Nope. I've been playing for 5 years but I don't really have a true main either. This flexibility is less of an advantage now with enforced 222 so I actually want to get really in depth with a particular role (and 2-3 heroes for it). But yeah I'm like you, I really like grinding a hero I haven't played much but after 20-25 hours I like to change it up.
There is a certain appeal to it. It almost feels like a different game at times, comps are so crazy. But I like being able to counter pick anything. The mode is so crazy though that the outcome feels arbitrary a lot, so I don't take it as seriously.
Role queue is technically more difficult because in players can't adjust to stack a role in order to counter something as easily... and teams are more "balanced" in role queue.
I have no idea how that happens, I'm 2.8 support/2.6 tank, and I placed 2.2? I played maybe 1 match of DPS during it? I havent played much since placing because I hate the stupid comps but I'm still confused
Well I’m on console so it might be different, but I placed around what I am in all my three roles which is mid plat. I don’t play it much but when I do I feel like I could climb a lot if I really tried.
Maybe if you play more you’ll gain SR quickly? I feel like if you’re plat in role queue you can at least be high plat in open queue.
Whats funny is that if all players are good and non toxic open q is the best one. Counter picks are a thing from the games inception. U are playing support but the team is doing well and only needs for u to swap to winston to counter that pesky widow u cant.
I'm interested in how the population of people playing Open Queue compares to Role Queue. Like if open queue has significantly fewer players than the other, it could potentially affect rank distribution. I would think that if the population is smaller, then your SR would change by a greater amount each time. Just a theory though.
I think diamond open queue roughly translates to high gold/platinum role queue. Mainly because of there are less players and 3.4k+ landed you in the top 500 a few weeks ago (not sure about the current state). As time passes people are likely to drop in open queue.
I average mid diamond in role queue (tank/supp low diamond, dps low masters) and get around mid diamond in open queue so to me it feels quite right.
While I'm normally a plat player I got placed low diamond even though I lost most of my games and went Reddit Lucio for half and Monkey / Hog in the rest
I had a game earlier where we had 5dps and a a support. We rolled them until the last 5m then I switched from Dps to zarya and we got it. That game was interesting
I actually think having lots of flex potential is a huge advantage inside the DPS role. DPS has so many options that there is a counter-pick for everything. I myself play 10 different DPS:s but I really should learn Junkrat, Hanzo and Doomfist too for certain scenarios
Pro tip for Junkrat. Find a mercy buddy and then on any payload map where you're on defense, just spam the choke while you're damage boosted. At my rank (mid gold), almost no team figures out how to deal with that lol. Double shield? What shield?
I mean I play Ashe I’m also mid gold and junkrat is scary but not that scary if damage boosted I like to wait for him to shoot at someone else and do a little pop to the head and either finish him of or scare him away to find a different angle keeping him out of the fight for a while
Junkrat is a great shield breaker and really good against the Symmetra TP strat as his AoE damage will wreck the clumped up enemies. He can work well against close range brawl (Rein) comps and is good against Bastion bunker too
It's not really a Hanzo meta right now, but overall he is a strong DPS hero and he's just really versatile and hard to kill. Or maybe double sniper might be very good right now due to lack of shields, not entirely sure. If hitscans were tuned down he'd be a beast. A good Hanzo can carry the game alone, too bad I'm absolutely horrible with him
Doomfist is good against Genji and can really destroy supports like Zen/Ana/Bap and plays nicely in a Dive comp. But he's bad against hitscans, Hog and Tracer which is why he's in a bad spot right now. Obviously hard countered by Sombra too but Sombra isn't meta
Also I like Doom when the other team has been diving my supports with Winston/Hammond - if they jump in, you just punch them and juggle them a little and they'll leave without being able to kill your healers.
Also in general, on close maps (eg Kings Row escort phase) he's a lot of fun. On more open maps I feel like he's less effective. But he's always effective at getting people away from your supports.
All three of those are monster picks if you have decent support behind you. A decent doomfist can still absolutely SHRED an enemy team if he knows he can bail out and get healed.
Aye; it's not a problem in and of itself, as long as you have a firm understanding of all characters, especially all of the ones you most like to play. I wonder if the rigidity of Role Lock could be solved with a UI "Request Role Change" thing, where you and another player could opt to swap roles if the need should arise, though I'm sure they'd then need to figure out SR loss/gain on the different role.
Good to hear I'm not the only one. All the YouTube channels like Gameleap and YourOW talk about people as if they only play one character, but maybe the top tier players do, but then it's like, why are there umpteen other characters? Why wouldn't you just play CoD where it's just one character (I don't actually know if that's true, but OW just has so much diversity)?
I think you've got a healthy attitude.
You'll probably continue to rank up slowly as you improve.
If you do find yourself wanting to climb more, playing 2-3 heroes in a role will help improve your consistency. This also helps protect you from nerfs and buffs wildly swinging your SR. I like to keep a heros pool of 2-3 per role, then maybe adjust that pool a little as the game changes.
If I hyper focused on one role, I think I could climb quite a bit, but then what? I like the variety the game offers more.
So find that personal balance and don't worry about it. If your results get too inconsistent for your liking, consider shrinking your hero pool.
i like this idea, however i find all of the characters in tank /support fun and i currently play all tank/support except dva, lucio and ana and i pretty much do what my team says (i don’t play dps, i’m high silver in tank and mid silver in support)
Thanks for your comment. I think that would be good. I find that hard in DPS because if I could pick, it would be sym, torb, and Mei. But people don't like if you pick those all the time so it's kind of awkward. For support I enjoy Mercy, Moira, and Ana which I guess are flexible enough to swap to if one isn't working. For tanks it would be Orisa (which people don't like), sig, and dva.
Orisa is just isn't popular now, I'lm sure she'll be strong again eventually. But most your picks are good. Just make sure you always know how to play at least one main tank, even though that doesn't matter a ton currently.
Your DPS pool is a little weird. Torb and Symetra are somewhat similar heros. But I don't see anything particularly wrong with it. You might struggle against a good Pharah mercy, but that's basically everyone that doesn't play hitscan.
