I do understand that it takes a damn good player who understands her to make her this way but I've seen mediocre players wreck with her on PC. It saddens me if she really is this bad on console because I was really looking to get my hands on her when I finally get the game (no matter what she seems to be what I'm looking for in a hero, I love Mercy I really do but I've wanted a healer that plays almost exactly like Ana (though not with the sniper rifle twist)). I think a lot of people also need to understand that shes not a primary healer, she's a support healer made to back up Mercy and Lucio. She was never meant to be the primary healer of the team and I'm wondering if that's not why she seems underwhelming on console. They also need to realize shes not a pure dps class either, she'll never hit as hard as Widowmaker due to her being support. She's meant to harass the enemy with her grenade and to knock off pop shots when she's not healing her allies. Of course I'm basing this all off of what I've seen since I haven't actually gotten the chance to get my hands on her (nor will I until I get the money to buy the game)

1 hour ago, DeathscytheX said:

Zenyatta, holy crap hes a beast now. Having 200HP makes a world of difference. 150 of it being shield, it slowly comes back if you get to somewhere safe. They toned down his primary attack slightly, but its hardly noticeable. I think he is in a great spot right now. The discord orb is such a asset vs Winston, Roadhog, and D.Va.

He definitely got a massive buff even if it might not seem so based on what was actually done. I've seen Matt go completely ham with Zenyatta (I've seen him solo a Reinhardt and a Roadhog at the same time, was glorious). I'm really happy to see that he finally got some recognition for Blizzard because in beta he was just so weak.

1 hour ago, DeathscytheX said:

D.VA is a f'n monster now. I love this for my favorite tank. Her defense matrix's 10 second cool down is now toggled and recharges off a 1 sec CD. This makes her survivablility skyrocket, when before it was trash compared to other tanks. Her ult is more useful now that you don't die from it and its a second faster. I'm so happy they gave her some love because shes way more competitive now, and people pick her more often. She doesn't have Rienhardt's blocking ability, but you can get up in Phara/McCree/Roadhog's face and absorb all of their ult.

I'm happy to see this as well. I've been noticing while watching PC matches that D.Va is probably the number 1 picked tank outside of Roadhog. I loved her in the beta but she was just to difficult to use and it seemed like she was wearing paper armor in her mech compared to Reinhardt and Roadhog.

On the other points nobody really uses Torb on PC so I didn't even know he got a nerf (he wasn't being used well before this update). Mercy did need that Res nerf, she was completely broken in beta considering how fast it took to charge it (she'd still be my first pick if I had to heal, her heal is still the best single target heal). Lucio becoming the main healer isn't a surprise as he's the most mobile healer and in comp mode you need a mobile healer. Plus it's hard to pass up a healer who's ult shields everyone (the best counter ult to quite a few hero ults).

Nice plays by the way (especially that D.Va one).

Torb was probably one of the most popular pics on defense. You'd see him 99% of the time because his turrets were very strong on console. Widowmaker isn't picked very much and the only console counter was Reinhardt's charge or Genji. Bastion isn't as popular anymore because people finally have learned to swap to Genji, Tracer, and depending on the map Reaper to deal with him. Torbs turrets are smaller and can be put in more inconvenient locations for the opposing team while bastion sticks out like a sore thumb.  Torbs turrets were probably one of the best counters to Tracer too... if she was more popular on console he may have not received such a huge nerf. (Yeah, I don't get why Tracer isn't popular, I used her a lot and dominate with her)

Ana is ass on console. Mainly because of some of the points you brought up. Shes not supposed to be a main healer. But if there is no healer, some people will just pick her. Zenyatta isn't suppose to be a main healer either, (even though I found myself in that role today), but his offensive power is a lot stronger and he regens health. On console you rarely see 2 healer team comps. If I want to play Zenyatta, I wait for someone to pick a healer and then I pick him only to hope they don't swap because they think someone else volunteered to be team healer. Chalk it up to the console scene being way more casual. Hell, I get frustrated myself playing Lucio or Zen when people run away out of my AoE/LoS and I cant help them when they are at crit. What also doesn't help is when Ana players biotic boost the wrong person. Don't give it to McCree, hes already strong enough and can only single out targets. Give it to Reinhardt, D.Va, Phara, or someone that can do some serious widespread damage. I've been boosted as Reaper and its pretty nuts while it lasts. What sucks is if you use your ult as D.Va shes doesn't keep the boost outside of the suit.

