Overwatch: Zarya Value Guide

Zarya is a particularly powerful tank in Overwatch. I think there are a few ways to play her and you can get pretty creative with her. Zarya is somewhere between a support, a tank, and a DPS hero. She is a very dexterous hero and should not be underestimated when thinking about adding her to your team.

The reason Zarya is such a powerful tool for this is her bubble shields. Zarya can place a shield on herself and one ally as they charge into battle and this will allow you to get in the thick of it with almost no risk for a few seconds. A few seconds does not sound like a lot, but a few seconds can start and end a fight.

Zarya needs to take damage in order to do more damage, so you want to put the shield up sometimes even after being shot at. Sometimes the shield can go up preemptively but with the fairly long cooldown you need to be wise about the placement. You should be fairly certain you are about to be shot, or even have received a small amount of damage before placing her bubble shields. It also helps a lot to not be the only tank on the field. If you have another tank to propel into a fight with the shield, even off-tanks like Roadhog or D Va, it can really help build that charge quickly.

Briefly stated above, her weapon charges with every bit of damage you take while shielding yourself and an opponent. A number will show up in the middle of your screen and it will go down as the battle continues. Therefore, it is extra important you are in the heart of a battle when charging your weapon. The higher the number is in the middle of your screen, the more damage you do so you do not want to waste it by charging off of some tiny stray poke damage and not have your shield when it is needed.

Zarya also has one of the best synergy Ultimates in the game. It pairs well with nearly every other ultimate because of its amazing crowd control. Watch the enemy group up, toss it in, and wait for D Va, Soldier, Tracer, Genji, McCree, Junkrat, Pharah, or probably a few other heroes I can't think of to clean up. Good communication and synergy is important in order to use it, but it's also the kind of Ult that can synergize the team for you because most players understand what it used for.

Back to the actual value you get from having a Zarya on your team. With Zarya, you have a peel, a shield for Zarya and one ally, a body block, good self-sustain because half of her health regens, great DPS with proper bubbles, and one of the best crowd control Ultimates in the game. She can be the glue that holds the whole team together. The synergy and uses she brings to the table can't be underestimated.

Overwatch: Ways to Step Up Your Game

I just had a few thoughts I wanted to share on how Overwatch functions and what is the optimal way to play the game. This is based on really low level play and I'm using high level advice as well as my own low level experience and observations on games that go well.

"Skill" is not that Important
Accuracy and traditional FPS skill is important but it's not as important as a lot of people might think. There are far more important factors that go into winning a match than accuracy. Besides that, there are many great characters that do their most important functions with very little aiming such as Lucio, Winston, Zenyatta, and Reinhardt.

Organization is Key
This is a really important concept that I am shocked at how many players do not understand. It does not matter how the team is organized, but most of the time the more organized team will win. This can be either intentional or unintentional.
Just communicate with your team. It's OK to want to go absolutely blitzkrieg-aggressive, just let your team know to go blitzkrieg-aggressive too and do it TOGETHER. 

What often happens is one team gets on the point and survives together, with little to no communication, and they win. This is usually unintentional organization but if you are a beginner like me, you will have these games. What is important to recognize is the team that won had 6 people fighting 1-4 people at a time. Maybe. The team that lost is often staggering their respawns and just feeding the other teams Ult charges. That's it. You have no chance in this game in a 1-4 vs 6 unless you have a pretty good Ult strategy. Just organize and go in together as 6 vs 6.

Know Your Character's Value
This can be creative, but take at least a little time to figure out what your character is supposed to do. This means that when you're playing Ana, you can do damage...but you are mainly a healer. Focus on that. When you're Winston, know that you will do the most help for a team chasing down the healers. There are a hundred guides on these and I might focus on in the future but take some time to learn or ask.

You can get creative and step outside your main value when necessary but you need to focus on your main value FIRST.

That's all for today. I might do a value guide for characters as soon as I come up with a format.

Overwatch: Capture the Flag First Impressions

Capture the Flag was just introduced as an event mode within Overwatch today. I think it's a lot of fun, but there are some things that I have learned from the first few games of it.

1.Teamwork is Still Necessary

I think this goes without saying, but teamwork and communication is still necessary. Most teams are going to be smart enough to not allow Tracer in to just snag the flag and walk out. Plus, it is necessary to stay on the flag for a few seconds before you have it and that doesn't allow for a quick snag and escape. It is still necessary for you to go in with either all or part of your team.

2.Meta

There will definitely be a meta to this mode and I believe it will be mostly the mobile and movement boosted characters. For example, Ana just does not have the speed or mobility to perform well in this mode. Lucio and Mercy will probably be the favorite healers in this mode. Winston, Tracer, Genii, Pharah, Mei, Symmetra, Torbjorn, D. Va and Soldier will probably be the other strong picks. Symmetra and Torbjorn, in particular, because of their strong passive defense.

