Overwatch

[Transient]

There is a bug with King of the Hill stages where your ranking only goes up or down by 5%, regardless of how well you do. Hopefully they fix it soon, because it sucks to play a 10-15 minute KotH match and get next to no rank-up for winning, then lose a 5 minute control map and go down a rank.

[Transient]

How are placement matches matched up? Is it completely random? Most quick play matches I've been were enjoyable romps, usually quite close games.
I've done 9 placement matches so far. In 8 of em my team got completely overwhelmed. In one game it was the opposite. Not a single close game like I regularly have in quick play.

I had the same experience. 6 losses in a row where my team was stomped soundly, then 4 wins where I hardly saw anyone from the other side try and take the control point. I heard that the initial matchmaking for placement matches is based on Quick Play stats, but I don't know exactly how it works.

Last night my regular group of 6 went into Competitive Play and 3 of us had already qualified around rank 42ish, while 3 others still hadn't finished qualifying and thus didn't have a score. Our team rank was set at 28, LOL. We kept getting matched against other teams with mixed ranked and not-yet-ranked players.

[U4EA]

There is a bug with King of the Hill stages where your ranking only goes up or down by 5%, regardless of how well you do.

That was fixed yesterday: http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatc ... 0745635535

How are placement matches matched up? Is it completely random?

I heard that the initial matchmaking for placement matches is based on Quick Play stats, but I don't know exactly how it works.

Yes, I've also read that it takes your hidden Quick Play MMR as a seed during placement. Once you've completed the placement matches, it tends to be more balanced. But you've got to keep in mind that as with all ELO type ranking systems, it's dependent upon the number of matches you play. It will get more accurate over time, and you will bubble up or down to your "true" skill rating if you're not currently near it. Personal performance during the match [relative to the character you play, not your team] also reflects upon how much skill rating you gain or lose, as does the quality of opponent [if you are favoured you will gain less from a win, but lose more from a loss, and if you are the underdog you will gain more from a win, but lose less from a loss].

[U4EA]

So, the amount of Overwatch fan content being created on a daily basis is insane. If you spend a decent amount of time on the Overwatch subreddit, you'll come across a lot of the good stuff. Comics, fan art, music. I'm having a hard time gauging you lot's reaction to it though. For example these two songs, cringey? IDK, I like them

[youtube]unXsheHLPao[/youtube]

[youtube]Qi69aTLYF8E[/youtube]

[Tsakali]

Competitive bug that only granted you a fraction of your win points has been fixed.

[Transient]

Both of those videos were cringey in places, but overall pretty cool.

There's so much fan content already, it's nuts. Let's hope Blizzard is as enthusiastic as the fanbase. I've already seen Overwatch porn out there, and not CGI or cartoon.

[Don Carlos]

Got this for PC now as well...if anyone fancies a smash?

[Eraser]

Blizzard sueing company that makes Overwatch cheats:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016 ... g-lawsuit/

What surprised me most here is that these cheats were paid for (through a subscription). So there's people that actually pay $12 a month to be able to cheat in a game they might just as well enjoy without cheating. Does winning even feel like an accomplishment if you're cheating?

[Eraser]

Speaking of cheating:
[youtube]BqXydfeSofY[/youtube]

[U4EA]

Speaking of cheating:
Overwatch Exploit - Soldier 76 Zero Bullet Spread

This was debunked yesterday: https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comm ... roken_and/

TL;DR:

Soldier's gun is NOT broken. There is no horrible macro exploit that makes Soldier function in a way unachievable by real players. Macros allow bad players to bypass the practice normally required to burst-fire, but do not introduce any gamebreaking exploits.
There also seems to be a forced built-in delay between two bursts, and it seems to be about 100 milliseconds or so, although I do not know how to exactly measure it.

[youtube]gJycFv9WshI[/youtube]

[U4EA]

Oh BTW, get excited. Blizzard posted a teaser for a new character. As widely suspected, it looks like it's going to be a support sniper.

[ARCHIVE] Communications Records of Ziegler, A. – Overwatch File 00231 – Security Classification: CONFIDENTIAL

[Don Carlos]

So sometimes I destroy everyone and then I just lose my shit and can't do a damn thing

[Κracus]

It's a lot to do with the teams. I find with tracer I can get 56 eliminations 1 map and 5 the next. It simply depends on my team drawing enemy fire and disabling turrets. Sometimes it's my teammates being good at it (drawing fire), other ttimes it's the enemy team being bad at identifying threats.

[U4EA]

OMG! The cat ears on Genji, so fucking cute

[youtube]oF0_PrCGcaI[/youtube]

[Eraser]

w... t.... f...?

