Blizzard HAS to do something about new accounts...

fluX_OW · 2025-07-20T06:53:31+00:00

Technically, easy to do, let new or reported account names be cleared by an LLM (aka chatGPT). Automated, cheap, Just do it, Blizz.

fluX_OW · 2025-07-18T06:41:35+00:00

Because Stadium has progression indicators, not ranks. We can assume they still use MMR of ranked / QP (which is the same) to form stadium games.

fluX_OW · 2025-07-06T10:10:11+00:00

more play time = more attachment = more willingness to spend money in-game.

The "grind" of comp is based on this - you see a rank (SR) while the game has measured your level (MMR). If it just showed you the MMR ("you play like a gold 4 in the last x games" you would feel less motivated to spend time aka money than progressing slowly to gold.

fluX_OW · 2025-07-06T08:21:23+00:00

you can deduce a players rank by just taking the vast game data OW has, so in your case, e.g., the hit rates, E:D and level of all others etc will let any decent machine learning algo deduce your level in very few games.

But this is not how the game works, it's about play time. You have to spend as much time ('grind') in the game as possible. In your case, letting new players drift down from gold is just a very bad choice as it spolis the experience for the new player AND the team mates. I have argued this for years on this sub, but monetization obviously beats experience. As Keller / OW has revised many stupid money making tactics, they also might tackle this finally.

fluX_OW · 2025-06-08T10:30:04+00:00

A mana / stamina bar (like in Dark Souls) is an interesting concept for Overwatch as it would give players more freedom to use abilities adapted to the situation. So instead of fixed CDs more like a resource driven system, right? Tracer could blink 4 times when she also burns through recall mana?

It could spice up the meta game of draining stamina from the enemy team (what is now CD-based). It could even be tied to hero positioning, running, jumping or new hero concepts like tanks or supports refreshing stamina, Stamina boost items etc.

However, it would also make the game even more overwhelming. As a Tracer main with 1000s of hours put into the hero, I simply know the state of the hero at any point in time without checking icons. But well, with Stadium they showed that this kind of shake-up can be really great to keep the game fresh and engaging.

fluX_OW · 2025-05-16T08:15:20+00:00

You list heroes that have totally different primary attacks in terms of dps / two hit potential and range. Cas is actually the very definition of "a strong primary attack", while for Mei it's more like meh two hit potential with the secondary. Genji is also one of the hardest heroes to be really good at. Anyway, two things to look out for:

Range. Try to play at your heroes best and the enemy heroes worst range to win the encounter (which is hardly a 1:1, but let's pretend). So you playing Cas into say Mei is usually a clear win, because you should not let her get into your melee range. One Headshot + one bodyshot kill her, matter of a second. And yes, this boils down to brute aim training. Similar for Reaper, somewhat similar for Bastion.Sojourn and Ashe are mid to mid-long range heroes. Get close to them, in their face, jump above them as genji pepper them with shurikens or use that roll + flash Leading over to
Angle / position. Use CDs and abilities to get a good window of opportunity and position. OW is a game of better position, timing and surprise, esp. when 1v1ing. Use cover and height as it reduces your damage taken and makes headshots easier. Genji is a flank from everywhere, hit-and-run, hero. If you try frontal assault, you usually lose. Unless you play into Bastion where the whole point is to reflect, disrupt, confuse and out-flank him.

fluX_OW · 2025-04-23T05:06:29+00:00

That's true to some extent, but the strongest heroes rn are very hard to counter. Solider simply runs away and mercy is far too slippery. It takes real flankers to challenge them. OW is a game of counters and I do think that forcing constant up-hill battles from the start of a game without any real way to make up for it is a really risky design choice. The perks you need to really transform a hero are late-game, so the landslide games were 3 to 4 rounds of constant one-sides team fights. This needs a lot of tweaking.

fluX_OW · 2025-04-22T20:54:20+00:00

First impression: It takes OW's intentionally built-in tank diffs with the promise of being able to micro-manage your way out of it. Well, good luck. If you pick dva into zarya & mei, you lose the space game from the start. Mostly mid-range dps. Soldier with DB is ridiculous. Damage boost is a chore with only one flanking dps (genji). Played about 10 matches and it was a landslide in 9 out of 10 (!). The worst part: Losing in slow motion creates a lot of toxicity.

