First impressions from the early access

[DeadmanWalking]

I took some advice on the Reaper. Turns out I was yet again using a hero wrong. All I had ever seen how Reapers came in and killed me. Now I can't be sure if I was just lucky or if I did things right, but my team was defending a point. Enemy team had a bastion and widowmaker. I lost count how many times I ambushed that widowmaker. Bastion was a bit harder since he isn't looking trough a scope all the time, but he was sufficiently easy to ambush too. The point being, I stopped using Reaper as a close range fighter and switched to ambush attacks.

If you see a Roadhog that doesn't have a lot of ranged support that can pick you off don't be afraid of his hook, step into it. That badboy will pull you in to discover you are better at shotguns than he is. His wide hit box ensures he takes every single bit of your spray attack.

Also if you kill someone remember to reload if you don't have an immiediate new target, the last thing you want is to run into another opponent and only have 1 shot before having to reload and they ventilate you first. Happened to me last night and I felt like punching myself for being stupid. I took down D.va and ran down the hall, found another Reaper and fired once, reload and dead.
D.va is fun because you run up and spin around them while they try to compensate by spinning to shoot you and you end up staying on their flank until they die, I had fun with one D.va by making them spin while I melee'd them to death repeatedly until they switched to another character.
On Hanamura after the first control point facing the second go to the far left side and teleport across the gap to the back door to the first control point. From that doorway check if Widow is up on the raised roof sniping, if so teleport there and kill her. If not, you can go down and shadowstep and take stairs to the the left where there are usually turrets/bastions setting up camp, materialise and shoot away. If not anything there have fun running rampant killing other guys hanging out back there.

Reaper also makes a great defender but not on defence, in Hanamura use the same side of the map to get behind your opponent and light them up from behind. You will get the drop on a guy or two and if they are dealing with you they are not pushing into the control point. Disruption is the name of the game for Reaper.

[Deleted]

I'm on the fence. I've been a FPS-addict for years now (decent player too). Game looks and IS fun. But playing during this Open Beta time doesn't do the game justice and I recon mouthbreathers will ruin the experience until you grinded your way out of their territory. Been playing all morning and had 1 win thanks to the enemy team ignoring me, so I could easily carry switching between Bastion and Reaper. Other than that, just games that were lost from minute 1 of the match. To be quite honest, it fucking felt and still feels like being stuck in WoW's LFR. Level 20 now and people are still ignoring the righthand notifications on group comps. And since I'm only one single guy, I can sadly only cover one of the roles needed, with everyone else sticking to "face" heroes. So yeah. I sincerely hope this'll just be an Open Beta / Early Game thing, because right now I'm considering not playing for the remainder of the Open Beta timeframe. No point in wasting time, trying to cover up other people's missing braincells.

And yes, I know this sounds elitist, but yeah - Can't really say I'd regret saying that, it's true.

[Dug]

I'm on the fence. I've been a FPS-addict for years now (decent player too). Game looks and IS fun. But playing during this Open Beta time doesn't do the game justice and I recon mouthbreathers will ruin the experience until you grinded your way out of their territory. Been playing all morning and had 1 win thanks to the enemy team ignoring me, so I could easily carry switching between Bastion and Reaper. Other than that, just games that were lost from minute 1 of the match. To be quite honest, it fucking felt and still feels like being stuck in WoW's LFR. Level 20 now and people are still ignoring the righthand notifications on group comps. And since I'm only one single guy, I can sadly only cover one of the roles needed, with everyone else sticking to "face" heroes. So yeah. I sincerely hope this'll just be an Open Beta / Early Game thing, because right now I'm considering not playing for the remainder of the Open Beta timeframe. No point in wasting time, trying to cover up other people's missing braincells.

And yes, I know this sounds elitist, but yeah - Can't really say I'd regret saying that, it's true.

Yeah with betas, and especially this open beta people are just trying out heroes and finding their favorites and sticking to them, even if it's not necessary for the team comp. Once Ranked is back up (or is it up now? I didn't see it) you'll find people taking it far more seriously. I had so much fun in the ranked matchmaking where people communicated with one another because they wanted to win and everyone was willing to hero-swap when needed.

[DeadmanWalking]

Really you have to give the game time to settle down, expecting to not play with noobs when the door opens is nuts, the game wouldn't even have the time to rate anyones performance yet. Going to take weeks to get that sorted properly. If its really a big deal then create your own group to play with.

