I can’t do it man. I admit it. When I play Winston I feed like a maniac. I know the premise of the character is to dive and peel and dance around the barrier but I just don’t get it. Every time I try to jump a support the entire team turns around and murders me.
I’ve got Zenyatta and Lucio down to a science–like those 2 are my mains and I’m like pretty okay with every support on a good day, or at least as good as I’m satisfied with my performance. I’m trying to expand my hero pool to cover Rein and Winston, but the monkey is just not workin’ for me man! Idk how some of these guys are unkillable with the character and I’m not and I think I’m doing the same things they’re doing but apparently noooooot!
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I see a lot of dive winston comps involve another player i.e tracer gengi or widow while everyone dives on the winston they dive on the enemy.
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Thats the problem, isn’t it? You can’t jump in completely alone and expect to demolish the enemy backline. Winston is a Main-Tank, when you just leave your team behind, they don’t have a barrier anymore.
The idea of a dive comp is to dive the enemy backline together, not alone, which includes to properly communicate when you jump in, so your team can actually follow you.
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Winston is all about picking your spots.
The OWL pros and 4k+ level dive comp streamers make it seem like your spot is every single team fight, but that’s due to the OTHER players on the team going with them.
If you don’t have a dive buddy on your team tag teaming targets you just can’t randomly dive into the other team. You have to lurk and sort of be a weak shield tank. Push that pay load a little bit and wait… wait… Ok team fight breaking out… wait and AH HA!! I see weakness!!!
Then you pounce and tickle everyone as much as you can before needing to leap or just run back out.
The shield dance move and timing comes with practice, the landing jumps comes with practice. It’s the jump in timing that most need to work on to survive and have impact.
The main thing newbie winstons do that say my master level friends on winston don’t is pounce into the middle of a team with full health. If you don’t have a solo healer off a “bit too far” and his team off doing other stuff, you wait. The better you get at the shield dance and timing the more risk you can take.
Until then just be more patient. Even a winston hanging around his support and shooing away Genji and other flankers is bringing value to the tank role.
also be mindful of what support classes you have. Do you have a zen orb? Do you have a Moira who can’t really heal at range? All of that comes into play too.
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Solid advice I struggle to remember myself sometimes.
Be patient - wait for someone (preferably a healer, but most squishies will do) to be somewhat separated, see if you can drop on them while preserving your leap, don’t drop your shield too early/late, once you’re fighting never have your leap off cd. Mercy helps A LOT.
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First learn his tricks.
Like melee the instant before landing, so it cancels the animation for 80 damage.
Press space while landing so you do a small jump and land on the edge of your bubble instead of the middle.
Practice his air movements.
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1st mistake: Don’t feed.
That will only depend on your comp. If the team is not playing dive (dva, winston, zenyatta, lucio, tracer, genji), then don’t dive.
Obviously. Without the rest of the dive comp not following, you’ll die. You’re a HUGE GORILLA
That’s the healer’s job. Also winston deal too low damage. Try to land on top, or close to an opponent to deal 45 additional damage.
Just a couple of helpful tips here:
winston has rather low damage. add in punches to increase this and add burst.
try to spread out your cooldowns. what I mean by this is don’t use both leap and shield too close together as it leaves you completely defenseless for extended periods of time. for example, leap, attack the target until they turn around, dance a bit, then drop bubble, continue to fight, and either finish off the kill, or if you need to, your leap should be off cooldown to get out. this way you always should have one or the other either off or close to off cooldown to defend yourself with.
your leap deals damage. try to land as close to your target as possible to get them taking damage before the fight even starts. As mentioned before, also get used to punching your target before you land during your jump (you can do it after, but that takes away time you could be shooting, the burst comes from doing it before landing). example, landing right on a target does 45 damage. punching right before landing right on a target does 75 damage followed by your 60 dps means dealing 135 before they really even have a chance to fight back. now obviously most leaps are not going to be perfect hits, but you get the idea.
Most healers should know this, but unfortunately it’s probably not the case but, you can also use your jump when low to stay in the fight by just jumping up into the air, away from the fight giving your healers extra time to keep you alive. this can work especially well in conjunction with a mercy, as it also gives her a way to get vertical and away from most of the fight while still healing. you then come down and (punch then) land on someone, give them some electrotherapy, place your shield down again, and hopefully take the fight. rinse and repeat as necessary.
I am by no means the greatest at winston, so other people could probably go more into detail, but those are some basic tips and tricks i’ve picked up while playing him.
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Thanks for the advice dog!
Winston is really effective when he has a D.va defense matrix or a Zarya bubble absorbing damage when he dives in. You should be diving squishy characters who are bad at fighting close up. Dive widows, hanzos, zenyattas, genjis, etc. But just make sure that your team is going to follow up on your dives. I can’t describe how many times I’ve seen Winston either jump in alone into a 6v1, or try to dive on a high hp target like Rein or Bastion
Play high ground when using Winston on defense, so you can ward off flankers and snipers + pounce on poorly positioned supports.
My only advice is do what i did: watch people play winston and try use what they do into your own game. For example a mistake i always notice is not coordinating with your dva and supports. Speed in as lucio, make sure your bubbles up and attack as a group because winstons damage is poor alone but with a discord and other damage coming in he becomes very powerful. Team coordination is my answer.
You need your team! You can’t do anything without your team! They are there for you as you are there for them. You are the initiator, not the sole DPS.
This is what helped me :
If u want to learn him in comp choose him as 2nd tank only.
- Watch a few You tube tutorials
- Remap the Meele hit on L2 if u play in console
- Try not to JUMP ATTACK …but fall from High Ground, then ZAP , then BUBBLE , then IVADE with the jump (in otherwords try to have jump pack and bubble to evade not attack)
- When in the Mayhem with your teamates Jump up so u do meteor strikes on opponents (40damage) and MEELE constantly (this is the hardest for me)
- Get one of the healers behind u and 1 dps when intiating dives
- Play around health packs
- Learn to use OFF MAP falls then Jump
- Learn to cancell the jump pack and do shorter jumps with the backwards key / stick
WINSTON IS A DIFFICULT HERO 4 ME TO BE GOOD AS U CANNOT READ YOUR MISTAKES EASY YOU CAN PLAY HIM 300hours WRONG SO SAVE REPLAYS TO WATCH
(for widow eg u can check your kill count and get better)
ALSO XQC MIRRO etc have an average kill count of 20 on Winston.
Dont comfuse him with Dva that can reach 45 kills.
In a way he lowers the health of the enemy rather than scoring finall kills