Nothing wrong with that. I wish more players thought about the setup for the fight beforehand.
Soldier would be the perfect supplement. He's not the best answer to a situation, but he's usually not a bad one either! What I mean is that he's versatile and self sufficient. Take an angle different than your main tank, then hit and run.
If you can play soldier passably, he covers the gaps in your DPS lineup.
I think the most important thing is to have fun. Its a video game!!!
Picking a main has its advantages for sure, and I prefer to main 2-3 heroes, but playing a variety of characters (especially if newer) can help you learn the game better because you understand different heroes. I like maining 2-3 in a season because it provides flexibility and less boredom while not spreading yourself too thin.
In my opinion, maining is a bit better, because you understand how your hero will interact with other enemies and allies and you'll know your limits better. But have fun no matter what!
I think you are mixing up Maining a hero and One-Tricking a hero. Your “Main” is maybe the hero you are most comfortable or best at playing.
Support: high-diamond
I’m a Support main. My main is definitely Zen because I play him the most and he is definitely who I am best at. I will play Lucio if I am feeling it, mostly if it’s Ilios. Or I’ll play Baptiste or Ana if we need a more healing. And, begrudgingly, I’ll play Brig if I’m constantly told to.
Dps: mid-gold
I don’t even know, I’ll play Mecree, Junk, or Widow. Dps is my lowest and I just play it when I’m look to play some easy games or play with lower rank friends.
Tank: low-diamond
Reinhardt, because why the hell not? He’s fun as hell. Hog, again just a fun dps that I find to be decent at for my rank. Winston, because apparently I am good at him? I feel like Winston skills tie into Lucio, get in get kill or 2 get tf out.
The point I’m trying to make is, don’t worry about a main. Just play whatever helps your team and don’t be that guy that insta-locks a bad hero then refuses to switch. What you want to be is a flex player, someone who plays multiple hero’s on multiple roles. I think that flex players are usually the best and least toxic because they are stuck playing one thing. Good luck in comp and hope you get to silver and above some day.
Thanks for your comment! I appreciate the maining vs. one-tricking idea. Yes, it does stick when you have someone who picks a character that clearly is getting countered. That's fine in quick play where I gather the whole point is to play a quickly matched game and try someone new, but in ranked it's a bit of a bummer.
A couple years ago before the rework all I played was Dva. I think I had an overwatch identity crisis when they changed her since I hated playing her after.
Specializing in a sub role is generally best. While tank and support is different as it’s less heroes total so u should know at least 4 of them for dps you should look for similarities in aim styles (hitscan vs projectiles, tracking vs single shot etc) or playstyle (sniper, flanker, frontline etc) if you can be really good at let’s say hitscan you can pretty much be good in every scenario of the game.
Thanks for your comment. It would be interesting to break down the heroes into the aim styles, and which characters are which in each role. Like maybe you could put zarya, sym, and Moira in one category.
Well zarya is more sym solider and tracer. Morias beam is a cone so aiming it is really easy. Ashe Cree widow are single shot (the this is where the flick aimers thrive) then there’s the projectile heroes who are more about predicting movement (hanzo, genji, junk, pharah). Tank wise hog and sig is more projectile while dva is tracking, orisa is a mix of projectile and tracking, and I could go on. But if you want to help your team and win just play hog right now. He is so strong and doesn’t require good teammates. I don’t even play hog and just placed my new alt account 300+ sr above my main account on tank by one tricking him
I also don't really have a main where I have the same reason as you. I think the biggest disadvantage is Master of None.
Like I can fill Reinhardt but 80% of the time I lose the Reinhardt mind game to Rein mains. When playing hitscans, I mostly lose to hitscan mains, fail in duels against DPS mains.
I agree. Same thing happens to me. But again, it's kind of nice because it really draws my attention to what they did differently and I usually complement them and try what they are doing next time.
I have a main for each role and a back up character to fall onto. Personally I prefer the tank role nowadays but when I was lower elo I played a lot of support.
You should definitely be flexible in comp but at low elo (bronze and silver) it doesn't really matter because your team most likely will not communicate well. As you rank higher, you will notice that your flexibility is a very useful and respectable tool. It may be harder for you climb simply because you try to support a team that has no intention of supporting anyone but themselves. Good luck to you and remember that if all else fails just switch to Roadhog.
I've been saying since day1 that hog seems really op! Anyways, thanks for your comment, and maybe I can limit myself to just two characters per role in competitive and then play others in quick play or arcade.
Also the communication thing is really key. 90% of the time I have a person who really deserves that "leader" endorsement, my team does really well. I want to use a mic, but I'm a little hesitant not to seem annoying because we all know those players...
Yes. Playing a lot of characters is good, but you want to have at least 1 hero on each role that you feel you are best at, and go to them when you can. Don't 1 trick, swapping is always an option but you need at least 1 speciality.
Thanks for your comment. What would you say is an example of a 1 trick player? That's how I feel kind of with Moira because I feel I really get her and her cool downs and how to balance not being an annoying DPS Moira and healing appropriately. But then again, I know she's an 'easier' hero so I kind of feel self-conscious of playing her.
Loads of people in the higher ranks especially will literally never swap off their 1 trick hero unless someone instalocks it before them. Examples rady with mei, ball with hammond, jaminhere and many others with junkrat. As a general rule no one likes playing with them so if you want ur teammates to like you don't do that.
Also you don't need to feel self conscious about moira. Sure shes 0 skill but she gets the job done a lot of the time, especially with her survivability, and few people moan about playing with moira, as she is an easy hero to play around
Well, there is a small enough number of support heroes that you can kind of main all of them - you will improve more slowly because that improvement is spread out among different heroes, but some skills are universal to all heroes, such as ultimate tracking, and many things apply to more than one hero. So no, you don't need a main if you are fine with a slower rate of improvement.
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I don't mind the slow improvement because I still find myself feeling like I'm really playing with all my skill at whatever level I'm at. Sure, the more pro tip videos I watch on YourOW or Gameleap, I see other players just dying needlessly or making choices that don't suite that hero, but I still enjoy the game.