I'd say right now for console:

McCree and Soldier 76 are the most popular offensive heroes while Phara has lost some popularity, and Tracer isn't popular for some reason, even though shes a monster. That being said, you never see terrible tracer players. Its pretty hard to be terrible with Tracer. Just keep moving and shoot. You're a counter to tanks, your a counter to everyone with very little counters to yourself. Shes actually very OP on console because of controller aiming. I have to swap to Junkrat and throw my bomb and trap in hopes of catching her. I'll also try Winston becasue its easier to hit her with his feather duster. McCree, Hanzo, Widow, Torb, Phara, or any character that requires single shot accuracy? Forget trying to hit Tracer.

Hanzo and Junkrat are the most popular defensive heroes, with Junkrat leading easily. His area denial is just too good on console and Hanzo requires more skill to make hits. If it wasn't for his ult, he probably wouldn't be as popular. Mei, Widow, and Torb are the least popular. I'd put Bastion in the middle, but falling

D.Va is newly the most popular tank, Zarya is the least popular no question. She's a rare pick, and when she is picked, its generally by someone that knows what they are doing. Winston, Roadhog, and Reinhardt are equally picked pretty frequently still.

For support, sadly Ana is too popular because of her newness. Lucio remains the most popular legitimate healer, while Symmetra is the least popular character in the entire game on console. I mean, why is she even a support with her lousy 25 shield buff, no healing, and turrets that were nerfed for no sensible reason? They got the same 30% buff Torb's did. But her turrets are as fragile as glass. Winston can melt them all with his gun easily. I heard she was way too strong in alpha/closed beta, but damn they neutered her. She should be swapped to defense and get some reworks. Her teleported ult is useful on defense, but outside of that shes not fun to play. Turrets suck, her secondary fire is ass, I mean, you have to really blow or get caught completely by surprised to get hit by it. And her primary fire range is terrible.

7 hours ago, DeathscytheX said:

For support, sadly Ana is too popular because of her newness. Lucio remains the most popular legitimate healer, while Symmetra is the least popular character in the entire game on console. I mean, why is she even a support with her lousy 25 shield buff, no healing, and turrets that were nerfed for no sensible reason? They got the same 30% buff Torb's did. But her turrets are as fragile as glass. Winston can melt them all with his gun easily. I heard she was way too strong in alpha/closed beta, but damn they neutered her. She should be swapped to defense and get some reworks. Her teleported ult is useful on defense, but outside of that shes not fun to play. Turrets suck, her secondary fire is ass, I mean, you have to really blow or get caught completely by surprised to get hit by it. And her primary fire range is terrible.

While Symettra's pick rate isn't really that high I've seen her used quite a bit on PC (again another way of showing how different the meta is on console compared to PC). In the right hands she's a monster (especially when buffed by Ana, I don't know why you'd ever buff her but it does turn her into a monster) and if the player knows how to place her turrets correctly they can be devastating. Her main reason for being chosen on PC though is for her Teleporter so you really only see her utilized on certain maps where having it is extremely beneficial to the team and it doesn't take away from the team comp.

Again its sad to hear that nobody on console knows how to use Ana effectively. Her abilities alone make her a great support character but only if you use them correctly and use her as she supposed to be used. Then again, as you said, it seems console players are a lot more casual then PC players (this is far from a bad thing but it also means heroes aren't being used correctly). It just boggles my mind how different one game can be between platforms. Take McCree for instance, he's not a widely picked hero on PC. Sure you'll see a few here and there but since his nerf only those that are extremely good with him will even play him. I've never seen this happen with any other game before and I'm honestly surprised its a Blizzard game doing this. It just goes to show how good they are at making games.

McCree was nerfed, buffed, then nerfed again. I've seen some game ending High Noons, that I've been on the receiving end of. Maps that have high spots on the final checkpoint work well for him becuase hes such a sitting duck normally. His ability to instakill other 200HP heroes makes him popular, and he has made Phara less popular since he can snipe her out of the sky with 1-2 shots depending on the range.

Players are probably Ana's biggest issue. when someone picks her on control, I cringe just like if someone picks widow. They'll never try to contest the point, they just sit back and try to be a pro sniper. Its like someone picking bastion or torb on attack. If you're pushing forward, there is no reason to pick these characters.

