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Diablo Immortal vs Diablo 3: Top 10 differences

KingCronusJr — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 22:14:50 +0000

At present, there are two games from the series that stand out, and I am referring to Diablo 3 and Diablo Immortal. Released in 2012, the third instalment of this series (Diablo 3) broke records as it garnered 4.7 million players on the very first day of its launch! Continuing to break the barriers in this rapidly evolving tech world that we live in, Diablo Immortal has infiltrated the mobile gaming space as well. It has been nominated for the Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2022.

Both games are truly successful, however, you can’t help but wonder what their differences are, which is why you are here. As Diablo 3 was fully a PC game and Diablo Immortal isn’t, it was bound to have some reconstruction, making it even totally distinct if you look into the gameplay of both worlds.

10. Game Progression

Diablo games are known for their punishing campaigns, and this is what Diablo 3 delivered to the fans. It also had dungeons where players could farm items in the quest to obtain legendary pieces. The newer Diablo Immortal still has the same two concepts, however, they have added Elder Rifts which drops legendary gems, Challenge Rifts that enable increased drop rate/rewards according to character level, and also the Helliquary wherein players are to team up to beat the weekly bosses in hopes of obtaining rare armour and weaponry, and to build their combat rating as well.

9. Seasons Galore

Diablo 3 is still an active game to date as it caters a system which pushes players to try out various classes, as the heroes reset on each season. On the other hand, Diablo Immortal does not have any resets as it just gives out frequent patches and adds up content along the process.

8. Genre Distinction

RPGs and MMOs do have their similarities and differences as well. Diablo 3 tends to be a more casual game, compared to Diablo Immortal which functions more as an MMO that requires players to grind on a daily basis if you don't want to get left behind.

7. Formidable Content

As it focuses more on the campaign side, Diablo 3 is invested on the PvE (Player-versus-Enemy) aspect, making the quest runs sometimes nearly impossible to conquer. Whereas Diablo Immortal does not feel to have the same level of difficulty as that of Diablo 3.

6. Hero Customisation

It is quite handy to be able to customise your character the way you want them as it makes you stand out even more. Not just on the visual aspects of customisation but rather on the paragon builds of the game. Diablo 3 offers more versatility with this compared to Diablo Immortal wherein there still is some room for customisation but it is just minimal.

5. Money Matters

In Diablo 3, everything that the players would achieve is obtained from their struggles in the game. If you have been playing Diablo 3 prior to Diablo Immortal, this might be one of the issues that could discourage you from playing any further, as sadly, Diablo Immortal has a Pay-to-win structure and the game is dominated by the big whales in each server.

4. Assault the Arena!

Don’t let your guard down just yet, because Diablo Immortal has something to offer that the previous series didn’t have, and this is Player-versus-Player battles! This is indeed one of the best highlights in Diablo Immortal as players team up and just assault other characters in a brawl where a team guards the ancient heart of the base and the opposition pushes to infiltrate them.

3. Experience express

Some players would love to just grind all day in order to gain the upper hand. With Diablo 3, grinding throughout the game is typically slower than the newer series. Diablo Immortal gives experience boosts to those who have not logged in for some time, or are below the server paragon level (which increases by 2 on a daily basis).

2. The Social Aspect

A game is classified as an MMORPG when masses of players interact with one another. This is encouraged in Diablo Immortal as players are unable to start dungeons or clear the Helliquary unless they meet a specific number of party members in order to challenge the quest.

1. The Immortal Reign

The key protectors in the world of Sanctuary are the renowned Immortals. They are feared and notorious fighters who have won rounds of clan wars and ruled their empire for a specific time period. This has first been introduced in Diablo Immortal, which means that there is nothing similar to this in Diablo 3.

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Sombra Guide: How To Be The Best Sombra In The World

RachelKeeth — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 05:45:43 +0000

Sombra has a diverse kit that can be incredibly helpful to a team, but only if you know how to use her. She is wonderful at sneaking behind enemies, hacking them, and then taking them out. And if the enemy team has a Pharah or Bastion you can really shine as Sombra. If your team needs a good all-purpose DPS hero or someone to interrupt the firepower on the enemy team Sombra is for you. She can be a little tricky at first, but don't worry, with this guide you will be a pro in no time.

Strengths:

Opportunist:

Sombra's powerful passive ability allows her to see all enemies who are below 50% health through walls, it also allows her to see the health bars of enemies who are not at full health.

Machine Pistol:

Sombra's weapon is a short-range fully-automatic machine pistol that has a widespread. It has a spread angle of 2.7 degrees, falloff range of 15-25 meters, HP damage of 2.4-8, 20 rounds per second rate of fire, 60 ammo capacity, and reload time of 1.5 seconds.

Hack:

The hack ability is very powerful, being able to prevent enemies from using most of their abilities for 6 seconds, stopping Torbjorn's turrets for 10 seconds, revealing the enemy's health bar and ultimate status to all allies for 20 seconds, and causing health packs to regenerate faster and preventing enemies from using them for 60 seconds. When health packs are hacked it will display Sombra's signature skull above them, purple for allies and red for enemies, and it will display with a meter showing how long the hack has left. Small health packs regenerate in 2.5 seconds and large health packs regenerate in 3.75 seconds when hacked. Hack has a maximum range of 15 meters, casting time of 0.65 seconds, and cooldown of 8 seconds. The secondary fire button must be held down for the entire hack if an enemy goes out of view or you release the button it will cause the hack to cancel, but will not result in a cool down. If you are injured while trying to hack, therefore stopping the hack, it will result in a 2-second cooldown.

Stealth:

Sombra is able to briefly turn herself invisible, which also boosts her speed. Her movement speed is boosted to 10 meters per second, duration lasts up to 5 seconds, it has a casting time of 0.7 seconds, and a cooldown of 6 seconds. The cooldown does not start until the ability is deactivated. Brushing up against an enemy player or target will reveal you, but not break the stealth. Sonic Arrow and Infra-Red Sight will reveal Sombra, making auto-aimed abilities, such as Deadeye, able to target her. Taking damage will disable Stealth.

Translocator:

Giving her the ability to quickly disengage from a deadly situation Translocator is a valuable tool. It is an arching projectile device, that once thrown will stay where it lands, it can't be destroyed, but enemies can see it. Once translocated somewhere Sombra is very briefly invincible. Translocator has up to a 20-second duration and a 4-second cooldown.

EMP:

A powerful ultimate to initiate a team brawl, Sombra releases an electromagnetic pulse that disables shields and hacks all enemies caught in the blast. EMP has a 15-meter radius of effect, 6-second duration, and requires 1250 points to charge. 1% ult charge is added passively every 2.50 seconds. Shields and barriers will not protect enemies from EMP, and it will remove all armor HP from heroes such as Zarya and Zenyatta, making them easy to kill.

Weaknesses:

Team Dependence:

While Sombra is a wonderful addition to a team, that doesn't mean it can always work out. You need a team that is willing to communicate, work together, and listen to your call-outs, and able to follow up on your attacks such as EMP.

Inefficient Long-Range Damage:

Sombra's machine pistol is powerful, it shoots off many bullets in a short period of time, making it deal a lot of damage. However, it has a lot of spread. This means if you aren't close to your target you won't get much damage in. You have to be right up on them to successfully do much.

Lack of Ultimate Damage:

While EMP is a powerful ultimate in the game, it alone won't do any damage. So, if your team can't follow up or you panic ult it will have been wasted.

Difficult to Master:

There are a lot of tricks to playing Sombra that many people don't understand, she isn't as straight-forward as she might seem. It requires a specific mindset, good game sense, studying up, and a lot of practice.

Strategy Overview:

Sombra is one of the hardest ranked damage heroes on Overwatch, and for good reason. While she is incredibly powerful, when you know how to use her, there is also a lot of knowledge that has to go into using her, and she isn't as straightforward as say a Soldier 76. But, she is worth learning how to use well, and when using her there are three things you want to keep in mind, positioning, attacking, and communication.

Positioning:

Many people try to position Sombra like you would a majority of the damage heroes, on your front line. But, she doesn't belong anywhere near the front line, she actually belongs on the enemy's back line. Using her Stealth and Translocator she is perfect for making quick sneak attacks and then disappearing. Now, of course, there are some instances where you may have to fight on your front line, but you can't get nearly as much out of her that way, and it will usually be wasting better opportunities.

Attacking:

When using Sombra it's important to learn to utilize her kit, her fighting style is completely different from any of the other DPS heroes on Overwatch. As already stated you don't want to fight from your team's front line but the enemy's back line. But, more than that you don't want to go in front of an enemy and start battling with them if you can help it. Sombra is about stealth.

When battling sneak behind the enemy, hack a health pack and place your translocator on it, find your target, use stealth, and sneak up behind your target. If you're behind the target it will give you an advantage because they will have to turn around to shoot back, and it may even take them a moment to realize where they are taking damage from.
When attacking there are a few heroes you should target first. As always you want to first target healers, then tanks, and then DPS. But, as with any hero, there are specific heroes Sombra excels at eliminating and she specifically should target. Sometimes you will want to target these heroes before healers and tanks, depending on how they are affecting your team.

