For this post we’ll be covering our tips for how to get better at playing Overwatch for 2018.
So if you’re playing Overwatch, today’s blog post will definitely be a boon as we’re running and gunning some good strategies to help you get good at Overwatch.
Note: Strategies in Overwatch will always revolve around the characters themselves, because that’s the point – balancing your gameplay and maximizing the unique skills of each one.
Using a single character for a long, long time isn’t recommended anyway, so our tips are going to jump from one character to the other, in order to give you a good feel of the Overwatch character landscape. Ready? Fire!
- HIGH OFFENSE/POOR HEALTH – Characters from the Offense class are the brutes of the game – they deal plenty of damage of damage up close and from afar, but that comes at a hefty price.
They have poor health and can easily be picked off or disabled by other characters with high damage.
Using offense class characters means you have to watch your backside more often and advanced maneuvering will definitely prolong your life.
Frontal assaults with offense class characters taking the lead will almost always result in unnecessary fatalities. Don’t fall for this beginner’s mistake!
- BEEFY DOOMFIST – Doomfist is the ultimate frontal assault machine in Overwatch. His attacks are designed to weaken clusters and destroy opponents face to face. His hand cannon is best used up close and personal; however, it does run out fairly quickly.
The Seismic Slam on the other hand, is used to disorient other players while knocking down their health significantly.
Doomfist’s killing move, the Meteor Strike, is best used for clusters of opponents, with the crosshairs aimed at the most vulnerable, high damage character. The assault will greatly deplete the high damage character while dealing significant splash damage to support.
- SHIELDS UP, ZARYA! – Zarya can take a lot of damage, obviously. And it has nothing to do with this character’s health. What makes Zarya a great choice for breaching the first wall of defense is the fact that Zarya has a lot of shield power. Drive through the offense with Zarya in front and let those shots bounce off.
Afterward the second line (health and armor) can absorb the rest of the damage. It’s common sense to use the shield function more strategically because it does recharge over a period of time, like ammo.
However, health and armor will not recharge unless you use health packs. Another secret: Zarya’s armor is assigned 200 HP by the game itself. However, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to die if you get blasted by an attack with a higher HP.
So if you’re going up against an explosion that is about 300 HP, your armor and health will remain the same after the explosion before the shield disappears. This is a tasty exploit that everyone should remember when going up against opponents with raw blasting power.
- HEAR THEM OUT. – Sight is your best friend when playing Overwatch, right? Wrong. The game environment is actually tweaked to make sure that you hear your opponents first and more loudly than your teammates.
So if you hear a lot of clunking footsteps nearby, chances are you aren’t hearing your teammates. And if you hear non-English banter, you’re in trouble. So wear your headphones, orient your character well and plan ahead. No one likes being taken by surprise!
- SAY NO TO BULLET MODESTY – Games like Halflife 2 (bless its Valve-y soul) taught us that bullets are a gold resource, one that shouldn’t be wasted unless you’re modding or using cheat codes or a command prompt (or all of the above).
However, you should have none of these things when you’re playing Overwatch. Why? Because Overwatch DOESN’T depend on picking up Ammo. Overwatch is not Half Life 2, Quake Multiplayer (retro!) or Counterstrike. It is Overwatch.
And Overwatch’s universe says: let everyone eat bullets. Ammo regenerates over time. Don’t be modest with firing. Fire at anything and everything that moves that you think is the enemy. This is a good practice when dealing with characters with shields.
Remember: you need to down the shield before piercing the armor and that should go down significantly before you can take a bite out of someone oh-so-finite health bar. FIRE WITH GUSTO.
- BRINGING DOWN BASTION – This maniacal killing machine is by far the biggest problem of newbie players. But as with everything in the game, he’s not invincible at all. You just have to change your perspective.
What perspective are we talking about? Well, if you’re like me, I grew up with shooters like Doom 2 and Quake. This was in the late nineties and even in the mid-2000s I still enjoyed these DOS games.
The problem with the old shooter games is that they taught everyone to go for the body shots, which means running headlong into someone’s crosshairs (from the front). Obviously if you do that in a game like Overwatch, against an enemy in turret mode you’re going to be sliced in half pretty quickly. Stop doing this.
The trick to disabling a character like Bastion is to watch where his shield ends. Yes, that shield has a limit – boundaries. The next time you see Bastion, pick him off from the safety of a wall corner.
Watch the edge of his shield and try to plant lead from the sides. When the shield goes down, you may need some support to bring him down completely – but at least, you didn’t expire trying to kill him!
- GO DEFLECTION-CRAZY – We consider Genji one of the most badass and strategic characters in Overwatch. Why? Because this dude can deflect almost anything? And deflection by itself doesn’t just preserve shield, armor and health, it also causes an equivalent damage to the enemy when done correctly!
There is but one thing you need to master when using Genji’s ability and that’s timing. Deflection is a timed ability, something that you need to perform within a fixed timeframe. So your reaction ability will be put to the test severely.
