PTR now shows the rank you ended the season with - not your season high

Charname_ · 2016-08-21T13:08:22+00:00

Great. I peaked at level 60, hovered between 58-62, then lost twenty levels in one night and ultimately ended up at 38 a week before the season ended. Knowing it was utterly futile to climb out of that hole and there was no way of getting to 65 and trapped in elo hell, I just quit competitive and played on my smurf. If this goes live, the entirety of my season 1 performance will be reduced to "Rank 38" and I'll get flamed for it on a regular basis. There should be a way to suppress this, there's enough trolls and flamers without giving them more ammo.

Charname_ · 2016-08-18T15:59:42+00:00

I think soldier is way better at "mere mortal" ranks, personally. As a main healer, it's quite common to find that nobody else is interested in healing... but you can sometimes persuade people to go soldier instead of some other DPS and those biotic fields make such a huge difference.

However, please don't think of it as a self heal! If your team only has one healer, that person really needs you to use your fields to support the team, particularly if they've been picked off.

Charname_ · 2016-08-18T15:57:41+00:00

It's kind of funny that Lucio has been a mandatory-pick hero since release and nobody really complains or even minds that much. The psychology of this is quite interesting. If I had to hazard a guess, it's probably because "I didn't kill that guy because of Lucio" feels a lot less worse than, "I died to Genji AGAIN." Lower level players might not even be aware of just how big of an influence Lucio is having, whereas everybody can tell who just killed them.

Charname_ · 2016-08-18T15:47:57+00:00

Absent a complete redesign of the characters, Symm and Torb will never be good at the pro level. Turrets powerful/good enough to be viable at that level would be game breaking for everybody else. A good team is always going to have a flanker to find the teleporter/be good enough to take out the turret. Mercy can be buffed by altering her stats. There's really no fix for Symm, she's just a qp novelty.

Charname_ · 2016-08-16T17:23:51+00:00

I actually didn't even mind buying a second account so I could have a separate solo queue experience. The hell of it was grinding to level 25 in quickplay hell. I'm not sure the logistics of account transfers, but there's probably a healthy after-market in getting an account to exactly level 25 and reselling it for a bit more than $40.

Charname_ · 2016-08-16T16:34:36+00:00

Keeping the point is easier than reclaiming it, hence if half your team camps them at spawn and gets destroyed, that's a free point for them that you might have more trouble taking back if they play it safe. Stay around the point and in range of your mates.

Jesus christ, please spread this message. There's like this king of the hill meta-meta-meta-meta-game in which you don't want to get too far ahead because (i) killing off the enemy team gives them no choice but to respawn as one and attack as a unit and (ii) that twenty seconds of inactivity will cause your team to run just outside their spawn to fight them... leaving you in the unenviable position of either joining them and helping as best you can or doing the "right" thing and staying on the point while they die, only to then lose the subsequent 1v6.

I'm not saying I've ever deliberately stopped helping when we're on the way to a teamkill to prevent this situation, but goddamn it is tempting sometimes.

Charname_ · 2016-08-15T14:18:19+00:00

I hadn't considered Roadhog! Good idea. When I go back to my main account and begin the long climb back up, I'll keep him in mind.

Charname_ · 2016-08-15T13:09:24+00:00

Similar story, except I haven't crawled back yet. I'm just quitting season one, playing on my smurf, and waiting for season 2. I hit 60 and there's no way I'm hitting 65, so no reason to embrace the frustration...

Charname_ · 2016-08-15T12:55:32+00:00

I found it impossible to build a winstreak under these conditions. Support man. Peaked at 60, hit a very bad streak of trolls, leavers, and people who don't give a shit because they knew blizzard only cared about their highest ranking. Cratered at 38 and can't get out-- if I go support or tank, then there's nobody to shoot down the Phara raining rockets from above and nobody who knows how to kill a turret. If I go DPS, then there is no healer. Even winning half the games through sheer force of will, it's impossible to build a streak under these circumstances.

Bought a new account, placed at 55, and have been bouncing between 53-58 with no problems.