Pharah is a difficult hero because she stays in the air most of the time and can do quite a bit of damage to your team, but Sombra can hack her which will disable Pharah's jet-pack. Once she falls down to the ground you can pick her off with your gun.
Bastion has quite a bit of firepower and can eat through your team's shield, but if you sneak behind him and hack him it will disable his sentry mode and lessen his firepower, making it easier to take him out.
Reinhardt and Orisa both have shields that can make it hard for your team to push through, and while you can't hack through a shield or barrier, if you sneak behind them you can hack them. Reinhardt's shield will instantly go down and Orisa will be prevented from placing a new shield. This makes a great opportunity for both you and your team to focus fire on them.
Mercy is unable to use Guardian Angle when hacked, so if you hack her before you begin attacking her mobility will be greatly decreased and you can deprive your enemy of their main healer.
Doomfist is unable to use most of his abilities (Seismic Slam, Rising Uppercut, Rocket Punch, and Meteor Shower) when hacked, making him an easy target.
Mei is prevented from using Cryo-Freeze when hacked, making it a great way to target her without her being able to heal herself, but she can still freeze you, so keep a bit of distance.
Tracer is incredibly weak when she can't move fast, so being hacked and unable to use her abilities makes her an easy target.

Communication:

A Sombra who either isn't communicating with their team or who's team isn't communicating with them won't get the most out of her. Her EMP doesn't do any damage in itself, and usually after activating the EMP Sombra will have to either translocate away or die, so it's vital for her team to follow up on her ultimate for it to be of any use.
Her ability Opportunist also will greatly go to waste if you are unable to tell your teammates which enemy team members are low and therefore whom to target.
Make sure you use a microphone when playing her and work with a team who is also communicating with you. Try to call out who and where low health enemies are; before you use your EMP; try to double up on ultimates, such as first using your EMP and then immediately following with Reinhardt's Earthshatter or Reaper's Death Blossom; and while you don't need to be calling out everyone you hack, do let people know if you hack a high-priority target, such as Reinhardt.

Taking Advantage of Sombra's Strengths:

Opportunist:

As previously stated, to take full advantage of Opportunist you really need to communicate with your team. However, you can still get a lot of use out of it on your own.
With Sombra being a flanker keep an eye out while you're sneaking around the map for any enemy team member you can see are critically low, they will make easy prey and it's best to take them out before they can get healed. Even if they aren't a high-priority target, any enemy team member you take out will help your team.

Machine Pistol:

A lot of people will try to use Sombra from a distance, but her pistol has so much spread that it's hard to get any reliable damage out of it this way. Try to get within a couple feet of your target, otherwise, they are less likely to die and they'll have more of an opportunity to kill you instead.
Try practicing your aim in custom games and quick play, if you can get good at headshots you will be able to take out the enemy faster. Practice until you can reliably get 50% or more accuracy.

Hack:

You consistently want to be hacking, if you don't have 15 or more hacks for quick play and 30 or more for competitive on average you aren't using her hacking nearly enough.
While Torbjorn's turrets and Orisa's Supercharger can be hacked, Symmetra's turrets and teleporters can not. Neither can Widowmaker's Venom Mine, Junkrat's mines or traps, Sombra's translocator, or Mei's Blizzard device.
Choose your hacking targets wisely. It has an 8-second cooldown, you don't want to needlessly hack health packs your team is unlikely to use if you can hack and kill enemies. Hack one or two health packs near your team and leave it at that.
Only hack people you know you can. If you miss a hack it gives them an opportunity to fight back.

Stealth:

Don't just use Stealth as a mobility tool. A lot of people will use it to move around quickly when that generally wastes it. Wait and use it after you have a targeted enemy and to get into position behind them.
Just because you're invisible doesn't mean you are safe. Even when using stealth you can take damage, which will disable stealth. Don't run through high-fire areas with it, instead weave around them to reach your target.

Translocator:

One really big mistake is using translocator to get into a fight. If you do this you then won't have it to escape. Use Stealth to get into the fight, and then you can use Translocator to escape to either reload or get some healing.
If you have been hacked by an enemy Sombra you can't throw a new Translocator, but you can still teleport to one that is already placed.
The Translocator is visible to everyone, and sometimes an enemy may camp beside it so that they can kill you when you transport back. To reduce the risk try to place them in areas that aren't visited as often or that are harder to get a visual on.
When you use the Translocator it is not an instant teleport from the moment you press the button, there is a fraction of a second before it takes effect. Keep this in mind and don't wait to take too much damage before you teleport.

EMP:

Sombra's ultimate is a wonderful battle instigator, try to save it until someone on your team has a high-damage ultimate such as Self-Destruct, Tactical Visor, or Dragon Blade.
EMP is able to pierce through shields and barriers and hack nearby health packs that have not previously been hacked by an enemy Sombra.
When using EMP it's important to try to stand in the middle of the enemy team to get as much effect out of it as possible, so make sure you place your Translocator beforehand, otherwise, you'll quickly be killed. Transport yourself, and then run back to help your team finish everyone off.
EMP can really help with a dive comp, if your team is having a hard time making a push Sombra can set off her EMP in the middle of the enemy team and then the dive heroes, Winston and Tracer work well, can quickly and easily dive in and eliminate the enemy team.

Tips and Tricks:

Whenever you're targeting heroes who can inhibit movement or get easy 1-2 shot kills, such as Roadhog, McCree, or Hanzo, hack them before attacking.
When playing as Sombra you can't play passively. Always be pushing up against the enemy, hacking them and assassinating them from behind.
If you have more than 6-7 deaths or 10-11 in longer competitive games, you're not playing Sombra properly. Make sure to use your toolkit well.
Within the support heroes, category Sombra can pair really well with Brigitte. While Brigitte is fighting the enemy team with her flail and shield she can keep herself alive, and also act as a distraction while Sombra sneaks behind the enemy.
Sombra is weak against Winston, McCree, and Brigitte. Winston's weapon can lock onto her even after he's been hacked, McCree can still get quick kills with a headshot, and Brigitte can prevent herself from being hacked by blocking it with her shield and she can also use her flail to injure Sombra thus stopping a hack.
Getting stuck in a Junkrat trap will cause Stealth to deactivate.
If you hack someone who has been Nano-Boosted it won't stop the Nano-Boost, but it will stop them from using their abilities.

It will take time to get good at Sombra, but if you give it time and practice she will be an asset to have at your fingertips. If used properly she can turn a match around, and be a thorn in the side of your enemies. She is a lot of fun to play, and well worth it. I hope you enjoyed this guide if so be sure to check out these other articles:

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Brigitte Guide: How To Be The Best Brigitte In The World

RachelKeeth — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 05:12:15 +0000

While most of the healers require you to keep a distance from the main battle, Brigitte really shines when you are surrounded by both allies and enemies, swinging her flail and bashing with her shield. But, if you don't use her flail correctly you may not be able to heal your allies. If you don't know when to time the amazing abilities of her shield you can miss out on opportunities to completely change the tables in a tight battle. In this guide, I will teach you how to be an outstanding Brigitte and all the tips and tricks you could hope for!

Strengths:

Inspire:

This is Brigitte's passive ability. When damage is dealt to enemies with Brigitte's flail it activates Inspire. Inspire has a 20-meter radius, heals 16 HP per second, has a 5-second duration, and a 1.5-second cooldown. Inspire doesn't stack, so each time you deal damage with your flail it will reset the 5-second duration instead of increasing healing speed.

Rocket Flail:

Brigitte's melee weapon, which she has in place of a gun. It can do damage to multiple enemies at a time, has a range of 5-6 meters, does 35 HP damage, and does one swing per 0.6 seconds. It has a horizontal range of 3 meters on the side she swings it towards and 2 meters on the opposite side.

Whip Shot:

With a maximum range of 20 meters whip shot shoots forward and can knock an enemy backward 5-10 meters while dealing 70 HP damage. Whip shot travels 40 meters per second and has a 4-second cooldown.

Repair Pack:

Brigitte can burst heal an ally by tossing them a Repair Pack, which heals 150 HP, but any extra healing goes towards giving them some temporary armor, up to 75 HP that lasts for 5 seconds and can be stacked with another shielding. When thrown Repair Pack shoots as a projectile towards your targeted ally. It travels at 30 meters per second, and also has a 30-meter radius. It will track your targeted ally either until it makes contact or they die. Repair Pack has a 6-second cooldown.

Barrier Shield:

An energy barrier that's a personal shield for Brigitte, it is about the same size as she is. It can take 600 damage, has a cooldown of 3 seconds after being broken, and regenerates 100 points per second after being down for 2 seconds. When open her shield slows her movement down to 3.85 meters per second, or 30% of her usual speed.

Shield Bash:

Brigitte can dash forward up to 6 meters with her shield up and bash into an enemy, dealing 50 HP damage and stunning them for 1 second. Shield Bash has a 60° front cone angle radius and a cooldown of 6 seconds. It will slightly knock an enemy back, but not as much as Whip Shot. It can stop most ultimates if timed properly, however not all of them.

Rally:

Brigitte's ultimate helps her move faster, and supplies her and nearby allies with armor that sticks around until it is destroyed. It has an area of effect of 8 meters, provides 15 armor per .5 seconds up to 100 armor, and has a 10-second duration. To charge Rally requires 2,250 points.

Weaknesses:

Long Distance Attackers:

While strong with close to mid range attacks Brigitte has little to no capability to fight back long range. She may occasionally get a Whip Shot in, but it's difficult to get a long-range moving target and it typically won't do enough damage to help. Therefore, Hanzo, Widowmaker, and Pharah are all bad matches for Brigitte.

Splash Damage:

Pharah's rockets and Junkrat's grenades do a certain amount of direct damage where they hit, and then extra “splash damage” in the general area of the explosion. Even with Brigitte's shield up, if the rockets or grenades explode around it the splash damage will hit Brigitte and she will take damage. These two heroes can take her down more easily than some others and are a bad match for her.

Limited Healing:

While a very helpful healer to have, her healing ability is at the lower end of the spectrum of support heroes. This is important to keep in mind when choosing your composition and positioning.

Strategy Overview:

Succeeding as Brigitte is largely about five things: positioning, team composition, communication, use of Repair Packs, and awareness of your surroundings. Her abilities themselves aren't hard to control, so what really sets Brigitte players apart are these things. Once you learn to keep these in mind when gaming you will be a top-notch Brigitte!