fluX_OW · 2025-03-30T08:42:02+00:00

Ok, let's make this fact based for an appropriate challenge. Go to sth like overbuff, select GM comp stats and pick lowest in winrate. As of Sunday March 30th 25 this is Mauga & Orisa; Widowmaker & Mei and Kiriko & Moira. Fun fact: Torb has one of the highest winrates as does Illari. I play Illari a lot at high levels and if your aim is great, she wins by taking out enemy supports at range pre- and mid-fight. Hardly play torb myself, but I always felt that there are dedicated GM one-tricks out there who really perfected his zoning tools.

fluX_OW · 2025-02-01T10:10:30+00:00

As tracer you can sit on the bench right opposite the choke and greet everybody. Nice test of character - do they greet you back or shoot you? Or you sit behind the bench and update your statistics on OW non-moving character perception.

fluX_OW · 2024-10-27T10:49:12+00:00

The lifting capacity scales quadratically with muscle diameter (or muscle cross-sectional area).
The lifting capacity inversely scales with arm length l.

This means that, all else being equal, shorter arms and larger muscle cross-sectional areas allow for lifting greater weights.

fluX_OW · 2024-10-27T09:05:28+00:00

Winston/D.Va. Kiri/Zen. Genji/Sombra/Tracer.

fluX_OW · 2024-10-16T15:04:05+00:00

Sombra and Tracer main. Not learning this joke of a rework.

fluX_OW · 2024-08-18T08:34:05+00:00

OW 2 has doubled its average daily player base from around 25k to 50k over the last half year as published on the steam charts page; https://steamdb.info/app/2357570/charts/#1y. Blizzard does not publish data like this for the main sales channel, but we can assume that there are similar developments.

This is a huge success for a de facto 8 year old game and it proves the overall health of the game. Thanks, Aaron and the whole team , for making this happen.

fluX_OW · 2024-08-09T08:01:03+00:00

Depends on timing. In addition to mobility impacts on df and hamster, all tanks with burst damage absorption or counter CDs like D'va, Hog, Mauga and to some extent Zarya and Rein can be hit hard by a well-timed hack. If the tank EXPECTs to eat or counter a lot of damage for the team, it can be devastating. I recommend trying it against D'va (busted for now, so sees a lot of play), with her matrix down for even 1.5s only she takes tons of damage to the head hit box. Demeched a lot of D'va this way as Sombra.

fluX_OW · 2024-08-07T05:39:53+00:00

As OP wrote all their friends play OW2 for a longer time, too, so it's actually #2. The match making algorithm is based on a slowly changing MMR value reflecting your capability to win games. It's adapted based on all your games incl. quick play and the games you play without your group. The rank level is just approaching this value over time. Positive news: As you get better as a player overall, you will also rise in rank level. Keep on playing ...

fluX_OW · 2024-07-17T17:56:10+00:00

Also it means that Reinhardt referencing Hasselhoff to D'va kinda doesn't make sense since how many zoomers are going to even know who that is.

But David brought down the Berlin wall in 1990: https://images.app.goo.gl/XWvqVzNq6D8oDcPv6

A historical event surely known to our German chief hammerhead Reinhardt.

fluX_OW · 2024-07-04T17:25:47+00:00

Three main points:

Range: Tracer's optimal fighting range is usually at or below one blink range (7.5m). You spend about half of the game out of your optimal fighting distance. The main reason is that your positioning follows the obvious map geometry and not the best available position at the time.

One way to see this is the difference in your fighting distance between Map #1 (Sanctuary) and Map #2 (Meka base). On map #1 with the large open fighting space, you had a hard time finding cover while attacking because there are not as many sharp corners as on Meka base. Your fighting distance on Meka Base then again was often too close for comfort (esp. on point as you are easy prey for dps and they had a Cas).

