Overwatch
If you are just learning out Overwatch, play Arcade Deathmathes after the tutorial. This will give you a fast no-hassle way of learning the mechanics of your hero. This is true even with tanks and healers as you need to be handle on your own at least for a while. Deathmatches have instant respawn so you don't have any downtime in learning.
"Dive" means that the team has two or three heroes with high mobility. Heroes like Tracer, Genji or Winston. Ones that can easily "dive in" and kill any out of place heroes, usually a Zenyatta with his slow movement speed and little to no instant defensive abilities. The act of going in for the kill is also called a dive.
"Anti-dive" means heroes that can counter dives. For example Zarya can shield a vulnerable ally or McCree can stun one of the divers.
Consider playing easy-to-master heroes to begin with. Heroes that are easier to play than for the enemy to counter. This is essentially the fastest way to climb to diamond tier in competitive.
- Support: Moira, Brigitte, Mercy
- Tank: Roadhog, Dva, Winston
- DPS: Soldier 76, Reaper, Pharah
Play safe in ranked until upper masters. Keep track of your death count, it's more impactful than you realize.
Don't feed ultimates. Do less things to avoid dying.
Even run to the spawn if you must. If enemies chase you, your team has the advantage.
Armor:
- Armor blocks 5 damage for each hit that deals 10 or more damage.
- Armor is less effective against explosives and snipers.
- Heroes with 200 armor: Orissa, D.Va, Reinhardt,
- Heroes with 100 armor: Winston, Bastion, Wrecking Ball
- Heroes with 50 armor: Brigitte
- Heroes weak against armor: Tracer, Soldier 76, Reaper
Aiming
Hand aiming is significantly more efficient than with your wrist. This is why you should have a large mousepad, low sensitivity and use your whole arm when playing hitscan heroes.
The vast majority of players play within the 20-40cm/360 range.
- Xcm/360 means how many centimeters it takes to turn your aim 360 degrees
- extreme hitscan-only players can go as low as 70cm/360, but rare
- hitscan players play with 30-40cm/360
- genji-tracer-reaper-the-like mains play with 20-30cm/360
- winston-rein mains can play with 10cm/360, but rare
My Razer Deathadder mouse settings:
- 1500 DPI
- 6.5 in game sensitivity
Set Render Scale to 50%. At least it improves long range aiming with Widowmaker for me. Just seem to get the crosshair in line with the pixels better.
You can generalize heroes to three different sensitivity levels:
- Low Sensitivity:
- You have to actually aim, each hit counts.
- McCree, Soldier 76, Orissa, Torbjörn, Roadhog, Zenyatta, Hanzo, Ana, Windowmaker (scope)
- Medium Sensitivity:
- Sometimes you have to circle around fast: Bastion
- Need to circle around enemy up close: Genji, Reaper, Sombra, Tracer, Mei, Windowmaker (no scope)
- Need to reliably track moving targets: Zarya, Mercy
- Requires quick glances for abilities: Doomfist, Pharah, Junkrat
- "Aim at that general area": Bastion, Reaper
- High Sensitivity:
- Don't have to to aim too much: Reinhardt, Winston, Moira, Symmetra
- Movement requires a lot of turning: D.va, Lucio
Some sensitivity notes...
Ruksi:
5000 eDPI baseline
10000 eDPI Dva, Doomfist, Genji, Junkrat, Lucio, Moira, Orissa, Pharah,
Reinhardt, Roadhog, Winston, Wrecking Ball, Zarya
5000 * 0.4 = 2000 eZoom
Carpe:
2800 eDPI
2800 * 0.30z = 840 eZoom
Ana Dude:
3600 eDPI
3600 * 0.26z = 936 eZoom
Dafrans:
3800 eDPI
3800 * 0.38z = 1444 eZoom
aimbotcalvin:
3000 eDPI baseline
3100 eDPI Widowmaker
3260 eDPI Genji
3300 eDPI Tracer
3100 * 0.48z = 1488 ezoom
Seagul:
3776 eDPI
3776 * 0.40z = 1510 eZoom
Flicker:
3888 eDPI
3888 * 0.40z = 1555 eZoom
LiNkzr:
4400 eDPI
4400 * 0.38z = 1672 eZoom
4800 eDPI
4800 * 0.34z = 1632 eZoom
Rascal:
4400 eDPI most hitscan heroes
4800 eDPI Junkrat, Doomfist, Reaper
5600 eDPI Genji, Pharah
4400 * 0.40z = 1760 eZoom
Boostio:
8000 eDPI baseline
4800 eDPI hitscan
5800 eDPI Widowmaker
5800 * 0.38z = 2204 eZoom
Soon:
7200 eDPI
7200 * 0.4z = 2880 eZoom
Team Composition
A vanilla Overwatch team composition is:
- 2 heroes that focus on controlling "The Space" (tank)
- 2 heroes that focus on keeping team mates alive (support)
- 2 heroes that focus on killing enemies (damage dealer aka. DPS)
Having two supports is essential as if one of the supports is being attacked, the other support needs to be able to help the focused support.
