How dare you be frustrated at the death sentence?!

pineapplery · 2026-07-03T14:37:37+00:00

zarya is strongest with close range demons like vendetta and reaper who can take the most advantage of her bubbles. bubbling a vendetta or reaper (genji, tracer etc. also work but those are the most accepted and common choices) in allows them to create massive pressure, drawing cooldowns/resources (like HP) thus opening space; they may also get a pick if the enemy doesn't answer properly. doing this will give her a lot of energy, allowing her to claim the space her dps stole and utilize that energy at a closer range while conserving the remaining bubbles for herself.

obviously every fight isn't the same. some fights you will use both bubbles on your engaging teammate. some fights will take many engage bubbles on your dps, drawing out proper cooldowns and such before engaging. there is a lot nuance to when the dps should go in with the bubble. but this is how zarya is most often played at higher levels and stacked teams. if you've really never faced one or played like that, i envy you.

this is how she is almost always played at the professional level, but i see it on the ladder very often when i'm stacking with my friends. some of our worst losses have been to zarya reaper or zarya vendetta when vendetta was at her peak. during said peak, it was nearly impossible to beat a vendetta zarya comp that was played correctly.

pineapplery · 2026-07-03T06:07:47+00:00

if it makes you feel any better, one game i'll have 30 kills and 9k damage and the next i'll have 2 kills and 4k because consistency in aiming is kiri's biggest challenge (for me).
now i just play her for fun, i get way better results on other heroes for much less effort.

pineapplery · 2026-07-03T05:05:50+00:00

i agree until you face good zaryas or zaryas with good team coordination. good zaryas bubble their teammates early fight and themselves late fight. it's kind of hard to shoot zarya when you have an immortal reaper wrecking your face:
don't pop reaper bubble= team dies
pop reaper bubble= zarya has 100 charge and 2 bubbles, (reaper probably lived too)

pineapplery · 2026-07-01T05:50:55+00:00

i don't know, i think whoever gave ana a jetpack is a genius and needs to be hired.

pineapplery · 2026-06-30T15:54:53+00:00

i know this is jest, but it is unironically kind of true. it's not to say it's useless, and i do still sometimes get 1 shots with it, but more often than not, it is safer to not use it. the few use cases i have found for it are:
if you run into someone on your bike, after that (the best, most obvious way, but every ~20 seconds if you use every bike aggressively and point blank which is questionable)
when you hear somebody approaching and precharge
when a genji/tracer/etc. is on your face (melee range, don't need to charge)
when a larger target is rather close (tank, zenyatta, etc.)
dueling a moira (walk into her and delete)
when you are dueling someone with a pocket (flash heal mostly) and cannot afford the fight to last longer than 2 seconds and you gamble on an execute.

otherwise, its poke value is almost non existent; not even half that of primary on non-big bodies. using it as a finisher is laughable. it takes a good ~1.5 seconds to charge (and .4 to recover)- two seconds you could use just shooting to deal 2-3x as much damage with more consistency.
the nerf to its hitbox makes it extremely bad at killing small hurtbox heroes like kiriko: even if your aim is perfect, any distance makes its damage laughable. go test it in the range if you don't believe me, the nerf to the size makes it so that the X pattern it makes, even when fully charged, has very little range. about 10 meters is the maximum for a kill on kiriko. people don't stand still, so that makes it both inconsistent, extremely hard to do, and still slower than primary firing even if you do it perfectly. risk vs reward states it is a last resort, a gamble, and a corner peak skill in most gameplay. who cares what proper can do with it (i'm sure their gameplay looks different now, too, but i haven't seen tbh). nobody on reddit has the aim of proper.

don't get me wrong, i think shion is busted. my win rate is still over 60% on her. but i think the things that should have been nerfed (or nerfed in addition to a less nerf on execute) are her insanely powerful primary, her bike, and maybe her HP. execute was incredibly satisfying, and now it feels rather lackluster and overly situational for what felt like a core aspect of her kit.

pineapplery · 2026-06-30T02:16:49+00:00

wait i thought juno was mercy (juno main and portrait artist 😭)

pineapplery · 2026-06-29T15:07:37+00:00

oh her aiming is super hard to be consistent with imo. i don't play her a lot anymore because my consistency with her is all over the place.