Those are my absolute first impressions of the mode. It's a lot of fun and adds a bunch of new ideas into an increasingly fascinating game.

Overwatch Support Tips

I have been playing Overwatch for the most part lately, besides a little bit of Street Fighter and I am still loving it. It's a really exciting mix of MOBA and FPS that feels fantastic. The great thing about it is that being good at FPS is good, but not key. The important thing is to do your job. I have been playing mainly support characters and I have a few beginners tips for them.

1. Supports are for Healing

Your main focus as a support role is to heal. DPS is second. You can absolutely get kills and do good damage to the enemy team, but first and foremost you should try and stay alive so that the rest of your team also stays alive. This includes Ana. She does good damage and can do some really good offensive things but she is the best healer in the game and should focus on that.

2.Try to Have Two Healers

I think having two healers CAN be more far more important than having two of any of the other classes. If you are constantly healed, you won't die. Not dying is really important in this game. The other reason is that having two healers will cover the weaknesses of the healers. Lucio is an AOE (area of effect) healer, but heals slowly. Plus, his speed boost can be really important. It is usually not a great idea to have him solo healing. Ana is the best healer and probably will continue to be so even after a patch, but she has to pay attention to all your heroes positions to properly heal them. Lucio and Ana offer great synergy. Other combinations can be equally strong, or at least better than none.

3. Lucio's Speed Boost is Really Useful

It's really good for engagements and this deserves it's own section. It's seriously great for the added mobility, chasing down targets, and just adds an extra layer to your teams offense. It's super important. Turn speed boost on when moving into position, such as engaging with a defensive position of the enemy. Once in position, switch to healing to keep your team alive.

That's about all I have for today but I'll be updating this as I come up with new tips to help your game.

Overwatch: 3 Beginners Tips from a Beginner

These are a few things that I've discovered win me more games than losses. Remember, I am a true beginner. I've had the game for a week. My rank is mid-Gold and I have never played FPS games of any type before this one.

1. Communicate

This is a team game. Often times, I've noticed, even the slightly more organized team wins the match. It's definitely not always the "more talented" team, although 50% accuracy head shots don't hurt. Organizing your team together pushing, diving, and retreating as a unit through communication can really make a game. Plus, it's more fun that way. Utilize the mic function or, at the very least, use the speak commands your character has built into it.

2. Have Support Characters

Healing is very strong in this game. Saving your teammates lives will just make you outlast the teams that don't have dedicated healers in quick-play. If a competitive team doesn't have a healer, something has gone very awry and they do not understand how to play the game. The buffing and debuffing powers of the support characters can help focus fire and movement too.

3.Don't Stagger Your Respawns

Attack as a unit. It's basic math. If you attack one at a time, it could be always 6 people versus 1 person. Even if you manage to kill one person, then it's 5 versus 1 person. Still terrible odds. If you manage to kill 2 people? Still terrible odds. For anybody. Watch pro matches. Players die ALL THE TIME in 6v1s...because it's terrible odds and the game isn't built for one player to carry the team. Even if you can't get the WHOLE team together, pause, and wait to get the last few that died with you to go in with you. 3 v 6 is still way better odds and chances are the whole team will be together at some point in the battle. The ideal way to play would be together as a 6 person unit, but do what you can to organize in the beginning.

Circus Goes FPS in Overwatch

I just picked up Overwatch to find a game that my friends and I could play in some sort of competitive manner together. They refuse to play fighting games and that left me looking for something as close to a fighting game as possible, but in a genre that they wanted to play. This also happens to be how I got involved with Souls games. Overwatch has the character diversity of a fighting game, the mechanics of an FPS, and, as I later found out, the team synergy emphasis of a MOBA. As it turns out, I love it.

I will do at least a few write ups on my adventures in Overwatch, but I want to talk about my experiences in it as someone who has played almost solely fighting games and Souls games for like 5 years.

The biggest difference in Fighting Games and Overwatch is that winning is not entirely dependent on your solo decisions and skill. In fact, organization and better collective decision making will cause you to win. I've had the game for like 5 days but I believe this is the general consensus of the Overwatch community.

A big similarity in Overwatch and Fighting Games is the character diversity that I mentioned above. Every character has their own "kit" which is the equivalent of FG characters move sets. These kits will determine what your character's role is in each match. The kit determines their game plan, much like FG characters move sets determine the game plan.

There are actually quite a few analogous ideas in Overwatch and FGs. There are poke battles, resource management, a sort of neutral game in both. In Overwatch, these things all have a different name but the ideas are still there. In both games sometimes the decision making process comes down to, what decision do I need to make now, to give me the upper hand later or what resources do I absolutely need to spend now to win the battle? Do I need to do more than that?

These are my sort of vague first impressions. I am playing support characters a lot because my aim is only ok and I don't care about killing loads of people. Once I get better at the game and start actually playing ranked matches I will write a few beginners guides to a few of the characters that I have been playing.