D.Va - My Top 5 Tips

In light of the 'one-trick player ban' scandal (try saying that fast!), I thought I better start to play different Heroes, other than Torbjorn.............

Only joking! I do play other Heroes, actually, I like to consider myself a flex player (not a very good one, but a flex player non the less).

Anyway, recently I've been playing a lot of D.Va. and I've really enjoyed playing here. So much so, I thought I would write a quick blog of my top 5 tips on how I thing she should be played.

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility in lost SR 1. Range – work on your range/ distance. Get in the oppositions face! Remember, you’re in a massive mech. You’ll do a load more damage. Don’t worry if you loss your mech, you can hide as baby D.Va and make pop shots at range to charge your mech faster. Defiantly be more aggressive.
2. Defence Matrix – learn when to use defence matrix, and when to let it cool. This took me a while to get used to, but just keep practising. The general role I use, if you’re not close to enemies use your defence matrix over your fusion cannons. You will be a lot more effective. Use it to shield your team mates, and also use it to put in the faces of the enemy. Don’t be scared to fly into the oppositions DPS and harass them with it. It’ll drive Soldier players nuts! I also found it useful to research what defence matrix blocks/ shields and what it doesn’t.
3. Self-destruct – Think of self-destruct as a way of crowd controlling the enemy. An example of this is if you’re playing a control point map, and the enemy has captured the point (also standing on the point), send the self-destruct in and watch them scatter. This is really effective if you communicate the plan of attack with your team mates.
4. Flank – Consider using D.Va as a flanker on some maps. I use D.Va to flank quite a bit. You do need to be really aggressive when flanking with her though, but once you get used to that style of play, you can really disturb the enemy backline.
5. Harass, harass and harass – I’ve mentioned this already, but honestly, if you get in the face of the enemy they will find it a struggle to deal with (just think of all the horrible situations you would have been in when facing a D.Va on the opposite team). You may not feel like your doing much, but even if you distract one or two of the enemies, you are creating space for your DPS to do some damage.

Toxicity?! But Aren't We A Lucky Bunch?

What a week to be an Overwatch fan! Like most of you, I pretty much spent the whole weekend watching Youtube clips of BlizzCon 2017, and of course the Overwatch World Cup finals. I was so excited to wake up on Saturday morning (remember I am from the UK) to watch the opening ceremony. It reminded me of being a kid, running down stairs on Christmas morning to see what Father Christmas (again, remember I am from the UK) had brought me.

Well, I wasn't disappointed!

In the weeks leading up to BlizzCon I had read a lot of articles and watched a lot of videos about what people thought Blizzard needed to announce, and I became a little disheartened by it all. Let me explain. It seemed to me that the community was solely focused on the toxicity in the game and that Blizzard needed to reveal some magical 'anti-toxicity' solution, otherwise the game would be doomed. "Ow bloody hell mate, cheers up. There are plenty more fish in the sea".

Well after watching the opening ceremony, all those negative feelings just slipped away. Who cares if people are shouting at me because I've picked Lucio over Mercy - as long as Blizzard give me Moira (ow and by the way, if you want a Mercy in the team so badly, why don't you pick her, or at least learn how to play her). And who cares if a stropping Torbjorn keeps jumping off the map because they cannot play Soldier 76 - as long as Blizzard give me Blizzard World.

These are just two examples from a long list of new content that Blizzard announced. New legendary skins, Overwatch League, Overwatch League skins, a new animated short, nerfed Mercy (ok, maybe that one's too soon, sorry)............ and all for FREE. Sometimes I think we, as the Overwatch community, need to step back and be thankful to Blizzard. They do, and are doing, a great job.

Ok yes, obviously I have been a little flippant. Of course we cannot tolerate toxicity in the game. And yes, Blizzard are responsible for sorting the issue. However, I trust Blizzard will get it right in the end, because the one thing that came across from all the reveals, presentations, interviews at BlizzCon, they care about the game!

10 Hours In Paradise - A Overwatch Beginners Guide

I was going through some old stuff on my laptop over the weekend and I came across this Overwatch guide I wrote for the OverPWN forum last October. It's a guide of my first 10 hours with Overwatch.

Anyway, most of the points are still relevant, so I thought I would share it. Enjoy - bushie83

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I wanted to share my thoughts and experiences of my first 10 hours with Overwatch. I am in no way claiming to be an Overwatch expert, far from it, I am only level 23 so haven't even played Competitive. However, that said, I thought some of my experiences may help improve your game.

It's also worth noting that I've read and watched a lot of guides, which I recommend you do.

So below, in no particular order, are my beginner tips for Overwatch

Heroes:
Make sure you spend  time with all the heroes. You may not have a good game with one hero, but persevere - that hero may just become your favourite. I couldn't get on with Torbjorn at first but I forced myself to play him, and now he's one on my "go to" defence heroes, if needed.

Playing all heroes also gives you flexibility if selecting your preferred hero means creating an unbalanced team. You're more than likely not going to master every hero (although I am sure there are some of you out there that have), however by testing all heroes, you will find the ones that suits your playing style. Maybe try and master one hero from each class? That's what I tried to do.

Practice makes perfect..........well better in the case of Overwatch:
There is a reason Blizzard put a training mode in the game. Use it!

You could argue that playing  quick mode is practicing. I found, at first, because the game is so fast, I tended to panic when under attack. By entering the training mode and practicing using the heros abilities and trying to come up with new combos, it helped me stay calm when under attack, and it ultimately helped my game.

There are a load of hero guides on the internet. I would recommend reading/ watching some before playing a new hero.

Do your job:
There are 4 main roles/ classes in Overwatch - offence, defence, tank and support. Make sure you know and play your role. I've seen Windowmakers (the out-and-out sniper of Overwatch) on the front line of an attack. Needless to say, she died pretty quickly.

The roles are not rigid, that's what makes Overwatch so good. An example of this is some offencive heroes i.e. Soldier 76 and McCree are very good in some defensive situations, depending on what tactics your team are playing.

Again, I would recommend doing some research on the heroes, and read/ watch some hero guides.

Know your surroundings:
Get to know all of the maps. By knowing the maps, you will know where to set up some good defences, or know the best places to retreat to if your being chased down by a hero.
You can spend time exploring the maps in skirmish mode.

Also, get to know where all the health locations are - you are going to need them. In fact...........

Heal, heal and heal:
Other than some support heroes, your health will not regenerate over time, like some FPS games. So make sure you are always healing, especially if you do not have a healer in your team, for what ever reason.

I found I good tactic is to know all the health locations, and stay close to them!

Overtime:
You're defending the point, it starts to count down, 97%, 98%, 99%....... OVERTIME!

Be aware of overtime. Don't be complacent at 99%, stay calm and continue with the plan. So many times I've seen people get excited at 99% thinking the point is won, rush into the enemy and die! I've even been involved in a game were the whole of my team rushed into the enemy at 99% and all died - we ended up losing the point.

Keep calm, and defend the point as planned.

Play as a team:
Within a couple of games, I soon realised that Overwatch is a team game. I "came" from Destiny were you mainly play solo (yes, I know you play as teams for Raids, but generally, you play Destiny solo). Overwatch is not Destiny! If you go running into a game, over extend, you will die! Go into a game as a team, even if you are not in communication with your team mates, go into the battle as a team. If you die, respawn and see all of your team mates have died, don't just run back into the battle. You will die. Wait for your team mates to respawn, and go in together.

Obviously there are some heroes you can play "solo". Maybe your playing Tracer or Reaper and want to flank the enemy, you could argue that you are soloing! Yes, you are going into the battle on your own, but it's still important to start the attack or defence as a team. So before you flank, wait for the rest of your team to start.

Don't SOLO!

Hopefully you have found this guide to be of some help. As I have mentioned, I am in no way a expert at Overwatch, but if you've taken one thing from this guide, I would be happy. Likewise, you may be an experienced Overwatch player and don't agree with something I have written, please let me know, I am still learning and the whole point of OVA:done is to become a better Overwatch player.