A Couple Things I Learned as Zenyatta

Competitive Discussion
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If any of you are trying out Zenyatta and are interested in getting better, I found a couple things that may be helpful.

  1. Try to stay away from the action while still having line of sight on enemies. Use your teammates as shields. Given that Zenyatta has no movement abilities, he’s one of the easier targets to kill. Zenyatta needs to shoot at targets from a distance because if he’s picked off, there’s even less healing for the team.
  2. Zenyatta is not a great healer. He helps the other healer heal, but he cannot heal the entire team on his own or with little help. This means Brigitte and Lucio do not combo well with him. Figure out who needs to switch (that might mean you).
  3. Try not to over extend to rescue people. Again, Zenyatta has no movement abilities so he can’t get away if you fail to save the teammate. Zenyatta’s orb of healing travels far so try to get line of sight while keeping your distance.
  4. COMMUNICATION! If you discord someone or need help, please communicate that. Voice chat is so helpful. Your team does not always know who is discorded. This is even better if the discorded enemy is low on health.
    Last but not least,
  5. DO. NOT. USE YOUR ULT. TO SAVE ONLY YOURSELF! This will make your team tilt extremely fast and you’ll likely lose the point later when Zarya combos with Hanzo. That being said, if everyone is low on health and/or a healer is down, don’t save it. Zenyatta’s ult is almost a get out of jail free if you’re losing a point. Don’t save it for an ult combo if you need it now.

Please leave more suggestions if I missed anything :smiley:

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Hey - good points. I’d just like to add some comments.
For orb usage - I think both harmony and discord orbs are best used keeping it on one target at a time. Especially with the orb speed nerfs, orb juggling before someone is fully healed or killed is wasted time.

Zen/Brig is definitely a viable and strong support duo in KOTH maps and also if you have heros with high self sustain in your team (e.g. ball, hog, tracer, sombra). If you are running zen/brig, it means that you trust your team to kill the other team before they kill you and that they are not completely reliant on your healing. It also means playing very disciplined and taking minimal poke damage before the fight starts.

For the third point, this is a bit of a personal opinion but I think this should be the case with any support. Don’t overextend and if your teammate is hard feeding just let them die. :laughing:

For the last point, especially in overtime situations, if you’re getting spawncamped or just very low and in danger of being picked off, it may be better just to use your ult to save yourself and use the rest of the ult for the brief healing than trying to save it for the best time. After all, you can’t use your ult when you are dead.

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Thank you very much for posting it. I’ve recently decided to add Zen to my support roster, and this really does help.

I do not think that I have been worse on any other support hero than Zen so any kind of tips on him are more than welcome in my book.

Thank you for the taking the time to write this post. I honestly appreciate it.

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I did not consider that. Good point!

Hey no problem. Thanks for letting me know :smiley:

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I’m kinda surprised if people don’t already know this stuff… I’m by no means an expert on him, but here’s a few extra little tips I can think of.

  1. You can cancel his charged volley by kicking (can be useful if Genji is deflecting/Sigma absorbing)

  2. Use cover. Shields are great, but often they can get burned down, and if they do you don’t want to be in the open. Try to find corners of buildings etc that you can peek around and use.

  3. Charged volley is great to spam at choke points or around corners you know the enemy is peeking - sometimes you get a lucky free pick if they hit, and it can also do good damage on tanks even if it doesn’t get a kill.

  4. Be aware of ults. Since trance is a known counter, it’s good to keep tabs on what ults you think the enemy has. If the Rein shatters and you’re forced to use trance to keep your team alive, call out that you think their Genji or Zarya is about to ult you - if your team is good they can focus/counter, or at least be prepared. Sombra just teleported into the middle of your team? She’s about to ult, pop trance pre-emptively (or if you know she has it, stay somewhere you you will have cover from her ult and then pop trance)

  5. Use heal orb pre-emptively. Don’t wait for your team to start taking damage, put it on one of your flankers, or at the least make sure you always have it on someone.

