Mechanical skill is not everything

General Discussion
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I am going to try and explain to those “skilled” players that mechanical skill is not everything.

Alot of “low skill” heros are getting hate for being easy to play.
I will not deny that they are easy to play, they have a low skillfloor.
But that does not mean the skill ceilling is low.

Everybody can play mercy and heal.
Everybody can play hold a barrier.

Gamesense is the most inportant thing in overwatch.

Lets compare it to chess.

Everybody can move a chess piece.
You do not need mechanical skill at all to eat a piece.
So chess takes no skill right?

no…

It is the gamesense that seperates you and a grandmaster.

A grandmaster bastion player has more skill then a diamond tracer/genji player.
Good mercy players know who to heal first/when to damageboost/when to fly away/when to ult.
Good reinhard players know when to charge/swing/protect your team/push in/retreat.
Stop acting as because your character takes more mechanical skill you are a better gamer and use your gamesense to know you should not 1v6 the enemy team.

Stop saying that characters who need little mechanical skill to work should not be in highranks/owl.
Bastion Symetra Mercy Torbjörn etc… all deserve to be in highranks if they need good gamesense to work.

If you still do not belive me try to rank up with a “unskilled” hero.

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It isn’t. And no one ever said it is.

There are only people who say it shouldn’t matter.

There are no one who says only that should matter.

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Skill is hero dependent. Some heroes require more mechanical skill than others. Other heroes need more positioning knowledge or awareness, etc than other heroes. That’s why people call Rein a high skill cap tank. While he doesn’t need as much mechanical skill as other heroes, or even other tanks, he needs a lot more positioning and awareness.

And then there are some heroes that are just overall easier or harder than the rest of the heroes to be effective with. Overall, heroes like Mercy and Brigitte just don’t need to rely a lot on mechanical skill, gamesense, or positioning as much as other heroes, whereas heroes like Ana need massive amount of all types of skill to get the most worth out of.

Finally, while mechanical skill isn’t “everything”, OW is primarily an FPS, meaning that mechanical skill is going to play a large part of what is considered “skill”, making it one of the primary skill necessary to do well.

This is simply not true. Tracer and Genji are flankers, and probably the hardest to use effectively out of all the DPS heroes. It requires a lot of time and practice to get the most out of their movement abilities, and in this meta, flankers are extremely vulnerable. Bastion, for the most part, relies mostly on positioning. In the current meta, it is harder to get use out of him, but as a hero he’s not that difficult.

People who say this are referring to the players who One trick Mercy/Brigitte/Moira (as previously stated, the easier heroes in the game to be effective with) to higher ranks, and then are stuck playing only that character.

You brought up the chess analogy. Playing Mercy and Brigitte in the current ladder is like having all of your pieces be queens.

And there have been numerous people who have done just this. If you don’t believe me, watch any GM player’s stream and see how many they run into every single game.

You can be mad if you want, but at the end of the day, OW is an FPS. Mechanical skill isn’t everything, but it is a huge part of the “skill” in this game.

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It does mean that it’s lower than most other heroes’.

Which every hero requires. Thus, mechanical skill is the only thing setting them apart.

You make a claim, you embloden it, and then you don’t try to back it up or justify it?

Bastion, Symmetra and Torb all require aim. Quite a lot of it, actually. I feel like this was made for Mercy, but you tried to make it not about Mercy by trying to apply it to other heroes.

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No, mechanical skill isn’t everything but it’s a very big part. You can compare it to playing chess while being stupid/having no strategic sense.

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A grandmaster bastion player has more skill then a grandmaster tracer/genji player.
I meant to say then a diamond tracer/genji player.

I seen people say “it is easy to get to grandmaster as mercy”
So i wanted to put that there.

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A good tracer and genji need to know who to kill first.

How is know who to heal first more difficult then knowing then who to heal first?

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Every hero requires gamesense. Not every hero requires hours and hours of aim practice.

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Can we not get into this pissing contest again. Mechanical skill, strategic thinking, gamesense. These trinity are equally important for every hero.

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Bastion, Symmetra and Torb all require aim. Quite a lot of it, actually. I feel like this was made for Mercy, but you tried to make it not about Mercy by trying to apply it to other heroes.

Aim is not everything with mechanical skill just look at df

Which every hero requires. Thus, mechanical skill is the only thing setting them apart.

I do not think that a widow maker needs to have as much gamesense as a reinhard player.

You make a claim, you embloden it, and then you don’t try to back it up or justify it?

It was a mistake i meant to write then a diamond player.

I wrote this because i have heard people say " it is easy to get to grandmaster with mercy" back in the day she was op.

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This is somewhat debatable.

It is easier to get to GM by only playing Mercy or Brigitte than it is only playing any other hero.

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But

Some heroes require neither mechanical capacity OR much game sense to be effective with.

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it is about 70% or even 80

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A good tracer and genji need to know who to kill first.

How is know who to heal first more difficult then knowing who to heal first?

I can not write how it is more difficult without just saying that when i played dps decision making was easier for me then when i played support.

I think it lies it being harder to predict who of your teammates will die instead of who of the enemy is easier to kill.

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Doomfist requires little mechanical skill up until Master-GM. He’s 90% technical skill; knowing when to and when not to dive into the entire enemy team.

Fancy roll-outs and getting up to Pharahs takes practice and skill, but you don’t see that stuff done reliably except at the highest level.

Also, DF is pretty much the only major example of where mechanical skill isn’t entirely aiming.

There are slight differences in the amount of gamesense required in heroes. You’ve compared someone with a little bit more on average to someone with a little bit less than average. However, the one that requires a little less than average requires a lot more mechanical skill.

Mercy doesn’t require any more gamesense than any other support, and requires next to no mechanical skill (the only place it comes into is the Caduceus Blaster and GA slingshotting - which, let’s be honest, isn’t difficult.

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It is the teammate that the enemy is shooting at.

It is also much easier to be aware of your surrounding when you don’t need to aim. Take mercy. You are free to lock on to a heal target and then you can just look around the battlefield because you are locked on and can turn your head in almost any other direction for a short time while still healing your target

Most other heroes don’t have this freedom. To do their job they must keep their target in the center of the screen so you have to keep track of the rest of the battle field mentally because you can’t look around

I agree Aim skill is not everything.

But a hero like ZEN is harder than Mercy IMO

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But

Some heroes require neither mechanical capacity OR much game sense to be effective with.

What you say it true, when mercy was op a bad mercy player could do more then a good ana player.

This is mostly for people that belive that if a character has no mechanical skill the player playing them is unskilled.

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Gold plat and diamond are actually not too far of being the same skill. (for consol)

It’s way more about game sense. Outplay doesn’t mean out aim. I got out of plat by just always taking the high ground, even between fights would always reset back the same high ground position and not over extending or trying to chance anyone.

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Mercy’s win rate in GM is so terrible that I’m not convinced Mercy mains can get into GM that easily anymore. Something like high masters, sure. She’s just flat out worse in most comps.

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The thing is, everything hero requires gamesense. If you have trash aim, but good gamesense, you’ll be good to go.

However, on a hero like soldier, if you’re lacking in either department, you won’t be good to go. Gamesense is useless if you can’t aim and aim is useless if you’re brainless. See the arguement behind this?

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