Positioning:

Unlike most of the other healers in Overwatch, Brigitte does not belong on the back line of a formation. With her melee attacks and the healing radius of Inspire only activating when dealing damage with the flail she generally belongs up front and in the fray. There are two different placements among your team you can move between:
1. Among the tanks. With Brigitte's shielding, melee attacks, and Inspire you can really see her shine up front with the tanks. Unless you're hitting something with the flail every 5 seconds you won't be getting very much out of Inspire, so up front, you can protect your tanks and keep them healed up, along with any of your other team members who are within 20 meters of you.
2. Middle of the pack. Your goal here is protecting your main healer and additional off healer, if using one, from flankers. But, while doing so try to keep as many team members as possible in your Inspire radius so that you aren't wasting it. Thankfully, the 20-meter radius is rather large so it gives you a bit of leeway.

Team Composition:

It's really important not to use Brigitte as a solo-healer, and even pairing her with Lúcio wouldn't be enough solid healing for your team. She needs to be paired with a main healer such as Mercy, Moira, or Anna. Regarding tanks, she doesn't pair well with Orisa, who is a tank that needs to keep their distance, but she really shines with Reinhardt.

Communication:

A very important aspect of any team, no matter what your role in it is, is communication. However, when playing a healer communication is especially important. If a lot is going on or you lose track of someone, when you are communicating through your microphone your teammates can update you constantly on the state of their health and tell you exactly where they are. You can also more easily watch each other's backs, let them know quickly when someone is flanking them, and make a plan of attack or defense.

Use of Repair Packs:

It's important to learn when to use Repair Packs, however, this can come largely from experience. This ability is on a slightly longer cooldown of 6 seconds, which may not seem long but when you are trying to keep a large portion of your team healed in a tight spot it can be difficult. It helps if you are communicating with your other healers so that you can constantly be making call-outs on which healer needs to heal which hero.
But, in general, you want to heal players who are more critically low first, and also those who are more critical to your team. So, if your Reinhardt is holding back the enemy team you would rather heal a low Reinhardt than a low flanker because if Reinhardt goes down it will leave an opening for the enemy team to exploit.

Surrounding Awareness:

A large part of being a healer is being aware of your surroundings. You need to learn the details of all the maps, keep an eye on the health of all your teammates, and try to know approximately where all your allies and enemies are located. Healers are regularly targeted, so keeping an eye on the enemy and their movements will help you stay alive and know where to position yourself.
Being keenly aware of your surroundings also makes you the ideal person to make call-outs. Let your team know who's on the enemy team and their locations, let them know if you're being attacked and need backup if you see an opportunity to take advantage of the other team's weaknesses call some shots.
If you notice your team is getting picked off learn to know when it's best to disengage, and as the healer don't hesitate to tell the few remaining members of your team to fall back so that as the healer you can survive and keep the remaining members alive until your full team can regroup.

Taking Advantage of Brigitte’s Strengths:

Inspire:

To make sure you're positioning yourself to use Inspire to its maximum effect on healing your teammates remember the radius is 20 meters. Since Whip Shot also has a 20-meter range you can easily find your radius for Inspire if you use Whip Shot and note how far it goes.
You also don't have to be causing constant damage with your flail to keep Inspire activated, as long as you damage an enemy every 5 seconds with your flail it will stay activated.

Rocket Flail:

Unlike most weapons in Overwatch Brigitte's flail doesn't require aim, aside from being pointed in the right direction and within 6 meters, and you don't run out of rounds and have to reload. So, you don't have to worry about wasting ammo or getting headshots.
Your only goal with the flail is to get in as much damage as possible. Get right up in front of the enemy and just swing, hitting as many enemies as you can. Being a melee weapon Brigitte thrives in this environment. This will also keep Inspire activated.

Whip Shot:

Not only does Whip Shot cause a decent amount of damage, but it's great for knocking back enemies who are more of a danger to you, such as Junkrat. If you see a teammate being cornered it's also a great way to come to their rescue and give them a chance to either escape or get the upper hand so they can then attack.
It's best not to try to use it for fighting against long-range attackers such as Pharah, Widowmaker, or Hanzo. You're more likely to miss, and even if you don't you probably won't finish them off. Usually, you want to leave this job to your DPS, but of course, there are always exceptions.

Repair Packs:

Keep an eye on cooldown times, to make sure you're using Repair Pack, and the other abilities, to their utmost. But, that doesn't mean you should use it as soon as the cooldown is over. If an ally is near a health pack let them use that instead.
Or, if in the midst of battle prioritize heroes who don't have self-healing. For instance, Roadhog and Soldier 76 can heal themselves, so try to focus your healing on allies that can't, unless they specifically ask for help.
Some people will ask for healing when their health is still almost full. Genji is especially known for this. In this situation, it's usually better to tell them to use a health pack or get healing from a healer who doesn't have cooldowns, such as Mercy, if that healer isn't busy. Because, if you waste healing on that hero who doesn't need it then you won't be available when you are needed.

Barrier Shield:

Brigitte's shield is very helpful, it has saved me many times, especially from D.Va bombs or Rip-Tire. But, it is important not to overestimate it and put yourself in compromising situations. Her shield only has 600 armor, unlike Reinhardt's who has 2,000. It will not outlast Bastion or Pharah's Rocket Barrage.
While the shield is only large enough to protect yourself, sometimes an ally can save themselves by hiding directly behind you. This is especially helpful in protecting your fellow healers who have low mobility.

Shield Bash:

This is arguably the best stun in Overwatch. It's easy to use, works in many circumstances, and lasts for 1 second. A second may not seem like long, but if you work quickly it can be long enough to eliminate an enemy.
If you can get close to a turret, whether one of Torbjorn's or Bastion, you can Shield Bash them, which leaves a great opening for both you and your teammates to gang up on them and take them out.
If both teams have a Reinhardt you can coordinate with your team to Shield Bash the enemy's Rein which will stun him and drop his shield, and then your team's Reinhardt can Earth Shatter the enemy team so that your team can swing in and wipe them out.

Rally:

Rally is a preemptive ultimate, it likely won't help if you are only using it to respond to an enemy's ultimate such as Dragon Blade or Rocket Barrage. The armor and healing Rally provides builds up over time, so it's best to learn when to use it.
For instance, if your team is going to attack the enemy team activate Rally about 5 seconds before your team attacks, and try to get as many of your teammates near you as possible so they will be in the radius of effect. It also works the same if your team is trying to hold down the point from the enemy team, try to activate it about 5 seconds before the enemy attacks.
Try not to use Rally if the enemy team is trickling in. This makes them easy to pick off. Try only to use Rally when the enemy team is making a coordinated or group attack.
When using Rally both you and your teammates need to be super aggressive to get the most out of it, focus on getting as much damage in as you can.

Combating Brigitte’s Weaknesses:

Long Distance Attackers:

Brigitte has few options when it comes to long distance attackers. Usually, you will want to use your shield to protect yourself, and leave the long-distance attackers to your DPS. This is another instance where communication with your team is important. If you and your teammates are on microphone you can tell them who is attacking you and from where, and ask for help.
However, sometimes in lower levels, they will make obvious mistakes. Sometimes a Widowmaker decides to stand on the ground in the middle of the battle, or a Pharah isn't staying in the air. In this case, your Whip Shot is more likely to help you, and if they are close enough even Shield Bash.

Splash Damage:

If you are getting a lot of splash damage from Junkrat's grenades or Pharah's rockets there's not much you can do unless they mistakenly get into your attack range. Otherwise, it's good to rely on your teammates or use your surroundings to your benefit. D.Va's Micro Missiles are more easy to handle since she's close range and you can Shield Bash her to stop the attack.
You never want to let yourself get cornered, wherever you position yourself to have an escape route. So, if you start taking too much damage take that escape route, find a health pack, and then flank back towards your team.

Limited Healing:

It's important to remember never to solo-heal with Brigitte. You need a main healer: Mercy, Anna, or Moira. It's currently meta to have three healers, one main healer, and two off healers. For instance: Mercy, Zenyatta, and Brigitte.
You can't heal allies with Inspire when they are on the other side of a barrier, such as Winston's barrier, or on the other side of a wall. So, keep that in mind.

Tips and Tricks:

Her name is Brigitte, not Bridget, it's Swedish and pronounced Brig-eet-uh
A really powerful attack combo: melee, shield bash, melee, whip shot. If done correctly it does 190 HP damage.
It's important to know when not to play Brigitte. If you have to solo heal, Orisa is your only tank, or Brigitte can't counter the enemy's composition, she really won't fit into your team's comp. In that situation, it's better to pick something for the team, or talk to your teammates and see if they can switch things up so that she will fit into the composition.
Don't panic Rally, it's unlikely to keep people alive. Rally slowly builds up over time, so if you die quickly it's not going to give your team any benefit and it will have wasted your ult.
Brigitte isn't a tank, and can't be used as one. While she is great at melee, her shield is only 600 HP and won't take much damage before it shatters.
Animation canceling is when you can shorten an action, such as reload time, by using another action. If you want to learn more about it check out this great video.
You can use Shield Bash to jump high by using it on a surface, such as an angled rock, to jump into the air. It takes some practice and has been nerfed from the PTR, but it can be helpful to learn.
If D.Va is propelling her suit forward to be a bomb or Reinhardt is charging you can Shield Bash them to alter or stop their momentum.
Brigitte is especially effective against dive heroes such as Tracer or Winston.
Most ultimates can be canceled with Shield Bash, but not all of them, such as Doomfist's Meteor Strike.
If you hear Sombra start to hack, quickly turn around with your shield blocking the hack.
You can eliminate Tracer by using Shield Bash (50 dmg) to stun her, and then quickly before it wears off use Rocket Flail (35 dmg) and then Whip Shot (70dmg).
You can prevent yourself from being pulled into Orisa's Halt if you face it with your shield before it latches onto you.
If the enemy's Brigitte stuns your Reinhardt you can wait and Shield Bash the enemy's Reinhardt right as he tries to Earth Shatter in order to cancel his ultimate.
Try not to face Moira 1v1, she will usually win.

