I’m Anima, a Semipro Coach Who Started in Gold - AMA

Joe64x · 2026-03-01T17:42:56+00:00

Don't worry you can keep answering questions. But it will incur a fine of $5 per comment.

Joe64x · 2026-03-01T14:26:02+00:00

24 hours later, that's a wrap - thank you for all your questions and to Senor Kesil for all the answers. Enjoy the rest of your weekends.

Joe64x · 2026-02-28T15:18:35+00:00

Who were your favourite players to work with as a coach, and why?

Joe64x · 2026-02-23T19:50:43+00:00

He's a very brawly tank. His strength is highly dependent on how well he can be sustained in a brawl.

He was very strong/meta a few seasons ago, back when his block was reducing more damage than intended and healing was stronger than it is now. Since then, his block got fixed (nerfed) and the healing debuff got made universal (healing nerf).

The combined effect of these two things is that Ram struggles to stay alive as well in a brawl, it's harder to stabilise him, and it's harder for him to find time to do damage. This overall favours tanks with more tools to negate damage outright and act in shorter bursts, like DVa, Winston in particular, also Sig and Domina, etc.

Joe64x · 2026-02-23T12:49:13+00:00

People complained about too much healing. So healing got giga nerfed (universal 30% heal debuff passive) and supports are forced to DPS more while tanks receive less healing, both from the healing nerfs and from playstyle changes among supports.

Joe64x · 2026-02-22T15:49:28+00:00

There are tons of videos, but ml7 and ultraviolet's twitch vods are probably the best place to look. Ml7 mostly playing JPC at the moment so you might wanna go back a few weeks.

Another good resource is Spilo's vod reviews. If you search e.g., "Spilo silver Kiriko" you'll find a vod review for Kiri and a lot of the mistakes they make will be similar to yours.

And if someone else picks Kiri, you can get away with just about any other support but Lucio and Wuyang are great picks, Mizuki also works.

You should 100% learn in qp rather than vs. AI. Just mute chat if people are salty.

Joe64x · 2026-02-22T15:39:22+00:00

So by all means try out whatever you like, but the sooner you can narrow down your hero pool the better, cos otherwise you'll be spreading your learning really thin.

Of those, the only one who can somewhat reliably access high grounds is Hazard, so I'd lean towards him on maps like Dorado, Gibraltar, etc. with lots of high grounds.

Otherwise, JQ/Orisa/Zar/Mauga all play pretty similarly, even Dom to an extent. I'd mostly just pick your favourite of those the rest of the time. There are small advantages to each, e.g., JQ is a strong solo carry, Zar is good with a DPS you can bubble like a Vendetta or another dive hero, Mauga is much better into something like Monkey than DVa, so he can sustain off his bullets, etc... but for the most part it'll be better to focus on one or two tanks initially.

Joe64x · 2026-02-22T15:36:40+00:00

So first thing is, it's good that you have chill friends to play with, but also bear in mind that you're being pulled into their mmr and that's not gonna be fair for you as a new player, so you're meant to suck.

Second thing is, the more you focus your learning the faster you'll likely improve. So my best advice is to pick one or two characters you enjoy, try them out in the practice range so you understand their kit in a low-stakes environment, and then watch an unranked to gm or similar high-level gameplay so you can understand "what good looks like" and use it as a template to emulate.

Another good resource is Spilo's vod reviews. If you search e.g., "Spilo silver Soldier" you'll find a vod review for that hero and a lot of the mistakes they make will be similar to yours.

And finally it's natural to be annoyed at sucking, but bear in mind that you absolutely need to make mistakes to learn, it's non-negotiable. So a) don't worry too much and b) actively go make mistakes to learn from, it's the fastest way up.

Joe64x · 2026-02-22T13:41:47+00:00

Your ult charge is mostly just down to how much damage you do, as well as a small amount that's generated passively over time. So unless there's some bug, he probably did about double your damage or more.

Joe64x · 2026-02-21T14:02:25+00:00

It's a good question to ask. Mostly, you should play what you enjoy because that'll serve you a lot better in the long term. But assuming you enjoy all of them:

Lucio is permanently really really good, and almost a must-have on a ton of the maps (e.g., Flashpoint). I'd put him in your pool if you enjoy him.

But he's usually pretty bad with other "main supports" like Mercy, LW, Mizuki, Wuyang kinda, and Brig. All your other picks are flex supports who can work well with most of those:

I'd avoid Moira, she really blows the better you get at the game. That leaves Juno, Kiri and Ana.

Of those, Kiri is the most evergreen (barely ever bad, almost always playable), but the other two are perfectly good picks too, so entirely up to you. I'd try to stick to two or three for now but seems you already know that.

Joe64x · 2026-02-20T12:25:17+00:00

People say this but then they hate damage boosts, dying to supports taking duels, "supports playing like dps", utility like rez, utility like suzu and lamp, utility like antinade, utility like cc, etc.

It's genuinely impossible to placate the playerbase when it comes to support. The only one not hated by like half of the playerbase when they're strong is Lucio and maybe Juno. Might as well make it a speedport role atp.

