Overwatch

[Clumsy]

Couple changes incoming/have hit (not sure which). Mcree's recent buff with his damage falloff at range being reduced has been reverted. His fan the hammer SPEED (not damage) has been increased, and apparently can land about the first 5 before flashbang ends. I think there were other changes but this was the big one.

Also, has anyone been following the Sombra hints hidden in videos? So far we have the following information

She is tied to Dorado, most likely Spanish. Def knows Spanish.
A decrypted code of hexadecimal entries found in the Ana reveal gives us: "Ra. She who has the information, has the power". This was decoded using a constant of 23, which implies that Sombra is next (Ana is character 22)
A second code was found in a developer video. This is a doozy. Barcodes were found within a flash of images. Running these bar codes gave a series of hexadecimal. Converting that into binary, laying it out in a square, making 1's black and 0's white gave a QR code. Scanning the code gave the message (in Spanish) "Was that easy? Now that I have your attention, let's make this harder."
All of this combined with "Authorization Invalid, Protocol: Sombra" on the terminals of the power plant in Dorado suggest a hacker/information based character.
Datamined voicelines talk about a stealth character in the area. Mccree: "I can't see ya, but I know you're there".
Could be self only or teammate applicable. Ult I'm betting.

Identity of Sombra is theorized to possibly be Alejandra in the short "Hero". Other theories say her unseen mother. Couple of things supporting:
-Time jump visible because of the power plants seen on the map
-Mom's bakery seen in Dorado map
-Near the end, she takes the S76 poster. Only thing legible behind the poster is a 23.
-Mom's bakery is Spanish for Darkness, odd for a bakery, huh?
(Sombra is Spanish for Shadow)

Is there anything I missed? Thoughts?

[Clumsy]

That's good to know about the Mccree thing, thank you.

I think the whole "No Builder" warning is crap. They help, sure, but I don't think it loses games for the defence team. No support/Low Damage/No tank is much more important.

On the topic of Symmetra, she really is more of a defensive character than support. I know her shielding used to be 50, and that was (apparently) too strong. So they nerfed it to 25. There was an argument that she should be still support because it is a form of healing when the shield regenerates, but that is not substantial at all. If they wanted her to be a Healer but have a different sort of healing function than the others, a suggestion I've seen is that she makes her allies' health bars like hers. As in convert half of it into Shields. They would replenish after not taking damage, not requiring Sym to be around, but only 50% of max and only out of combat. I think this would be an interesting "passive heal" for a support, and different enough from Zen and Lucio. (No idea about characters with shields already though...) But as it is, she really is a defence character. Sure, you can find uses for her on offence, but every other defence character could say that too.

On the topic of Sombra, I could see her being either support or offence. No idea what weapons would be though. Some have speculated with her revolving around information, she might have something akin to deployable cameras that act similar to a Hanzo arrow that you could place. Maybe an ability to shutdown a Rein Shield or Torb/Bastion Turret. Other than that and the stealth, I have no idea.

Think I'm going to go screw around with Mcree's FTH now.

[Clumsy]

Yes, the teleporter, but that's pretty much it, and in most cases, most useful on defence. Window's ult gives extreme info, but she's defence. The best comparison is with Torb. Both build turrets that work differently, both have "shields" they can give, the only thing drastcally different besides weapon is the ult. While one of the strongest ults in the game, that doesn't really sit well with me being the determining factor.

Either way though, it doesn't actually matter. You can still bring Junkrat on offence and have it work, that's pretty much the point of the game. It doesn't actually bother me, but in my mind I see her as defence.

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Speed boost into a regular jump+m2 just isn't the same as an ally centering the ball for you and doing an aerial score. Still fun to do while waiting on a group though.

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The thing is, the way the game is made, you can't carry it yourself like other games. Even if you ult and kill 4 of the team on the point, if the rest of your team isn't doing anything, it's not going to be a cap. The biggest part I've seen is team cohesion. Even if you don't have the best mechanics, if everyone is working together well, it goes much better. Do you have a group you play with? If not, do you regularly use voice chat? And if you don't mind, what's your current rank?

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The best thing to do is to play as best you can, using voice chat, and the first time you come across someone you play well with, someone you got good communication with, add them. Play with them from that point on. Keep doing this. That's how I got my group. I actually have about 15 or so people that I play comp with, and it makes a world of difference.

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Yeah, I have a buddy I play with that consistently takes out 2-4 people per life, yet we still lose games and fail to capture points (I play support). You can still usually win with 1 person not being too great, but 2 or 3 is a death sentence. I think the key to converting medals into wins is team co-ordination. If you take out 4 people, but your team can't push past the Rein/Bastion, you aren't going to get the point anyway.

I'm very much the opposite opinion on hero stacking, I'm extremely glad they have a 1 hero limit now. Although, when it was being discussed, 1 hero limit +1 was also a big talking point, and I would also be okay with that I think.

The Ana/Hanzo/Widow/Bastion team is a new one for me. I haven't seen teams like that in ranked, at least not recently. Was that in early early competitive? Because I see that in quick play all the time.

[Clumsy]

I would love Doomfist as a hero in the game. Few issues with your ideas though. A tank's primary job is damage mitigation for the team. Rein/D.va shield, Winston barrier plus diatraction/elims of snipers/Genji, RH picks/Meatwall with 300 heal every 8 seconds. The Doomfist above only has that on his ult, and if it's an ult it'll have to be stronger than Reinhardt's shield, which is already great. Punching through it probably isn't enough. Unless his E can regain health to match RH, there's not really a tank character there.

I don't really have a better idea for damage mitigation though, tbh. But as it is written, it's a less effective Rein in most ways. I like the shooting of the gauntlet though.

I would think his ult would be like the cinematic though. Like punching the ground to cause a shockwave in a large sphere around him, doing good damage (150? Tank counter to Tracer, big threat to damage dealers) and send everyone flying up and away from him. Maybe 250 damage at point of impact and trailing off. That'd be cool. Clear them all off the payload.