It will take a lot of practice, but learning to integrate this knowledge into your gameplay will help you become an awesome healer, top-notch Brigitte, and an asset your team can't do without. I hope you enjoyed this guide, if you did you may want to check out these other articles from Gamers Decide:

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Lúcio Guide: How To Be The Best Lúcio In The World

RachelKeeth — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 04:32:48 +0000

Lúcio may not be a good choice for solo-healer, but he has some great healing abilities, a marvelous speed boost, and he can pack a punch when taking out the enemy. Once you learn everything this guide has to offer your team will be thankful to have an amazing Lúcio among their ranks!

Strengths:

Wall Ride:

When holding down the jump button and facing a wall Lúcio can jump onto the wall and skate along it at a 20% speed increase, as long as the button is held down or until you hit an obstacle. If you go into the settings you can enable a setting to allow backward wall riding, which will improve mobility and add more options for use in combat. You will gain a burst of speed from jumping off of the walls.

Sonic Amplifier:

Lúcio's weapon and primary fire, a pinpoint linear projectile with 20 ammo, 4 rounds per shot, 20 HP damage, a projectile speed of 50 meters per second, reload time of 1.5 seconds, and it shoots 4 rounds over 0.5 seconds, 1 shot every 0.125 seconds. It may be a low-powered weapon, but Lúcio packs a punch when you know how to use him!

Soundwave:

His secondary fire, it gives Lúcio the ability to knock enemies back with a wave. It deals 25 HP damage, has an 8-meter maximum range, reload time of 1.5 seconds, and a 4-second cooldown. Genji is unable to deflect it, it doesn't use ammunition, and it can even be used during reloading of the Sonic Amplifier!

Crossfade:

Lúcio continuously plays music, unless he has been hacked by Sombra, that aides himself and his allies. He can switch between two songs, one for healing and one for speed. It has a 10 meter radius of effect, casting time with a 0.8 second animation duration, when healing it will heal allies 16.25 HP per second and it will heal himself 12.5 HP per second, it will charge his ultimate 19 points per 15 HP healing, and when on the speed boosting song it will boost speed by 30%.

Amp it Up:

Lúcio has the ability to boost the volume of his speakers, therefore also boosting the effect of his song. It has a duration of 3 seconds, a cooldown of 12 seconds, improves speed by 70%, and boosts healing to 46.8 HP per second on allies and 35.1 HP per second on himself.

Sound Barrier:

When Lúcio pops his ult he will jump into the air and slam his amplifier onto the ground, releasing a wave that will briefly protect himself and his allies. It is one of the strongest ultimates in Overwatch, but it is also the highest costing ultimate. Sound Barrier gives all allies in line of sight within 30 meters temporary armor that quickly decays. It adds 500 HP barriers, has a 6-second duration, casting time of 0.8 seconds when on even ground, and has a charging requirement of 2,625 points. Once fully cast there is about a 0.5-second window where it can be applied to allies who come within range. Sound Barrier cannot be applied to allies on the other side of an enemy barrier.

Weaknesses:

Low Healing:

Lúcio, tied with Brigitte, is the lowest healer in Overwatch. He is incredibly powerful and lacking many weaknesses when you know how to use him, but if you aren't familiar with him you won't get much out of him. He should never be a solo-healer or as a two-person healing team with Brigitte.

Low Damage:

While dealing only 20 HP damage Lúcio's Sonic Amplifier is a semi low-powered weapon, so if you don't know how to use it it won't make much impact. With it being a projectile it can also take a bit of forethought into how your enemy is going to move, especially against fast moving heroes such as Tracer.

Being Hacked:

When hacked by Sombra Lúcio is especially weak. It slows down his speed, stops his healing, prevents him from wall riding, and of course prevents him from using his ultimate. Sombra's EMP can even cancel Lúcio's Sound Barrier.

Strategy Overview:

There are many things that are important to Lúcio gameplay, however, some of the most important are to keep moving, peeling, 1v1 combat, communication, awareness of your surroundings, and calling the shots. In this portion of the guide, I will teach you how to use these to win more games, be a better teammate, and overall a top-notch Lúcio.

Keep Moving:

It can not be overstated how important it is for Lúcio to keep moving. This is what makes him such a hard-to-hit hero with a high survive ability rate. You want to constantly be wall riding, jumping, and crouching to gain speed and move in unpredictable patterns. You want to rely on Lúcio's ability to slip through the enemy's grasp.
While you want to stay moving, make sure you are positioned properly. You want to generally stay around the back line with your other support heroes or a bit behind the tanks. Lúcio's speed allows him to move back and forth between these two locations smoothly and quickly.
It will take practice to learn how to keep moving, but it is well worth the time you invest in it. Try practicing around the practice arena, in custom games, and in Quick Play. You won't get good at it overnight, but if you practice it will soon become second nature, especially if you set up the settings and controls to work well for you.
You can find some great videos to help you set up your controls, such as:

Peeling:

Peeling consists of protecting your other support heroes, such as Mercy or Anna, and stationary DPS, such as Bastion. As an off-healer, it's not only Lúcio's job to do damage to the enemy team and heal your own, but you need to protect your main healer. While Lúcio moves around in position more than the other support heroes, you still need to keep an eye on your main healer and make sure you are close enough to them that if they are in danger you can protect them.
If you see your main healer or stationary DPS are in danger, put yourself in the line of fire so they can escape and try to defeat the enemy using all the tools in your arsenal.

1v1 Combat:

With his mobility and self-healing, Lúcio can really excel at 1v1 combat when done correctly. Watch for the enemy to overextend or get separated and go after their weak link. When trying to decide if you should risk 1v1 combat ask yourself a few questions: is the enemy out of position? Are they at full health? Do you have an escape route? It will also depend on what hero they are playing as. For instance, a Sombra would be much more dangerous to go up against than a Doomfist. You have to decide if the benefits out weight the risks.
Learn to kite. This means keeping out of range of the enemy while you attack, being able to wall ride smoothly greatly helps with this.
Practice 8v8 Deathmatch, this will help you improve at fighting enemies and will also help you know what situations you can and can't win.
Prioritize targets who are low on health that you can finish off, you don't want to give them the chance to heal or disengage.

Awareness of your Surroundings:

As a healer, it is your job to constantly be aware of what is going on. Your allies positions and health, where the enemy is and whom they are playing, the map surroundings and where the health packs are located, escape routes, you need to be aware of everything.
You especially need to keep an eye on your fellow support heroes, to protect them, and your tanks, to keep them healed up so they can take damage for the team.
Also watch closely for enemies who get close to the edge of the map or holes that you can boop off with Soundwave.
Try to keep track of how long it has been since each enemy has used their ultimate so that you can prepare for when they use it next to protect your team.

Communication/Calling the Shots:

Since the healer has to be aware of everything that is going on this also makes them the ideal person to shot call. The DPS is often focused on flanking and the tanks are at the front line, so the support has the best visual on everything that is going on.
Try to learn good game sense so that you can make better calls. For instance, if you see the enemy is grouped up and you know your team has their ultimates you can ask Zarya to use a Graviton Surge and then ask Pharah to use Rocket Barrage to wipe them out. Or ask Mei to use Blizzard and then D.Va to use Self-Destruct. You can also suggest positions where to group up or ask your DPS to flank in a certain way. It can really help you learn better game sense if you watch the pros, so try to watch the Overwatch League matches and take note.
It is important not only to stay calm and level-headed yourself, if you start getting upset you'll get tilted and play badly, but you want to make sure your team is also staying level-headed. If they hear you yelling, cursing, or sounding stressed it can impact the mood of the whole team. Try to be encouraging, telling your teammates when they make good plays and help out if your team fails let them know you can try again, and try to make sure that while you want to take it seriously that you aren't letting the emotions affect you and others negatively.

Taking Advantage of Lúcio's Strengths:

Wall Ride:

Learn to ride precisely and consistently jumping from wall to wall. If you can jump frequently and smoothly from one surface to another it gives you a speed boost and makes you a harder to hit target.
Practice jumping and gliding around the point and payload, if you make yourself a hard target to hit you can dodge around keeping the enemy from taking the point or moving the payload.
You can jump to a higher area if you keep the camera focused all the way up.
When wall riding randomly switch between healing and speed, jump, crouch, anything you can do to break up your pattern and make yourself more slippery and harder to hit.
But, make sure you learn how to target your enemies while you are jumping and wall riding.
If you go into settings you can enable backward wall riding, this is essential, so make sure you turn that on.

Sonic Amplifier:

The shots from Sonic Amplifier can seem a bit slow, watch your shots closely and learn to guide them with your enemy in the direction they are moving.
Headshots cause more damage, so when possible target the head. However, if you can't hit the head it's more important to just get the damage in, so sometimes you just need to target the torso where you have the largest hit area.
Try to spam the turrets so that they don't hit your teammates.
Put pressure on the enemy support, if they lose their support or get tilted your team will have a big advantage. When possible take the enemy support out, but even if you can't take them out just try to send a few shots at them every few seconds so they feel more pressure. In general, you will want to troll the enemy team to make them anxious so they start making bad moves.