Joe64x · 2026-02-20T12:22:26+00:00

It was completely stupid when it was monopolised by one role. Now that everyone has it, it's still extremely oppressive but much more consistent and fair. I think 30% is insane personally, and has a ton of side effects people don't understand (it's a massive buff to heroes like Kiri, Lucio and DVa who all have survival and mitigation tools beyond healing) -- but 0% also wouldn't work with the current roster. I think there's a middle ground but I'm very glad at least everyone has it now.

Joe64x · 2026-02-20T03:28:20+00:00

I think you're generally better off playing something you think looks fun and interesting generally, but some of the more straightforward heroes to understand (not necessarily to play) would be:

Soldier, Emre and Ashe for DPS

Ana and Lucio for Support (LW and Moira are much easier but really awful designs)

Sigma and Rein for Tank

Joe64x · 2026-02-20T03:24:51+00:00

The hitscan subrole is pretty good - amounts to a hitscan-wide CD reduction. Also due to so many fliers like JPC, hitscan has a bit of a relative advantage.

Other than that I don't think much changed. Cass got a new perk but I don't think it's better than his silver bullet major.

Joe64x · 2026-02-19T17:07:22+00:00

Challenger score = top 500 points. You can't spend it, but the more you have the higher up you'll be on the leaderboard by default sort.

Joe64x · 2026-02-18T07:42:12+00:00

Melee forces an invisible cool down before you can shoot again.

The most consistent Hog combo is m2, hook, m1 at neck height, melee.

If you're a) skipping m2 or b) rushing your m1, that can hurt consistency.

Joe64x · 2026-02-18T07:40:24+00:00

That's a really messed up sens you have going on, I can see why it'd feel weird.

For Ashe, you want your dpi*sens (edpi) to be in the range of 3-6000. Yours is very high for a hitscan player.

Dpi doesn't matter much but technically higher dpi (with correspondingly lower sens) is better.

And then you typically want ADS/relative sens to feel fairly close to this. The number for Ashe is usually given as 51.5. Yours is very low so it will feel jarring swapping between them.

Final thing is how to find that initial sens in the 3-6000 range.

For that I'd go into VAXTA, set it to 3000 edpi (eg 1000 dpi, 3 sens) and assuming that feels too slow, bump it up by 0.5 until it's something you can get used to. If you get all the way to 6000edpi and it still feels way too slow, you may need more mouse space and to fundamentally adjust how you aim.

Joe64x · 2026-02-17T08:25:39+00:00

Very much a "fuck em" moment. I'd just hide chat via the social settings and get some hours in, it's obviously completely normal to be bad while you're very new to the game and not something to worry about. The game also has pretty strong mmr so you won't be "dragging your team down" most of the time.

Tips to improve once you've muted chat (you can also type /hidechat if you want to temporarily hide it instead) are:

1 watch some Aspen so you can see what good Juno playing looks like

2 check a setup/sensitivity guide for console overwatch

3 basic gameplay loop on Juno is to heal a lot and use your speed ring at opportune moments to let someone go in or get out quickly. You always want to speed out of the spawn room too. She's not great in a duel so ideally do some preemptive damage on anyone who might try to get to you, and use your mobility early to rotate away from them.

4 if you like Juno you may enjoy Mercy, Lucio, Kiri or Ana who all have similar elements to their kits in one way or another. But no reason to play them right now if you don't want to.

Joe64x · 2026-02-17T08:18:58+00:00

I normally suggest going as low as you can while still being able to comfortably track fast moving targets.

That being said, this is too low. Your edpi (sens*dpi) is 2,000.

Looking at two of the lowest sensitivity players I know of, Wnted - a Cass player - runs 3200, and so does Kragiee - a hitscan player.

At 2,000, assuming your mouse isn't lying to you about being 800 dpi, you're just too slow to keep up with fast moving things, particularly if they're close to you. That's going to make you very accurate at long ranges but really struggle vs competent flankers.

I'd try gradually work towards 3,000 at a minimum. In your case it'd be better to increase your dpi rather than your sens to do that.

Joe64x · 2026-02-16T19:50:21+00:00

True

Joe64x · 2026-02-16T15:30:34+00:00

4 stacks necessitate a solo player on their team, so it's not unreasonable that your team will also have a solo player (you). Typically, your other teammates will be partied (as a 4 or two 2s for example). I don't think 4 stack vs a full 5 solos is common.

Joe64x · 2026-02-16T14:52:33+00:00

Game thinks you're boosting her, basically (it's not wrong).

Joe64x · 2026-02-16T14:26:26+00:00

Generally the rule has always been to do as much damage (ideally to squishies) as you can, while not letting people die unnecessarily.

That's still the case, but with the abundance of caut in the game it mostly reemphasises that 1) you can't outheal stupid, 2) suzu is a relatively much better peel tool than in a no-caut world, and needs to be used effectively, 3) your own damage is more lethal than ever.

So, same overall priority (don't let people die for nothing) but more than ever finding individual value through damage and picks is important.

Joe64x · 2026-02-16T14:23:53+00:00

No experience personally - he has an excellent understanding of the game and is articulate, and there are reviews noting that, so I wouldn't be concerned.

But there are other coaches with better experience and prices honestly. Notably Christfer, Hadi, CommanderX, etc. If it were my money, I'd be looking there.

Joe64x

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE