Overwatch

Cybsled

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
17,060
13,572
Haven't heard that. Her ability to support carries makes her pretty damn valuable IMO, regardless as to her energy charge nerf a patch or so ago. A rampaging genji ult or pharah ult where you can't insta-CC them or headshot them to interrupt ult is scary.
 

ex-genj

Golden Squire
638
115
I think the "if you lose its your fault" idea has a ton of merit but to be honest if you main support there's only so much you can do with reinhardts who charge into Anubis A etc. Which is why I don't main support any more - I'll play it if I have to but you'll make much more of a impact as a good tank or DPS.

I've been playing a lot of Zarya lately and no one asks me to switch. She wrecks at low SR at least as people feed her a ton. Just need 2 healers for sure which doesn't always happen down here.
 

Deruvian

Lord Nagafen Raider
659
123
My biggest problem with playing support is that they can't do anything to control positioning. Soldier 76 decides he's on a solo flank mission or can't stay behind the shield? Rein Anubis A charge mentioned above? You almost always end up with 5v6 because of this stuff. Supports on the other hand, even if they're pretty bad, tend to just follow the pack. If you play one of the 4 slots that can control positioning, you put the team in a much better place to not die.

I've started to record my games using the NVidia Experience Alt Z hotkey. It can be really interesting to see exactly what decisions led to a death. In one case, I missed my healer getting picked by a McCree right as the engage started. In another case, my flank had a 2v2 going on that collapsed and they started firing on us. (Edit - Note that Alt Z is a hotkey that is native to Overwatch and will make your UI disappear. Unbind this before using!)

I did see a fantastic one last night on Lijiang tower, control center. Two tanks and one DPS go up the stairs left to flank, the two supports following go right, directly to the point. I'm the last DPS thinking... do I go with the group of 3 with no supports or the 2 supports with no cover?
 

Louis

Trakanon Raider
2,836
1,105
So that's what makes the UI disappear. Girlfriend was playing the other night and I realized the UI was gone (she didn't). I was like " YOU BROKE IT!"
 

Amzin

Lord Nagafen Raider
2,917
361
The "always focus on your own play" is my thing because it's just the only thing that makes sense. You can't blame randoms for your problems when there's always MORE randoms on the enemy team. The only consistent factor is you, and you have no idea how you appear to be playing to other people on your team. We've all had games where I'm sure we thought we were doing great but the enemy team was happy we were doing X instead of Y. It's not even about always doing what's best for the team or being a super-practiced one-trick-pony, it's a bout a balance of factors and seriously not giving a shit about what your team COULD be doing. Years of DOTA, DOTA2, LOL, and now OW and... god knows what else, has pretty much proven that trying to call someone out or complaining about someone will always, always lead to a worse result than just going with it. And if your mentality is such that yelling at someone makes you feel better, you are definitely part of the problem :p
 

gauze

Molten Core Raider
1,092
373
to be honest if you main support there's only so much you can do with reinhardts who charge into Anubis A etc. Which is why I don't main support any more - I'll play it if I have to but you'll make much more of a impact as a good tank or DPS.

Very true concern, but that's where diplomacy and tact become more involved. It's really hard to hold all these abilities that assist others by being quiet. At the same time some people are just stuck sounding like an ass hole. My friend is an example of that, he is nice as fuck never talks shit, but when he tells someone to do something or try something different.. He automatically sounds condescending.

Being vocal, and commanding in a sense can play big dividends.. Or even making crucial communication combos, like letting that rein know.. If the rein is unwilling to communicate your team to go with the rein, it's still generally better to wipe as a group than to stagger anyways. Sometimes though as stupid as that rein charge was; you as support and people following could turn the tides of a fight.

A good example I was playing in sometime season 1, mid high 70s, and we had a rein even on defense, charge on cd. It was comical at first, but it was like laughing at a burning ship as we were getting stomped. He wasn't in coms, yet everyone was yelling and just all around panic. Happened on attack like one or two times then someone said fuck it, let's all go in... Sure enough we all went in and just stomped a push really fast. Fast forward to us back on defense, he's doing it still but this time the chat is filled with gogo and laughter instead of the original panic and anger. We had a pubstar hold on the trains outside of Spawn on r66. We didn't even have to move the payload to win it was so bad.