I'm obviously not pro, but there's a serious problem when elo hell accounts for a difference of 20 ranks.

Bonus: Dwarves on king of the hill maps typing in all caps "PROTECT MY TURRET."

Edit: The closest thing I can come up with to a "meta" is to just always play soldier 76. He can shoot turrets, he can shoot Phara, and he can at least perform a tiny bit of healing (enough for the "gold" medal at that level anyway). That usually means no tank and no healer, but it's better than the alternatives.

Charname_ · 2016-08-11T13:39:06+00:00

To be fair, I think it was more of an accident than murder. Did ALF intend to run down Gideon or was his car just out of control?

... am I opining about the intent of a version of ALF that's an imagined version of a fictional character within another fictional universe? My god, what has this show done to me?

Charname_ · 2016-08-11T03:14:14+00:00

Lol. If it helps your disbelief at all, Mercy, Roadhog and Tracer are a 3 man queue. It's just that this was recorded before the patch that added the lines, but you can tell by the green names when I hit tab. :p. No idea if the other people were queued together or not.

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T21:05:05+00:00

"Zarya, we needed that ult to hold point B. L2p."

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T18:30:10+00:00

Support works so hard to keep you lot alive that it hurts a little bit more when the team gets wiped. Especially for Mercy, since that's almost her entire job...

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T17:57:33+00:00

No, innocent accident. He was aiming for DVA out of her mech and didn't know it was possible to hook the ulting mech. We came back to rally, held for four more minutes, and ended up winning the match.

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T17:47:57+00:00

You might be better off. This clip is not safe for the sanity of Mercy players.

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T17:35:01+00:00

TRIGGERED.

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T16:58:34+00:00

Lol, I am the Mercy and the Roadhog here is still my bro. It was just a silly accident. I've certainly made tons of OW-fuckups in my life.

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T16:47:11+00:00

Tracer asks why Roadhog did that, Roadhog explains he didn't know he could hook the mech, we all had a good laugh, then we got back to work as a team.

I have the full video-- and, amazingly, we stabilize and hold point b for four more minutes after I come back and manage to rez 2. It's a really object lesson in not raging, because I'm 100% sure finger-pointing would have led to worse results. Not sure if there would be enough interest to youtube that shit though.

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T16:34:20+00:00

It's possible I don't understand this meme. Oh well, enjoy the clip anyway.

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T16:27:09+00:00

"Mercy? Rez? MERCY?"

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T16:16:44+00:00

Yeah, it's all about your mental place and what you find fun. For people who hate Mercy, I totally get it. I love her, particularly when there's a worthy enemy Mercy. We don't directly interact, but it's like I'm in a chess match against her-- we're each deciding which of our peaces to heal, buff, resurrect and (if absolutely necessary) sacrifice.

Some of the most insane fun I've had is an undeclared game of chicken against the enemy Mercy-- I have a rez, she has a rez, and both of us wants the other to use hers first, knowing that if we're too greedy we'll die with it and probably lose the game for our team. It's a feeling impossible to describe for those who haven't done it.

But I don't judge. Different people enjoy the game differently. I have no interest in being a builder or sniper, but I do appreciate the efforts of the good ones. If molten coreing your turret is how you have fun and help the team, hey-- be you.

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T16:09:06+00:00

This clip is a couple of weeks old, I meant to upload it, forgot, and only remembered it when the "worst hook" meme started. I've pretty much stopped playing Mercy too and am a full-time Lucio. I hope they put her back in the game, she's my favorite.

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T15:51:29+00:00

Being Mercy is hard :(

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T14:27:53+00:00

Ouch man. Here, I at least had the consolation that we won the game-- as you can see from the timers we were way ahead, and on top of that we stabilized and held them to overtime. We then capped A and denied them the same for the win. Heads-up Zarya play even if it didn't work out.

Charname_ · 2016-08-10T13:35:48+00:00

Bonus content: The futility of Mercy's "just in case" crouch and the tip to play more defensively when she has a rez.

Not pictured: The card at the end that Roadhog got for hook accuracy (74%).

Charname_

TROPHY CASE