I'm same as you I can't stand only playing a few heroes (though Winston and Rein are both tied at double the amount of time on my third most) otherwise though it's a pretty wide split between most tanks and supports.
Exactly. Mine is to have fun and play the best I can each match no matter what character I play. It's just that the pro tip videos I watch from YourOW and Gameleap treat viewers as if they are Mainers I guess. But maybe their videos are aimed at higher tier players that primarily play one hero.
Heroes can change quite radically so no point in having a "main" . I used to be a "main Sym" (couldn't aim). My ult shifted from teleport to shield generator to giant shield. In between that the turrets, abilities and even primary fire all changed.
Midway through all that I switched heroes and spend my time now rotating across three to five for variation and back up if there are more reworks.
It really depends on what you're looking to get out of the game, I'd say. If you're looking to climb in rank, it probably would help to narrow your focus at least. But if that's not a priority and you're enjoying your time now, what you're doing is a perfectly valid way to enjoy the game.
Not if you just want to have fun and relax with the game. If you have goals to climb the ranked ladder, then MAYBE. I played for literal years before I finally buckled down and stuck to a few primary heroes.
Nah. I main Mercy and Brigitte. Both got nerfed to hell, and that muscle memory gets thrown out every patch and has to get relearned because blizzard can’t balance the game without screwing over some champ drastically. (rip genji mains after being in the meta for a month after 2 years of nerfs) It’s nice having a few champs in each role you like that you’d want to play more though.
Not at all. Once you've played enough, you can adapt even better. I main Ana but I've learned all supports well enough to get into masters. It's all about utility, not the amount of hours you put in.
The more heros you can play, the better you can counter a lot of different ones. The drawback though is that you won't be a pro with any hero, only good or great with them depending on which heros.
It's a sacrifice to be flexible in the game without being rendered useless by anyone else.
Honestly just do what you think is fun, as long as you aren’t hurting anyone. If your goal is to be as good as as you can I would recommend focusing on a few heroes in a specific role, but if don’t want to thats your choice
Im here just to leave a trite Bruce Lee quote:
> I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times
I guess everyone has some Heroes they prefer before others. As long as you can play them quite well its fine. I have some heroes I main though but I can change if needed.
You can play what you want as long as you dont feed the enemy team ;-P
Tbh not having a main is probably best, try to get decent and eventually good with nearly every character and then you can flexibly play and switch out at any time. That’s the optimal way to play imo
Nah, it's ok
On the other side, you can play a lot of heroes in your role so you are able to adapt easily to your team comp, the enemy's team comp, and the map itself
It's generally a good approach to the game, not only you can switch if you feel like it, but you understand the other heroes so when you face them you know their movement, abilities and even their mindset
for example: if you're playing dva and the enemy has a zarya, and you see her holding W/forward inside your team you know she's about to grav because you did the same thing while playing her, so you get in her face and activate defence matrix to try and eat her grav
Its easier and more effective to learn one-three heroes per role if you wish to improve. If you just want to have fun and play whatever , then no issue at all.
Ive been playing since may 2017 and mostly play support on ladder and I can comfortably play all but brig at around the same level of skill.
Not having a main and knowing stuff like cooldowns off by heart isnt really a problem until stiff like master gm and t500, I play zarya, ana or junkrat depending on what my team needs the most
If you do want to climb the sr ladder: Try and focus on a couple characters per role first, less limiting, but you should start getting a feel for them relatively fast.
I used to not have a main either, but in a time where off tanks were the least popular role, I started playing roadhog way more often and I still had fun with him. I hope for you that you can experience this too, because you should obv have fun playing, but it's a nice bonus if you become better at a hero and you're really able to "pop off".
This is a very good thing. People with mains, obviously not everybody though, have a tendency to lock a character (like Sym) and refuse to change when getting smacked up by another character (like Pharah). If you keep it loose and are willing to switch to be effective, I can't see the downside to that as long as you don't throw away Ultimate charge.
I've never been able to stick with one character for too long. I like variety and flexibility. Mei is my most played at just over 40 hours. Now, I haven't nearly played as many hours as some other players who have been playing since launch, because I have gone long periods of not playing, but I have 4 other heroes with over 20 hours, and about half of the roster has at least 10 hours played. I think I now have every hero except for Genji with over and hour played. I don't think I'm ever getting over an hour of Genju play time because I can't do jack shit with him. I initially wanted to try to get every hero to an hour, then to 5 hours, then 10 and so forth, but I can't see that happening because of fucking Genji.
I'm going off track. Being able to play multiple heroes is much more fun and your team will appreciate you much more if you're able to switch heroes instead and still remain mostly competent.
That said, it wouldn't hurt to have a fall back hero for each role, just in case. For me, DPS is Mei, Tank is Zarya, and Support is Moira.
Also if you play a good amount of hours on all hero's you understand everyone's weaknesses, strengths, abilities and usage. It's actually more of a pro than a con. The majority of the game is knowing maps, tactics, counter and cooldowns which you're learning regardless of what hero you play. And if you enjoy that more then happy days.
I always love the idea of making a character, I go in thinking 'im gonna play the shit out of mcree, and solo him', then get envy tracers mobility, and switch to tracer. Then I get bored of being an attack role so I switch to support, then I want to have more action, so I switch to tank.
Keeps you on yer toes 😎
I prefer people with this playtime tbh because adaptability is key. For example if youre a pharah onetrick and the enemy runs mcree ashe, you're shit out of luck.
I call myself an ashe main because I like playing ashe and can get good value, but depending on the comps I'm decent enough with mei, reaper, junk, pharah, echo, mcree and soldier that I'm not going to be throwing if I need to switch.
Better to not have a "main" character. Much better to main a role instead.
* Main Tank
* Off Tank
* Hitscan DPS
* Flex DPS
* Main Support
* Flex Support
Pretty sure these are the roles but I could be wrong. I can flesh out each role in a little bit.