Soundwave:

Obviously, the most flashy way to use Soundwave is to boop people off of the map and into holes, however, there are many other uses for it.
Soundwave can be very versatile both in causing damage and in protecting yourself and your team. If an enemy who uses close range, such as Reaper, gets too close you can use it to back them up. It's also great to give yourself some distance from enemies you are particularly weak against, such as Sombra, Mei, McCree, and Brigitte.
If a Winston jumps in and places a barrier you can boop him out of the barrier with Soundwave so that your team can then focus down on him.
When battling 1v1 it can be helpful to boop an enemy into a wall, into corners, or into the air so that you can then use Sonic Amplifier to finish them off.
When possible try to boop enemies into Graviton Surge, Pulse Bombs, or any other ultimate.
While Genji can deflect Sonic Amplifier he can not deflect Soundwave.

Crossfade:

Whenever your team is fully healed switch to your speed aura so that your teammates can more quickly move around, dodge, retreat, and chase after enemies.
Lúcio's speed is often underutilized when it is the most important part of his pack. Remember, while he is a healer he is an off-healer, and his speed is just as important. When possible allow your main healer to take care of the heals while you speed up your allies.
Whenever you die pull up the scoreboard menu and if you aren't urgently needed and another teammate has died wait for them to respawn so that you can speed them back to the rest of your teammates. You can also go back to the spawn room and taxi allies back towards your team when your team can spare you.

Amp it Up:

When battling on control point maps make sure to use Amp it Up on speed to get your team to the point as quickly as possible, as whichever team gets to the point first will have an advantage.
Don't waste Amp it Up, only use it when your team legitimately needs the speed or healing boost.
If the enemy team is about to use an ultimate such as D.Va's Self-Destruct or Mei's Blizzard use Amp it Up on speed to quickly help your team retreat. It can also be used to help your team quickly and efficiently move through a choke point.
Make sure to tell your teammates to group up with you when you're about to use it.

Sound Barrier:

If you are eliminated before Sound Barrier hits the ground it won't take effect, so make sure you watch out for enemies nearby, especially snipers.
Some people will jump from a high point when using Sound Barrier because it looks cool. But, you don't want to do this, as it gives the enemy a chance to kill you before you activate it. You want to activate it as soon as possible, so it's even better if you're on the ground and when Lúcio jumps to use it you turn in the direction of something higher, such as a car, this way it will activate sooner.
If timed just right Sound Barrier can negate the damage of Pulse Bomb or Rip-Tire, but the timing can be a bit tricky so it takes practice.

Combating Lúcio's Weaknesses:

Low Healing:

Never use Lúcio as a solo-healer, or in a two-person healing team with Brigitte. You really need a main healer, either Moira, Mercy, or Anna. Zenyatta can also work, however it depends on your team, their abilities, and their communication.
Make sure not to waste your Amp it Up or Sound Barrier when they aren't needed.
Remember that teammates on the other side of an enemy barrier will not be healed by your aura.

Low Damage:

Make sure you don't just randomly spam Sonic Amplifier. The damage Lúcio can do all depends on your aim. Practice in the practice range, in custom games, and in quick play to be able to hit enemies even when you're riding along walls and jumping. While you only need to be sure to hit the enemy, you want to work on getting headshots to get in more HP damage, so practice, practice practice.

Being Hacked:

Lúcio is especially weak when hacked, so when there is a Sombra on the enemy team always look out for her. If she is a good Sombra she'll most likely be targeting the support heroes. Stick with your teammates so that you always have someone watching your back and in return watch theirs.

Tips and Tricks:

Try binding your “jump” key to something other than space on PC, “X” on PlayStation, and “A” on Xbox. You want to change it to something you can smoothly push and hold down continuously. You can change this in the settings.
Use your microphone. This is a team based game, and communicating with your team is vital.
Learn when to retreat. If your team is staggering out of spawn one after another and you keep dying because you aren't grouped up retreat and wait for your full team before continuing to fight the enemy.
Call out when you die, so that your team knows it will be a minute before you can continue to heal them, speed them up, or watch their backs.
You can time using your Sound Barrier at the same time Pharah is using Rocket Barrage so that the enemy can't easily shoot her down.
Practice moving around each map. Try to find all the ways you can move around them as quickly as possible and learn all the nooks and crannies you can get into. You want to learn each map like the back of your hand.
If the enemy team has a Sombra keep an eye out when using Sound Barrier, as her EMP can cancel it.

Thank you for reading this guide! If you practice hard and remember everything I have taught you I know you can become a top-notch Lúcio that your team loves and the enemy hates to face. If you enjoyed this article check out these others from Gamers Decide:

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Mercy Guide: How To Be The Best Mercy In The World

RachelKeeth — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 03:36:32 +0000

Mercy is one of the most popular healers for good reason, when you know how to use her she is the perfect solo-healer, she can stay alive, she has a high rate of healing, and she can resurrect players. However, if you don't know how to use her she can die quickly and have little impact on the match. But don't worry, I will teach you how to be the best Mercy your team could hope for.

Strengths:

Regeneration:

Mercy's passive ability and as long as she doesn't take any damage for a second she will automatically start healing at a rate of 20 hit points per second.
Guardian Angel: due to Mercy's Valkyrie suit she can fly towards a targeted ally. This gives her the ability to quickly get to a comrade and heal them or to escape danger. Guardian Angel has a range of 30 meters and a cooldown of 1.5 seconds.

Resurrect:

With a range of 5 meters, cast time of 1.75 seconds, duration of 2.25 seconds, and a cooldown of 30 seconds resurrect, or often called “rez”, is a powerful ability. However, it can often be wasted. It is important to know how to use this ability well.

Caduceus Staff:

This is Mercy's main “weapon”, but it doesn't do any damage unless you punch someone with it. The purpose of the staff is healing and damage boost, and this is what you will want to use most of the time as Mercy. It has a range of 15 meters (30 during her ultimate), 10-meter radius during her ultimate, 60 healing per second, and it will stay locked on until disconnected or until the target is blocked for 2 seconds. It can also damage boost an ally 30%.

Caduceus Blaster:

Mercy's actual weapon. It's a relatively low-powered blaster with 20 damage per round, 20 rounds per clip, a reload time of 1.5 seconds, fire rate of 5 rounds per second, and it's a linear projectile with no spread that travels at 40 meters per second.

Valkyrie:

Valkyrie is Mercy's ultimate ability. While it has been nerfed, it is still highly powerful and very useful. It gives you the ability to fly at 9 meters per second, projectile speed increases to 80 meters per second, chain healing or damage boost multiple allies at once, resurrect will not be interrupted by damage taken, and it lasts for 15 seconds. It also removes cast time for Resurrect and removes the reduction in speed.

Weaknesses:

Mercy's health is relatively low at 200 hit points. This means if you can't get out of the line of fire long enough for her regeneration to kick in she doesn't last long before dying.
She is one of the slower moving heroes. If you're near your team and can use guardian angel to move around it isn't much of a problem. However, if you get separated it will be very hard to escape enemies.
Mercy tends to have a target on her back. When an enemy team is deciding whom to concentrate fire on, it will generally be Mercy. Until you learn how to evade their fire you may die a lot.
The blaster does very little damage unless an enemy is already at low health it will be hard to get a lot of kills. It is possible, especially if you are good at headshots, but if you have multiple enemies coming at you it's not your best bet for survival.

Strategy Overview:

Playing Mercy is all about positioning, awareness of your surroundings, analyzing whom to heal and when, and staying alive. It may seem as if she is a simple healer to pick up, however, there are a lot of tricks to playing her well. But, I am here to help!

Staying Alive:

Staying alive is the most important, keep this as your top priority. If the healer dies, then the rest of the team dies. Even if one or two of your teammates go down without you being able to resurrect them, if your team works together you should hopefully be able to keep everyone healed up until your teammates make it back to the point. You will have to take risks that may get you killed, but analyze the situation first and decide if it's worth the risk of the healer going down to resurrect another player or to get a few blaster shots in.

Positioning:

When playing a healer, especially Mercy, positioning is vital. This will both help you stay alive and help you keep your teammates healed. You want to stay near the back of the group, but not the very back. It's preferable to have someone behind you, in case you get flanked they can watch your back. You don't want to have your team overly spread out, otherwise, you won't be able to use Guardian Angel to zip from teammate to teammate both to heal and to escape dangerous situations.

Try to position yourself behind objects such as vehicles, walls, or the payload to use as an indestructible shield when possible. This is helpful especially to avoid sniper shots or in case your shield tank loses their shield. But, make sure you don't stay still. It's best to keep moving in seemingly random directions and jumping so that way if someone does fire at you-you're not as easy of a target.

Surrounding Awareness:

Staying aware of your surroundings can help you in every area: positioning, staying alive, and deciding whom to heal. Try to learn the layout of all the maps so that way you know where to escape to or where you might be flanked from. Try to keep an eye on where all of your teammates are at, this way you won't get separated and you can decide who at any given moment is most important to heal. And, try to keep an eye on where all members of the enemy team are and which heroes they are playing.

Who to Heal:

Deciding whom to heal can vary from game to game, but in general, there are certain heroes you want to heal before others. Firstly, if someone is critical you usually want to get them at least stable.
Your tank's job is to absorb damage for your team, so always try to keep an eye on your tank and prevent their health from dropping too low.
If your team has a secondary healer it's also a good idea to try to keep each other healed in case one of you goes down, that way your team will hopefully always have at least one healer alive.
And then, of course, your DPS. They can more easily flank around the map and find health packs, but they also tend to be “squishes” where they don't have very high health, so when possible try to keep their health at least half full. Sometimes you may have to just partially heal everyone when tight on time before working on topping everyone off.

