Overwatch 2 is a five-vs-five game that revolves around a particular objective, and it's known for the diversity of its characters. Having over 30 of them now, players can have a different experience every time they select a character they haven't played before since none of them have any similarities.
Mei is a character full of icy cold features, so if you're going against this hero, getting a bunch of blankets is always a good idea because she won't have any mercy on you. Some unique tricks can make this character super fun to play as her, and here we'll tell you all about them.
Mei's Role In Overwatch 2
The world of Overwatch 2 is divided into three roles: Tank, Support, and Damage. Depending on the role you play, you'll have a specific function in the team, and your performance heavily impacts the outcome of the game. This is one of the few games where one teammate can single-handedly lose the game for the entire team.
One Tank, two Damage, and one Support heroes form a team of five unless you're playing Open Queue where you can select any hero you want. As the damage dealer for your team, your task is to corner the enemy that's doing well and take them out of the picture to increase your chances of victory.
Every Damage hero gets an increased movement and reload speed whenever they eliminate an enemy, and this synergizes well with Mei's abilities and play style since this character lacks mobility.
Mei's Abilities
Other than their design, abilities are the main differentiating factor among the heroes in Overwatch 2. There are four kinds of skills in the game: Weapon, Active, Passive, and Ultimate. Out of all these, only a few characters have a special passive for themselves apart from the passive given to them because of their role.
Mei has a total of five abilities and here's what they all do:
|
Ability Name |
Ability Type |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Endothermic Blaster |
Primary Weapon (short-range) |
Shoots a constant spray in the direction you're aiming that deals damage to the enemy and slows them down. She has a total of 150 bullets and can spray in front of her for a very long time. |
|
Endothermic Blaster |
Secondary Weapon (long-range) |
Shoots an icicle in the direction you're aiming for after a small charging delay. This consumes ten bullets for each icicle. |
|
Cryo-Freeze |
Active Ability |
Mei covers herself with an icicle that heals her over time. She's invulnerable during this period. |
|
Ice Wall |
Active Ability |
As the name suggests, this ability makes a wall of ice wherever you want that can block an enemy's path and prevent snipers from getting a shot on your teammates. |
|
Blizzard |
Ultimate |
Throws a bomb in the direction you're aiming that causes a blizzard where it lands. This has a huge radius, and it freezes the enemies that stay in it for a short time. This prevents them to move or use any abilities for quite a lot of time. |
Tips To Play As Mei
It can be quite hard to play as Mei when you've picked this character for the first time. Her kit is unique, and it has a high skill ceiling. While you can get away with placing walls in weird angles against an amateur team, they can easily show you Mei's counters if they're even a little sentient in Overwatch 2.
There are a lot of things that can go wrong with her abilities, given their nature. But if you can avoid some silly mistakes, she can be one of the most broken heroes you'll ever play. Here are a few tips that will help you get familiar with her abilities and play style a little more:
Your Wall Placement Is Important
In the beginning, it might seem like the wall is the easiest ability to use in her entire kit, because the most obvious place to put it is where the enemies will be coming from. While this is good, it can easily backfire if you don't think of every scenario to decide the best location for your wall.
Here are a few scenarios that you should consider while using the Ice Wall:
- The most important thing to note is that your wall will also block your teammates. While this is obvious, it can sometimes be instinctive to wall the place an enemy is coming from. If the enemy was alone, you shouldn't wall that place, so your team can pick them off.
- If an enemy is about to escape with super low health, it's a good idea to wall in front of them to give you time to catch up. Although, you need to make sure the enemy can't bypass the wall like Genji, Hanzo, Kiriko, or Widowmaker.
- Furthermore, your wall can also counter certain ultimate abilities as the one Soldier: 76 has. Whenever you hear the sound cue of him using the ultimate, you can wall your team off to waste his ability.
You can take your wall back down by pressing the button to use the Ice Wall ability again. There will be times when you place a bad wall, and the best thing to do in that situation is to take it down immediately to not put your team at a disadvantage.
Plan Out Your Escape
As mentioned above, the major problem with Mei is her lack of mobility. The game makes her out to be a close-ranged character, but you need to plan out an escape if you're going to get too close to the enemies. Your Cryo-Freeze heals you, but it still doesn't give you a free escape if your team doesn't support you.
Generally, it's better to play Mei at a long or mid-range. This is because her primary weapon's ice spray has a good range, and you can still damage and slow enemies without hugging them.
Furthermore, her long-range shots deal damage based on the projectile, and they don't have a hit scan. This means that you'll have to predict an enemy's movement along with being good at aiming for long-range Mei gameplay.
If you're stuck in the Cryo-Freeze and the enemies surround you, the game gives you four seconds to think of an escape while you heal up. One way to get some distance is by placing a wall right beside you as soon as you get out of the icicle.
Fortunately, you can aim the wall even when you're healing up in the icicle, allowing you to make an easy escape unless the enemy surrounds you from two different directions. Hence, if you think that you're going against a good team, it's better to play safe and stay with your team instead of over-extending.
While her long-range shots are hard to hit, they can be lethal for the enemy. A direct headshot from one of your icicles takes away over half of an enemy's hp, and you can follow that up with some close-range spray to easily kill them.
Even while fighting at close range, it's recommended to start with a secondary weapon shot first to take away a chunk of the enemy's health. This will scare them and make them an easy target to defeat.
Use Your Ultimate Carefully
Her ultimate can single-handedly carry you to victory in Overwatch 2, but it's also extremely easy to mess it up and render it useless. Whenever you use the ability, she throws the bomb in the direction you're aiming for instantly. Firstly, it is important to note that you don't get to aim after you press the Ultimate button.
The bomb also has quite a high projectile, which means that you can use it to help your team even from far away. Although, you can also overshoot the ability and not get any of the enemies inside the blizzard because of the same reason.
It'll take some time to get used to the projectile of the Blizzard, so don't be afraid to use it when trying out the character in Quick Play. Furthermore, you should always aim to get at least two to three enemies frozen using this ability, which will allow you to easily kill said enemies.