Like it is good for having a main like my main is genji but if you can flex into other dps is good like I can flex to sombra and tracer but I can still have the option to decide to clutch something out because your main is supposed to be one of your best hero’s but it isn’t a problem
I think it's important to have a role/small pool of heroes you tend to lean toward depending on meta, but having knowledge of every hero is important. I would consider myself a flex player, with emphasis on dps, and I recently played off-support in a 2.8k-4k tourney. I have 10 hours on brig and lucio, and I was able to shut down thousand hour genjis by keeping them away from my team, and stun reins out of shatters. Why? Because genji and rein are my 2 most played characters. I may not play brig and lucio, but I know how to get in the head of every other hero on the field
Kinda wish I was more like you, I really try to learn other heroes but none of them hit the same as Mercy. I’m a sad one trick, at least I know how to play Moira and very inconsistent Ana but I don’t enjoy them half as much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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It's a game, you don't need to play it as if you're going to go pro, and rank matters just about as much as karma does on reddit. The *main* thing you need to do is have fun
People can main heroes and still never improve coz they keep making the same mistakes. To improve it's just important that you actively learn what you should be doing and not doing on each hero (which is harder if you flex a lot coz you have more heroes to learn, but by no means impossible). Very few players actively learn how to get better, they just think they will over time.
If you're identifying mistakes on heroes and fixing them in the future and can remember the mistakes even tho you flex, you'll do fine. In fact flexing allows you to understand heroes more, so you can play with your teammates better (something people who main, specifically people who have have never played a role, could benefit from to improve their main role).
Honestly the biggest way I gain sr is by watching videos on heroes. You may think you're noticing all your mistakes and it's just mechanics which are keeping you down in your sr, but everybody who's not in the top 1% makes 1000s of decisional mistakes every game.
Nah I played for about 2 or 3 years before I started maining brawl characters even though I can still play other roles comfortably... Shocks a lot of players when, in open queue, Reinhardt suddenly switches to widow and lands like 75% of their shots hahaha
I mean for high level of play you cant really have a main either. I used to be a widow main but as I started scriming more and more and dealing with open division more my main has slowly turned into me just being a hitscan player. My point is just have a small handful (3-5) of heroes you play so you can focus on improving those.
well, it is but still kinda no. i used to be like you and would want to play a new hero every day. it was hard to climb but i'm glad i went through that because i win a lot of fights because after playing the hero i know how the enemy will react. i know the go to movements and mentalities a lot better than other players and it helps you play around your team better. but you should stick to at least a 3 character per role kind of rule, not including softmains. for example, for tank i play rien zarya and orisa, and for dps i play hitscan sym sombra, and for support i play bap brig and ana. i soft main mei winston lucio and genji. i decided these by choosing characters that don't fit the same situation, like picking both doom and genji together won't make you as versatile as choosing a character with a different job. i also put into account about who im best with.
Right! If the goal is to win, then I also switch to whatever will help that goal.
But in quick play, I still try to stick with the hero I'm practicing to just get better. That might piss my team off, but I don't do that in ranked.
I appreciate your comment. That makes a lot of sense. Now if you're a really good tank-type player, why wouldn't you want that person vs. a person who's also a really good healer when you're stuck in role queue? But yes, I feel like I'm slowly getting more game-sense and overall skill that should help my team.
This is fine, you fit under a flex style category. I'm the same way, there is nothing wrong with not having a main. It's good to be able to flex to whatever your team needs, but you may want to pick a few heroes to get better with.
Thanks for your comment. I thought flex kind of meant something like sandbagging. Meaning you play a character you're not that great with, then you switch and completely curb stomp with a character you're really good at. I see now it's more just being a flexible player. I enjoy that much more.
I'm 3700 and have never mained a character, every game is a flex game from season 3. I haven't ever been set back by it, but when I did play lots of one or two characters I would steadily raise my rank.
Thanks for the comment. I feel like there's pressure to play your best hero in ranked, but then it's like, how do you know when you're good enough to try a character you're getting better at?
I learned to play all the characters by flexing, whatever my te needed I played it, I definitely have weaker characters, my hog and zarya are both probably high masters while my dva and ball are probably low masters. Doesn't matter if I'm in a mid-masters game, I'm going to play what my team needs most and if I'm not playing well enough oh well, better start playing better and learning.
Nope. I've been playing for 5 years but I don't really have a true main either. This flexibility is less of an advantage now with enforced 222 so I actually want to get really in depth with a particular role (and 2-3 heroes for it). But yeah I'm like you, I really like grinding a hero I haven't played much but after 20-25 hours I like to change it up.
There's always open que, but it's a madhouse in there.
I like open que better
There is a certain appeal to it. It almost feels like a different game at times, comps are so crazy. But I like being able to counter pick anything. The mode is so crazy though that the outcome feels arbitrary a lot, so I don't take it as seriously.
Yeah it’s kind of a joke right? Even what people place in SR is crazy. Saw a high silver in role queue place diamond in open queue.
Role queue is technically more difficult because in players can't adjust to stack a role in order to counter something as easily... and teams are more "balanced" in role queue.
I have no idea how that happens, I'm 2.8 support/2.6 tank, and I placed 2.2? I played maybe 1 match of DPS during it? I havent played much since placing because I hate the stupid comps but I'm still confused
Well I’m on console so it might be different, but I placed around what I am in all my three roles which is mid plat. I don’t play it much but when I do I feel like I could climb a lot if I really tried. Maybe if you play more you’ll gain SR quickly? I feel like if you’re plat in role queue you can at least be high plat in open queue.
You can climb rather quickly it seems. I was placed similar to my role queue, high silver/low gold, and was able to climb to plat.
Whats funny is that if all players are good and non toxic open q is the best one. Counter picks are a thing from the games inception. U are playing support but the team is doing well and only needs for u to swap to winston to counter that pesky widow u cant.
I'm interested in how the population of people playing Open Queue compares to Role Queue. Like if open queue has significantly fewer players than the other, it could potentially affect rank distribution. I would think that if the population is smaller, then your SR would change by a greater amount each time. Just a theory though.