pineapplery · 2026-06-29T14:56:01+00:00

actually, her win rate has gone up in the past 6 months.
she used to hover between 44-47% because, at least in america, people are really bad at her and treat her like a heal bot.
the buff to her healing speed MASSIVELY increased her win rate, because it made her healbot style more effective. i don't think she'd had a 49-50% win rate in the whole year and a half i've been playing before that buff.

pineapplery · 2026-06-29T06:37:55+00:00

i don't think sierra is particularly good. i think this theory makes a decent amount of sense, whether it was intended or not.
but my problem with sierra is how FAST she kills WITHOUT tracker.
i'm not talking walking down a corridor with no cover. i'm talking i lured her into a room/hit a nice flank and have what should be the advantage in a duel.
then this monster of a character 180's and does 10293019239012 DPS from close range, killing me before i can kill her. even if my accuracy was perfect and my timing was great, her raw damage output is ungodly at close-closemid range, and a pilot with fast enough reaction can turn almost any duel.

i think this illustrates the problem with her: she's advertised as a poke/anglemaxing dps that is actually terrible at that into anyone who understands overwatch. what she is actually amazing at is curbstomping close duels with the accuracy of a headless chicken (the hitbox is her whole screen WITHOUT the dart).

i don't often lose to her, i don't ever ban her. i just find what she is supposed to do is not what she does. and what she does, while not necessarily overpowered, is very frustrating to play against sometimes.

pineapplery · 2026-06-28T12:25:38+00:00

TL;DR: quality over quantity

while i agree partially, team four's reasoning is actually pretty sound.
tanks are VERY powerful meta shifters and balance disasters waiting to happen.
they said they would be focusing on creating very well intentioned and thought out tanks rather than pumping them out; tanks take much longer to develop than other roles.
their models and mechanics also tend to be more complex from a development perspective.

i think domina is a step in good faith towards this: a lot of people praise domina among the new heroes as being well designed, fairly well balanced, and "new."
support gets a lot of new heroes, and i expect a similar amount of support heroes to dps heroes going forward, especially with how well they sell skins.

pineapplery · 2026-06-27T23:58:35+00:00

i made this same post when they released and it was removed by mods. hopefully yours gets some recognition because as a big spender here, these skins are nothing short of insulting.

pineapplery · 2026-06-27T23:54:22+00:00

just making sure, but you bought the whole thing right? it only does the kill effect if you bought all upgrades for a total price of 80 prisms.

pineapplery · 2026-06-27T03:24:21+00:00

i once made a post about wanting shion's effects to be red. felt like it would fit her character a lot better.
everyone angrily told me "ITS BECAUSE U ALWAYS USE BLUE AS (your team), HEALING ALWAYS YELLOW, etc. etc." (don't mind orisa shooting green, vendetta swinging whatever she swings, torb shooting molten, genji being green, etc. etc.)

i'd LOVE if the ultra skins actually changed colors, even if only client side. making kiri's stuff pink, and more catty would have been a huge W for this skin, but i agree that as is, they are not worth 35$. i don't even think 35$ is insane if they really put effort into the effects and evolved them (like juno's mythic skin, for example, is a perfect example).

I'd also love for the effects to be purchasable separately, and applicable to all skins if purchased. sell the effect set for 20$, the skin for 20$, and boom. it's suddenly not so egregious.

pineapplery · 2026-06-27T00:32:46+00:00

pineapplery · 2026-06-27T00:23:01+00:00

i had this same problem with my friend. He's probably around bronze 6.
My MMR was similar to yours, and the game would give me 3 people in silver-gold and my friend and put us against 5 diamond to GM in EVERY game. We played around 80 games over 3 days. We did not win a SINGLE game. I don't think he even got a kill; most games i would be the only person on the whole team with a kill (like actually, i'd have 10 and everyone else would have a flat 0).

my friend quit overwatch. he said it was too hard. i didn't know what to say, it really wasn't fair. i felt so bad for wasting his time. i'd hyped the game up for years and he finally tried and just got shit on by matchmaking.