"The Space" is an important concept for all tanks. Your Space is the area that you control and enemies would die if they dive in for too long. Their Space is the similar concept for the opposing team.
The Space:
- the area behind shielding Reinhardt with 3 of his team mates behind him,
Reinhardt can expand the space by moving forward
- Winston can jump in the middle of an enemy team to split their space for a moment
Tank
Initiator - Can get onto the enemy and not die, making cracks to the enemy line
Dva
Winston
Reinhardt
Wrecking Ball
Peeler - Can isolate singular enemies.
Roadhog
Orissa
Mei
Zarya
Wall - Can continously protect a direction.
Reinhardt
Orissa
Brigitte
Protector - Can temporarily protect allies.
Dva
Zarya
DPS
Mobile - Can reposition quickly.
Tracer
Widowmaker
Sombra
Pharah
Reaper
Genji
Immobile - Cannot reposition quickly.
Bastion
Hanzo
Junkrat
Soldier: 76
McCree
Spammer - can continously apply pressure
Junkrat, Hanzo, Pharah, Bastion
Close Range
Tracer
Sombra
Genji
Reaper
Medium Range
McCree
Bastion
Junkrat
Soldier: 76
Long Range
Windowmaker
Hanzo
Pharah - only against slow targets
Support
Mobile - Can reposition quickly but
Mercy
Lucio
Immobile - Cannot reposition quickly
Ana
Zenyatta
Moira
Offensive - Can help applying pressure.
Ana
Lucio
Defensive - Good in continously sustaining own team.
Mercy
Zenyatta
Builders - Locking down specific areas
Symmetra
Torbjörn
Burst Heal
Mercy
Ana
Moira
Regen Heal
Lucio
Zenyatta
Minor Heal
Soldier: 76
Torbjörn
Close Range Heal
Moira
Lucio
Long Range Heal
Mercy
Zenyatta
All heroes have the same 5.5 m/s walking speed, with the following exceptions:
Reinhardt with Charge: 16.66 m/s
D.Va with Boosters: 12.5 m/s
Lúcio with Amped Speed: 11.66 m/s
Soldier 75 with Sprint: 8.25 m/s
Lúcio with Speed: 7.1 m/s
Winston while enraged: 7.1 m/s
Reaper with Wraith Form: 7.1 m/s
Genji: 6 m/s
Genji with Dragonblade: 6 m/s
Tracer: 6 m/s
Roadhog with Whole Hog: 2.5 m/s
McCree with Deadeye: 2 m/s
D.Va while shooting: 1.33 m/s
If enemy team has only damage, play heroes with a lot of health.