I've seen a few ideas for Sombra revolving around her information and hacking style. Deployable cameras (information) for one, highlights enemies in the area like Hanzo, put them up like Symmetra turrets. The other being a way to disable abilities (hacking), like a Rein shield or Bastion turret mode, Torb turret, etc. Some kind of Emp or something, puts all shift and E abilities on a 5 second CD or something.

[Clumsy]

I suppose the crossfade thing would be a way to mitigate damage, but what is "Increasing defence"? Giving armor? Shields? Extra hp?

[Clumsy]

He is a big threat with his chain, does good damage, and is MASSIVE. He's going to be taking shots anyway, and will just take cover and heal 300 health every 8 seconds, pop back out and try to pick someone else out.

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Yeah, but they have to also survive that damage. RH's heal is half of his health pool every 8 seconds, and besides pre-buff D.Va, he's probably the worst at surviving. Unless the gauntlet thing heals for 100 hp per person hit with a short cooldown, he would be a weak tank in terms of actually tanking. And that could actually work, not saying it's bad, just that he would need something to survive with. Rein has 2000 regenerating HP with shield + armor and health, RH has 300 hp heal every 8 seconds, D.Va has a timed absorb everything field + flying away, Winston barrier plus mobility, etc.

[Clumsy]

Is it within 50 or 100 for groups in season 2? I would be up for 3 tank 3 support with you pie assuming we can rank together and if not we can test this out in qp

You can be 1000 apart I believe (if I'm wrong, it's 500). I've heard a little about this 3 tank 3 healer thing, and kinda want to try it with my group. I'm trying to think what it might be weak to. Tanks usually have lower but more easily confirmable damage than offence (if the situation is right, melee range for Rein for example). Long range is the first thing that popped into my mind. Although then your tank goes Winston and Lucio/Zen/Ana heal from a distance... Assassins on healers like Genji, but Zarya shield/healing from others can help with that... I'm not finding an easy strategy to counter it. Maybe Roadhog plus Reaper plus Zenyatta would do some good. Pick off the healers and shred the tanks.

I see this setup working much better on defence than offence though.

[Clumsy]

Yeah, Winston is very much a counter pick tank. Tracer+Genji, you need that Winston. He's not a good frontline tank, at least on his own. If you're running Winston as solo tank, you might as well not have one at all.

[Clumsy]

This is amazing.

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99.9594% on A Moment In Crime!

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つ ◕_◕ ༽つ GIFF SOMBRA

[Clumsy]

From my experience, walls do stop it. The height thing is a clarity problem I think. Reaper's ult goes fairly high too, and I think a clear border would help gameplay and curb frustration. I still don't know if Reaper ult is a sphere or a cylinder. Probably doesn't matter, but it's an example of lack of clarity.

[Clumsy]

Gratz! I've managed to get all the achievements for it (Beat it with all 4, beat normal, beat hard, beat normal no damage to door). I've tried running through no damage medium with friends, 0% success after the first. With hard, it's gotta be near perfect execution. If your McCree gets hooked during his ult by the hog, that's game over. Miss ult on Reaper? Game over. It's tough, which is a good thing for the hardest difficulty.

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I believe so! I think I got mine on easy. I was just shooting the birds and looking for secrets for 75% of the match. XD

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Yes pls. Or just less than 17,000 sprays to fill them up with.

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It's not so bad because you get currency for duplicates... Except that for commons it's 5 per. Yayyyyy. The occasional epic or legendary skin dupe is nice though.

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Only 5 more until you get something you actually want!

/sarcasm

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Wrong account. XD

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As of today, I have everything that I was really wanting. I am happy. :D I feel like they did a much better job with the special event loot this time around.

[Clumsy]

My official guess:

Weapon is submachine gun, damage and fire rate somewhat similar to Tracer, just a bit slower and weaker but longer range. 30 bullets in mag.

Shift brings out a turret similar to Symetra's, but instead of firing, acts more like a Hanzo Sonic arrow. Has to be weaker in some form... maybe shoots a little dart that reveals only the first person for like 8 seconds? That's my guess. Turret could be deployed via little gadget gun instead of placed.

E ability "Lockdown". Prevents use of any activated abilities (shift, e, maybe ult) in an area. Keep Bastion in or out of turret mode, prevent Rein charges, Zarya bubbles, Pharah jets, etc.

Ult localized cloak, broken by shooting.

[Clumsy]

That e could be very powerful, maybe too powerful pending how it is fired and how it targets. Maybe have 1 character be unable to use abilities and ults, sombra has a grenade that denies abilities is not too similar to ana's heal especially if sombras grenade has no enhancing own teamates abilities

Very strong, yes. I was thinking an aoe effect like Ana grenade, yeah. To balance, I would think 15 sec-ish cooldown, 3 seconds of effect.

I don't think Jahudo's shift is too powerful by comparison and would rather have that over your idea since firing 1 dart would be very weak in comparison to what symetra and hanzo are capable of with their abilities.

Just 1 is weak, yes. But I was talking more of like being able to place multiple devices. Hm, or maybe one that functions just like Sonic Arrow, but lasts until destroyed or replaced. Slight hum to give position.

In any case, I'm excited and have high hopes. I think she'll fall into the Offense class personally. I could see defense or maybe (Intel) support though. What do you think?

[Clumsy]

Oh that's really freaking cool. I expected cloak to be the ultimate, but it's just a normal ability. The hacking a single target not on ult is really cool too. The Translocator will be great for surprising that Rein from behind. 60 bullets is a lot too, it looked like it fired quickly. I can't wait to get my hands on this character. She may be an offense character I'm actually good at. XD

[Clumsy]

Oh boy, did you notice that the cloak is on a 6 sec CD? But the hack is 12. Translocator is 6. These are of course subject to change, but it looks like she'll have enough mobility to be a good DPS character even when her hacking is down.

[Clumsy]

Watched some gameplay of Sombra. Movement abilities are very strong. I like the gun. Good damage and decent accuracy and range, huge mag, good speed. Seems like just a little less than Tracer damage. However, because of the small damage per bullet, it seemed like she did very minimal damage to Reinhardt because of his armor. Am I seeing this right?

