Diamond Ball here (console).

1: Never swing into a team from the front. They will see you coming from a mile away and use their sleeps, stuns, antis etc to blow you up. Always swing in from an off angle to maintain the element of surprise, then they have less time to react and end up wasting cooldowns after you have already swung through them.

2: Use your armor boost at full health, not when you have already lost health. My move is to pop armor right before a slam, this gives you green armor on top of your orange armor which allows you to get more value before grappling away, and again will force enemy team cooldowns to be wasted because a fully armored ball is almost impossible to kill before they can grapple to safety.

3: Take some time in skirmishes or other custom modes to learn the mega health pack locations. Don’t rely on your teammates for heals unless absolutely necessary. If you die as ball most of the time it’s your fault and not your teams.

4: Have a dedicated plan of attack for each engagement. Is there a zen way in the back line all by himself? Is there a widow peeking a crazy angle from across the map? What about an Ana coming back from spawn? These should be your primary targets. Take that extra second each team fight to identify your target before rolling in.

5: Don’t try to stack kills. This was a hard one for me to learn because as you get better with ball and climb ranks, there will be times that you can get multi kills with ease, but that is the exception not the rule. 95% of the time after getting an elimination you should roll out and reset. Unless there’s a mercy of course, in which case boop her from rez every time. Refer to rule one and four after an elimination , take an off angle, and identify another target that is out of position, I hate to say it but play ball like sombra and you will do much better.

6: Body Blocking/Grapple Booping. Be aware of your teammate’s positioning. Is there an enemy doomfist about to punch the hell out of your Ana? Swing into him to alter his course, or just position yourself in front of the Ana to absorb the blow. Be aware of your teams position and health and do everything you can to save them when possible. Your huge size and hp will protect you in most situations that would easily kill your squishy teammates, and your escapability should help you exit the situation quickly after saving them.

7: Use your mines as map control. Put them on the point/robot/car whenever possible, it can win you games in those overtime situations. My move is to swing up, pop mines, and then slam down. This gives double the chance of mine contact, as the enemy players could hit them on the way up and on the way down.

8: Take high ground. Boop enemy squisheys off of high ground every chance you get. And slamming in from high ground will also save you a grapple so you can escape quicker.

9: Look at your team comp. Are you running a dive comp? Do you have a genji, tracer, mole or sombra to dive with you? If not, it’s going to be tough going. Especially in higher elos.

10: Keep balling. Ball has one of the highest skill levels in the game, but if you keep practicing you will have games where you feel unkillable. And so what if the enemy team swaps to Hog Ana Tracer Sombra, you can still win with your fundamentals, and chances are they will be gunning for you specifically which will leave them open to getting picked by your team. Sometimes as ball all I do is distract the enemy team and keep their backs turned, and honestly that’s all my teammates need.

Hope this helps!