I know it's minut, but the whole point is to pick yourself apart and learn from yourself. It's better than putting your weigh of blame because of shit teammates I'm here ect. The no excuses! Even people like supports can make big plays, or game changing plays; but at the same time, in the same essence, most times shot callers on pro teams are the supports or tanks. Take Internet hulk for example, started as a dps then stepped to a tank; always the shot caller.

League has a similar thing with shot callers and in certain positions. Take c9 Hai, a great shot caller, but a lot suffered riding on the back of a mid carry that effected outcomes by scenarios.
 

ex-genj

Golden Squire
638
115
I was a raid leader in a cutting edge guild in vanilla wow so yeah the concepts behind understanding how to help people win at these games are definitely interesting. Usually I'll try to blame the other team to get people to do stuff like "Man that Pharah is destroying us, Junk can you switch and take her out?" and that'll typically be fine. I just solo queue so don't try too hard to make people do what I want, I do enough of that in real life I play these games to relax.

Whats interesting about this game is that almost doesn't feel like a game, it feels like a puzzle to be solved. The pieces are humans who while they have their own ideas they all want to win too. Everytime I play I think "did I make the right choices here", from character selection, to what I say in chat, to what I do with my ult, etc, which is something I don't get from other games. But IDK this is my first multiplayer FPS so maybe its not that unique.
 

lost

<Bronze Donator>
3,227
3,494
Lately I go support at first and if the DPS cant cut it and we lose 1st attack or 1st defense, I swap to dps for the next round and proceed to watch the other team cry "we have trolls on our team its not fair"

Sounds like a joke but it happens. Did have a soldier 2 nights ago who straight up said yeah I cant aim I suck at shooting pharah, but kept playing soldier. I ended up going mcree and we won, one healer. lol

But yeah just seems to me if you dont win the first round then dps needs to be swapped out, change it up. Sometimes I swap to dps then Im like how did we lose the first round?? this reinhardt is overextending, punish him. This ana is too offensive, punish him.
 

gauze

Molten Core Raider
1,092
373
Sometimes it really is just the direction, and if you provide it/people follow it.. It's outstanding what becomes accomplished. Like the difference between me and a zen vs me and a zen who calls discord is crazy; the ability to focus in a moments notice. Though that's more defined and honed; can't exactly be expected, but shot calling a target can still be beneficial.

As a supp main, I'll presume your Ana, but it's one of the biggest things that makes me want to push my head through a door.. Even happens at my rank, but people auto assume that 76 can take a pharah out of the sky. If she's not dying, it's 100%. The best things against pharah, and why she can't be relatively competent in the meta, isn't 76, but Ana. 76 is a nuance, don't get me wrong, and all accounts can deal with a pharah quite well, but Ana is devastating. 3 shot ko, even two shot or one can take 76 or McCree that much less of a time dealing with the Pharah.

Not saying you're doing anything wrong, just a misconception that bugs the hell out of me. I can take an Ana and kill her way faster than a 76 can any day of the week.. Unless you're an absolute God with helixs, but I don't even think pros can consistently do it.
 

BoozeCube

The Wokest
<Prior Amod>
51,085
299,142
You guys are bringing up decent points and most people try to learn and get better while attempting to figure out what they did wrong. However, there is clearly an issue with the matchmaking since people are fluctuating over 1000 points up or down just reading from the forums here. Also there is an issue of smurf accounts and other shit that throws this game off. Also when you are playing QP they just don't use the ranking metric, you can throw me up against NBA players and when they dominate my ass you can turn to me and say "git gud" but that's only going to cause people to never return. My statement was I wish the games were more balanced and I was playing people with my skill level, but if I am playing a game at 2400 and some deranked 3500 genji is just slaughtering the team or some guy is abusing his gold level friend to cheese the matchmaker and wiping the team it isn't exactly an enjoyable experience.
 