[Clumsy]

There are some ults it won't interrupt. Soldier's Visor and Genji's Dragonblade were 2 examples. Can't activate while hacked, but if you activate them and then hack, it stays on.

Edit: phone is sabotaging me, trying to make me scum slip.

[Clumsy]

I heard from a Dev talking that it completely breaks shields, but in context of Lucia and Rein. So I'm not sure. If it does, keep in mind that not only does it drop Zen to 50, effectively doing 150 damage, it'll also half Zarya health, equaling 200 damage. Both are seen fairly heavily in the current metal, so it's a
Non-targeted 350 damage on top of all else if this is the case.

I feel like going through and making a list of matchups.

[Clumsy]

Can confirm from second hand knowledge; it does destroy health shields of Zarya/Zen with ult. Interesting. Anything you guys want to test on PTR?

P-edit: Because he still has 500 health after that.

[Clumsy]

So, really good against shield enemies, bad against armored enemies.

Her gun does 8 damage per bullet, so if you hit all of her bullets as body shots within 16 meters, it does 480 damage. That puts her as good against squishies, not too much damage against tanks.

Armor: Reduces damage by either 50% per tick or 5 damage per tick, whichever is less. Her gun does 8 damage per bullet within 16 meters, so against armor, 240 damage, which is a tickle compared to most. Which is fine.

[Clumsy]

Keep in mind, these are my personal opinions based on minimal time with Sombra. These also assume decent-good skill with heroes.

Match-ups:

Spoiler: Offense:

Genji: I feel that Sombra wins this match-up. but not hands down. Genji's reliable damage is his dash (which also makes him harder to hit), and his dash and reflect are his survival, and if he tries to climb walls, she Translocates to him.

McCree: Better burst damage against Sombra, but lower tier McCrees would probably need the flashbang. This one is about even, and comes down to circumstance and skill.

Pharah: When she's in the air, Sombra's spread and falloff are going to make it difficult to kill her. The best thing you can hope for is to hack her while she's on the ground so she can't run. If she's up high, she can rain rockets down and she's out of range to be hacked. On ground, after hack, it's a bit of a skill match up. Pharah is a soft counter.

Reaper: Mostly a skill match-up. His shotguns will make it easy to do damage to interrupt the hack, or he can wraith out before if finishes if he notices. Even if hacked, his shotguns will tear her apart (if he is accurate enough) because Sombra has to be close to do decent damage.

Soldier: Soldier definitely has the edge in this match-up. He has 12 more damage per shot (after PTR buff), less spray at medium range, healing aura, helix burst, and Sombra has no defense against the ulti besides translocating out by setting it in advance. If Sombra stealths, he can spray the area. Medium range he just wins, and as long as he puts down healing before getting hacked (if he doesn't just interrupt it) he'll be just fine. Sombra has twice the fire rate, but even with that, Soldier has 4 more DPS. I'd count this as a counter.

Tracer: So here's the thing: an unhacked Tracer hunting a Sombra will probably kill her nearly every time. A hacked Tracer against a Sombra will probably die a good % of the time. So probably skill match-up.

Spoiler: Defense:

Bastion: His spray will nullify her stealth in most cases, and she'll likely die before she can translocate out if a Bastion catches her unaware. If Sombra can sneak up on him though, she can lock him in Turret form (or out of it) for 5 seconds. Version one, he's a sitting duck to ultimates, but still a killing machine, version two, he is a less effective Soldier 76 for 5 seconds. Not super useful in my opinion. She can just unload into his weak spot from behind, but that armor might give him a chance to survive and turn around if he's fast.

Hanzo: Long range, Hanzo wins if she's not cloaked. Short range he still has his scatter arrow... unless he gets hacked. But his Sonar arrow reveals a stealthed Sombra. I'd give the edge to Hanzo, mostly for Sonic Arrow.

Junkrat: TrashMouse spam can cause problems for Sombra, unstealthing her and probably just outright killing her, since she has 200 health. Grenade>Mine combo would also probably kill her. He will have problems preventing a hack attempt outside of the mine though. He can also boobytrap her translocator if he finds it. I think RubbishRodent counters her.

Mei: Hard counter. Sombra sneaking around? Spray that ice. Reveal. Icicle. Head to head fight? Spray. Icicle. Hacked and ambushed? Spray. Icicle. Sombra tries to run? Spray. Icicle. Medium range battle? Icicle. See the pattern?

Torbjorn: His armor will make Sombra assassination much harder, and he packs a decent weapon for both mid range fights and close range defense. Sombra can hack his turrets, but it's only for 10 seconds (he'll just place another when it gets destroyed) and only if it's actively firing at someone else, or it'll just shoot her and cancel the hack. I'd say soft counter.

Widowmaker: Long Range is obvious. Ult up or non stealthed Sombra? Dead Sombra. She can also pick her off if she tries to attack someone other than Widow. Up close, assault rife form has less DPS than Sombra, but the spray can make it difficult to hack an aware Widow. Grappling hook will roughly equal Translocator, and Widow Mine will help against a stealthed/soon to stealth Sombra. Ult+Snipe is probably the biggest deal though. Decent counter.

Spoiler: Tanks:

D.Va: D.Va's huge armor means Sombra will barely tickle her. The spray of her cannons will find a stealthed Sombra easily. Sombra will however be useful in getting the Defense Matrix down for ults, which is a big deal. It might also prevent her from ulting on the point, which can decide a match. Sombra won't kill her, but it will make her biggest strengths gone, and that can easily change the tide of a fight.

Reinhardt: His armor makes it hard for Sombra to do much damage to him, but of course that's not the point. Hacking Rein puts him in a position without his shield, which is his strongest team-oriented ability, without his only ranged attack, without his movement in his charge, and only a hammer to his name. Which, if he's in a defensive position, is really really bad for him. You won't kill him, but your team will. And then the rest of the team.

Roadhog: Get hooked, you're dead. Invis will be hard to use with him. All your hacking will do is prevent him from 1 shotting people for 5 seconds (hint: his hook CD isn't much longer than that anyway). Most useful thing will be countering his ult or preventing his heal.

