Since Overwatch launched in 2016, it has not only become one of the most popular FPS games, it’s become one of the biggest games Blizzard has ever made. Considering that Blizzard has made World of Warcraft and Diablo, that’s saying something. It’s always hovering around the top 5 games on Twitch and it never takes long to find a match when I play Quick Play. When a game sells as well as Overwatch has, that means that it’s reaching a wide range of people and everyone plays games differently. The point of playing games, to me, is to have fun but it’s also cool to win some and not lose all your matches.
Once Wrecking Ball is off the PTR servers and added to the full game, there will be 28 Heroes in the game... that’s a lot! With that many characters comes a lot of different play styles. What I want to do with this list is give 25 things to help out casual players of the game that they may not know. For console players, this could be the first game they have played like this and it can be intimidating. Even after a year or so playing it on and off, there are still things that are easy to miss. I’m by no means an expert Overwatch player, but I have played it a ton and wanted to give some pointers about what casual players might be missing. So let’s get to the list!
25 We Talkin’ About Practice
I know that practicing seems like the most obvious thing in the world, but a lot of people don’t take advantage of it in Overwatch. There’s a training mode with training bots so you can test out all the character abilities and see what kind of range they have and stuff like that. I’m not saying you need to spend hours in there or anything, but 5 minutes or so to get the hang of things before jumping into a match can be a good idea.
24 Rallypoint
The main game modes in Overwatch are objective based and playing the objective is the only way you can win, not your K/D ratio. Taking out people can definitely help but you won’t win strictly doing that.
You heal when next to the payload playing Escort.
You can play at a distance and still be effective but just don’t go lone wolf and wander far from the objective much. Even after being out for 2 years people still think they can go at it alone but they normally find out pretty fast that you get rolled on if you do.
23 Doc In A Box
Having healers on any team is almost a must but they can’t heal everyone at all times. There are health packs that recharge all over every map and learning where they are is a must! Some are small and some are large but hey, they all heal you. If there is a Sombra on your team she can hack them and make them recharge faster for your team and slower for the other. Sticking with a healer is the better option but knowing the spots to at least some health packs can make a huge difference.
22 Non-Exclusive
Having a main to play as is important in Overwatch, but there are a ton of characters and classes to play. Having a team full of offensive characters can work but having a diverse team is normally the best option.
So being able to play as a character from each class will benefit you and your team.
If your favorite character is chosen or if your team needs a tank it’s good to have another go-to. I always try and get Sombra but I can play as a few others if need be.
21 Chill Bro
One thing that I run into when I play Competitive Play is people wanting you to not play a certain character and telling you to switch. I get that people have a thing against Hanzo, but you really should just trust that the person knows what they’re doing with that character. If they are not helping the team then maybe ask them to politely change. This only applies to Competitive Play, if you’re asking people to change characters in Quick Play then you might just want to chill. Quick Play is a place to just play for fun.
20 Take The L
Overwatch is an online shooter, the game has been out 2 years, so you’re going to lose some matches. This mainly applies to Competitive Play since losing brings down your rank, but that’s fine. It doesn’t go down as much as it used to so loosing isn’t as big a deal. Plus, the main reason for playing competitive is to get golden guns and if you aren’t into that then it might be better to stick to Quick Play or Arcade. You are more free to experiment with those and honestly, that's what I play when I play now.
19 New Digs
This is more for console players, like me. Some characters like Mercy are a little hard to use with a standard controller. Mercy is actually my preferred Support character but going from healing to buffing makes me kinda claw one side of the controller instead of holding it normally.
Xbox One already has an Elite controller and PS4 is coming out with a new Scuf controller later this year.
They are around $200 to get and that's steep but worth it if you play a lot of FPS games.
18 I Know, Gotcha The First Time
The Genji meme of his saying “I Need Healing” can honestly represent how some people act in games. You can use the control pad on console to ask for healing and man some people spam that! Support characters can sometimes only heal one person at a time and tend to stay around the action. Plus, icons appear on their screen when someone needs to be healed so there really isn’t any need to spam that command unless you’re just trying to be obnoxious. They did add a reputation system that appears next to your gamertag now, so I’d watch with stuff like that.
17 No Bling Bling
I love going for trophies/achievements as much as anyone but this is not the game to stress about those. They are all meant to be gotten by just playing the game and you will naturally get most of them. Half of them are character-based though, so you’d need to play as that character to get it. I play on PS4 and I found myself going for trophies and it was an awful time and I played bad! Just play and enjoy the game and don’t stress about those with this game.