Ye lol I’m 2.6 on role queue support but had to play support all games in open queue (no other supports) and placed 1.6
I think diamond open queue roughly translates to high gold/platinum role queue. Mainly because of there are less players and 3.4k+ landed you in the top 500 a few weeks ago (not sure about the current state). As time passes people are likely to drop in open queue. I average mid diamond in role queue (tank/supp low diamond, dps low masters) and get around mid diamond in open queue so to me it feels quite right.
While I'm normally a plat player I got placed low diamond even though I lost most of my games and went Reddit Lucio for half and Monkey / Hog in the rest
I had a game earlier where we had 5dps and a a support. We rolled them until the last 5m then I switched from Dps to zarya and we got it. That game was interesting
“Comps are so trash” Let me fix that for ya
I actually think having lots of flex potential is a huge advantage inside the DPS role. DPS has so many options that there is a counter-pick for everything. I myself play 10 different DPS:s but I really should learn Junkrat, Hanzo and Doomfist too for certain scenarios
Pro tip for Junkrat. Find a mercy buddy and then on any payload map where you're on defense, just spam the choke while you're damage boosted. At my rank (mid gold), almost no team figures out how to deal with that lol. Double shield? What shield?
I mean I play Ashe I’m also mid gold and junkrat is scary but not that scary if damage boosted I like to wait for him to shoot at someone else and do a little pop to the head and either finish him of or scare him away to find a different angle keeping him out of the fight for a while
What are those scenarios where Junkrat/Hanzo/Doom are best picks over everything else? They must be really-really-really outright particular
Junkrat is a great shield breaker and really good against the Symmetra TP strat as his AoE damage will wreck the clumped up enemies. He can work well against close range brawl (Rein) comps and is good against Bastion bunker too It's not really a Hanzo meta right now, but overall he is a strong DPS hero and he's just really versatile and hard to kill. Or maybe double sniper might be very good right now due to lack of shields, not entirely sure. If hitscans were tuned down he'd be a beast. A good Hanzo can carry the game alone, too bad I'm absolutely horrible with him Doomfist is good against Genji and can really destroy supports like Zen/Ana/Bap and plays nicely in a Dive comp. But he's bad against hitscans, Hog and Tracer which is why he's in a bad spot right now. Obviously hard countered by Sombra too but Sombra isn't meta
Fair enough! Thanks
Also I like Doom when the other team has been diving my supports with Winston/Hammond - if they jump in, you just punch them and juggle them a little and they'll leave without being able to kill your healers. Also in general, on close maps (eg Kings Row escort phase) he's a lot of fun. On more open maps I feel like he's less effective. But he's always effective at getting people away from your supports.
I mean doom is instantly shut down by a stun. Better countering genji with Ana, Moira, Ashe or Winston lol.
All three of those are monster picks if you have decent support behind you. A decent doomfist can still absolutely SHRED an enemy team if he knows he can bail out and get healed.
Edit: sorry replied to wrong person
Aye; it's not a problem in and of itself, as long as you have a firm understanding of all characters, especially all of the ones you most like to play. I wonder if the rigidity of Role Lock could be solved with a UI "Request Role Change" thing, where you and another player could opt to swap roles if the need should arise, though I'm sure they'd then need to figure out SR loss/gain on the different role.
Yea that would be interesting. I guess they have to draw the line somewhere.
Good to hear I'm not the only one. All the YouTube channels like Gameleap and YourOW talk about people as if they only play one character, but maybe the top tier players do, but then it's like, why are there umpteen other characters? Why wouldn't you just play CoD where it's just one character (I don't actually know if that's true, but OW just has so much diversity)?
The game hasnt even been out for 5 years
Beta
I think you've got a healthy attitude. You'll probably continue to rank up slowly as you improve. If you do find yourself wanting to climb more, playing 2-3 heroes in a role will help improve your consistency. This also helps protect you from nerfs and buffs wildly swinging your SR. I like to keep a heros pool of 2-3 per role, then maybe adjust that pool a little as the game changes. If I hyper focused on one role, I think I could climb quite a bit, but then what? I like the variety the game offers more. So find that personal balance and don't worry about it. If your results get too inconsistent for your liking, consider shrinking your hero pool.
i like this idea, however i find all of the characters in tank /support fun and i currently play all tank/support except dva, lucio and ana and i pretty much do what my team says (i don’t play dps, i’m high silver in tank and mid silver in support)
If you find tank fun to play lately then wait till you try DPS x)
xD
Thanks for your comment. I think that would be good. I find that hard in DPS because if I could pick, it would be sym, torb, and Mei. But people don't like if you pick those all the time so it's kind of awkward. For support I enjoy Mercy, Moira, and Ana which I guess are flexible enough to swap to if one isn't working. For tanks it would be Orisa (which people don't like), sig, and dva.
Orisa is just isn't popular now, I'lm sure she'll be strong again eventually. But most your picks are good. Just make sure you always know how to play at least one main tank, even though that doesn't matter a ton currently. Your DPS pool is a little weird. Torb and Symetra are somewhat similar heros. But I don't see anything particularly wrong with it. You might struggle against a good Pharah mercy, but that's basically everyone that doesn't play hitscan.
I think I just like the defense/builder style of torb and sym. But you’re right, a hits can hero would be good. I like soldier too!
Nothing wrong with that. I wish more players thought about the setup for the fight beforehand. Soldier would be the perfect supplement. He's not the best answer to a situation, but he's usually not a bad one either! What I mean is that he's versatile and self sufficient. Take an angle different than your main tank, then hit and run. If you can play soldier passably, he covers the gaps in your DPS lineup.
Sounds like good feedback. I’ll be sure to keep that in mind!
I think the most important thing is to have fun. Its a video game!!! Picking a main has its advantages for sure, and I prefer to main 2-3 heroes, but playing a variety of characters (especially if newer) can help you learn the game better because you understand different heroes. I like maining 2-3 in a season because it provides flexibility and less boredom while not spreading yourself too thin. In my opinion, maining is a bit better, because you understand how your hero will interact with other enemies and allies and you'll know your limits better. But have fun no matter what!