Winston: Oh boy, super hard counter here. His leap is farther than your Translocator's throw, same CD, your stealth will be useless and instantly deactivated, and if at full health, he has a tiny bit of armor. Best you can hope for is that you can sneakily hack him and prevent him from jumping out from a team fight. Avoid at all costs. Play Winston to counter Sombra.

Zarya: I feel like this will be a double edged sword. She can AoE or spasm your beam around to decloak Sombra. You can hack to prevent barrier use, and maybe translocate throw will take you far enough out of the ult. Your ult will be huge against her though, instantly dealing 200 damage to her (if at full health) and disabling her barriers. This is edged towards Sombra.

Spoiler: Supports:

Ana: Ana in particular will have a hard time with Sombra. Her only good choice for decloaking Sombra is her grenade, which is also her only means of healing herself. If hacked, she can do neither. It'll take 3 shots with her rifle to put Sombra down, whereas Sombra will eat through her health bar. Her only defences are her abilities, which Sombra will just hack away. Sombra will counter Ana.

Lucio: Lucio will be one of the better ones against Sombra. She can hack him, but the only thing it will do is make him unable to switch songs or Amp it Up, which might be on CD anyway. His healing or speed will stay on while hacked though. He has the mobility/self healing to get away from Sombra, and the biggest weakness is her ult countering his. If he is careful about timing his ult while Sombra doesn't have hers, he will probably be the best healing support against her, just ahead of Mercy. No real kill potential though.

Mercy: In 90% of cases with Mercy, if you're without a teammate, you're dead. This is one of those cases. If you're with an ally, hopefully they'll kill Sombra before she kills you. Mercy can try to Guardian Angel away from Sombra, but if she gets her hack off, Mercy is even more defenseless. Her healing beam will be good for keeping a target alive against Sombra however. During a teamfight, Sombra should seek out the hiding Mercy and hack her so she can't fly to the team and Rez.

Symmetra: In a straight up fight, Symmetra might win the DPS race, but it all depends on Sombra's accuracy. Hacking Symmetra does essentially nothing to her, and the lock on M1 ensures that Sombra won't escape using Thermoptic Camo. Sombra's EMP ultimate will devastate her health pool, however, making her an easy pick-off. I'm still not sure what hacking the teleporter or turrets will do, but if you have long enough to hack it, you have long enough to destroy it.

Zenyatta: Zen is worse off than Symmetra, mainly because he won't be able to apply Orb of Discord to Sombra if she surprises him with a hack, cutting his DPS down a lot against her. He has no mobility, so if Sombra gets the drop on him, bye bye Zen. Also her ultimate similarly wrecks him.

Spoiler: Conclusion

I feel like Sombra is going to shake up the meta. She counters some of the biggest people in the current meta, namely Rein and Zen, and is countered by some off meta picks, like Soldier and Torbjorn. She's strong, but I don't think OP. She'll have a particular place in a team, probably taking the flanker spot in the lineup. Pairs well with Pharah, Reaper, Reinhardt, D.Va, and Zarya, as it enables all of their ults by preventing enemies from countering them with speed boosts, shields, or defense matrix. She has a lot of power in claiming the health packs, and gets ult charge for people healing off of them! I'm most interested in seeing how she'll be used in non-point areas, if she will at all. I think there's a lot of potential in KOTH, either in breaking the defense or solidifying it by claiming all the nearby healthpacks/denying their health pack usage.

Thoughts?

[Clumsy]

white font is silly

seriously tho why in the fuck did you content post in a way that makes it god damn impossible to read

I didn't even realize that people wouldn't be able to read it. I forgot not everyone uses MafBlack, lol. Would there be a better color I can change that to that isn't black or grey?

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Something that looks good in sepia. The one true mafia theme

Ew

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The problem was that I was trying to make it fancy with colors, but I couldn't get it to go back to default after the spoiler color, so I did code to make it white, which is default on my screen. I removed all colors, it should all be legible now.

[Clumsy]

I wish you could choose whether the barrier moves or sits still.

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Has anyone done their placement matches yet? Did you get a rating higher, lower, or about the same as your ending rating last season?

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Sure, I'll play Marquis.

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I am a fan of Mercy getting a little extra mobility, but I'm not sure how much this will do. Unless the wing flap was more than a standard jump in height, I don't think it would be enough to be it's own kind of escape. If it was high enough to allow you to get onto the second level of areas (for instance, on top of the building in front of Point A on Volskaya or the upper floor of Point B), that would be interesting. Require some testing obviously, as I could still see it doing not enough or even too much. I do like the idea for Guardian Angel targeting though.

Extra tip, not sure if you know this or not. You can deactivate Guardian Angel for Mercy by hitting shift again, keeping you from going flying past them to your death. Helped me a lot when I found this out.

[Clumsy]

I still like the idea of a more aerial Mercy. Not floating all over the place, because that'd be so easy to shoot out of the air, but more of a dashing over the group providing heals. Jump, wing flap up, GA to your tank, heal while you're flying there, turn and GA to your Mccree, healing Rein as you're flying away, heal Mccree when you arrive, GA back...

It'd have to be somewhat low for that to work though, or that's a dead Mercy while she's doing her job.

[Clumsy]

Huh? Source?

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There's a few things I want to point out about the comic, in particular page 10.

Panel 1: Genji and Zenyatta. Nothing I can see of note here.

Panel 2: Who is that with Pharah? Possibly a new character? Or just a non-important date?

Panel 3: I'm assuming that's Torbjorn, and probably his wife? Not super important, but interesting to note that he's married.

Panel 4: The only thing that could be interesting here is figuring out what park they're at. I don't really have any idea, but the fact that the steering wheel is on the right side may be a clue. And the image can't be mirrored (common with art, one version usually looks better than the other) because the letters aren't backwards.

Panel 5: I think that's Hanzo? Where is he? Why the non-traditional dress? Why is there so much detail on the cake?

Panel 6: Reinhardt and Brigitte here. Are those Torbjorn's kids? Possibly, as this is likely his house, although knowing Reinhardt, they could easily be kids from the local orphanage. Simplest answer here is that it's Torbjorn's house, his wife, their kids, and Reinhardt and Brigitte are visiting. And everyone loves grandpa Reinhardt.