16 Hey, Listen
I get just casually playing some Overwatch, but the game has a lot of audio cues that are easy to hear with some headphones or the volume up. Every Ultimate is very loud on purpose so no-one can sneak up on you with one.
Most offensive Ultimates can knock you out very easily so it’s worth listening for them.
Every Ultimate has a time limit so you can just hide from most of them outside of Widowmaker’s. So just listen the next time you play and it’ll help out a lot!
15 I’ve Got You In My Sights
There are a handful of characters that are best at a range, and if you play as one it’s better for you to stay at that distance. Widowmaker is not a great character at close range. She has an automatic function to her gun but it’s not nearly as powerful. Hanzo is another one who is best from a distance. Using his ultimate from a distance when multiple people are on a point is the best way to use him. Bastion is at his best when he is in turret mode and firing on a group. The point of this is, if you pick a distance character try and stay there to help the team out.
14 Layeth The Smacketh Down
One of the most underused moves by any character in the game is their melee. I get that it’s not as damaging as others, but when someone is near you and you can see they are reloading you can easily melee them and they prob won’t be expecting it.
You do need to keep in mind that the reach of a character like Winston has a much longer reach than a character like Mercy. I wouldn’t expect to defeat anyone when you melee unless you're playing as Doomfist or a melee based character, but it's free damage.
13 Go This Way, No Not That Way
The most important thing about this game is picking a character and the second is knowing the maps. It’s important to know the layout of all the hotspots and the path that the payload is going on.
It’s pretty simple to pick up where things are and once you play the same map a few times you should get it.
The maps are tied to the different game mods. So it’s possible it will take a while to see all the maps in the game if you don’t play a ton.
12 Avengers Assemble
At the end of each match, you have the option in the bottom right corner to stay as a team and you should take advantage of that. If you just got done rolling over another team it would make sense that you’d want to stay with the same people. The great thing about playing with more than one person is that you get more experience at the end of each match so you can get loot boxes faster! So if you want to stay as a team then hit the button and maybe you could get a group going for the night and rack up some wins!
11 I Need Assistance
Having Support characters is a must if you want to win so they can help heal the team. A thing a lot of people don’t do is help them out and be a kind of guardian angel for them. Support characters tend to have lower health and can easily be defeated unless they have people to watch their backs. So this is kind of a you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours things in most matches. Characters like Mercy can fly around the map so she’s one of the few who can normally be on her own.
10 Not Just A Pretty Face
A misconception about Support characters is that they can only heal and that’s the only reason they’re picked. Most of them have decently strong offensive moves. Moira has the damage orbs that do serious damage and Zenyatta can be just as strong as offensive characters as he is a healer!
I’m not saying that Support characters can be a replacement for a solid offensive character or anything, but they can do damage.
Don’t feel like you just have to wait around and heal people, get in there and do some damage as well!
9 More Power
Ultimates basically work the same way as the supers in Destiny and should be used and not hoarded. I’m not saying to use it as soon as you get it or anything, but there’s no need to have it for 10 minutes to try and get as many people as you can. If you need to use your Ultimate to survive, then go ahead and use it even if you only take out one person. You’ll get a few per game so don’t be afraid about wasting one.
8 Raining Lead
A mistake I see all the time is people looking for the right shot at the right time, and that’s really not necessary most of the time. This is a team game, and team shots are the best way to take down people.
The best way to do that is to always be firing on/around the other team.
There’s no need to worry about ammo and sneaking isn’t really a thing. There’s no need to be quiet about things; just let loose and fire your weapon in all directions! Go nuts!
7 Best Of The Worst
The Play of the Game was something that everyone went for when the game came out, and some new players try to go for it. It’s based on eliminations instead of making moves that help a team win. Now, that can be in the same vein but most of the time it’s not. I’ve seen them go to players who were on the losing team and it’s so weird. So if you’re looking to win games, don’t worry about getting too much. It is cool to see your name stand alone and see an awesome play you did at the end of a game though.
6 How Am I Toxic?
Being a toxic player has become a major problem with this game over the past year or so. Basically, since Competitive Play went live people have become super serious about it and will let you know about it. It even got so bad that the devs of the game made several comments on it wanting to get rid of it. I get that winning is important, but you’re playing a game, so just chill. Yelling at someone over a game has never and will never solve anything, you’ll just end up being on a YouTube video montage.