Heroes that can move vertically:
- Genji, Hanzo, Dva, Reaper, Junkrat, Pharah, Winston, Sombra, (Doomfist)
Counters:
Ana: D.Va, Winston, Genji, Reaper
Bastion: Junkrat, Pharah, Widowmaker, Hanzo, Tracer
Brigitte: Junkrat, Pharah, Sombra, Winston, Widowmaker, Doomfist
Doomfist: McCree, Sombra, Mei, Doomfist
Dva: Reinhardt, Zarya, Junkrat, Reaper
Genji: Orissa, Roadhog, Reinhardt, Mei, Moira, McCree, Sombra, Doomfist
Hanzo: Genji, Tracer, Winston
Junkrat: Pharah
Lucio: Mei, Pharah, McCree, Tracer, Roadhog, Genji
McCree: Genji
Mei: McCree
Mercy: Tracer, Roadhog, Genji, Reaper, Soldier 76, McCree
Moira: McCree
Orissa: Junkrat, Reaper, Pharah, Widowmaker, Hanzo, McCree, Bastion
Pharah: hitscan heroes
Reaper: Dva
Reinhardt: Pharah, Junkrat, Bastion
Roadhog: Zarya, Junkrat, Ana
Soldier 76: Dva
Sombra: McCree
Symmetra: Pharah
Torbjorn: Pharah, Hanzo, Widowmaker, Reaper, Junkrat, Zarya, Soldier 76
Tracer: Winston, McCree, Mei
Widowmaker: Winston, D.Va, Genji, Reaper, Reinhardt
Winston: McCree, Sombra, Mei, Doomfist
Wrecking Ball: McCree, Sombra, Mei, Doomfist
Zarya: Widowmaker, Hanzo, Pharah
Zenyatta: Widowmaker, Tracer, Reaper, Genji, McCree, Hanzo, Winston
Maps
All control maps:
- Attacker has advantage on point A.
- Defender has advantage on point B.
Team composition can change if attacking or defending.
Attack: have at least one Initiator; you need some way to engage.
Defense: have at least one Peeler; you want ways to make regrouping harder.
Doomfist
Doomfist is more defensive than offensive.
Doomfist is anti dive, like McCree, Mei, Junkrat. Dive comp is a team that have high mobility and get past chokes. If enemy has both Tracer and Genji, it's dive.
Doomfist combos:
Tank:
max charge, shoot, leap, shoot, uppercut, shoot
right, left, e, left, shift, left
Not-tank ranged:
uppercut leap shoot half charge
shift e left right
Not-tank close:
shoot uppercut shoot min charge
left shift left right
High HP heroes or Junkrat counter Doomfist.
Use shoot between skills as it charges. Never shoot to medium or long range.
Sombra
Sombra is good against:
- Genji, Tracer, Reaper, Pharah, Doomfist, Junkrat, Dva, Reinhardt, Wrecking Ball, Lucio
Sombra is bad against:
- McCree, Soldier, Sombra, Hanzo, Windowmaker, Mei, Winston, Zarya, Junkrat
Using Sombra effectively requires team communication. Hacking is only strong if your team can capitalize on those hacks.
Don't try to pick targets if they are full health. You will fail. Sombra is not a solo assassin. Make sure you spend most of time with your team, not soloing.
Focus on farming EMP. If you EMP Zennyatta, Symmetra or Zarya, they are free kills.
Good hack targets:
Reinhardt, D.Va: can't do their job for 6 seconds
Genji, Tracer, Doomfist, Sombra: all useless without their abilities
Doomfist, Genji, Tracer, Winston when they dive: they have no way to escape
Mei: can't block herself
Widowmaker: can't run away
Other Tanks: maybe expect Roadhog
Ana: can't self-heal or sleep so no defensives for 6 seconds
Hack Genji when wall climbing or deflecting.
- Reinhardt, Orisa, Dva, Wrecking Ball, Zarya
- Sombra
Health packs to hack:
- The one you will translocate to.
- The packs your team will use.
- The packs enemy team will use.
Settings
VIDEO
Display Mode Borderless Windowed
Use native resolution for your screen.
Field of View Max
Vsync Off
Triple Buffering Off
Reduce Buffering On
Limit FPS Display based
Render Scale 50%
Texture Quality High
Texture Filtering Epic
Local Fog Detail Low
Dynamic Reflections Off
Shadow Detail Low
Model Detail Ultra
Effects Detail Low
Lightning Quality Low
Antialias Quality Ultra
Refraction quality Low
Local Reflections Off
Ambient Occlusion Off
Brightness A bit over default
SOUND
Music Off
CONTROLS
Allied Health Bars On
GAMEPLAY
Skirmish While Searching Off
CROSSHAIR:
Show Accuracy Off
Bright Green
Thickness 1
Crosshair Length 15
Center Gap 15
Opacity 80
Outline Opacity 80
Dot Size 2
Dot Opacity 0