Panel 7: Ana and Jack. They're relaxed, obviously trusting of one another. Who is in the picture frame though? The one on the left definitely looks like Jack, but the right doesn't strike me as young Ana. That and Jack's hair in the picture is white at this point. She could be a daughter (looking at a photograph of family he can't see because he's "dead" would seem fitting), or an apprentice/another Overwatch agent, which could also have similar sad story attached to it, which would fit Soldier 76's character.

Panel 8: Reaper in a dark alley looking at a happy couple. Does he know her? Or him? Could she be his wife before he "died"? The boy his son maybe? Or this could be his brother. I'm leaning towards old wife though.

Panel 9: Mccree passed out at a bar. Okay, fitting. But why is Sombra there? Had to fit her in somewhere I suppose? But not all characters are shown in this, so maybe not.

Panel 10: Oh my freaking heartstrings. Ouch. But this brings up something interesting. Very interesting. Her real name is Amélie, and the tombstone she is in front of is of her late husband, an Overwatch agent specifically targeting Talon. They couldn't assassinate him, so they kidnapped her. This is a quote from her wiki page:

Spoiler: Wiki

Talon operatives kidnapped her and subjected her to an intense program of neural reconditioning. They broke her will, suppressed her personality, and reprogrammed her as a sleeper agent. She was eventually found by Overwatch agents, apparently none the worse for wear, and returned to her normal life.

Two weeks later she killed Gérard in his sleep.

Her mission complete, Amélie returned to Talon, and they completed the process of turning her into a living weapon. She was given extensive training in the covert arts, and then her physiology was altered, drastically slowing her heart, which turned her skin cold and blue and

numbed her ability to experience human emotion

. Amélie was gone, replaced by "Widowmaker," Talon's most effective assassin, and feeling little save the satisfaction of a job well done.

Bold is mine, and the point of this. If she can't experience human emotion, she wouldn't feel anything that would bring her here. Sadness, regret, loneliness, missing her husband, none of that. If we think of her as an computer, which she effectively is after having all emotion numbed, what objective is she getting done by spending her holiday "spent with family and friends" here accomplishing? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's out of character for an emotionally stunted Widow. So... is she really incapable of experiencing human emotion? Or is there something else here? Is Amélie still in there? I smell something deeper hiding here. What works against this idea, however, is that the cinematics make her out to be what the canon describes her as. She was fully intent and seemingly unbothered with assassinating the Russian CEO in the Sombra cinematic. This all seems very conflicting.

Panel 11: Nothing seems odd here. But I wonder who the letter is from? OH! Actually! Look at Genji's panel and this one again! It looks like the letter is from Genji, which makes sense given their history. It looks like the quill is even included, making it seem like this is indeed the case. Cool!

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Yeah, I saw that suggested too. Could be.

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Just played a game of Mystery Duel. Won 5-2. Then I noticed the guy's rank.








Oh. Uh. GG?

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The best way I can explain it is that they thought that it would feel better to place low and climb after placing than place high and fall every time you play. Try playing more with the group and try to climb, see how that goes. Also, how does your group's rating compare to yours? If they're much lower, it can hurt your SR gain (and not necessarily because of their skill) .

[Clumsy]

Yeah, I understand. My experience has been that when I played solo, it put me with randoms, who were all around my SR. When I queue'd with friends that were 500-1000 points below me, the team was about 500 SR lower, and the game played like it too. Part of our losses was our group, myself included, but the rest of the team were also of admittedly lower caliber and not as cohesive. My group broke about even that night with SR, finishing where they started. I dropped about 70 SR.

Feelsbadman.

[Clumsy]

Gratz Poker. :)

Clumsyninja#1810

[Clumsy]

I've seen that suggestion before, it seems very interesting. The only thing I see going wrong with it is if your team isn't protecting you, you'll probably just die within 2 seconds of self resurrect to whatever killed you last time because of how vulnerable Mercy is. Could be helped with a longer invulnerability timer maybe. I would think it would be a fair trade for a solo res on yourself.

I'd love to see changes like this and the wing flap on PTR to actually see how they would pan out.

[Clumsy]

Yeah, I'd love for that to happen. They way they were talking, they want to start doing that. Last time it just so happens that pretty much everything worked just fine, and everything was pushed through without much iteration.

Speaking of, what does everyone think of

-Hook 2.0
-Ana Nerfs
-D.Va... Nerf? Change?

[Clumsy]

My usual set-up is Ana, Roadhog, and D.Va/Soldier, depending on what's working. Occasionally we'll even swap in a Winston in that 2nd or 3rd slot, like when we fought a Hanzo/Widow/Mercy. That was... interesting.

[Clumsy]

The D.Va is in my lineup mostly to distract and disrupt while Roadhog gets up close with Ana's healing, as well as extra defence if we have to play on the back foot. Mei is good, but is very short range. Both Hog and D.Va have ways around that, while Ana is enough healing to keep them up. I'm usually playing either the Ana or the Hog in this.

[Clumsy]

I'm still in the camp of Symmetra actually being a defense character. You don't want to give up a healing slot for Sym, it's better to give up a DPS slot.

Defense heroes are good at guarding locations, creating choke points, and preventing objectives from being taken. They are skilled at area denial and generally form the back line of their team.

So the turrets plus her are great at area denial, she can cut off alternate routes thereby

creating choke points

, and her new ultimate only works in a (relatively large) area, lending itself to

guarding a location

. Teleporter is also (outside of very niche cases in which you charge an entire team through at once for an odd angle attack) a defensive tool for getting back to a point.

Symm is a defense character by OW's own standards.

[Clumsy]

As far as I know, there's no expansions or anything like that planned. Have you seen anything saying otherwise?

From the days of Beta:

Kaplan made it clear that any additional maps and heroes added after Overwatch launches next Spring would not be sold as DLC. He said "we don’t have an exact timeline of when new heroes will be added to the game, how soon after launch, or how many... We just know that when we patch a new hero into the game, we want it to be free and not as DLC."