Say for example you’re going up against Soldier 76. This brute uses tracking headshots that will chase you around the vicinity like crazy. Without deflection you need to seek cover or pray hard that your head’s going to be intact before those missiles hit. Not with Genji.
Genji can send those tracking headshots back to Soldier 76 with ease, as long as the ability is activated on time and the missiled are picked off accurately. Using this ability against Bastion’s crazy turret shots is also a no-brainer, but don’t let this stop you from experimenting with other opponents. Oh and one final tip: Soldier 76 drops healing projectiles. Grab them!
- SYNCHRONIZE FOR ULTIMATES – Ultimates are obviously the most important type of attack in the game, because they deal the most damage. The common problem that we see with how people use ultimates is either the timing is off or they don’t combine ultimates to create the best impact on the battle field.
When you’re dealing with rugged characters, ultimates are best combined by two or more characters. So the solution to this problem is synchronization. To do this, simply check the tick marks of your teammates and try to ascertain how many are ready to render their ultimates.
If you have a good number of characters that are just about ready, message them and inform them that you’re about to use yours. By not using ultimates at the wrong time during a mission, you’re going to get much better results.
- USE BETTER HARDWARE – Your controller is the lifeline to your game. We’re going to recommend three controllers for three consoles so you’re covered whatever platform you’re on. If you’re using a PC, use the Razer Naga Hex V2 as it has seven programmable buttons that are placed away from the index finger so there are no misclicks.
It also has this nice, ergonomic contour that won’t strain your hand during extended play. This gaming mouse’s built-in lighting can also be customized to whatever color you want.
If you are playing on Xbox One, you definitely need the “Soft Touch Blue” Xbox One ELITE Rapid Fire Custom Modded Controller.This modded controller will not be detected by the Xbox network (no frills, no technical issues) and comes with a 1-year guarantee so you won’t worry about throwing your cash on something that won’t work on your Xbox One.
The “Soft Touch Blue” will increase your power and speed in all shooting games including COD Infinite Warfare and Black Ops 3. And finally, if you’re on the PS4 network, our best pick would be the Blue Splatter PS4 Modded Rapid Fire Controller.
Like the “Soft Touch Blue,” the Blue Splatter is undetectable on the PS4 network, you will not be penalized or banned and the chip that takes care of the new configurations has a one-year warranty as well.
The manufacturer only uses brand new PS4 controllers for modding purposes. Use the Blue Splatter if you want the fastest “quick scope,” firing and reload, ever.
- DEALING WITH THE REAPER – Reaper is one of those characters that are not only annoying but scary as hell because of their ghosting ability. The Reaper when in ghost mode is invulnerable and this makes things a lot messier if it’s going to go into ghost mode in front of a hapless team to unleash an ultimate attack.
But never fear. Like Bastion, the Reaper also has a big defect that you can use to your advantage. When you finally see a Reaper that’s going to land an ultimate, have all your teammates fire like crazy at it.
The ghosting ability switches off before an ultimate is commenced so you have a clear shot of the Reaper in vulnerable form and up close, too! Again, timing is of the essence.
- HOOKING PHARAH – Pharah is a problematic opponent because she’s almost always airborne. And when she’s up in the sky, she can just pick off characters on the ground that can’t fire at her accurately. The solution here is to use Roadhog to bring her closer to the ground.
Activate the hook, snag Pharah and reel her in. When you reel her in make sure you’re ready to spray to make a quick job of her. Solution number two would be to use McCree’s long range ballistic abilities to pick her out of the sky or at least deal enough damage so she doesn’t come near anymore.
But your best bet will still be Roadhog’s hook as we don’t want any threat hovering anywhere near us during a mission. Snag her and fry Pharah!
- PHARAH VS. ROADHOG – The only character that can deal with Roadhog’s long range hooking combo is Pharah. But you have to be careful.
Roadhog is slow but his hook is pretty accurate. Circle around Roadhog and fire until his shield’s down. Don’t let Roadhog snag you as you won’t be able to survive a combo if you’re already low on health.
The only character that can survive a direct combo would be the Reaper, but this is only if Roadhog doesn’t tail the Reaper after a failed combo.
Your best bet is to distance yourself, outsmart the slow-moving Roadhog and bring him down without being exposed to his combo even once.
Final Thoughts
It’s not every day that we see a remarkably well-crafted and balanced shooter come out of the woodwork – but then again, Overwatch is by Blizzard, the legendary dev that’s been pumping out great games since the nineties.
We expected no less from Blizzard after they’ve mastered the Diablo franchise and nailed the perfect balance between online interaction and old school gameplay.
Overwatch has definitely caught on in recent months, spawning its own devoted online community of global players, cosplay events and yes – fan fiction.
It’s always a good sign when a subculture is growing around a game; that means the game itself isn’t being worn out and people are finding more and more ways to make the gameplay experience more interesting.