Taking Advantage of Mercy's Strengths:

Regeneration:

Mercy's regeneration will start after 1 second of not taking damage. That might not seem very long, however, when bullets are flying and the enemy is all around it can be hard to stop taking damage long enough. To take advantage of her regeneration try to always have someone you can zip to with Guardian Angle or something you can quickly hide behind.

Guardian Angel:

Guardian Angel has a 30-meter radius, it will take practice, but try to get a feel for how far that is so that you don't get out of range from a teammate. You can also learn to slingshot or bunny hop by pressing jump near the end of Guardian Angel. This will cause you to move further and faster.

Resurrect:

Learning when to and when not to resurrect is important since this is a powerful ability on a long cooldown.
If your team is trying to defend a point and everyone is taking cover and fighting behind your shield tank, for instance, Orisa, and they go down then in that instance you need your shield tank back in order to help keep everyone alive.
If you have two different DPS heroes down then often it is better to choose to resurrect one that can more easily keep themselves alive, such as Reaper who has a passive healing ability instead of Genji.
Another factor to take into consideration is how each member of your team is doing. If you have a Widowmaker who no matter how much you heal her just keeps making mistakes and getting herself killed, it's usually best to stop resurrecting them so that way you can resurrect people who are actually helping.

Valkyrie:

There is little as frustrating as seeing someone waste a Valkyrie when it's unneeded, and then later having your team die because it was already used up. But, when is it best to use?
1. When your team is pushing onto a point. If, for instance, your team is trying to take the point on Horizon Lunar Colony it is good to save Valkyrie for when your entire team is around you and you are storming the point. It will help keep everyone healed up and alive longer, hopefully causing your push to be a success.
2. When being overwhelmed by holding a point. If your team is trying to defend a point, such as Temple of Anubis or a choke point on Blizzard World, but your team begins to lose the high ground and needs a boost to continue holding the point pop your ult and it can turn everything around. Suddenly your team is able to stay alive and outlast the enemy's push.

Combating Mercy's Weaknesses:

Low Health:

Mercy's health isn't very high, however, it's also not abnormally low. She is considered one of the “squishy” characters in terms of HP. But, as the healer, it's often not ideal to have to stop healing or damage boosting your team in order to find a health pack. Thankfully, she has to ability to regenerate HP.
To stay alive it's often best to use obstacles such as walls, the payload, or shields in order to hide long enough for your HP to regenerate. This way you can still stick with your team but take care of yourself as well.
But, still, learn all the health pack locations! These will save your life at times when you get yourself in a tight situation.

Slow Speed:

While Mercy may not be able to walk very quickly, the Guardian Angel and slingshot ability greatly increases mobility. These will help keep both you and your team alive. I can not stress enough: learn to slingshot yourself back and forth across a battlefield. Say your team is storming the point on Eichenwald. Friend and foe are scattered all across the point and nowhere is safe. However, with slingshot, you can sling yourself high into the air from one friend to the next as you heal, and because you're not staying still it makes it hard for the enemy to hit you.

Blaster:

Don't take too many risks. There are some amazing battle Mercys, but you have to remember your primary goal is to keep your team alive. Sometimes that will be with your blaster, but often it is with your staff. However, when the need arises for you to take out the enemy aim and not wasting rounds are what will save you. Practice being able to quickly aim and get headshots, as those do more damage. You also don't want to just hold down the trigger and shoot aimlessly, you may get hits in, but then you will be vulnerable while you're reloading.

Moving Target:

There are some heroes that just always have a target on their back, and the enemy will focus on them. Mercy is one such hero, being a powerful healer with quite a bit of visibility due to her Valkyrie suit. But, you can be less of a target by learning how to take advantage of your surroundings to hide while still healing, positioning yourself correctly among your teammates and not rushing to the forefront, and by not staying still.
A still Mercy is a dead Mercy. When possible try to switch between multiple hiding spots so that the enemy doesn't know where you are. Use slingshot so they have a harder time pinning you down. And, even when staying in the same spot don't stop moving. If you're hiding behind the side of a building step back and forth in a random pattern so that if there's a sniper they have a harder time getting a headshot.

Tips and Tricks:

Configure the individual hero settings to help you play your best. The settings are extremely personal and different for everyone, but here is a great video to help you get started:
Learn when to put your foot down with a teammate. If someone, such as a Reaper, wants you to pocket heal them in a suicide mission sometimes you just have to say “no”.
Use your microphone. This is a team based game, and communicating with your team is vital.
Make call outs. As the healer you have to be extremely aware of your surroundings, this makes you the perfect person to call out where the enemy is and whom they are playing.
Learn when to retreat. If your team is staggering out of spawn one after another and you keep dying because you aren't grouped up retreat and wait for your full team before continuing to fight the enemy.
Remember to damage boost. This is a powerful tool but often forgotten. Just know that if you damage boost Torbjörn or Symmetra it won't boost their turrets and boosting Junkrat won't boost his Rip-Tire.
If you have multiple healers it can be helpful to assign different teammates to each so that you can more effectively divide the work.
Call out when you die, so that your team knows it will be a minute before you can continue to heal them.
Prioritize healing heroes who can't heal themselves. For instance, if you have both a Reinhardt and a Roadhog prioritize healing Reinhardt.

There is a reason the pros still play Mercy even after she was nerfed. She is still a versatile and powerful healer that can turn a game around. With practice, you can become a top-notch Mercy that your teammates don't want to be without.

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Speculation increases with fan theory that each Warcraft: Legion release is 77 days apart

cefpabda — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 21:30:40 +0000

11 weeks between Warcraft: Legion patches

Reddit user das_momo has discovered that each World of Warcraft: Legion patch update has been released exactly 77 days apart. I have checked the validity of his claim and can confirm that since 7.1 was released on October 25th, 2016, each patch has subsequently been released 77 days later.

Why has Blizzard Entertainment chosen the 77 day release rate?

It could be self-preserving.

After the last Warlord of Draenor patch 6.2 update was released June 23rd, 2015, the number of active World of Warcraft accounts dropped.

Fans of the popular MMO were left underwhelmed after Warlords of Draenor was released in November 2014. There was very little content released and let’s be honest, what was released wasn’t particularly great. Many players were bored, especially with the crowning achievement of the expansion being building your character’s own garrison… another massive flop.

The number of active World of Warcraft accounts had steadily decreased since reaching a peak of over 12 million subscribers at the release of Cataclysm in 2010. With the bombing of Warlords of Draenor, active accounts dropped to an all-time low, sitting just over 5 million.

Has Legion been the saviour of Warcraft?

Reports that subscription has increased since Legion’s launch in August 2016 to over 10.1 million, with fans new and old eager to take on the Burning Legion. Fans of the MMO want to love it again and this is evident by the rise of internet shows dedicated to Warcraft, such as the popular podcast The Blue Recluse and YouTubers Taliesin and Evitel.

So it could simply be that Blizzard decided not to make the same mistake with Legion. By regularly releasing content, players are kept interested and the 77 day release frequency made sense, at just under 3 months between patches.

Is there more to the 11 week or 77 day figure?

A pattern that has repeated at least three times is definitely cause for speculation.

Reddit user FourteenFour claims a biblical reason for the release date of Legion, quoting from the Bible Luke 8.30: “And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.” The remaining thread was quick to dismiss religious symbolism behind 77 day release rate, however could it be more?

Or it could just be a nod from Blizzard to give us a hint at the patch dates to come, with 7.3 releasing August 29th, 2017 and subsequently 7.3.5 on November 14th, 2017. I guess time will tell if there is a deeper meaning or not.

Do you have any thoughts on the 77 day theory?

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Breaking News:

Why is Blizzard Removing its Battle.net Name?

mike25490 — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 22:17:44 +0000

Blizzard have revealed that they wish to re-brand their Battle.net services on their online platforms.

When was this name change decided?

Late last month Blizzard announced that it plans to step away from its “Battle.net” name for their online services and platforms. This news comes after 20 years with this name, dating back to the first ever Diablo in 1996. It seems that they feel the Battle.net is an outdated name for their online platforms and wish to revamp and modernize to catch up with the times.

IGN news run through Blizzards announcement

Why is Blizzard changing the Battle.net name?

Blizzard has mentioned over the years their desire to change, as the Battle.net does not clearly relate to the Blizzard Entertainment company, and has caused a bit of confusion to some people. When this name was first proposed, Blizzard thought it would be a novel idea to have a different concept name for their services to the online world, as oppose to relating the name “Blizzard Entertainment” into the name. Over time this novel appeal has been lost and created a lot of inconveniences for having two different names by the same company.

A quote from the official website states:

“When we created Battle.net, the idea of including a tailored online-gaming service together with your game was more of a novel concept, so we put a lot of focus on explaining what the service was and how it worked, including giving it a distinct name. Over time, though, we’ve seen that there’s been occasional confusion and inefficiencies related to having two separate identities under which everything falls—Blizzard and Battle.net. Given that built-in multiplayer support is a well-understood concept and more of a normal expectation these days, there isn’t as much of a need to maintain a separate identity for what is essentially our networking technology.”

When will this change happen?

This change in name to their online services will not happen all at once, their Diablo and World of Warcraft products will slowly be changed over the next few months. I expect this to be completed by the end of this year, or beginning of next.

Blizzards iconic characters stand behind their Battle.net banner.

What will the new name be?

Quite simply, Battle.net will be known as Blizzard. Likewise to all the services they provide on their platforms. We will see a lot Blizzard this and Blizzard that names, for example; there already exists Blizzard Steaming and Blizzard Voice.

Will this make things more confusing, because there will be a lot of services under different names, but with one thing in common - Blizzard? I don’t know, but at least it removes any confusion and everyone knows what is Blizzard related and what isn’t.