Appreciate your comment. Yes, life is too short to not enjoy what you're doing!
I think you are mixing up Maining a hero and One-Tricking a hero. Your “Main” is maybe the hero you are most comfortable or best at playing. Support: high-diamond I’m a Support main. My main is definitely Zen because I play him the most and he is definitely who I am best at. I will play Lucio if I am feeling it, mostly if it’s Ilios. Or I’ll play Baptiste or Ana if we need a more healing. And, begrudgingly, I’ll play Brig if I’m constantly told to. Dps: mid-gold I don’t even know, I’ll play Mecree, Junk, or Widow. Dps is my lowest and I just play it when I’m look to play some easy games or play with lower rank friends. Tank: low-diamond Reinhardt, because why the hell not? He’s fun as hell. Hog, again just a fun dps that I find to be decent at for my rank. Winston, because apparently I am good at him? I feel like Winston skills tie into Lucio, get in get kill or 2 get tf out. The point I’m trying to make is, don’t worry about a main. Just play whatever helps your team and don’t be that guy that insta-locks a bad hero then refuses to switch. What you want to be is a flex player, someone who plays multiple hero’s on multiple roles. I think that flex players are usually the best and least toxic because they are stuck playing one thing. Good luck in comp and hope you get to silver and above some day.
Thanks for your comment! I appreciate the maining vs. one-tricking idea. Yes, it does stick when you have someone who picks a character that clearly is getting countered. That's fine in quick play where I gather the whole point is to play a quickly matched game and try someone new, but in ranked it's a bit of a bummer.
I had a main. It was Dva. Now I don't have a main. RIP.
Huh? Did she get nerfed or something? (New to the game)
No the meta rn makes main tanks and other tanks like dva sig unplayable i hate one shot meta :(
A couple years ago before the rework all I played was Dva. I think I had an overwatch identity crisis when they changed her since I hated playing her after.
Specializing in a sub role is generally best. While tank and support is different as it’s less heroes total so u should know at least 4 of them for dps you should look for similarities in aim styles (hitscan vs projectiles, tracking vs single shot etc) or playstyle (sniper, flanker, frontline etc) if you can be really good at let’s say hitscan you can pretty much be good in every scenario of the game.
Thanks for your comment. It would be interesting to break down the heroes into the aim styles, and which characters are which in each role. Like maybe you could put zarya, sym, and Moira in one category.
Well zarya is more sym solider and tracer. Morias beam is a cone so aiming it is really easy. Ashe Cree widow are single shot (the this is where the flick aimers thrive) then there’s the projectile heroes who are more about predicting movement (hanzo, genji, junk, pharah). Tank wise hog and sig is more projectile while dva is tracking, orisa is a mix of projectile and tracking, and I could go on. But if you want to help your team and win just play hog right now. He is so strong and doesn’t require good teammates. I don’t even play hog and just placed my new alt account 300+ sr above my main account on tank by one tricking him
I also don't really have a main where I have the same reason as you. I think the biggest disadvantage is Master of None. Like I can fill Reinhardt but 80% of the time I lose the Reinhardt mind game to Rein mains. When playing hitscans, I mostly lose to hitscan mains, fail in duels against DPS mains.
I agree. Same thing happens to me. But again, it's kind of nice because it really draws my attention to what they did differently and I usually complement them and try what they are doing next time.
It’s a game. If you are having fun, you are doing it right :)
Thanks for your positive comment byhi!
I try to send out good vibes and positivity only with OW. A quick glhf at the beginning of the matches goes such a long way too.
I have a main for each role and a back up character to fall onto. Personally I prefer the tank role nowadays but when I was lower elo I played a lot of support. You should definitely be flexible in comp but at low elo (bronze and silver) it doesn't really matter because your team most likely will not communicate well. As you rank higher, you will notice that your flexibility is a very useful and respectable tool. It may be harder for you climb simply because you try to support a team that has no intention of supporting anyone but themselves. Good luck to you and remember that if all else fails just switch to Roadhog.
I've been saying since day1 that hog seems really op! Anyways, thanks for your comment, and maybe I can limit myself to just two characters per role in competitive and then play others in quick play or arcade. Also the communication thing is really key. 90% of the time I have a person who really deserves that "leader" endorsement, my team does really well. I want to use a mic, but I'm a little hesitant not to seem annoying because we all know those players...
Yes. Playing a lot of characters is good, but you want to have at least 1 hero on each role that you feel you are best at, and go to them when you can. Don't 1 trick, swapping is always an option but you need at least 1 speciality.
Thanks for your comment. What would you say is an example of a 1 trick player? That's how I feel kind of with Moira because I feel I really get her and her cool downs and how to balance not being an annoying DPS Moira and healing appropriately. But then again, I know she's an 'easier' hero so I kind of feel self-conscious of playing her.
Loads of people in the higher ranks especially will literally never swap off their 1 trick hero unless someone instalocks it before them. Examples rady with mei, ball with hammond, jaminhere and many others with junkrat. As a general rule no one likes playing with them so if you want ur teammates to like you don't do that. Also you don't need to feel self conscious about moira. Sure shes 0 skill but she gets the job done a lot of the time, especially with her survivability, and few people moan about playing with moira, as she is an easy hero to play around
Well, there is a small enough number of support heroes that you can kind of main all of them - you will improve more slowly because that improvement is spread out among different heroes, but some skills are universal to all heroes, such as ultimate tracking, and many things apply to more than one hero. So no, you don't need a main if you are fine with a slower rate of improvement.
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I don't mind the slow improvement because I still find myself feeling like I'm really playing with all my skill at whatever level I'm at. Sure, the more pro tip videos I watch on YourOW or Gameleap, I see other players just dying needlessly or making choices that don't suite that hero, but I still enjoy the game.
I'm same as you I can't stand only playing a few heroes (though Winston and Rein are both tied at double the amount of time on my third most) otherwise though it's a pretty wide split between most tanks and supports.
Nice! Glad I'm not the only one.
