There’s a ton of discussion here about which heroes are OP, arguments about private profiles, complaints about leavers and matchmaking, rework suggestions, communication problems, and more. I am here to provide any insight that anyone might want on anything.
Who am I as a player?
My name is Eon, Neon, or Timeless but I typically go by Eon. I’m obviously a DPS player but I’m also not oblivious to the requirements of other roles. I might not personally play Reinhardt but I can certainly tell a good one from a bad one and offer suggestions to improve your gameplay. I currently play Widow, Doomfist, McCree, and Hanzo but I have extensive experience on pretty much every DPS hero in past seasons and on other accounts. I’m unbias in my assessments of the game.
Who am I as a coach?
I have been an Overwatch coach for WaWa’s Bootcamp for almost two years now and have coached dozens of students ranging from Bronze to 4.2k. I have literally seen it all. I have never had a student come away from a session confused or feeling bad about their gameplay. I’m honest and don’t sugar coat things but that’s what’s needed for improvement.
One of my proudest coaching achievements has been a repeat student of mine and his climb alongside his sessions. He came to me as a mid Master Tracer player who was struggling to improve and was in the “hardstuck” mindset. I have worked with him for the past month or two and he has made massive strides forward. Earlier this week I had the pleasure to queue into him in a 4150 average SR game. I have never been so happy to see someone apply what they have learned right in front of my eyes.
What will I answer?
I’m here to clear up anything and everything. No question is too stupid or too niche. No question is unanswerable. I made a similar thread in the Competitive Discussion section geared more towards helping players climb and was asked about milkshakes. I was also asked about effective communication tactics. Both questions are 100% legitimate in my eyes.
More about me and my coaching.
Coaching Review SamplesScreenshots
The student game, apologies for the poor quality stream screenshot.
Up-to-date Timeless profile.
Neon ranking in early S8.
Eon ranking in mid S2.
Eon profile S5.
What do you think is the best way to improve your aim? I’m an Ana main in diamond and sometimes I have games where I land almost every shot and other times I miss my aim on the ally tracer standing still. How do you become more consistent? Because I think it’s my inconsistency in my mechanical skills that’s preventing me from reaching masters again.
On my main I have a 70% winrate with Hammond in comp. I’m at 3450SR right now. I have only ever hit Master once back in Season 7 briefly with D.Va. What can I do or say when my team (I play solo q) is asking me to swap off of Hammond? I’m sometimes accused of feeding or not working with the team. Is it that they don’t understand Hammond or am i playing him wrong?
Since you’re an Ana player you can make perfect use of Ana paintball lobbies to get you quickscope timings down as well as working on your close range hipfire accuracy. Missing targets that are standing still is something that everyone does to a certain extent, myself absolutely included, so don’t beat yourself up over it.
Aiming is as simple as “click on them” but a lot of people overcomplicate it by flicking when they dont need to or overcorrecting for every micro movement. The more you practice “just clicking on them” the better you’ll get at it. Start out trying to be as accurate as possible and then the speed will come in time.
Aim training through other games/programs is also a good way to warm up and work on some deeper rooted habits. I suggest Aimhero or Aimlab for this. I used to use Aimhero but a student showed me Aimlab and I quite like it. Explore the modes and see where you struggle. Work on those areas first.
It comes with time, obviously, as well as your practice habits. Make sure that you take practicing seriously and that you don’t allow yourself to get lazy with your aim. Ever. Even if you’re just having a good time with some friends in Quickplay you should still be trying your best to land as many shots as possible.
Before I get into answering the rest of your question I think I should first establish the value of winrates. Having a high winrate can either mean you’re playing below your natural level or that you have not played enough games to average out to your true winrate.
Having a 70% winrate over 10 games isn’t bad.
Having a 70% winrate over 100 games is awesome.
If you have that winrate then you should keep playing that hero until it comes closer to 50-55%. At that point you have reached the rough equalizing point for your ability on that hero and the ability of the enemy players to counter you.
Swapping heroes is a tricky thing. I am of the thought that a player who can play 3 heroes at a GM level is better than a player who can play 12 heroes at a Master level. It makes sense to play your best heroes and to learn how they work against their counters. There are very few true hard counters in Overwatch. Tracer can easily outplay a McCree and not break a sweat. Brigitte can position to completely avoid a Pharah’s pressure and carry on normally.
If your team is asking you to swap and you’re in the category of “100 games played with a 70% winrate” then I suggest you explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Explain why you wont switch and tell them your plan to move forward effectively. If they think you’re being countered then explain to them that you’re actually not. If your hero doesn’t work at all with your team comp then you can ask someone else to switch (Should be a last resort) or just suggest alternative playstyles for that comp to allow you to perform better.
Timing. Timing is probably the single most important skill that the largest amount of players lack. Diving in as Hammond is super easy but he’s a lot like Winston where he needs his team to be aware of his dive to make the most use out of it. Your combo as Hammond should be to Grapple, Slam, Shield, Shoot, Grapple out. This will deal some damage but most importantly act as an Orisa halt that kicks enemies into the air. Combo this with a Widowmaker and you can get lots of free and easy support kills.