Blizzard has really done great with the constant balances. When things get nerfed too hard they tend to fix them eventually. McCree is still a work in progress, and I'm sure Torb will get buffed again. Right now I play D.Va, Junkrat, 76, Tracer, and Zenyatta the majority of the time. I'll throw in a Reaper, Lucio, and Wintston every once in a while.

I love me some Junkrat. Now that I got a better handle on his bomb bounce, and his mine jump, He's my go to on defense. He's one of those, easy to play, but a little bit more to master type characters. The utter chaos he brings to the table suits his character though. We lost this match in the end because of the D.Va nuke, but it was almost a good comback.

I cut this next one down because there were a lot of dull moments. I got 41 eliminations the whole match. The other team wasn't very good, and I basically was cheesing it tossing bombs through doors and cracks, racking up elims... you'll see some of that going on in the video still XD. Near the start no one is paying attention to what I was doing. I'm especially proud of my double shutdown of Reaper and Genji at the end. Thats one thing Junk is great for. When people save up their ults for the final push, you can really disrupt their chances at mutli-kills.

This last one is a competitive match on Volskaya. We managed to cap both points on our attack run, and this was the end of our defense. I didn't edit it because I'm lazy, so youll have to deal with my deaths and respawns. I got 30 eliminations with Winston and I knocked 76 and Mercy off the map near the end, netting me PoTM... and Reinhardt gets more votes than me.. wtf? People in competitive are super salty, hardly anyone votes like in quick play. Wintson is under appreciated on Console, he can absolutely melt 200HP characters at close range, and you can shut down people's ult's with that bubble shield. I encased Reaper and D.Va in this video doing their ult, and I blocked 76 a few times with help from our Mei.

EDIT: big shout out to the Mercy player that kept my ass alive.

That was some great junkrat footage. That Winston ultimate straight up launches people. Thats hilarious. Do you get lucky and throw people off ledges with it often?

I saw this the other day:

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The beauty of the Xim4 USB hub is that it lets you destroy shit-talking tweens as God intended: with a keyboard and mouse.

That’s not something console game designers are crazy about. Currently, both major consoles can accept keyboard and mouse input, but the designers of games like Destiny and Overwatch have purposely deactivated those inputs to keep precision mouse fraggers from having a significant advantage over their clumsy thumbed controller brethren. I’m one of those clumsy-thumbed sons of bitches. So after getting repeatedly boned one weekend in Overwatch, I started reading up on ways to up my game. Reddit was full of people swearing by the Xim4 or claiming console pros swear by it.

“Every top ranked PS4 user uses it,” one redditor insisted.

I couldn’t confirm that claim, but I thought trying the Xim4 out was a nice alternative. Maybe it would improve my game and give me an edge that would take me from completely ordinary to slightly above average. The Xim4 uses witchcraft and technological wizardy to get around the blocks put in place by game manufacturers and makes Overwatch (or other FPS) on the PS4 virtually identical to Overwatch (or other FPS) on the PC.

....

But man, I felt like some sort of golden god while playing. I’ve never used hacks in a multiplayer game before, but I suddenly understood the appeal. So many more of my shots were hitting just right. Quick reflex-focused playstyles that are virtually impossible to do on a controller were at my command, and even though I was terrible at those playstyles, I was still better than the other guy. Which is all that matters.

http://gizmodo.com/this-usb-hub-gives-your-ps4-and-xbox-superpowers-1784772207

I hate when people cheat. Hopefully a future ps4 update will allow it to detect this and block it. And this guy is actively enjoying his cheating. Even if Sony doesn't block this device, it shouldn't be difficult for Blizzard to detect mouse and keyboard accuracy. If Blizzard sees it has abusing the system they won't hesitate to ban everyone using one of these.

Believe it or not, Winston is the worst character to use if you want to knock someone off the edge. He can only do it in his ult from, while Junkrat, Phara, Lucio, D.Va, Reinhardt and Roadhog have standard abilities to do the trick. That being said, there are some maps, depending on the control point that is up, you can really go ham and knock a bunch of people off the map at once with Primal Rage.