The announcement represents another debunked assumption about Overwatch's business model, following the announcement at BlizzCon last month that the game would not be free to play, and would instead be sold at $40 for the base game. An optional $60 Origins Edition that unlocks five hero skins and digital goodies for Blizzard's other games will also be available.

The decision not to put new heroes and maps behind paywalls is obviously a welcome one, given that splitting the community between free and paid content in a competitive game would likely have damaged its long-term health.

[Clumsy]

Lootboxes. People are putting money into that every event. For people that do buy those, I usually hear somewhere in the realms of 20-100 dollars or so. Some go all the way up to 200+.

[Clumsy]

It's all about counters. If Sym is giving you problems, pick a more mobile hero. Tracer can blink away, Pharah can jump jet, etc. Symmetra can't do anything against a Pharah. Or pick someone who can outduel her, like Mccree. Or Pharah. Just. Pick Pharah. Literally like trying to kill a ghost with a baseball bat.

If you're not playing DPS, stick with a buddy that can kill Symmetra if they focus you. Hard to stick to that Mercy long enough to kill her with a Hammer or a Hook in your face.

Also, I think it's important to have diversity in the types of damage being done. If I wanted 95% of the weapons to be automatic hit scan or rifle hitscan, there's CoD for that. I want grenades, and rockets, exploding mechs, granny's with sniper medicine, and edgelords with shotguns. It's part of the appeal for me. It keeps things interesting.

[Clumsy]

Small nitpick, you want to fan the hammer at the biggest part of their body, FTH cannot headshot (could you imagine?)

[Clumsy]

I don't think so, but I'm not sure. I'm pretty bad a Mccree so I don't play him a lot. If I have to go offense I go Pharah or Soldier.

Also, the earlier you stun her with your flashbang the better. Sym damage ramps up over time while tethered, so keeping her at minimum damage longer is good for your health. Just be careful of her shield blocking the flash. If it's a 1v1 and you don't throw the flash into her shield, you should win every time. If she's jumping around you too much, just roll backwards for a better shot.



I feel bad for Winston. I really think he needs a small buff. His damage is a tickle, his shield is pitiful, and cooldown is super long.

The original reason his shield was nerfed (Used to be 1000, now is 600) is because he was being double picked in upper level play for 2 1000 hp barriers. Drop the first with both Winstons inside, doing 120 DPS (two Tesla Cannons doing 60 DPS each) 1000 damage absorbed, drop the other, 1000 more damage absorbed. Anything short of a Bastion couldn't break through that in time before they killed whoever they had jumped on.

With the hero limit now in the game (thank god), the reason for the nerf is gone. The 600 hp barrier is still around though. Poor mon- uh, scientist.



While I'm thinking about it, I really dislike the change to D.Va's health. Not for balance reasons, but rather her place in the tank line up. We have Reinhardt, medium amount of armor, but a big ass barrier. We have Zarya, the shield tank, both on her health (so it regens, making a good skirmish tank), and on abilities. We have Winston, the mobile

tickle monster

tank. Low armor, bubble shield, jumps all the time. We have Roadhog, with NO armor, but huge kill potential and his just a health tank. 600 HP, a 300 hp heal (on a fairly short CD). Then we have D.Va, the Armor tank. Most of her health pool is armor, making her strong against small arms (Sombra gun for example). D.Va was strong against those without burst, she was THE armor tank. But now she's just a medium armor tank, like Rein. I miss the high armor identity.

[Clumsy]

Identity was a bad word for me to use there: Let me try another way. Everyone has offensive signatures and defensive signatures, both active and passive. We don't really have the -armor- tank anymore.

It bothers me less on a balance/mechanical side and more of a variety kind of thing. Not a real complaint.

[Clumsy]

Cerberus said it perfectly, the only one that will be behind your shield in that lineup is Zen, so you're better off going disruption (Winston) or a Zarya (can bubble your flankers, Graviton synergizes with Tracer bomb and Genji Blade). The best you can do when your team refuses to work with you, is to play around them. Reinhardt is an amazing hero, but his impact is only as good as those behind his shield. I do absolutely think that your team should have had another or a different healer though. Zen does not heal enough to solo heal. A solo Mercy or solo Ana could work, but one of them along side the Zenyatta would be much better.


On another note, it feels good to have your main be buffed. :D

[Clumsy]

What system Alisae?

[Clumsy]

Me too. I need to get back into playing it, because it's something I'm actually good at (for once). Want to play sometime?

[Clumsy]

Yeah, although the buff to my main may bring me back into it. Mercy invulnerability <3

[Clumsy]

I never got good at TF2, but those rocket jumps are nothing like TF2's rocket jumps. TF2's are closer to if Pharah's concussion blast had a half second cooldowb and could also launch her straight up.

[Clumsy]

Patch Notes:

Competitive Play:

-Fixed a bug preventing "60 seconds remaining" and "30 seconds remaining" voice lines from playing during the second round of a match



OKAY SO I'M NOT CRAZY

[Clumsy]

PokerFace was on the money. New character, ORISA, created by our new friend Efi.

[Clumsy]

I'm downloading now, haha

[Clumsy]

I'm really glad we have another option seperate from Reinhardt as an "Anchor" tank. That was very much needed. Her kit does feel like it has things borrowed from a lot of heroes. Placing an object for a buff that can be destroyed (Sym Shield generator), mini Zarya ult, Bastion's defensive ability in turret (Reduced damage, can't be knocked around). Rein shield combined with the Symmetra shield bug (where you fired it at the ground and it got stuck there). I wonder if they did that on purpose, as a sort of "Efi drew inspiration from all the great heroes of the world!". But maybe not.

[Clumsy]

Ninja'd.

I'm already in game, if anyone wants to add me. Clumsyninja#1810

[Clumsy]

PokerFace and I are awaiting your arrival.

