I’d be curious to see what basic rules of thumb some of the dedicated players have for their main picks. I’m not looking for in depth guides and dissemination of each hero, just a summary of the habits and knowledge that has been picked up over the hundreds of matches individual players have had with a character.
For me it’s Butcher, I love that piggy little scamp.
Hero level 154
QM WR 61.9% (873 matches)
SL WR 78.9% (19 matches)
My 5 Tips
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Play Conservative: until 200 Meat, Deaths Mean More for Butcher than other heroes.
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Ten Minutes: 200 meat within 10 mins is your target, you CAN do this with just minions, obviously getting kills helps, but simply not dying for 10 mins is often enough.
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Lamb: 9/10 Ult picks should be Lamb to the Slaughter. Most other players recognise what to do when it lands, and it’s lock down will let you solo most heroes.
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Combo: Charge, Hamstring, Brand.
OR Charge, Lamb, Hamstring, Brand, Hamstring
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You’re not a Wizard Hammy: Top DPS can happen, but it’s not your goal. The mark of good Butchering in my opinion is locking down kills. Wait for the right moment to charge, secure the kill, reset. If you’ve achieved top DPS it’s because the match has dragged on and you’re now Meat God, or you’ve been playing against clumsy tanks.
That’s it…
I’d love to see what other peoples fundamentals for their top picks are!
8 Likes
Level 223 Artanis:
Both Shield Battery and Shield Surge at level 4 are good. If they have sustained damage, go with Battery. If they are a burst comp, choose Surge.
Shield Battery + Phase Bulwark at 13 means you can basically ignore DoT heroes like Gul’dan, Lunara, or Qhira.
The updated level 7 Chrono Surge is very strong, and you can use point blank swaps to proc it constantly. If they do not have much in the way of ability damage, taking Graviton Vortex at 13 means you can have ridiculous uptime on this.
Trait is life, trait is love. Get used to the timing on your trait, and how your AAs and Qs affect the CD. Try to time W to get the most out of the CDR on your trait, and you can have your shields up indefinitely. If they draft a Shattering Throw/Taunt Varian, be elsewhere. He is scary. A Juggernaut/Winblades Varian, not so much.
Blades of a Templar at 16. Seriously, just do it. If you take Protector of Aiur at level 1, this is a must-pick.
2 Likes
Im curious to hear what people say who think levels and exp dont mean jack.
I get burnt out often so I take long breaks, meaning I don’t have a huge number of games, but I like to think my opinion matters anyways. :^)
Lt. Morales - Level 28
QM WR 59.4% (106 games)
Ranked WR 60% (30 games)
- You are a babysitter.
Compared to other healers your utility and blanket healing can be rather lacking. What you specialize in is single target healing and damage prevention. Safeguard is your bread, butter, knife and toaster.
- Don’t backline. Don’t Frontline. Position Cleverly.
Your damage isn’t nominal but it can often make the difference between securing a kill and letting someone walk away. Also positioning in just the right spot lets you soak damage and get more value out of your trait instead of trying to heal all the damage off someone else. Baiting enemies into diving you more often than not results in a pretty good trade since many teams get into the mindset that you need to die before they can get any picks.
You can break Q range for a short amount of time before returning to it and it won’t break the tether.
- Stim only wins fights if you stim someone good.
Theoretically it provides some phenomenal numbers, but some people can really fall flat on their face after you stim them. I’ve had my fair share of headaches after watching my stim target use the movement boost to run away for 5 seconds before rejoining the fight.
Sometimes you’ll get more work done by stimming the tank rather than a Raynor who doesn’t know how to pick his targets.
- Use nades wisely.
My prime Medic days were shortly after release and I was one of the few Medic players who could properly angle grenades to consistently secure kills. It’s a lot easier to use now but sometimes I really miss that baseline knockback range.
Nade deals decent damage and it’s knockback is amazing for keeping heroes from fleeing, but it’s also your singular defensive tool that isn’t just armor. Don’t use it solely for damage, only use it if you’re certain it’s going to secure a kill or save a teammate (or otherwise apply utility with the level 13 talent you picked for it, EMP grenade can really ruin a Fenix’s day)
- Weave your healing
You don’t need to keep people at 100%, just get them to a range where you’re sure they won’t instantly melt if focused then prioritize conserving energy if they’re not in any immediate danger. Fights can tend to drag on for a while when playing Medic and running out of energy can be very bad when you have a teammate who takes your healing for granted and doesn’t bother keeping an eye on your energy pool before jumping into the midst of the enemy team.
To be fair, I’ve seen too many Level 50+ Hanzos that couldn’t land a Q on the broadside of a barn and a fair number of level 1000+ players that lack some very fundamental knowledge.
It counts for something, but level itself isn’t always the best indicator of skill.
2 Likes
Yeah that’s fair, I was really aiming for tips from high success rate/high match count players on specific heroes. 100 was a nice round number.
I’ll happily read anyone’s strategy and give it a go, sometimes my go to play-style just doesn’t mesh with certain heroes (Yrel, Valeera, Ana… I suck at them haha)
I could rename the thread to Hero Level X tips and tricks?
1 Like
Whitemane
level 144
QM WR: 63.1% (626 matches)
SL+ unranked: 60.9% (169 matches)
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avoid attacking armored enemies and try to attack enemies with reduced armor. Your healing is based on the damage you deal.
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You have the healing to save someone for literally anything. 2v3? no problem, thats just 3 times the healing.
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Auto attack in between everything and at every opportunity. Pretend you’ve got that old fallow through talent baseline. It adds up to quite a lot
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Someone is diving you? Dosent matter, just out heal them. alternatively, if your level 20, use purge the wicked to burst them with damage that would make even jaina jealous.
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your W is honestly pretty meh. Channel the whole thing if you’ve got nothing else to do but don’t sit on an unused E and defiantly don’t sacrifice your positioning to channel the whole thing. Its not to bad when you use your traits active tho. (unless you have shared punishment, that talent is crazy good)
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heres a 6th because why not. When you cast divine reckoning, run in to the center. Either your enemies will chase you in to it and your whole team enjoy a rehgar ult every second or they will run out of it and you’ll have don’t some nice zoning.
Shes a ton of fun once you get past her weird recourse mechanics.
I think it depends on the hero. the practice is defiantly important for the mechanically difficult heroes but a level 50 sonya isnt gonna look all that different from a level 15 sonya.
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