- - - Updated - - -

Right now I am watching a twitch where a guy goes into random and plays a game, picks out the ones on his team with obvious skill and invites them to group and friends them, fills and replaces as they go and ends up rolling a lot of maps all day long, then the next day just invites people on his new friend list to game. It is easy and requires no effort which oddly enough among gamers is too much effort.

It is like they just want to hit a random group button but only randomly get the best players. You use it, you get what you asked for, random.

[Tojara]

If you're having problems with Bastions, it's generally because you aren't picking the right heroes. Bastion is only really dangerous if his team actually plays around him and protects him, aside from instantly LoS when he gets low, he's a sitting duck from a lot of snipers or Pharah, which essentially requires people to help him out.

The problem with protecting him properly is it opens your entire team up to getting massacred if he falls.

Great ways to deal with Bastions is to flank him with a hero like Genji, or simply have a Reinhardt throw up a shield to bait Bastion into attacking it, then having a Genji jump right in front of the shield, you will more often than not kill him or reflect fire against his team. Also like stated any sniper or Pharah can deal with him safely, as most maps will give you plenty of entry points. Roadhog is good against him too, but only if he's setup in certain positions.

Reaper should definitely be played as an ambush type hero, he's incredibly hard to kill if you have a plan for escape, and it's pretty easy to keep health up. His ultimate has amazing synergy with Zarya's power word shield thing.

[Slant]

Not really. Beta tests have had shared duty as marketing tools across a lot of companies for nearly a decade now. It's hardly unique to Blizzard.

It's a valid complaint nonetheless. Whether or not Blizzard should (would) listen to it is irrelevant. Take WoW, where actual progression takes place on the PTR rather than on live. Considering that bosses are sometimes up for only an hour or so, this cuts out the average joe guild from getting a shot at the race. Not that they actually had a chance of being first of anything, but the competition has been skewed since Blizzard put stuff on PTR.

Considering that only a fraction of feedback actually makes it into the design process, you have to ask why they're doing it. So by now I'm going with "marketing" above anything else.

[DeadmanWalking]

It's a valid complaint nonetheless. Whether or not Blizzard should (would) listen to it is irrelevant. Take WoW, where actual progression takes place on the PTR rather than on live. Considering that bosses are sometimes up for only an hour or so, this cuts out the average joe guild from getting a shot at the race. Not that they actually had a chance of being first of anything, but the competition has been skewed since Blizzard put stuff on PTR.

Considering that only a fraction of feedback actually makes it into the design process, you have to ask why they're doing it. So by now I'm going with "marketing" above anything else.

If the average joe guild doesn't have a chance anyways then why does it matter if they don't have a chance due to ptr? Even if there wasnt a ptr the world first groups would be the only contenders anyways and the bosses wouldn't be tested by the best players meaning the fights wouldn't get the proper testing by the best that they need to make it hard, which is the entire reason for doing it first, because it is supposed to be hard to do.

[Slant]

If the average joe guild doesn't have a chance anyways then why does it matter if they don't have a chance due to ptr? Even if there wasnt a ptr the world first groups would be the only contenders anyways and the bosses wouldn't be tested by the best players meaning the fights wouldn't get the proper testing by the best that they need to make it hard, which is the entire reason for doing it first, because it is supposed to be hard to do.

The problem I mentioned doesn't affect the world first group. But it is affecting the group behind that quite dramatically, the further you go down the ranks. It's not a big problem, but as a sports fan, I think it distorts the competition unnecessarily. Especially considering that the "testing" rarely leads to the bug fixes required and bosses go live as bugfests anyway.

[Anzaman]

If you're having problems with Bastions, it's generally because you aren't picking the right heroes. Bastion is only really dangerous if his team actually plays around him and protects him, aside from instantly LoS when he gets low, he's a sitting duck from a lot of snipers or Pharah, which essentially requires people to help him out.

Had an game where Reinhardt was sitting in front of Bastion with his shield.. while Mercy was buffing his damage. With only one entrance to that location, and my team had no clue how to play against them, so they pretty much went in solo and kept dying, while bashing others in the team.

[vindicatorx]

I played the open beta this morning and I gotta say this game looks good but I can't stand it. Balance is way off I just didn't care for it.

[Deleted]

Had an game where Reinhardt was sitting in front of Bastion with his shield.. while Mercy was buffing his damage. With only one entrance to that location, and my team had no clue how to play against them, so they pretty much went in solo and kept dying, while bashing others in the team.

That combo is really strong. And if you lack teammates that are prepared to counter it then you most likely wont make it through. Kudos for the enemy to atleast being able to perform a tactic.

