ok so if you play Total Mayhem alot you may have played against me at one point or another. over the years of playing TM i realized something about the game mode. in order to win you must complete these requirements.
high dps (dmg per sec) in these order: turrets, healer, dps, tank. alot of players i see just shoot the tank which give out high dmg in your stats sheet but can easily be covered by the enemy healer. thus having healers having higher numbers than people with dmg.
A. turrets are horribly boring to shoot at but they do constant 30dps every time its hurting someone. that with the dmg character also shooting can reach up to 220 dps and thats half health of any squishy.
a. its also good target practice shooting turrets since they dont move.
B. shooting healers first is one of the hardest things to do. thus in total mayhem its arcade so dont feel bad if you cant hit them just keep trying and eventually you will get used to them and be able to hit them over time. as long you hit them once you reduce their own heals to themselves by 15% (if you dps if not then you help the dps do more dmg to the healer)
C. hit as many people you can. in regular gamplay its best to pick a target and finnish them… in mayhem its best to tag everyone. this can vary tedius and slow with the game, but the concept is that you hit everyone then the enemy healer will have to run around trying to keep everyone healed. this will be impossible for healers. when 3 of the enemy team is low health this will be the best chance to pounce on the healer. if by chance its a moria. the only way you can get her is to listen to her phase. after 1000hours you will notice they usually faze back and forth so its easy to predict where they will phase since they will always need to be near payload or they will lose overtime. or any cc will work against moria but junk’s trap is best. if its a dancing mercy. best bet is to guard dead bodies. mercy will have a 60% chance of reviving because of the double health or she ults and people cant hit her when she is reviving. but it is the only good trap you have against a good mercy.
D. hit scans character must at least be 55% accurate with their main fire. cuz if you hit more the higher the dps will be. if not they will be healed by the healer quicker than you can dish out. if you cant it is ok, if you have survivability and keep dishing out dmg over time it will make an opportunity. but have every match put a personal achievement like getting 41% accurate with characters who are hit scan players. or have highest dmg in the whole match. this will help with your accurate and you keep tabs on if you did or bad in that round.
how to deal with tank. ex: ball stall, people in mayhem hate ball because of his high health and his armor. but ball is simple to beat but again needs to have high dps. you could use cc’s to keep ball from moving so much so it is an easier target to shoot. there is the rein charge pull away, if you are going to go off the map i will not recommend it against the ball since he can climb back up if he is able to hit his string. in my strat i use is torb with my turret in high ground it will hit ball most of the time while he circling payload and i just shoot on side or the other with my main fire and im a little ways away so he cant get an armor boost by me with his skill. this will make ball low health and he will run away. at this point its best to put traps or any type of cc that will slow ball from coming back to payload… this will be a long game unless the dps is there and ball dies thus making the other team rethink what they will do. usually they will choose another stopper like mei or orisa. but remember only go after tank when heals and dmg characters are dead. there is no point in taking on a tank if he gets healed or you get flanked by a dmg character.
A. if by chance you get chased by a tank. i would just run and gun. to keep him chasing you. if you make a route to health packs you will make value of time of tank not being at payload so the other team can push it without a big tank on there. also if you get chased sometimes a healer or someone will help the tank chase the one. giving your team a 4v3 battle on payload.
B. but its mayhem what if they go 3 tanks? well you take one out of the equation and the other team will have to deal with the other 2. but remember kill the healers first and then dps. the tank will be fish in the water without heals. though they could choose monkey and have shield but as long you work together monkey is easy. have close range in the bubble when he is in the bubble have someone shoot him when he jumps out of bubble. he dies quick. orisa is an easy kill if you flank her butt is her weakness since her fortify only gives you a .3s window to shoot her when she is unfortified. if you see an orisa who is perfect for the whole game she may be scripted and want to report them. i have played alot of scripted orisa’s. but to beat a scripted orisa shoot her but is the only way. again kill healers first because her fortify keeps her alive alot and when healers heal her she is immortal.
positioning. alot of people dont position themselves in mayhem its all leeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrroy jankins. which in comp or any mode it will still not work. but because of mayhem double health they can somewhat survive with some good footwork. but i notice that people hardly look up so when i go to high ground on any map people just ignore me more than when im on the same floor with them. turrets, healing pylon, and anything that can stay in high ground has a longer chance of surviving and make constant dmg/heals that it kinda makes it feel its broken. thus back to my first rule is to always aim for turrets first. this will help players look up more often and may find someone who is low there.
its ok to make mistakes. since mayhem have half cooldown your able to do more skills quicker. in doing so making mistakes will happen but its ok you will get another chance in a seconds. and encourage you to use as many skills you can when you have it. best way i can describe it its like the waltz. with 1,2,3 tempo. but with certain characters the rhythm is a little different
common strat i see. going GOATS (GO All Tank and Support). this is very easy to beat if you fallow the order of which you must dmg. my best character to beat it is torb. turret to constant dmg so healers keep healing and cant do anything else. and my shotgun shot at close range since they are all tank and im just a small character i keep dancing to make them work for killing me while i keep shooting my buck shot and eventually my turret or me will kill a support and it will slowly crumble and it will end in the other team rushing in one at a time.
this is what i learned from mayhem. im still not a good regular overwatch player. but i do win alot in TM. i dont know why. if i had to guess there is alot of bronze and silver who play TM. and im at best a gold. but i usually tend to stay in silver. i hope this helps with TM. if not then sry i have wasted your time. i do wish there was a comp TM because i would love to see different strategies that people will come up with with.
We’ve been on opposing teams from each other on a few occasions!
All good info!