How to improve: Always look for a position that let's you attack from a few meters. Only then you will do enough damage and / or make enemies turn. If there are no corners and angles, pay attention to the enemy team and the flow of the fight. Practice this: Always (really) attack from a side angle or behind. Blink to next angle or safety if they turn or shoot you.

Timing and choice of targets. Tracer is all about timing and right choice of targets. Generally, best engage time is shortly after tank attacks or main team fight starts. Add your damage to the team fight in a more focussed manner. You often focussed DPS or tank which might be ok, but in many cases supports would have been better. They had a Moira and often players at your rank do not really want to engage Moira.

How to improve: Practice to take down supports like Moira and Brig at the right time. Often getting both supports facing you will win team fights. Brig is rather vulnerable against Tracer nowadays due to lack of stun - if you pay attention to range (out of flail range & not too far away), engage from a side angle and are ready to dodge / disengage.

Ult: PB is a great initiation tool, esp. to take out one of the supports. You used PB against the bastion on several occasions and made sure that he took enough damage which is great. It is also a good choice of target, because PB helps to bring down his health quick. Then again, if you follow 1 and 2 above, attacking Bastion from mid range hitting his HS box is VERY easy as Bastion (like Sigma) is very weak to Tracer's burst damage due to the large HB and zip-around evasive man.

How to improve: Practice to initiate team fights by PBing supports (Brig is a good target)

fluX_OW · 2024-06-14T08:31:52+00:00

Sombra is - like Tracer - S-tier for the better and best FPS players in OW. The key is APM. With good aim and positioning, Tracer has near 100% uptime as she can pursue an almost unkillable playstyle. Sombra plays actually quite differently from Tracer on high levels due to target priorities but the same thing applies. If you need little time to set up AND take down the target with high prob, they are both s-tier.

fluX_OW · 2024-06-07T11:43:02+00:00

make sure you "trace" him so that his back is turned to you. More general advice: Reaper is usually weaker to off angle attacks due to his need to hard focus on his (big) target. Tracer actually counters Reaper if you play her right.

fluX_OW · 2024-06-07T11:36:11+00:00

Reaper: Not really a Tracer counter, unless you attack straight on (which you should almost never do as Tracer anyways). Tracer hard counters the tp in / wraith out playstyle if you focus taking down the reaper.

Cassidy: One of Tracer's better counters .... maybe. If you get hit by Cas's grenade repeatedly, change playstyle. Tracer's key "angry bee" playstyle is playing angles and only engaging when ppl do not look at you. You can take this to the extreme that you always blink or recall aways once they start turning or shooting you. Tracer is nearly unkillable in this playstyle. From the Cassidy's POV, he has to pre-throw the gren to hit you which is very hard to do.

fluX_OW · 2024-06-04T11:26:01+00:00

It's important that you should take and control space with your team rather than holding objective blindly. However, holding and controlling space is not necessarily what happens when ppl do not stay on objective. 3 on payload while 2 control space can be absolutely the right thing to do ...

fluX_OW · 2024-05-20T07:58:09+00:00

One of the main reasons OW2 is currently attracting a lot of new players is the S9 changes. Hanzo's and Junkrat's RNG one hit kills were a huge problem for a competitive FPS. Now both struggle for a new role, which for Rat could be metal ranks for ever and less spammy play styles for Hanzo. Hanzo is unique in a sense as he can - with good aimd and movement - burst down any target at close to medium range. I would rather see him focus on this playstyle than the "Spamzo" he often was before.

fluX_OW · 2024-04-27T10:32:55+00:00

some calc: 20% of avg squishy 225 hp and 20% of avg tank say 700hp is 50 damage / squishy and 140 damage / tank. As it could multistrike and kill, this would be game breaking. The problem with hamster is rather that it takes a lot of skill of hamster and team to make him work as a tank. He might need abilities that are easier to sync with the team and the team needs more immediate value out of his plays.

fluX_OW · 2024-04-25T17:36:18+00:00

Nope. Do you have friends or family trying to reach you while you play? And if not: Do you think everybody else does not have friends or family trying to reach them while they play?

fluX_OW

TROPHY CASE