In the meantime, we've tested a few things with Orisa. Pretty much everything makes sense. Fortify can only be stopped by things that don't interact with Orisa directly, like Mei's Ice wall. Ice wall can pick you up while fortified. Orb of Discord still stays on. Genji can still dash through. Earthshatter does nothing. Activation is instant, so if you're fast enough, you can block the earthshatter with it. Also, Rein's charge into a fortified Orisa knocks down and stuns Rein, and he takes his own Pin damage, 175 damage, which is fairly huge. Fortify halves the amount of damage you take. The ultimate damage boost has 200 health, and the duration is fairly short, like 6-8 seconds or so. It shows a tether to all of those affected. I think it would mostly be better off ignored unless a DPS was close to it, like Pharah or Soldier. Orisa has great range on all abilities, no damage falloff, decent accuracy. Rein shield takes forever to eat through though, about 170 bullets from her (out of 200 in her gun).

[Clumsy]

I know the feeling. We sent you friend requests, just hit us up when you get in.

[Clumsy]

Hey what does everyone main? I'm thinking it may be good to have a game night and knowing what everyone plays would be good

That sounds fun. I main support, and I play all of them. Much prefer Mercy/Ana though. Can tank if needed, good with Pharah, Genji, Mei, and Junk as well.

[Clumsy]

IM SO MAD AT THESE ANA CHANGES W T F

Talking about the netrfed 'nade?

[Clumsy]

How does someone get good at tracer and genji but cant play torb o.o

Completely different in terms of actually being GOOD with them. Tracer and Genji are similar and have similar roles, relying on aim, target priority, evasiveness, and timing. Anyone can place a turret and whack it. A -good- Torb needs a lot more map knowledge for turret locations, practice with the lobbed primary, and decision making with using the ult. Too soon, enemy team backs off and it's wasted. Too late, and your entire team is already dead.

I was watching a coaching video for a Torb player, and while I don't play much Torb, there are turret locations that are really clever that I never thought of. While Torb is "simple", he requires a totally different mindset and skills to be successful with.

[Clumsy]

I just saw all the changes to Ana. Damn, they're really hitting her hard. She was the leading support for so long though, there with Lucio. The self healing nerf is much less important I think, teams usually run 2 heals anyway. The damage nerf will be big, an extra shot for 200 hp heroes (especially Pharah) is a big deal. Pharah will be a lot less pressured from Ana now. Since Ana was used as the primary healer and Lucio (usually) or Zenyatta were used for secondary, this opens Mercy back up into the game again. With all the barriers, she should have a bit of an easier time too.

[Clumsy]

Tbf, a flankers job is to hit the priority targets like healers. Having one that can not only survive, but handily kill the flanker without help in the process AND with pulling the biggest heals for the team AND having the sleep dart AND arguably the best support ult is a little silly. At least Zen pays for his damage with small healing numbers.

[Clumsy]

Very much depends. If she's targeted first, it's useless, whereas Ana can still ult the Reinhardt or Soldier or Genji. I guess it would be more accurate if I said Ana has arguably the

most consistent high impact

support ult.

[Clumsy]

or rather, was

she's seeing more play because of the increase in bastions now
but there's also an increase in torbjorn which doesnt fit well in a mercy comp

Increase in barriers and Ana's incoming nerf will also push her back into the meta, but I think I would have rather had a slightly bigger buff to her and a slightly lesser nerf to Ana to accomplish the same.

[Clumsy]

I thought his attack always went through barriers? But the shield thing is nice

[Clumsy]

Junkrat needed some help, but this was not it. He's fine at low skill ratings (which is mostly where this change helps), but he's not great in higher play. He has his moments, but is outshined most of the time. This change does not help that.

[Clumsy]

Yeah, landing the hooks are harder than before the hook changes, but it all but guarantees a kill if you land it now (and HUGE damage to tanks). It'll separate the good Roadhogs from the ones that just learned how to best abuse the hook system (like me T_T).

[Clumsy]

I tend to play Roadhog a bit differently than either of those. I play him as a positional threat, as in "I will guard this area, and anything coming within hook range of me will die." Secondarily I use him as anti flanking, getting that Genji off of our healers or dealing with the person taking the long outside route to an objective. For me, the two most important things about Roadhog are your position and the enemy position. You need to be in range to hook someone if they step one foot out of position, taking them out of the equation. My favorite spot on Hanamura is second story on the right side of the gate, catching Phara/Genji/Hanzo/Reaper all day long. As you can tell, I love Roadhog on defense.

I feel like Roadhog is one of the characters that has the most variation on the type of playstyle used with him.

[Clumsy]

Yeah, pretty common for that to happen around that level unfortunately. The good news is that once you start getting into mid- high plat, that doesn't happen as often, and people are more willing to play other things. It still happens if course, but less often. Had 3 dos, 2 heals and 1 tank on Temple of Anubis yesterday. Lost the first point pretty quickly, even for ToA.

On a side note, remind me to only play Ranked on weekdays. I seem to get much better games that way.

[Clumsy]

I ISO'd you and saw your other post. :P

[Clumsy]

Had a match last night that had me as healer, a good teammate that switched to Rein, and then the rest picked Torb, Hanzo, Symmetra, and Sombra. This was on Numbani, and lasted until they got to the second checkpoint (first after the CP) where we finally had a decent team lineup. It was a close match, where if we didn't give up those first 2 points in about 3 minutes, could have very well won.

Gotta love it.

[Clumsy]

From what I've seen, she's pretty okay. The Halt! ability is definitely really good, but I think she serves as a secondary tank better than a primary (Like Reinhardt).

[Clumsy]

I would say a good 85-90% of my games are with a cooperative team. Most of that has people actively talking and making calls and coordinating hero picks. You'll get those people that will refuse to play anything other than Genii, even against a bad matchup, but it's better to work around them than against them.

Those other times are frustrating though.

[Clumsy]

Like I said we were on hard both times. It was 83% one time and 80% another. Neither time got it.

When you got it von, did you get the achievement right when the cart unlocked the next part or when you win at the end?

I got it on accident as well. Think it was the classic heroes version. The achievement popped up as we finished the payload part I believe.

I've got every achievement except Legendary because I didn't know you needed to do that on classic. :(

[Clumsy]

PC here. And yeah, I'd be down. I can do either Reinhardt or Mercy. If we could get a team of 4 with communication and a strategy going into it, that would help a lot.