[Eraser]

Need that as a Reaper skin in-game though

[MKJ]

New hero: Ana, support sniper. delish.

http://kotaku.com/blizzard-announces-ov ... 1783522232

[Eraser]

Not Sombra then?

[Transient]

I think Sombra was the codename for Ana when she was an active Overwatch agent, or something. I think I'll stick to Mercy, as I can't aim for shit.

[Don Carlos]

Interesting - looking forward to her and some new maps

[Κracus]

Practice... I was kinda shit at aiming when I started but having practiced some it's coming back now. Different characters have different aiming strategies too so there's that too.

[Transient]

It's not a matter of practice, it's a matter of reflexes. I can't track squirrely targets like I used to. I try to make up for it by learning the maps, tactics, timing, team composition, et cetera. Right now I'm trying to familiarize myself with the maps by running through them backwards.

[Eraser]

I'm giving Zenyatta a bit more playtime lately. Thought he'd suck but with good use of the discord orb (don't attack any target without tagging them first) he can dish out some serious damage. He's really squishy though so I try to stick to a friendly tank (who I can then sustain with my healing orb)

[Transient]

I've started practicing with Zarya lately, and I've really started to enjoy her. Especially in PUGs where most randos are quite content to shoot into my bubbles and charge me up to 100 energy. It's a shame I can't hit them with LMB...

[U4EA]

I'm giving Zenyatta a bit more playtime lately. Thought he'd suck but with good use of the discord orb (don't attack any target without tagging them first) he can dish out some serious damage. He's really squishy though so I try to stick to a friendly tank (who I can then sustain with my healing orb)

Good news for you then! Zenyatta is getting buffed! Patch notes for the patch that's currently on PTR and available now [means you can also play Ana].

https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/blog/20178523

In summary:

New Hero: Ana (Support). Her hero page.
Skins from the PTR. The Shrike skin is the one we've seen before in Gibraltar. BTW, based on the info we have at the moment, Ana is not Sombra.
Emotes, poses, intros, voice lines.
Training range.
Quick play match.
Credit goes to this dude from this comment.

Overtime changes to prevent tournament KotH cheese [Overtime fuse burns quicker if it lasts more than 20 seconds; Players respawn 2 seconds slower during Overtime]

1-Hero limit in Competitive Play! Again, cheese prevention. This is great because it's what competitive players have been asking for.

Self-healing abilities now charge ultimate abilities. As a result, some heroes’ ultimate costs have been adjusted. This affects Bastion, Lucio, Roadhog, and Soldier 76.

D.Va has some pretty significant buffs by means of changes to Defense Matrix:
Cooldown decreased from 10 seconds to 1 second
A new resource meter has been added. This meter will deplete while Defense Matrix is active and then recharge when it’s not in use.
Defense Matrix takes 10 seconds to reach full charge from empty
At a full charge, Defense Matrix will last for 4 seconds
Defense Matrix will now remain active as long as its assigned hotkey is held
.. and Self-Destruct:
Ultimate cost decreased by 15%
Explosion delay reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds
Explosion no longer damages D.Va (the player who activates it)

McCree's primary fire has less damage drop off now to compensate for the recent Fan the Hammer nerf. Should make him a more viable mid-range hit scan damage dealer.

Mercy was rebalanced. Caduceus Staff Damage Boost buffed back up from 30% to 50%, reversing the beta nerf. Resurrect now charges much slower, but doesn't prevent movement during activation. As well, Guardian Angel no longer has a cooldown. I think she's going to be more fun to play now, more mobile and less in danger when ressing. I don't mind the nerf to res charge rate either. It will prevent back to back quick resses, but it should still be available when needed. I'm sure Ana's presence will also affect what supports are chosen, so we'll see how it works out. BTW Silicone_Milk, Mercy's res was nerfed, you can come back now!

Soldier: 76 Heavy Pulse Rifle spread recovery will begin after a short delay (rather than instantly). I think this makes burst fire all the more powerful. You don't want it to spread now because recovery will take longer.

Zenyatta was also buffed up to 50 Health/150 Shield, again completely reversing the beta nerf. Orb of Discord and Harmony travel four times faster. Transcendence doubles movement speed and had its healing amount increased from 200 to 300 hps.

Plus, bug fixes and QoL changes.

Easy to say, the meta is going to be severely shaken up. Fun times.

Oh, and I know they're embedded in the linked article, but I'm adding them here directly from the official Overwatch channel for reference:

Ana Origin Story
[youtube]yzFWIw7wV8Q[/youtube]

Introducing Ana
[youtube]ZcCGKrYgr0k[/youtube]