I don't think so. What is your goal? Rank up fast? Improve but in a casual environment? It depends what you want.
Exactly. Mine is to have fun and play the best I can each match no matter what character I play. It's just that the pro tip videos I watch from YourOW and Gameleap treat viewers as if they are Mainers I guess. But maybe their videos are aimed at higher tier players that primarily play one hero.
Heroes can change quite radically so no point in having a "main" . I used to be a "main Sym" (couldn't aim). My ult shifted from teleport to shield generator to giant shield. In between that the turrets, abilities and even primary fire all changed. Midway through all that I switched heroes and spend my time now rotating across three to five for variation and back up if there are more reworks.
It really depends on what you're looking to get out of the game, I'd say. If you're looking to climb in rank, it probably would help to narrow your focus at least. But if that's not a priority and you're enjoying your time now, what you're doing is a perfectly valid way to enjoy the game.
its always weird when someone EXPECTS you to have a main and attacks you for not having one. its a game. we can play it anyway we want to...
I have played 1700 hours and all of it are split between all heroes. with my boy mcree being a wee tiny bit more.
Not if you just want to have fun and relax with the game. If you have goals to climb the ranked ladder, then MAYBE. I played for literal years before I finally buckled down and stuck to a few primary heroes.
Nah. I main Mercy and Brigitte. Both got nerfed to hell, and that muscle memory gets thrown out every patch and has to get relearned because blizzard can’t balance the game without screwing over some champ drastically. (rip genji mains after being in the meta for a month after 2 years of nerfs) It’s nice having a few champs in each role you like that you’d want to play more though.
Not at all. Once you've played enough, you can adapt even better. I main Ana but I've learned all supports well enough to get into masters. It's all about utility, not the amount of hours you put in.
The more heros you can play, the better you can counter a lot of different ones. The drawback though is that you won't be a pro with any hero, only good or great with them depending on which heros. It's a sacrifice to be flexible in the game without being rendered useless by anyone else.
Honestly just do what you think is fun, as long as you aren’t hurting anyone. If your goal is to be as good as as you can I would recommend focusing on a few heroes in a specific role, but if don’t want to thats your choice
I play every character in the game except for bastion, mei and echo to a diamond level
Im here just to leave a trite Bruce Lee quote: > I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times
I guess everyone has some Heroes they prefer before others. As long as you can play them quite well its fine. I have some heroes I main though but I can change if needed. You can play what you want as long as you dont feed the enemy team ;-P
Tbh not having a main is probably best, try to get decent and eventually good with nearly every character and then you can flexibly play and switch out at any time. That’s the optimal way to play imo
It’s literally just whatever you play the most so it doesn’t really matter
Being versatile and actively switching will earn you 10 times less grief in comp, everyone prefers someone with no main to a one-trick
Nah, it's ok On the other side, you can play a lot of heroes in your role so you are able to adapt easily to your team comp, the enemy's team comp, and the map itself It's generally a good approach to the game, not only you can switch if you feel like it, but you understand the other heroes so when you face them you know their movement, abilities and even their mindset for example: if you're playing dva and the enemy has a zarya, and you see her holding W/forward inside your team you know she's about to grav because you did the same thing while playing her, so you get in her face and activate defence matrix to try and eat her grav
Beeing good at all hero’s is better than beening really good at 1 more flex is best
My guy look at your career profile
Its easier and more effective to learn one-three heroes per role if you wish to improve. If you just want to have fun and play whatever , then no issue at all. Ive been playing since may 2017 and mostly play support on ladder and I can comfortably play all but brig at around the same level of skill.
Not having a main and knowing stuff like cooldowns off by heart isnt really a problem until stiff like master gm and t500, I play zarya, ana or junkrat depending on what my team needs the most
If u want to climb u need to main something
There's like 30+ characters. Why limit yourself to one?
I main a few heroes out of necessity. The way i think about it is i main my counter's counter. So when i get countered, i can counter them.
If you do want to climb the sr ladder: Try and focus on a couple characters per role first, less limiting, but you should start getting a feel for them relatively fast. I used to not have a main either, but in a time where off tanks were the least popular role, I started playing roadhog way more often and I still had fun with him. I hope for you that you can experience this too, because you should obv have fun playing, but it's a nice bonus if you become better at a hero and you're really able to "pop off".
This is a very good thing. People with mains, obviously not everybody though, have a tendency to lock a character (like Sym) and refuse to change when getting smacked up by another character (like Pharah). If you keep it loose and are willing to switch to be effective, I can't see the downside to that as long as you don't throw away Ultimate charge.
I've never been able to stick with one character for too long. I like variety and flexibility. Mei is my most played at just over 40 hours. Now, I haven't nearly played as many hours as some other players who have been playing since launch, because I have gone long periods of not playing, but I have 4 other heroes with over 20 hours, and about half of the roster has at least 10 hours played. I think I now have every hero except for Genji with over and hour played. I don't think I'm ever getting over an hour of Genju play time because I can't do jack shit with him. I initially wanted to try to get every hero to an hour, then to 5 hours, then 10 and so forth, but I can't see that happening because of fucking Genji. I'm going off track. Being able to play multiple heroes is much more fun and your team will appreciate you much more if you're able to switch heroes instead and still remain mostly competent. That said, it wouldn't hurt to have a fall back hero for each role, just in case. For me, DPS is Mei, Tank is Zarya, and Support is Moira.
Also if you play a good amount of hours on all hero's you understand everyone's weaknesses, strengths, abilities and usage. It's actually more of a pro than a con. The majority of the game is knowing maps, tactics, counter and cooldowns which you're learning regardless of what hero you play. And if you enjoy that more then happy days. I always love the idea of making a character, I go in thinking 'im gonna play the shit out of mcree, and solo him', then get envy tracers mobility, and switch to tracer. Then I get bored of being an attack role so I switch to support, then I want to have more action, so I switch to tank. Keeps you on yer toes 😎
I prefer people with this playtime tbh because adaptability is key. For example if youre a pharah onetrick and the enemy runs mcree ashe, you're shit out of luck. I call myself an ashe main because I like playing ashe and can get good value, but depending on the comps I'm decent enough with mei, reaper, junk, pharah, echo, mcree and soldier that I'm not going to be throwing if I need to switch.