If I were to add anything, it’d be this:
Order to kill is just like reg play, Supports die first, then DPS, then tank. This only changes if you’ve got someone pressuring your support, in which case you focus/distract/deter whoever is attacking them.
Pay attention to the enemy team comp, if they have an Ana, go Kiriko. The anti-nade is the most detrimental thing in this mode, because it only has like a 3 second cool down.
Torb and Sym turrets are extra annoying in this mode. It takes more time for you to kill a turret than it takes for the turret cooldown to be ready to deploy again. It’s like playing whack-a-mole, your best bet is to get a shield tank, or Mei and wall the turrets off. Otherwise, Torb is going to lay lakes of lava every 20 - 30 seconds.
Some tanks have been toned down in TM to make them manageable. (Zarya for instance used to have infinity bubble) Other tanks are still way too hard to kill, Doomfist, Orisa, Winston, and Wrecking Ball are super annoying for this reason. With the latest changes to tanks, I imagine this is going to be twice as bad. Total Mayhem hasn’t been on the playlist since the summer games events.
It takes Teamwork to win in TM, and if you’re on Defense, the match is already in your favor.
If the enemy team has a Lifeweaver, target him first. An uncontested LW is insane. The same goes for Torb, go after his turret each and every time to reduce his effectiveness by 50%.
Another tip I would say is, every hero is viable in this game mode, but like many game mode, if your hero pick is not effective, SWAP… this is true more so in total mayhem as if the team can spot out the weak link of the enemy team, they would target that person each and every time to have the number advantage.
Also, if the team has a Moira, save Grav or Cage for her. Either that or play Junk.
One other note, due to there being no restrictions on role, you can end up with some very frustrating comps.
Multi tank comps are always difficult, especially if that configuration is on defense.
If they go Winston, you absolutely must go Rammatra for the ability to punch through shields. It’s also a good idea to go with Sojourn to assist with punching through the shields with the railgun to get rid of the pesky Winston.
Ball is fairly easy to deal with, but your entire team has to focus him down, and it’s a good idea to either have a Mei or a Junkrat. Junkrat is hit or miss depending on the map, and the playstyle of the Ball in question. If they’re a “ground pounder” (repeat slams over and over ad nauseum) your best bet to counter is a DF. Sadly since knockback doesn’t affect tanks as much as it once did, you may have to go Rein+DF combo to displace Ball enough to get them off payload.
I haven’t had any chance to play TM with the new changes since the events dropped. This is typcially the case, we won’t see TM come up in rotation for the next few weeks.
i petically dont like to counter swap because it ends up the same at the end where both teams end up going GOATS and it ends the same way. i go torb to destroy GOATS. so i usually try to stay my first 2 picks. but i do know its a thing that overwatch wants to encourage. im hopeing they will put a limit of how many switches can a player do. like give them only 3 switches so it will be more interesting strategies at stakes. for most part if they do go sheild or bubble it best to time bubble. and with winton as long as someone is inside bubble and someone outside bubble winton dies easy.
if you are a weak link. you still can make face value if you pull your opponent away from payload. since your the weakest and they chase the weak if you have escape plans to get health packs and juke the opponent the opponent will make no value because he isnt on cart and he is chasing the weakest player on the map. thus the 4 strong players who is on the payload can win against there 4 because they lost 1 or 2 players because they love to chase the weak… if your team loses the 4v4 battle while your kiting its most likely it will not work out and may need to switch. but its a strat gamble you can take. i have done this with soldier, hanzo, and widow. and won with this strat all the time… but you must believe that your team will win the 4v4.
It’s rare, but I have seen a Widow or two in my time pop off in TM. Yeah, it takes them 2 shots to kill, or if they’re patient, 1, but they can still put in some work.
I mean its not impossible, but you pretty much have to be like a GM+ widow player in a lobby full of gold players who havent picked any tanks. Enough of a requirement that I’d argue she’s not considered viable.
I’d argue that Sojourn or Ashe would be more impactful, in my own opinion, but to each their own. Not my place to tell somewhere where to “git gud”
Oh I’m not trying to disparage anyone or anything like that. I’m just saying that IMO the scenarios where widow can accomplish something in TM are extraordinary situations and that would classify her as not viable overall.
Thing is, with the lack of available maps to play TM on, she does exceptionally well on Colosseum, Junkertown, and CIrcuit Royale, and those are up very frequently. She can get some work done on those maps.
Interesting. While those would definitely be maps she benefits from, I don’t seem to share your experiences. I feel like I could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen a widow get more than 2-3 kills on any map.
Also, lots of people play TM to learn a character. Having shortened cooldown times, more distractions, etc can assist with aim training when it comes to Widow.
Granted, I usually groan when I get a Widow on my team, I understand why they do what they do. I hope once they’ve seen they’re not having an impact they will switch off and play something more useful. It doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s ok.
When a new character is released, I always learn the mechanics in TM, and then adjust accordingly in the training area on the actual cooldown times. I find it helps me out immensely.
im still practicing widow on TM. but it was the same with hanzo. people yelled and made fun of hanzo pick. but with a weeks worth of practice learning positioning, timing, flicks, and other things made me one of the most annoying hanzo in TM. though every game i play i get chased by at least 2 people for some reason as long i survive 2 min thats 2 min that 2 people are not fighting my team. so again with widow if she can survive and have people chase her she makes value. dmg, heals, shields block stats are good but there are other values in the game that isn’t recorded. like the value of time. if you have a chase thats last 1min you still die… but that chase makes the other team have to fight a 4v4 if your team is better than the other your value is the payload moving even though your not moving it. to keep their best player out of the team fight is also a value.