Cad

scientia potentia est
<Bronze Donator>
25,336
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Soooo ... it would even out?

In the larger sense yes but if you only see them in the games where they are slaughtering everyone, it's not like them tanking someone else's game helps you.
 

Xevy

Log Wizard
8,864
4,085
Soooo ... it would even out?


OBVIOUSLY Bisi has never done steroids. You gotta cycle em, bro! On and off! Climb and fall!

Also most of the 3500's that are in low diamond or high plat are really bad. Maybe they're just tanking more, but generally they placed really high S1 and then didn't do S2 or something so their placements put them way higher than they should be.
 

Louis

Trakanon Raider
2,836
1,105
Wouldn't smurfs just keep climbing til it's no longer an issue?
If they are not tanking games then yes. Brother was around 2500 Monday playing with me and is now around 3900 this morning on his smurf and getting paired with moon. Didn't take long at all.
 

Heian

Molten Core Raider
745
584
My 7 years old daughter play on PS4. She was rank 58 in S1, 2200 in S2, and she had people leaving match in her S3 placement and was rank 900...

She asked me to help her. Went from rank 900 to 2100 in about 33 matches.

I finished my placement for S3 yesterday... I was rank 2300 in S2. I went, draw, lose, 8 wins in a row and I was ranked around 2400. I was scared I would rank super low like daughter did.
 

gauze

Molten Core Raider
1,092
373
You guys are bringing up decent points and most people try to learn and get better while attempting to figure out what they did wrong. However, there is clearly an issue with the matchmaking since people are fluctuating over 1000 points up or down just reading from the forums here. Also there is an issue of smurf accounts and other shit that throws this game off. Also when you are playing QP they just don't use the ranking metric, you can throw me up against NBA players and when they dominate my ass you can turn to me and say "git gud" but that's only going to cause people to never return. My statement was I wish the games were more balanced and I was playing people with my skill level, but if I am playing a game at 2400 and some deranked 3500 genji is just slaughtering the team or some guy is abusing his gold level friend to cheese the matchmaker and wiping the team it isn't exactly an enjoyable experience.

I wouldn't nec say a problem. Like someone else said, too lazy to quote, even at high elo there are some retards that make absolutely no sense. If I went and made a smurf, I could give you a proper review on the climb.. but for the most part.. even the impossible is possible. It's just one man in a game 6v6 format. Sure he can carry, but this isn't DoTA, or even CSGO/League where he gains a specific momentum based off a lead. Hes simply making faster calls and decisions, finding the injured in your team and isolating it with higher precision... but its not hard to work that, albiet it'll need a lot more coordination. It's not an unstoppable force by any means. I'm not trying to sound like a dick, so I do apologize, but its like trying to ask for safe spaces in a ladder system. I believe if they'd take behaviour into account for ranking/matching, I strongly believe games will become far more enjoyable from both a competitive stance, and a cooperative stance. I also think it'd be weird if they'd try to create some sort of strenuous balance system for QP, I mean honestly out of 20 million playerbase, I don't think you'd get 9/10 games where you're getting stomped by the elite.

As far as Smurfs, its basically a get over it, you're stuck with it. Receiving that extra cash is too good to care from a business perspective, and for them to tank is still a relative challenge. As far as i've seen, peaking at that rank 1 type position is actually extremely difficult. Despite being one player, you still have 5 others who can lift you up.. or obviously take you down but w/e. I constantly explain this ideal to my friend about his spew of how some of the top500 players are actually up there.. but its quite the challenge, esp in a low percentage population, to contentiously lose every game. I forget how qtpie said it, but it was something along the lines its statistically impossible to lose every single game.

Being on a dad schedule though, I can't relate at all and can see the frustrations. I can only imagine the dread when you can log in a game or two every so often, you want that to be a pleasurable experience(hoping that pleasurable isn't purely just a win) and you get stuck in just an all around shitty game. But to be honest, there is no real way to metric a truly even game, but I honestly think it is something Blizzard is goaling toward but its never gonna be pitch perfect accurate.