This thread will roughly cover on how to play as Echo. I’ve been investing a lot of hours into her, developing a hate-love relationship for the hero and I often hear people say that they struggle with playing as her, or they don’t really know how to play against her.
I’m aiming to help anyone looking into learning more about Echo with this thread, so I really do hope this help.
Playing Echo Tips:
Echo is kind of like Doomfist. You don’t want to be generous with your abilities, you need to be constantly using every single bit of your kit - there is a reason that all of her cooldowns are relatively close and they’re pretty short too. Echo is a flanker - therefore you should be looking on isolated targets or someone that you can easily go in on and out again.
Flight:
- This is probably one of the best mobilities in the game, you can do quite literally anything that you want to with it. This means, you can afford to fly into the air, or you can hover closely to the ground. Even use it just to get to higher ground - it’s okay.
- Unlike someone like Genji or Tracer, where you might want to leave your mobility as an exit rather than an entry, you can totally use flight to advance in on your target. By the time that you are done with your target, you will have your mobility to run away if you need to.
- Be unpredictable. Echo has quite a large hitbox, and she sticks out like a sore thumb. You can ‘strafe’ with Echo, so that the enemy has a harder time in hitting you.
- Because of your high mobility, you can very easily also peel for your backline. You’re not always going to be able to flank and that’s okay, her mobility means that you can protect your team and discourage flankers onto your backline.
Sticky Bombs:
- You need to be using your sticky bombs as often as you can. You are never going to be doing enough damage with just your primary.
- Pair your sticky bombs with your primary, you can pre-shot your primary, shoot your bombs and continue shooting at your target to deal simultaneous damage.
- Generally you should be looking to stick as many bombs as possible on your singular target, but it’s okay to spin spray your bombs if you’re going up against hyper mobile heroes - it increases the chance of hitting them.
- Don’t be afraid to shoot at the ground to force enemies to move, or to trick them into moving into your bombs.
Focusing Beam:
- I’m sure many people know this already - but ONLY use the beam when you have your target on less than half. This should be your finishing move, it’s very easy to track and it does 200 damage on enemies that are half.
- Ties into the first point, but you should be using the beam as the finishing move of the combo that I talked about in her Sticky Bombs. Primary -> Sticky -> Primary -> Beam. Obviously add more steps if necessary, but that should secure you the kill on literally any hero (yes, even Roadhog).
- If your target is about to get healing, cancel the ability. Run away, that’s a lost fight. Echo can do 1v2, but she struggles against them since she has to use her whole kit.
Duplicate:
- You should be going for heroes with fast ult charge, granted, Echo already gains her sub-ult very quickly when she transforms, but it makes a big difference between going someone like DVA and McCree.
- Heroes that I would recommend are: Roadhog (Self sustain, crowd control and can boop people off point), Zarya (You get charge ridiculously quickly, and again, crowd control. The enemy will probably be too slow to respond by spreading out before you have your ult), DVA (it’s usually better if you can get a pocket as you don’t want to waste time de-meching, but on average, I can get two bombs out - You don’t even have to get kills but it creates massive space). Moira (You can basically heal for 2 seconds and get her ultimate. This can be supportive and offensive which is another plus.)
- Don’t be hesitant to use your ultimate selfishly by using it to prevent your death. It works very often and I win the fights most times that I do this.
Range:
- Echo’s projectiles are very slow, fighting as her from a long range isn’t really optimal, if you’re having to create a opening, i’d recommend using your stickies - it is stackable and attachable damage which travels at a much higher speed compared to her primary.
- I’d say that you should really only fight up-close if you find yourself in the position. Using that combo that I suggested whilst being extremely close would be self-inflicting due to her stickies. It is generally better than the long range option but it just opens Echo up to things like being headshot or stunned - something that you generally want to avoid because it ruins the flow of your combos.
- Mid-range is ideal, but when I say mid, i mean more on the closer side than the further side. You’re staying out of the boop/stun range and if you need to play corners, it gives you a better chance and opportunity to re-position yourself. Not only is this more optimal, it’s still within Echo’s beam range though, I would recommend getting a bit closer when you’re getting to the end of the combo as there’s less chance for error and more likely than not - your target will be running away at that point.
I also just want to say, I’m not some Echo god, so some of these tips may seem very obvious. But I always see people confused about Echo and this is just something I learned by trial and error. She can be very oppressive in the right hands and I got a 60% winrate on her, so I thought that some of these little tips might help others looking to play Echo, or even just to understand her as a hero.
I tried, it’s hard to experiment with Echo, especially since it’s just easier to play heroes you already know, so i aim to help people as much as i can