[Clumsy]

Yeah, I enjoy playing HOTS with Shaz when we're just looking for something to do while hanging out on VOIP. It's a very laid back kind of game, and it's really the hero pool and maps that sets it apart. I don't think it's complex enough to really have a -serious- place around, but it is a nice, fun game.

[Clumsy]

Okay, event is almost over. Anyone on tonight for legendary achievement?

[Clumsy]

I was gonna try to climb to the next tier this season, and it was my goal. Then I got distracted. Whoops. Next season I guess.

[Clumsy]

Have D.Va harass her and block her rockets with Defense Matrix. Fly up to her with it on, boop her, then shoot her constantly. If the enemy have a Mercy, this gets much harder though.

[Clumsy]

I did the thing again.

[Clumsy]

Resurrect (formerly Mercy’s Ultimate ability)
Ability now targets a single player, instead of every player within a radius
Radius reduced to 5 meters
Ability cooldown is 30 seconds
Mercy is no longer granted invulnerability while Resurrect is active


Valkyrie (New Ultimate Ability)
Valkyrie unleashes the full power of Mercy’s Valkyrie Suit, enhancing her weapons and abilities for 20 seconds:
Caduceus Staff: Mercy’s healing and damage boost beams now affect all allies near the targeted teammate, and the staff’s effective range has been extended
Caduceus Blaster: Granted infinite ammo, while simultaneously increasing damage and fire rate
Guardian Angel: Increased range and movement speed
Resurrect: Cooldown is instantly reset when Valkyrie is activated and reduced to 10s after the initial cast
Hover: Mercy gains the ability to fly freely, at increased movement speed
Regeneration (Passive): No longer interrupted when Mercy takes damage

So huge ultimate, still have to be careful flying in front of Mccree and Soldier, but the constant regen is nice. Also the rez combo is going to be
Rez->Valkyrie->Rez->10 sec-> Rez ->10 sec -> Rez and Valkyrie ends.


Biggest thing will be getting a feeling for when to use Valkyrie. It will definitely be more proactive though, instead of reacting to Rocket Barrages, it'll be predicting teamfights (So you can heal clumps of allies or damage boost your DPS at the same time). I think this will leave her feeling much more proactive and fun.

Also, two other things. The D.Va changes (micro rockets, 50% uptime on Defense Matrix), but also a Reinhardt QoL change.


Reinhardt

Barrier Field
Holding primary fire while your shield is active now allows you to rotate the camera

No more turning your shield to see if your team is behind you. Thank goodness.

[Clumsy]

they are changing mercy's ult and making resurrect her E ability

On a long cooldown(30 seconds) with a short range(5m) and single target. Her ult let's her fly, and drops that cooldown to 10s, as well as refreshing the resurrect ability, makes her beams chain to multiple teammates(not sure on distance), let's her use it fron further away, and makes her shoot faster and do more damage, and makes her regeneration constant, so she'll heal while being damaged for the duration of her ult, which lasts 20 seconds.

You can only rez someone 5s after death instead of 10, so it'll be a lot harder to get the right rez you need with bad positioning, same with getting value off the rez reduced cd during her ult.

Definitely super fun changes, no idea how they'll work out balance wise.

Where do you see the 5s thing? That'll be a pain in the neck, but encourage you to actually stay with your team I guess. The timing on her rez/ult combo will be tricky. I'm also not sure on balance, but it definitely does seem more -fun-.

[Clumsy]

Just tried it, and yes that seems to be the case. Valkyrie feels really powerful, but you'll still be picked out of the air pretty quickly by Mccree or Soldier, especially with their ults. I think the biggest things are with her pistol in that ult, the 10 second rez timer, and the damage boost. I almost feel like she'll be better on offense than she was before, it seems like a powerful initiation. Damage boosting an entire team as they go in-

Oh god. Dive comp. Genji, Winston, D.Va, Lucio for speed, all of them damage boosted from Mercy... that's terrifying.

[Clumsy]

I think the Defense Matrix change is too too much. If they made it so it recharged slower, maybe. Or 2 seconds up time (current PTR) but recharged faster, could work. This is just too much. She lost too much defensive power.

[Clumsy]

It's the Roadhog problem. What exactly does Roadhog bring defensively? The most he can do is bodyblock, but it's still with his HP, still feeding ult charge. Most people think of him as a DPS hero with extra health. 2 seconds for D.Va Defense Matrix with no change in charge time, while adding extra damage is pushing her into that too. Like I said, same duration, slower recharge would have been fine in my opinion. I could even deal with 2 second uptime with a faster recharge. But losing 2 seconds with no change elsewhere is too much. I really hope this change doesn't go through the way it is.

Does anyone else dislike the rockets btw? I pictured a mini Phara ult (with way less damage of course). It feels clunky trying to aim straight firing projectiles along with a hitscan gun at the same time.

[Clumsy]

I've had a few matches where the Orisa cult really let our Mccree or 76 go to town. Very obvious in POTM when you can just see people being mowed down. Those times are few and far between though, and more towards when she first came out. I think it shines well in a heavy comp, like Orisa/Rein/Winston/Bastion/76/(Ana/Mercy). As long as they can't blitz you down, it pumps out extra damage. But I agree.

So far it seems like having her as another Anchor tank like Rein (her code name was Anchora, so this was her purpose even early on) has mostly failed. Her Halt! is arguably the best part of her kit, with the now buffed shield the other contender. The ult pushes her to have the team around her, but that extra damage is being overshadowed. Something else to keep the team protected around her would be great...

Big dome shield is held by Winston
Shields for all is Sym
Armor is Torb
AoE Damage boost is now Mercy
Speed is Lucio
Single target Steroid is Ana

Not sure what they could give her instead. Earthquake ability, throwing off enemy movement/aim? Increase damage boost? Provide 50 shield plus damage?

Supercharger could also work for cutting cooldowns for everyone tethered to it. That's a thought I had for a support.

I don't know. I'm just spitballing because I'm bored. :P

[Clumsy]

HOLY SHIT FINALLY

https://gfycat.com/FearfulLastErmine

Best change to be honest