Related articles you might be interested in:

Blizzard Lore Master Chris Metzen Retires After 22 Years

WoW And StarCraft Senior Members Leave Blizzard

Blizzards Warcraft Movie, Was It Good Or Bad?

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Blizzards iconic Battle.net logo.

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Is World of Warcraft Still The King of MMOrpgs?

mike25490 — Sat, 15 Oct 2016 17:42:31 +0000

World of Warcraft has been around for over a decade, but does it still have the strength to remain the king of MMOrpgs?

When it comes to MMORPGs, and games that have had a huge impact on the industry; you cannot ignore World of Warcraft. For over a decade WoW has been an innovation and front-runner in the way MMORPGs are played, developed and constructed.

The game, developed by Blizzard Entertainment, has had millions of active subscribers of the years, and many competitive games trying to topple them over.

Let’s take a look at the aspects that have made WoW so great over the years, and if the game still has what it takes to remain the undisputed king of MMORPGs.

World of Warcraft (2004)

When World of Warcraft was released in 2004 to the public, it was competing against games like Final Fantasy XI and Lineage 2 etc. These games were extremely time-consuming and required a lot of grinding and teamwork just to level up. Blizzard took a new approach to the MMO scene, one that would see their popularity grow rapidly. They made the reward systems and leveling achievable to all. An interesting quest system meant less constant grinding, and players would not lose hours of experience when you die. They made the game more fun to play for everyone.

Blizzard Entertainment World of Warcraft cinematic trailer.

The game also allowed those with older laptops and PC's to purchase, download and play the game, no longer did you need to have beast specs nor grind mobs incessantly.

Blizzard's Popularity

In the gaming industry, Blizzard has been around for decades. Their high quality games have helped them rise to become one of the most formidable PC game companies.

When people first heard that Blizzard had a new project underway (WoW), the hype quickly shot up. It’s easy to make a popular game if you’re already popular.

Never-ending storylines and updates

To compete and keep their fan based happy and interested, World of Warcraft has a extremely in-depth lore. The lore of World of Warcraft is a very fascinating one, with hundreds if not thousands of stories in it.

Blizzard Entertainment is also constantly tweaking and updating the gameplay, graphics, adding new quests and in-game features. They have a lot to live up to, a huge fan base requires a huge amount of effort to be put in to keep them interested.

WoWs latest release and update - Legion!

Number 1 reason

We can’t mention why World of Warcraft is a king in the MMORPG world without mentioning its gameplay aspects.

World of Warcraft as an MMORPG has one of the smoothest and accurately tuned gameplay I have ever experienced. There is nothing quite like engaging in battle in the WoW combat system and getting involved in your character's moves.

Other MMORPGs have tried to replicate the standard of gameplay, like Star Wars The Old Republic, but have not had the success the way WoW has. This isn’t to say the game is bad, but they cannot replicate the detail and attention WoW has with its combat system.

Gameplay against a raid boss

Verdict

So, you ask me, is WoW still the king of MMORPGs the way it was in the past?

I have heard so many times that “this game” or “that game” will be the downfall to WoW, but nothing has yet prevailed, and I’m now convinced nothing will.

Blizzard has a tremendous team of developers working on this game, and it is hard to see them failing at the hands of the competition. If WoW does fall in the future, I think it will be because Blizzard decides to pull the plug.

There are a lot of very good MMORPGs that I would recommend to a lot of you, but to answer your question in regards to WoW. It is and still will remain the king of MMORPGs.

Related articles you may be interested in:

Is World of Warcraft on the decline?

11 Addons you should be using for WoW Legion

WoW Hero Class: DH vs DK

Story behind WoW Legion

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World of Warcraft new expansion - Legion, with Illidan Stormrage.

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11 Best WoW Addons for Legion You Should Be Using

mike25490 — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 18:56:10 +0000

Blizzard Entertainment have recently released a new expansion into their Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft (WoW). On 30th August 2016 “Legion” was brought out to the public, almost two years after the previous expansion “Warlords of Draenor - released on 13th November 2014.

New expansions mean new playing methods for your characters, new updates, completely new areas, new quests, additional story lines and updates to addons!

We are going to be looking at the 11 best WoW Legion addons you should be using to help you through this new release and to make the most out of the experience.

11 - AtlasLoot - Enhanced

Firstly, take a look at the guide video below to see if this is something you are interested in:

Informative AtlasLoot - Enhanced video guide on how to use the addon.

What it does:

AtlasLoot is an excellent and informative mod to the game. It is a User Interface mod that allows the player to browse through all the items dropped by bosses in the game. Meaning that if there is a particular weapon, armor upgrade or token you need, you can easily filter through the loot tables in this mod to find out which boss in whatever dungeon or raid it drops from.

This isn’t the only feature in AtlasLoot though, there are more as you can see below:

Dressing Room feature - allows you to “control-click” items in the system and see how they look on your character.
A “Wish List” - allowing the user to “Alt-click”on any item they want, need or desire and adding it to a wish list tab.
Prices - gives you the relevant information for how much PVP or other token items costs in game.
In Game Collection - enables the user to view all mounts, companions, legendary items and other collectibles that are in the game.
Searching - AtlasLoot knows you may not always know the full name of an item, and has a system to allow you to type in and search what you do know about the item to help you find it.

Why you need it:

WoW has been around for over a decade since its initial release in 2004, so it’s very safe to say the game has a lot of armor sets, weapons, enhancements, tokens, reputation tabards and bosses. So how are you meant to know what you need for your character? How will you know what bosses drop your upgrades and can give you more output from your game play?
AtlasLoot is answer! It provides users to easily access all of WoW’s enormous database of in game content, display useful information about each piece and show where you can get the item from.

Download the mod here: AtlasLoot Enhanced

10 - NPC Scan

None-Player Character (NPC) Scan is an extremely useful mod to the game, an addon that I would highly recommend any player to have.

How to use the NPCScan mod addon

What it does:

NPCScan allows the user to search and scan for NPCs in the game that are close to your current location. It does this by automatically scanning your surround minimap, the nameplates of NPCs and mouseover target NPCs. When the addon has found an NPC it will automatically alert the user with an onscreen display and audio alert.

Why do you need it:

NPCScan opens up and allows players to hunt down and find rare NPC’s in the game that offer rewards. These rewards can vary from mounts, weapons and companions.

Some NPCs have extremely rare spawn times, meaning it could take up to a week after another character has killed this NPC before it will come back into the game. Having the NPCScan on your side means you can track not only the NPC itself but also see the last time it was killed and when it is likely to respawn.

Download the mod addon here: NPCScan

09 - Sell Junk

Sell Junk is possibly one of the oldest mods in WoW having been created in 2007.

Tutorial to setting up and using the Sell Junk mod addon.

What it does:

Sell Junk is basically an addon that does as it’s name suggests - allows the user to sell junk! For anyone with any experience in playing WoW knows the accumulation of “junk” (grey items) is fast and annoying, taking up valuable bag space. This addon allows a quick and easy way for users to sell their junk to any in game vendors. The user can specifically add any other items they wish to be implemented into this list of junk.

The addon also keeps track and calculates how much gold you have made from selling your junk to vendors.

Sell Junk can also allow you to destroy all the junk items if you are too far from a vendor.

Why do you need it:

Unwanted items are an inconvenience to most WoW players. They take up a lot of bag space, and for items that hold so much storage - they do not have any value for money. They are useless items like bones, low level drinks and food, useless armor and clothing.

Instead of going to a vendor and having to individually sell them one by one, this addon allows the mass sale of all these unwanted items to the vendor in quick time. Allowing you to do what you bought the game for - playing, raiding and PVPing!

Download the addon here: Sell Junk

08 - Tell Me When (TMW)

I would highly recommend this addon to anyone who is deciding to play WoW for the first time, or are trying out a new character you haven’t player yet.

Extremely useful guide for an extremely useful addon - Tell Me When

What the addon does:

TMW provides visual and audio alerts about your characters cooldowns, buffs and any other elements of the in game combat system.

TMW is a very flexible addon that tracks your cooldowns, buffs and debuffs, temporary weapon enhancements, spell casts, rune cooldowns, internal cooldowns, loss of control situations and many more.

The addon can be easily customized to suit the users needs, allowing you to change the audio sound of alerts, alter the text when icons have been changed and more.

Why do you need it:

When it comes to the combat aspect of WoW, whether it is PvE or PvP, there are a lot of buttons and options for you to choose from. Knowing the best rotation of your character for the best output can be difficult, unless you have extensive experience playing your character.

TMW provides you with the guidelines any new playable character needs to have a decent and ideal output to the game.

Download the mod addon here: Tell Me When

07 - Postal

The idea behind Postal is provide players of WoW enhanced support when it comes to the mailing system.

Guide to using Postal in game.

What it does:

Postal allows you to track every one of your characters in the mailing system, and up to the last 20 people you have sent mail too.

Postal also has a lot of short cuts implemented into the mailing system to make the process a lot quicker. You can easily remove items or money from mail you have without needing to open it up and then remove. Allows you to swiftly move an item in your inventory to a mail letter without the need to open your bags, click and drag the item into the mailing system.

It also allows you to open all of your mail, or open all of a specific type of mail in one simple motion.

It provides a lot of benefits and enhances the mailing system in the game significantly!

Why do you need it:

Above are only some of the advantages to downloading this addon to your game, believe me there are a lot more!

If you are a popular player in your realm, or someone who spends a lot of time at the auction house, then this addon will benefit you!

It will allow you to reply, remove and add items/money so much quicker from the game, meaning you can get back to your business a lot quicker than usual!

The standard mailing system in WoW is limited, but this addon adds extra factors to it and enhances the UI aspect of the system.

Download the addon here: Postal

06 - Bartender 4

Bartender 4 allows a personal customization look to your characters moves.