If you go in while your team isn’t paying attention or when nobody can take advantage of the Slam then you are feeding. Hammond’s Shields don’t give ult charge so it sometimes seems like you’re feeding more than you actually are but you need to remember that you have a massive hitbox and a ton of health. Losing 400 of it in a second or two might not seem like you fed but you essentially fed two lives worth of squishy HP.
“ELO Hell” is the idea of someone not being able to climb out of a given rank. Everyone will say it’s a different rank and that rank will always coincidentally be similar to their current or peak rank. Everyone will find a rank where they cannot climb any higher. Lots of players find this and then assume something is wrong because they interpret SR wrong.
Players who use ELO Hell as a way to explain their stagnation will never climb because they fail to assess their own gameplay and look for areas of improvement. It’s a cop-out, basically.
ELO Hell is the “my dog ate my homework” of competitive Overwatch.
SR is a rough measure of your skill. If you stop improving then your SR will stop increasing. It should make sense and be crystal clear but when players look at their rank on a game-by-game basis they can quickly lose sight of what SR actually reflects.
There’s a few ways you can do this. They depend on your playstyle and the Pharah’s playstyle.
Night Market is a good map choice because you have lots of access to medium/high ground both around point and outside in the open courtyard area.
Some Pharahs just drop out of the sky as soon as they get the plip of a hitmarker. This is most true in lower ranks, typically below Silver. Simply spamming at her can bring her down until you can get a more favorable engagement when she runs out of boost juice.
Outside of just hoping the best strategies are to:
Take those areas of middle/highground and use them to close the gap to her in the air.
1.a. Make use of Shadowstep to teleport into the top windows of the objective and lurk there until she comes in through the lower/upper courtyard entrances. This is easiest when she has ultimate because she is forced to enter the point and engage with your strategy.
Use the points of entry onto the objective as mini chokes that she’s forced to take.
2.a. If she has a habit of entering point frequently you can predict her entrance by her footsteps/jetpack sounds combined with the direction her team is taking. Once you establish which entrance she is likely to take you can simply wait there outside of her LoS and engage when she enters.
Pressure her team so he is forced to engage you.
3.a. If her team is an equal problem as her you can take close quarters engagements with her team that force her to either ignore you and let you continue getting kills or engage you in a CQC environment where you stand an infinitely better chance of winning. On Night Market the most obvious areas are by the mega off the courtyard and the hallways from either spawn to it. It’s risky because you’re further from the objective but if you already have control over it the benefits you get from moving up and playing aggressively are well worth it.
The correct answer was to shadowstep to the opposing window above the front entrance.
Please review the material before the final exam. It is not open note, there will be no formula sheet and you will be asked to reset your calculators. There is no curve or extra credit.
D.Va excels at pressuring. She is highly mobile with a high damage potential. You need to split this offensive ability with her ability to defend her team. You need to be aware of when you need to DM members of your team. You can eat Pharah rockets, Widow shots, and obviously ultimates.
When you have decided to be offensive you should prioritize heroes that are currently not being pressured by your team. An uncontested Widow is a great example. You can dive her and thus create an opening for your team to engage.
Don’t go too far away from your team when you dive. You should be able to get back to them if they need you. Time your dives so your team is advancing while you’re diving the target. This means that by the time you disengage from the target you can fall back to your team that moved up to you in the meantime.
The “key targets” you’re focusing might not be as key as you think.
1.a Killing supports and DPS are what McCree is good at. If you can kill a squishy you should. Pumping shots into tanks isn’t bad but your time is better used to secure kills.
The timings of your picks are either too early in a fight or too late.
2.a If you kill a target 10 seconds before your team can get to the objective then they’ll basically be back by the time the fight reaches a potential turning point. If you have already lost the fight but still get picks they only contribute to your ult charge and not winning the already lost fight.
Your ults have very little impact.
3.a High Noon is an ult that should be used to zone or secure one or two easy picks. Use it often. You can use it aggressively to reload as well if you’re confident in your aim.
You’re not working with your team to kill the key targets fast enough.
4.a This plays into point 3 but if you get one key pick after 30 seconds of 1v1ing them then you’re not performing appropriately. Even if you don’t get picks you can still be a large contribution to your team winning by weakening the same key targets at a faster rate and better timeframe.
I do shoot at tanks too much. Mostly to charge my ultimate when I don’t have clear sight on a squishy. But sometimes I feel like I can take down their Zarya or Hog because their half health, but it doesn’t always work out.
I usually play with/around my team on high ground when they’re pushing, so it’s probably not the worst issue, but I do have a habit of trying to kill those Supports after the fight is over.
I generally don’t have a problem with ultimate usage, in my opinion. I mostly use it to drop the Pharmercy combo or draw out abilities like Reaper’s Wraith and Genji’s Deflect. All other scenarios I use it to get picks on a distracted team.
This is probably the big offender. I get too distracted shooting that I sometimes don’t realize I’ve been shooting and not killing for 30 seconds. Though sometimes I wish it was easier the team to capitalize on weak targets. Nobody is playing dive anymore due to Brigitte and I usually have to rely on myself to get those picks on weak targets.
![:unamused:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/unamused.png?v=5" ":unamused:")