  6. Sometimes it is okay to ult just to save yourself - this includes things like your teams last push, or overtime. If you die, chances are your team goes down with you and you never get to use it.

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That is a great tip.

I don’t intentionally do this. Usually because I forget I have the orb until someone starts taking damage. That is probably my biggest weakness as Zenyatta tbh…

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Oh last little thought - fear Ana. She can counter your whole trance. If the enemy has one, maybe have a little word with your Rein (or whatever tank) - tell him if they grav you will trance but he needs to still keep his shield up.

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Just picked up Zen again recently and here are some additional thoughts I had to add:

Zen’s balls are projectiles that have no drop off so they deal full damage regardless of range. Furthermore, he has the ability to charge his attack before unleashing it in a single burst. This makes Zen very good for stationary or slow moving targets such as Tanks, Bastion or Snipers.

If your team has problems dealing with a Torb turret or a Bastion, your priority as Zen is to shut them down. You can do this by hiding behind a corner to avoid the turret or Bastion targeting/seeing you and then unleashing the attack when you’re ready.

Against Bastion, try and discord the Bastion if possible before you charge your attack however that might alert them to your presence so it really depends on the situation and if you think it’s safe to do so. Once you’ve unleashed your first volley, they will either turn to attack you, ignore you or return back to the mobile recon form to retreat and heal. If he attacks you, retreat and duck around a corner and use your charge volley. If he moves to his mobile form or ignores you keep firing!

Against a turret, you can’t Discord it but it only has 250HP so a full burst volley should knock most health off and one more attack will destroy it. Most Torbs will be sticking aroudd their turret so you should try and discord the Torb after destroying the turret and start focusing him down.

Against snipers like Ashe and Widow, your best chance is a full burst volley from around a corner or behind a friendly barrier. You have a large hitbox so the key is patience or catching them by surprise with a burst to terminate them before they can retaliate.

Against Tanks, your key targets are Tanks that do not have reliable barriers. Roadhog is an especially good target as he has no self protection except for his ‘Take a breather’. This means you can reliable farm him for ultimate charge. D.va is in the same situation as her Defense Matrix is only temporary however she can reliable escape or chase you down with her boosters so always try to engage with a friendly team mate.

Zen’s Discord orb against a Pharah is very useful. It can be hard to hit a Pharah but Discording her allows her to be tracked more easily by you and your team and to deal more damage to her. If the enemy is running a Pharmercy the extra damage will really help. You are a target for a Pharah so knowing where she is at all times is very important. Being able to track a Pharah and hit her with at least one or two orbs can really help your team take her down.

Zen’s high dps and lack of damage falloff means he can contribute to breaking barriers. Charge your orbs as you round a corner and fire them into a Rein, Sigma or Orisa barrier to open the fight.

A significant part of Zen’s health is shield health that regenerates if you’re not taking damage. Ducking back around corner and then waiting for the shields to regenerate and then coming back with a full charged volley is a very good tactic.

If the enemy is far away enough, I believe you can Discord them so the later shots of a burst volley will deal more damage.

You deal more damage overall if you stick to firing orbs singularly however the charged volley can be used to in situtations where you think you might miss. Since it fires several orbs at once you can semi-spray it in across a region so at least 1 or 2 orbs hit your target. This can be helpful for hitting targets like Pharah or a fast moving Tracer.

When dive enemies like Reaper or Tracer are trying to dive you and use their escape skills, start thinking about charging your volley and moving to a safer or more advantageous location. Greedy Tracers or Reapers will try and return to attack you. A fresh volley in their face will punish them for this. At worst you will waste some ammunition. Consider waiting a second to start charging after you see them use their ability since you can’t hold your charge indefinitely.

If the enemy team has 3 or more dive characters and are focused on killing you or your other Support, it’s probably best to swap to Brigitte who can hard counter them.

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Ok bronze zenyatta I will take that to mind