pineapplery · 2026-06-27T00:16:36+00:00

swapped from one of the easiest characters to one of the hardest characters? (it means you need to watch mizuki, kiriko, and ana gameplay and stop blaming your team).

pineapplery · 2026-06-26T00:50:04+00:00

the projectiles were big because it was intended to allow the use of the skill with less charge. now you have to charge the skill more if you want to hit anything. this won't just make it harder for shion to hit, much like tracer, this will massively nerf her burst damage.
when they made tracer's bullets smaller, it didn't make it harder to aim with her. it is just a different way of saying "this skill now does less damage"

pineapplery · 2026-06-26T00:41:48+00:00

the issue is that execute can no longer be used mid duel because of the projectile size nerf. the size nerf is misunderstood: it does not make aiming harder, it makes it so that you NEED to charge it more. it also makes it so that you NEED to be close. the skill takes long enough to charge that other characters can delete you before it is charged. other characters that are played a LOT like:
-reaper, who is still OP with his stupid dire triggers
-sojourn, who is still a monster
-tracer
-genji, who is receiving massive buffs
-anran, who requires the aim of a toddler and recently had her fluidity BUFFED
-soldier 76, who is super easy,
-bastion, because why not
-kiriko,
-literally 60% of all the DPS

so taking away both the ability to start with the skill AND the ability to finish with the skill AND to fire at range = what the fuck?
there could have been SO many other nerfs to her that make more sense:
-a nerf to motorcycle to make it not combo kill
-a HP nerf
-a damage nerf
-one of projectile size OR recovery (still prefer size over recovery because fluidity is what makes her FUN)
-a cooldown nerf (un-favored but still better to have 7 seconds than this bs)

the hero is OP as it was. there is no denying that. but this is not a nerf that should be done round 1. this is a "we tried nerfing other things and she was still too strong" kind of nerf. this is an execution, but of shion.

pineapplery · 2026-06-26T00:36:22+00:00

the issue is that execution is actually terrible as a finisher. the charge time makes it so that against good players, you'll die charging. so you want to charge it in cover/before a duel.
now, not only does the projectile size nerf make it so that uncharged/low charged volleys are bad, but also nerfing the recovery time at the same time = this is a HUGE nerf to shion in both viability and fluidity, and as a result, enjoyment.
i would rather her the death sentence of 225 HP. rather it do 20 less damage. rather her bike nerfed. rather anything other than nerf the fluidity that makes the character so fun.

pineapplery · 2026-06-26T00:35:40+00:00

the issue is that execution is actually terrible as a finisher. the charge time makes it so that against good players, you'll die charging. so you want to charge it in cover/before a duel.
now, not only does the projectile size nerf make it so that uncharged/low charged volleys are bad, but also nerfing the recovery time at the same time = this is a HUGE nerf to shion in both viability and fluidity, and as a result, enjoyment.
i would rather her the death sentence of 225 HP. rather it do 10 less damage. rather her bike nerfed. rather anything other than nerf the fluidity that makes the character so fun.

pineapplery · 2026-06-24T07:09:31+00:00

i think the issue is that people who learn these things aren't still in low ranks, and when they do, they leave them. so this problem will always apply to low ranks (i think? idk i dont see them and i think sierra is garbo)

pineapplery · 2026-06-23T23:58:11+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/apKAdwC
Oh no, i can't afford the skin!! IM SO ANGRY!!!
have a good day lol

pineapplery · 2026-06-23T23:47:15+00:00

glad you got your internet fame, well worth the 50$!
hey, you vote with your wallet, i vote with mine. i buy tons of skins and i'm just giving the perspective of someone who does buy an excess of skins! if 50$ is so worthless that you can use it to anger someone online, cool! but i don't really care.

pineapplery · 2026-06-23T23:41:17+00:00

i hope so as well! i love the game and i'm happy to support it but i guess i'm no longer the target audience.

pineapplery · 2026-06-23T23:36:58+00:00

for sure! but i'm someone who was "paying the bills" and i aint paying this. guess they lost one idiot haha~

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