[Kelimbror]

Had an game where Reinhardt was sitting in front of Bastion with his shield.. while Mercy was buffing his damage. With only one entrance to that location, and my team had no clue how to play against them, so they pretty much went in solo and kept dying, while bashing others in the team.

Had a game like that last night, where it was a hold point and the same combo were trying to keep a bastion going forever. Usually I take out Bastion with Widowmaker, but the angles made it to where to get a clear shot I was still within turret instant death range. For the first time ever I switched to Pharah and realized in some people's hands she's not a noob cannon, she's the only solution.

A junkrat and I made quick work of all of them and we took the point with like a second to go, then wound up winning the match.

Similarly, I used Pharah to completely clear out the *dojo* looking hold point of a Winston, Bastion, Reaper, and Tracer. Killed Winston moving in, rocketed up, then launched my Q and basically killed their whole team. That also gave us the win on that map. Sadly, the play of the game was still a Bastion sitting in corner who killed two people by holding down a button nonstop. *sigh*

[Ballistic]

No offense but him and Torbjorn are the noob killers. They're very easy to counter once you have a better grasp of the game, map positioning and synergize well with your team.

Confident at higher level play you'll probably never see those characters being played because theres other heroes that do their job better.

Easy? you seems you only countered the noob ones, there some ppl play bastion knows some spots they can camp in that only way to kill him is to let your ass vulnerable to the rest so you can face him.

[DeadmanWalking]

Easy? you seems you only countered the noob ones, there some ppl play bastion knows some spots they can camp in that only way to kill him is to let your ass vulnerable to the rest so you can face him.

The really great Bastions don't camp spots. A mobile Bastion is a lethal bastion.

[Dug]

Easy? you seems you only countered the noob ones, there some ppl play bastion knows some spots they can camp in that only way to kill him is to let your ass vulnerable to the rest so you can face him.

No, sorry. As DeadmanWalking said above me there is no where a Bastion can literally "camp" that I cannot take out. "Good" Bastions are ones that move around the map and stay mobile. If you can't take out a Bastion tucked into a corner it's because you're not working with your team to take him out, or you're not playing a hero that can counter such a tactic (Pharah, Widowmaker, Genji, Tracer (ult), Reaper)

I'm not saying your anger of the hero is unjustified, as it infuriated me when I first started playing as well. But after being in this beta since the beginning (even when he was stupid broken) there are ways to counter him. He is a noob killer and most def a pug killer.

[DeadmanWalking]

Heres the thing about 'camping bastion', it works great at first when no one knows where you are, when someone walks into range you are going to ventilate them, and probably a bunch of them if they are moving together. But then the jig is up because the kill camera is going to show them exactly where you are. Even killing one player will expose you as a 'experienced player' will use voicecoms to tell everyone on the team where you are. If you dont use your voicecoms on turrets/snipers, well that is your fault. Then the team should root out the offending bastion. Should is the key word.
The mobile Bastion is the real threat as he actually has an amazing rifle and the bastion who is actively engadging the enemy will have their ult far more often than the defensive one. The more tank you get, the more group kills you will get. Dont use tank on one guy, its a waste.

[Collected]

Played a couple of hours earlier. It's a great game. Very very polished. Discovered I'm a Widowmaker fan.. which doesn't surprise me.. I always played with the railgun in Quake 2. So hanging back and sniping works for me. The maps seem very well designed too in terms of open areas which aren't all that friendly towards camping imho. You never really feel safe in any spot.

[Anzaman]

That combo is really strong. And if you lack teammates that are prepared to counter it then you most likely wont make it through. Kudos for the enemy to atleast being able to perform a tactic.

And here I though that combo was annoying. Decided to play one more game today before going off.. enemy team had: 2x Bastion, Reinhardt, Mercy, Soldier: 76 and Torbjörn. Barely managed to push the payload to the end, and got quite angry messages from enemy Bastion.

Near the final check-point, they had freaking death-wall, Reinhardt blocking whole doorway while his team behind the large shield. Luckily they got over-aggressive, so I managed to get Reinhardt ultimate-stun on them and pushed through it. I can understand why people are annoyed at Bastion.. alone he's quite easy to take down, but when there's multiple of them, while whole team protecting them.. urgh.

[RuneDK]

Complaining that the game is "bad" because there are more experienced players is a pretty silly argument.

agree with you 100% on this. There are games where my team gets slaughtered because a few people seem to know the map/heroes in and out. It's fine...we will all eventually get to that level. There is no competitive mode yet...so it really shouldn't matter.

[Thelxi]

I like the way it looks and feels, but doubt this game will be very popular outside of Blizzard's loyal fanbase. It'll probably go the way of hots.