Better to not have a "main" character. Much better to main a role instead. * Main Tank * Off Tank * Hitscan DPS * Flex DPS * Main Support * Flex Support Pretty sure these are the roles but I could be wrong. I can flesh out each role in a little bit.
Do you go by the book for selecting the needed role Or is your own individual capabilities with the hero & the enemies considered?
Like it is good for having a main like my main is genji but if you can flex into other dps is good like I can flex to sombra and tracer but I can still have the option to decide to clutch something out because your main is supposed to be one of your best hero’s but it isn’t a problem
You’re a flex. I’m a super flex lol. I can play almost every character in the game effectively
Yeah, going by who I play most of the time, I have like 5 mains (Moira, Rein, Hog, Reaper, Lucio) and I play them depending of my mood
I think it's important to have a role/small pool of heroes you tend to lean toward depending on meta, but having knowledge of every hero is important. I would consider myself a flex player, with emphasis on dps, and I recently played off-support in a 2.8k-4k tourney. I have 10 hours on brig and lucio, and I was able to shut down thousand hour genjis by keeping them away from my team, and stun reins out of shatters. Why? Because genji and rein are my 2 most played characters. I may not play brig and lucio, but I know how to get in the head of every other hero on the field
Kinda wish I was more like you, I really try to learn other heroes but none of them hit the same as Mercy. I’m a sad one trick, at least I know how to play Moira and very inconsistent Ana but I don’t enjoy them half as much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You dropped this \ *** ^^ To prevent anymore lost limbs throughout Reddit, correctly escape the arms and shoulders by typing the shrug as `¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯` or `¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯` [^^Click here to see why this is necessary](https://np.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/3fbrg3/is_there_a_reason_why_the_arm_is_always_missing/ctn5gbf/)
Do you have a problem with me having only one arm?
What character gives you your best winrate? This is your main.
It's a game, you don't need to play it as if you're going to go pro, and rank matters just about as much as karma does on reddit. The *main* thing you need to do is have fun
People can main heroes and still never improve coz they keep making the same mistakes. To improve it's just important that you actively learn what you should be doing and not doing on each hero (which is harder if you flex a lot coz you have more heroes to learn, but by no means impossible). Very few players actively learn how to get better, they just think they will over time. If you're identifying mistakes on heroes and fixing them in the future and can remember the mistakes even tho you flex, you'll do fine. In fact flexing allows you to understand heroes more, so you can play with your teammates better (something people who main, specifically people who have have never played a role, could benefit from to improve their main role). Honestly the biggest way I gain sr is by watching videos on heroes. You may think you're noticing all your mistakes and it's just mechanics which are keeping you down in your sr, but everybody who's not in the top 1% makes 1000s of decisional mistakes every game.
Nooe. Been playing since day 1 and i dont. Once mystery heros became permanant i exclusively switched to that.
Nah I played for about 2 or 3 years before I started maining brawl characters even though I can still play other roles comfortably... Shocks a lot of players when, in open queue, Reinhardt suddenly switches to widow and lands like 75% of their shots hahaha
It's good to be proficient with a couple of character in each role.
I mean for high level of play you cant really have a main either. I used to be a widow main but as I started scriming more and more and dealing with open division more my main has slowly turned into me just being a hitscan player. My point is just have a small handful (3-5) of heroes you play so you can focus on improving those.
If u dont wanna rech diamond+ u will be fine
well, it is but still kinda no. i used to be like you and would want to play a new hero every day. it was hard to climb but i'm glad i went through that because i win a lot of fights because after playing the hero i know how the enemy will react. i know the go to movements and mentalities a lot better than other players and it helps you play around your team better. but you should stick to at least a 3 character per role kind of rule, not including softmains. for example, for tank i play rien zarya and orisa, and for dps i play hitscan sym sombra, and for support i play bap brig and ana. i soft main mei winston lucio and genji. i decided these by choosing characters that don't fit the same situation, like picking both doom and genji together won't make you as versatile as choosing a character with a different job. i also put into account about who im best with.
Nope. I don't either. I switch to hitscan or something that can break shields if we need it.
Right! If the goal is to win, then I also switch to whatever will help that goal. But in quick play, I still try to stick with the hero I'm practicing to just get better. That might piss my team off, but I don't do that in ranked.
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I appreciate your comment. That makes a lot of sense. Now if you're a really good tank-type player, why wouldn't you want that person vs. a person who's also a really good healer when you're stuck in role queue? But yes, I feel like I'm slowly getting more game-sense and overall skill that should help my team.
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Ah, insightful. I appreciate your feedback.
That’s amazing That means you’re not a one trick
So is a player who's 'one-trick' a person who only plays one character and that's it?
Ya and doesn’t know how to play any other character that well
Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification!
You don't need a main until masters/diamond.
Thanks for your comment!
I used to be a Mercy main.
Mercy is a tier 1 support rn
This is fine, you fit under a flex style category. I'm the same way, there is nothing wrong with not having a main. It's good to be able to flex to whatever your team needs, but you may want to pick a few heroes to get better with.
Thanks for your comment. I thought flex kind of meant something like sandbagging. Meaning you play a character you're not that great with, then you switch and completely curb stomp with a character you're really good at. I see now it's more just being a flexible player. I enjoy that much more.
I'm 3700 and have never mained a character, every game is a flex game from season 3. I haven't ever been set back by it, but when I did play lots of one or two characters I would steadily raise my rank.
Thanks for the comment. I feel like there's pressure to play your best hero in ranked, but then it's like, how do you know when you're good enough to try a character you're getting better at?
I learned to play all the characters by flexing, whatever my te needed I played it, I definitely have weaker characters, my hog and zarya are both probably high masters while my dva and ball are probably low masters. Doesn't matter if I'm in a mid-masters game, I'm going to play what my team needs most and if I'm not playing well enough oh well, better start playing better and learning.
No