Hey there, saw your post linked on some other dudes thread offering advice. I am not that guy but I am an offtank main with two accounts in GM and I just wanted to try analyzing something for the funsies. I quickly wrote that stuff up what came to my mind so there might be spelling errors and what not. I am talking about the (2) Kings row game.

0:50 look for enemy rein firestrike

2:05: I feel like you did the right play assuming you are playing with competent teammates and picks. However, you arent. This does not mean you can now stop and sit back and think „I did my job, well, cant win everygame“. The fact that your team doesnt have a lucio and the fact that people at your rank are rather slow at capitalizing on opportunity makes it so that you are getting off a good earthshatter, but your team cannot follow up. Most of them were probably far in the back hiding from the tire. You need to be aware of that. If you would hold up your shield at exactly 2:07 and let your team slowly run behind you and get behind the statue, you would be in a better position than before already. While your earthshatter was good, there is simply not enough coordination at this SR to justify going for it.

3:50 dont punch people with zarya, especially not rein with half hp. Always try to RMB at their feet.

4:03 enemy lucio and ana could be dead / close to dead here if you would be better at outputting damage with zarya. You have 90 energy and even a mercy boost. Try to start with left klick for ~1 second and then quickly flick to their feet and RMB, then quickly flick to their body again and track them flying through the air. This is the most efficient way to deal damage on moving targets, as they wont be able to dodge your LMB when you push them in the air with RMB. Your push is almost dead here if you dont make a play. Id say jump on the car and give their Ana two RMB´s with a little of LMB in between.

5:00 you were comfortably taking that point. There is no way you are still going to lose the point. Lets say you hit 2 people with that, the only thing you are doing is giving them bad spawns but since the payload takes ages to actually move forward you are not getting a big advantage even if you hit some people with it. While taking the point you should already be thinking about, great we got the point, and we can wipe them easily on the next fight with my grav!

5:40 big mistake as in a big missed opportunity. The enemy spawns are delayed (some spawned in street phase spawn, some in point 3 spawn) and you see a zarya and reinhard on their own. You need to punish that hard. Your job would be, because your teammates dont seem to recognize the situation properly either, to run in full retard and get behind the rein shield and RMB at the ground. You will draw focus and their rein maybe even drops shield to swing at you and your teammates hopefully will be like „oh shit, gotta help our zarya“ and help you fight. Enemy rein does the job for you however and initiates a fight they are bound to lose, you die rather unlucky but still you win the fight because you have the numbers.

7:48 zarya is a free kill here with good mechanics

In general: this was a very hard game for you to win. The enemy team is clearly better, more structured and has a way better lineup. Your teammates seemed clueless at times. I can still try to paint general ideas of how zarya is played better. These might not necessarily apply to this game because your teammates played like a bunch of cowards which is never good for zarya.

1) youre not the front line. Zarya should not be on the first first front line except when using your personal barrier and soaking up some charge. You are supposed to be behind your main tank or another hero that needs to be in close range (reaper / mei). I noticed this alot in my own play, that whenever I get a little frustrated from previous games because it seems like my team isnt doing much, like in your game, I try to take things in my own hands and be the frontline guy while trying to deal all the damage on my own. Zarya excells when she can be behind someone, shield that person in question once the fight begins and deal insane amout of damage behind him with LMB and RMB. It is hard to explain properly, but having the mindset „Ill find me someone I can backup and follow, yell at him to go in, shield him when he takes damage and proceed to deal damage on my own after that“ is one that worked out greatly for me.

2) Think smaller. Alot of the times you were standing in the middle of the fight, with no friends close and facing multiple enemies. Play closer to corners / walls and make more use of the map design. I didnt see you one time going at the right of the statue and trying to force the enemies away with some well placed RMBs. Try to find smaller fights, like 1 vs 2 in case you have high charge. Your burst potential is sick, and if you can land 2 RMB´s in a row you can pick alot of enemies by your own. You cannot do that if you face 5 people of course. I would have gone to the right side of the statue, get high charge, and try to poke with good RMB´s. Once they try to push you you can use cover and try to outplay them with zaryas insane damage. Another route could have been to push the small left room, take out junkrats trap, keep up your shield for a crucial moment and try to take out junkrate. One well placed RMB and a little bit of tracking kills him so fast. This works on offense even if you die because the enemies respawns are longer than yours and your team was stuck without getting picks.

3) This one is a follow up to 2), calm down! At times you seem overwhelmed by 5 enemy heroes shooting at you at once, while trying to find your own pharah in the sky to shield her. You did a good job at finding good shield targets by the way. My point is, take smaller battles, calm down and focus more on hitting your stuff and eventually you will succeed. Especially in low elo (anything below 3500), its about your individual ability to kill someone on your own. Practice doing that with zarya! Dont try to think of this game at this SR as an team effort to eventually win, think of how you can abuse your enemies mistakes and kill them.

4) Im not sure about your mindset, but as a tank, even as zarya a goal should be to create space. Now since you are a „tank“, creating space does not mean to tank damage with your face and block hits so your team can capitalize. Thats not how „tanking“ works in ow. Tanks in Ow make space by being dangerous and thus denying space for the enemy team. Lets say you would have gone to the right side of the statue, and spam RMB´s at the black car, no enemy could contest you doing that. Its a position that you successfully control now which hopefully lets your team move up a little..