I admit, I’m one of those ETC players that tend to use Q and W as a combo.
I’ve been thinking why, and I realized that I always pick Pinball Wizard as a level 7 talent. I have only 2 seconds after Q to use W in order for me to do burst damage.
However, that has been forcing me to Q into the enemy team, because I need to W the enemy into our team for a kill. I often don’t have either Q or W available afterwards for a peel.
So I’ve been wondering about AA build. Not to play as a bruiser, but for more steady stream of damage and to spread out my abilities, and in turn, more up time of 25 armor trait.
Guitar Hero(60% heal on AA during E) + Hammer On(40% extra damage on 2 AA after using ability) + Aggressive Shredding(CDR on E with AA) encourages me to weave in a couple of auto attacks in between abilities, while I get lots of self heal and deal bonus damage. I can also Q sideways and backwards without having to W right away.
I won’t have the kind of burst to punish a healer out of position, and I will need to auto attack, which can be difficult while retreating or against blind.
Has anybody tried it before as a main tank in SL? If so, how was it?
You should always do that as ETC, though, even if you went for W talents. Or on any hero for that matter (not counting Tracer/Lucio). It can be the difference between losing or winning fights or objectives.
Should probably be in an in-game tutorial somewhere or at least in a loading screen tip, sadly it’s not.
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Not great…
My favorite build is regen quest, echo pedal or follow through if i dont need waveclear (hammer on i think is what its called), then at 16 get aa gives you cdr on e. It gives you so much more healing than the level 1 talent.
I once was the solo frontliner and went with this build because I needed the healing and their dmg was mostly spell.
It is good but you need to be daring to go really in (forced tank main)
You can totally pick echo pedal instead of pinball wizard.
You have more leeway of using W and still be able to Q W once you get mic check
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My build on ETC is usually:
1 - Either Prog Rock or Block Party, depending on comps.
4 - Speed Metal since move speed is very underrated and it applies to allies!
7 - Even though Pinball Wizard seems to encourage you to use Q/W combo, 2 seconds is a lot of time, so you don’t have to W immediately, and it does give him decent wave clear. Since I use this talent most of the time, not taking Loud Speakers actually means I am not making it harder on myself or allies to clear waves and camps, and usually I don’t really need to knock them back very far.
10 - Either Mosh Pit or Stage Dive, depending again on map and comps. Since Pinball Wizard gives me decent wave clear, I like Stage Dive on larger maps, where I can take a little extra time pushing a lane before heading over to tank for my team.
13 - Mic Check because CDR is yummy.
16 - Typically Aggressive Shredding, but sometimes Imposing Presence, especially against a BL Rehgod.
20 - Storm Shield if it is a close match, but I freely admit I love Tour Bus so much, that any chance I can take it, I will take it.
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I tank a lot but I’m still low diamond.
I almost always skip Pinball Wizard because I don’t want to tie in damage with a CC ability. It’s something I want to make sure I can use whenever I need it to and not just after I hit someone with Powerslide.
Hammer-on is good for supplementing overall damage regardless of build and can be great for securing kills if you’re bashing people in between abilities, which is good practice to be doing as ETC anyways so you can drag out your trait up-time. It’s also really helpful to fight enemies laners if you find yourself running around to soak a lot.
Echo Pedal is okay for clearing but it really only helps you clear a normal wave a few seconds faster and you only see real value out of it against big pushes. The only map I take it on consistently is Braxis for the objective.
Guitar Hero at 1 is extremely helpful for taking camps solo if that is something you somehow end up doing (not a strictly bad strat on BHB), but I find that between Block Party and Prog Rock it’s not a better option for full on teamfights. And I wouldn’t call it an AA build since neither it nor Aggressive Shredding do anything to directly increase your damage output although the CDR does help Hammer-on dps output. As ETC I don’t normally have the room to chase someone around and auto attack them all day, and as a tank in general I don’t like the idea of building for 1v1s. When you go in things need to start happening right away.
How does Mic Check work with Speed Metal?
I always pair Mic Check with Loud Speakers because hitting more than one target at a time is extra crucial. Either that, or I go with Speed Metal and Face Smelt to use W more strategically.
Here’s a little secret that a lot of people miss with Mic Check, you get the CDR if you hit any two targets, not just heroes. If you are fighting in lane, it is almost too easy to hit two targets when there are minions around. Mercs, summons, heroes, pretty much anything that can be moved with a Face Melt, count to that talent.
This makes meeting the Mic Check criteria almost too easy, so I rarely, if ever, take Loud Speakers, unless there will be a ton of fighting in open spaces away from lanes, like Hanamura or BoE. Even then, hitting two heroes isn’t very hard, as most will have more than one melee hero, and unless I am using it as an interrupt or peel, I tend to not use W very often, but strategically.
This means that Loud Speakers isn’t really adding much value, other than making it more likely I will boop enemies out of my allies’ combos or AoE. Speed Metal makes it easier for my team to reposition or dodge things, meaning I often don’t even need to use W to peel, and can use it to set up kills.