The mouse and keyboard would only benefit a few characters. Widow, Genji, and McCree would be the top contenders. It def gives people an advantage, but how much of an advantage isn't as big as it would be on COD, Destiny, and Battlefield. The character diversity of Overwatch and how much counter there is to projectiles makes it less noticeable. I would accuse someone of using it last night because everytime I knocked him out of D.Va's mech, he'd jump up and down to make him hard to hit while he had perfect aim on me. A practice that is widely used on PC. Anyone I see jumping around and shooting (with a character that needs to make precise shots) I'm suspicious of. You simply can't aim effectively like that with a controller. Side to side is more likely. It something I've done since COD4.

Ana is another that would benefit from a mouse and keyboard, what little console gameplay I've seen of her is rather blah compared to PC play of her (then again console players don't seem to understand how to play her so that could be the major reason). Genji and Widow would be the two that would benefit the most from using this kind of set up on console as both are rather difficult to play with a controller (I was pretty good with Genji in the beta but I'll admit he's a bitch to use with a controller). McCree isn't really that hard to master with a controller but it does require you to get used to playing at higher sensitivity settings (imo at least, at my normal settings it's hard to play him effectively).

I wouldn't go so far as to consider what they're doing cheating and more just exploiting an already in place set of mechanics/controls (though that exploiting is using a third party system to do so). It's really no different then using those 3rd party controller from the old days (you know with their Turbo buttons and what not). I'd still be infuriated as all hell to run against someone doing this though as it takes the fun out of the game for those you're playing against. Then again gamers are some of the most self-important and egotistical sub-group around. You know Blizzard will find a way to patch out the functionality or Sony/Microsoft will do it themselves.

Yeah, with characters that have AoE damage, shields, self heals, and temp invulnerability, They still have a good advantage, but its mostly against small hit box characters. The advantage is there, but like I said, its not as huge as it would be in another FPS where everyone's hitbox and HP is the same. Blizz will patch it, and if they can't they'll have that company handover its code, because they don't have the legal power or money to face a lawsuit. From what I've seen, Blizzard has taken exploits and cheating more serious than any FPS ever. It's really helped me get even more into this game. The dedication they've put into this game should set and example for everyone else with FPS series out on the market.

I played all my placement matches, and I got ranked at 50. I went 5-5. Twice someone left in the middle of the match when we were winning and one of those were a loss... I dont understand why you'd leave. And the game gives you a minute to rejoin (though that should be extended to 2-3min IMO) Its the end of the season so I might just stick at 50 and take the points I get and try next season. I enjoyed competitive play a lot more, people played more seriously. It was nice not to have two snipers on my team, ever... I did rely on Junkrat too heavily though. I need to branch out. When my team starts sucking it up and can't push, I tend to panic swap.... but here is a nice 11 kill run.

A friend got me to play competitive matches tonight even though I was hesitant to drop below 50. Of course we lost the first match and I dropped to 49 immediately. We play about 4-5 matches, in which I got up to 52. I'm not quite sure how the rank system works. I know I lost or gained a whole level every time I played a match. I'm assuming you lose a lot if you lose lopsidedly and vice-versa. Each match went to sudden death... so 4-5 competitive matches are like 10-15 quick play matches. It's def time consuming, heart wrenching, and adrenaline pumping.

Once the next season starts, I'll probably play this a lot more than quick play. The only thing is, you're drawn to play with your best characters. The meta is real. Junkrat, D.Va, Zenyatta, 76, Genji/Hanzo, Lucio, (optional), seem to be the common make up. I stuck with Junk, D.Va, Zen, and Winston. No Torb, No Bastion, or any snipers were to be found on console competitive. A lot more double healer, and double/triple tank set ups depending on the game mode.

Sudden death flips a virtual coin and depending on the game mode, you get screwed on one side.

Escort, the advantage goes to to the attackers. You only have to make one check point, which is generally the second checkpoint. If you're team is attacking first and you don't make it to the end, it's even worse. The other team gets their final check point moved to where they stopped you the previous round, shortening their distance goal.

Hybrid and Assault, advantage goes to defenders. You only get 1:30 to cap the point. Going heave on defense and tanks make's it pretty easy to keep people out and you don't have hardly any time to build up an ult. Assault is the most intense because you can play 4 rounds where both teams cap both points forcing the sudden death. Only capping one or no point is devastating.

Control is probably the most balanced. Its best of 5. You can play a total of 4 rounds in which can lead to a 2-2 tie forcing a 5th round.

The skill level is a lot higher because everyone is sticking with what they are best with. Quick play is a lot more appreciated for taking a break now. I've seen a lot of clutch Mercy plays tonight saving my team from certain disaster.