Setting up and using Bartender 4 for a custom look!

What it does:

This addon allows the user to replace WoW’s standard action bar that holds your characters moves, and personally customize it to the way that you want.

Bartender 4 provides support for all related action bars; from you characters standard action bar - you now have up to 10 action bars to custom you layout. It gives the option to personalize a stance bar for your character, a pet bar, bag bar layout, an XP and reputation bar as well as a micro menu bar. You are able to adjust the scale and colour of the bars buttons, and even hide unwanted information that comes with the action buttons.

Why you need it:

This is another highly recommended addon for WoW players. The standard action bar implemented by WoW is limited and you cannot get the best output from your character using it.

Bartender 4 allows you to customize the look of your action bars buttons, meaning you can place them where you want; allowing you to put related actions next to each other and enhance your characters output to the game.

Download this mod here: Bartender 4

05 - Auctionator

Tutorial guide and configuration of Auctionator.

What it does:

Auctionator was created to allow users to use the in game auction house a lot easier. It’s UI presents you with listings of the item or items, such as materials, cloths or other ingredients you have searched in a clear and understandable manner. It makes using the auction house a lot easier and establishes a more casual approach to the experience.

An in game view of how the Auctionator addon displays searched items.

Why you need it:

The in game auction house can be a bit daunting at first, there are a lot of products on there from a lot of players, and trying to find the right items you need at a decent value can be troublesome.

The Auctionator addon removes this difficult process and allows the users to find the items they want quicker, and display them in a relevant order (lowest price first, time left on auction etc).

Download the addon here: Auctionator

04 - Auctioneer

Basic Auctioneer addon run through.

What it does:

This addon is designed to provide the user with the tools and relevant data to make tough auctioning decisions a lot easier.

Auctioneer makes the process of buying and selling on the auction house a lot easier!

It displays statistics for the user to look at whilst strolling through the auction house such as; the percentage amount that a particular item has been placed on the auction house, if the item is overpriced or good value for gold and more.

Why you need it:

Auctioneer has a lot of data behind it, the system used in this addon analysis’s the whole auction house to give you a detailed report.

When selling items it will allow you to view who else is selling the item or items that you are, so you can get a good idea of how much to sell your product for. It is a very useful auctioning addon, and should be used by anyone who is interested continually buy and selling from the auction house.

Download this mod addon here: Auctioneer

03 - Recount

The Recount addon is a very intelligent addon, and I would advise everyone to get this mod for their gaming experience in WoW.

Learn how use the Recount addon from this video.

What it does:

Every time your character does a damaging move, there will be a statistic number for the damage you have dealt. Recount keeps track of all this data and graphically displays it so that you can see the damage output of your character.

Recount keeps an account of every move you have used, how often, the highest amount of damage it has dealt, the lowest, how many times it has been a critical hit and the average damage dealt by this move or moves. This addon will also take into consideration any damage done to a target that characters with pets and other miscellaneous aspects do.

This addon will also track any healing done by your character if you are a healing class, and tracks other important pieces of information through a combat encounter.

Why you need this addon:

Anyone who is serious about the output of damage they put into the game needs this addon so they can track and improve their rotation.

Recount doesn’t only track your own characters damage, but also the output done by other members of your party when you are raiding or PvPing. This will allow you to compare your character to the other members in your party, making it more competitive.

Download the addon here: Recount

02 - Deadly Boss Mods (DBM)

This addon is usually a must have mod for any raiding guilds in the game.

DBM run through and simple explanation on how to use this addon.

What it does:

DBM is a very important addon when it comes to serious raiding in the game. The addon is designed to give visual, graphic and audio alerts during raid boss encounters. These alerts range from specific boss moves, changes in the fight (phases), minion spawns, buffs and debuffs and a lot more.

This addon can also be used for your own personal benefit. It will allow you to set raid warnings, timers, alert other players of danger easily, shout out any special moves you have used to let your party members know and benefit from it, etc.

Why you need it:

As I’ve mentioned, this is a must have addon for anyone who is thinking about serious raiding when it comes to WoW Legion.

Anyone with experience in raiding knows how much attention is required to kill a boss in WoW; Legion will be no different. This addon will allow you to make important split second decisions whilst in combat, it will save your life probably more times than you realize, and provides the user and raid members with countless and priceless information about any given raid.

Download this important addon here: Deadly Boss Mods

01 - Master Plan

Master plan is an addon brought out in 2014 with the expansion of “Warlords of Draenor”.

Tutorial to using Master Plan in your Garrison!

What it does:

The Master Plan addon was specifically designed for your Garrison in the previous expansion - Warlords of Draenor.
It was created to make the prospect of sending your followers on missions and to maximize the mission success and rewards a lot easier. This addon will visually show the threats of the mission your followers will face and allow the optimal selection of a team for the best result with a click of a button.

The Master Plan addon also has a “followers” tab to allow you to see the best armor upgrades for them, and what traits you may want to re-roll, change and or keep.

Why you need it:

This addon is very fresh and very useful, since owning your own Garrison is a huge part to WoW from the previous expansion.

Deciding what missions to send your followers on and trying to get an optimal team for the best result from the mission, was a little time consuming. But this addon allows a quick analysis to be done with a simple click of a button to input the top followers with the highest percentage success rate. Time saving and very useful.

Master Plan allows you to easily collect the rewards from successful missions with a simple click of a button in the “Active missions” tab. This saves time and cuts out the usual animation process implemented to be displayed once a mission is completed.

Download this mod addon here: Master Plan

Bonus Addon - HandyNotes Legion Treasures

Quick run through and explanation to how this addon works in game!

What it does:

The HandyNotes addon allows you to easily and quickly find and locate treasure whilst playing the game.This bonus update for Legion applies the same concept.

Downloading this addon will save you a lot of time, as the mod is designed to visually display all the locations in your area on your minimap and when you open up the whole map.

Why you need it:

Treasure hunting is growing ever more popular; and with the upgrades, resources and other fun items you can find in the chests, it's easy to see why.

Save yourself some time, find get hunting, get involved and find the best gear, most resources and fun items Legion has to offer it's players in the new expansion!

Download this addon here: Legion Treasures

You may also be interested in reading the following articles:

1 Story behind WoW Legion

2 WoW Legion - 10 new things in this expansion

3 World of Warcraft steady decline!

4 WoW Hero Class: DH vs DK

5 15 things you'll understand if you've played WoW

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Blizzard have released a new expansion into World of Warcraft - Legion!

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11 Great PC Games to Expect in 2016

Cereline — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 23:26:43 +0000

Keep an eye out for these 11 great new games to expect this year.

2016 is sure not to disappoint. Many exciting PC games are expected to come out this year. There is a wide variety of highly anticipated games in all genres and this will only be a list of 11 of those great PC games to expect this year.

11. Battleborn

The game takes place in a space fantasy setting where most planets and stars in the universe were destroyed after some catastrophic event. The star that the heroes of the game have gravitated towards is known as Solus.

The game is designed to be reminiscent of the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) format while still maintaining a unique first-person shooter mechanic.

There will be twenty-five characters at release and each one will feature unique personalities, abilities, and weapons. It is primarily played in first-person mode and has been uniquely labeled as a “hero shooter”.

There is also a campaign mode that players can work through in solo or co-op play.

Battleborn is expected to release May 3, 2016.

10. Mirror's Edge: Catalyst

Faith Connors, the main character of the game, lives in the city of Glass. In this game players will learn of the character’s origin and help her in her mission to overthrow the corporations who maintain a suffocating grip on the society she is a part of.

The game will feature an urban environment that must be traversed utilizing parkour and other unique exploration methods such as zip-lines. The players will be able to utilize any of the many methods to reach their goal as the game features different routes to objectives.

Multiplayer features will also be an exciting part of this game. Although there isn’t a co-op or competitive mode, the actions of a player in one game might affect the world of another player.

The game is set to release May 24, 2016.

9. Pillars of Eternity: The White March Part 2

Last year, the base version of Pillars of Eternity was released and it received countless amazing reviews and a few rewards, as well. (Such as the Best PC Exclusive and Best Crowdfunded game from PCInvasion.) That game is definitely worth the praise and this year it will be releasing The White March Part 2.

The White March Part 2 will be the second expansion to the Pillars world.

It will add new content such as more quests and abilities. In addition, there will be a new companion added as well: Meneha, the Barbarian. The game will finish out the story introduced in The White March Part 1 and bring the game to a well-rounded close.

The White March Part 2 will be released on Feb. 16th of this year.

8. The Elder Scrolls Legends

The Elder Scrolls: Legends is a strategy card game released based on the Elder Scrolls universe. It was announced at E3 2015 and is scheduled for release this year, although no specific date has been set at this point.

The trading card game will feature key characters who have appeared in the Elder Scrolls universe. Some will be from legends and others from quests that are mentioned in the lore and the games.

7. Dishonored 2

The player will choose between playing (Empress) Emily Kaldwin and Corvo Attano in Dishonored 2. Emily, after being dethroned, wishes to claim back her title. So, she follows the steps of Corvo Attano in becoming an assassin in an attempt to reclaim her title.

Corvo and Emily will go through the same missions but their perspectives and paths will vary. Each character has a unique set of skills that will allow them to traverse the campaign differently.

The player can choose between playing stealthily or not. If they are successful, it is possible to beat the game without killing.

No specific time frame of release has been announced aside from this year.

6. Star Citizen

The upcoming space sim, Star Citizen, offers a chance for gamers to participate in a space trading and combat simulator. Star Citizen gives the player large amounts of freedom in actions and decisions and the player’s decisions will impact the economy and the events of the game.

Interestingly, the game will not feature different servers. Instead, there will be a matchmaking and instancing mechanic that will alter and affect how players interact. Accompanying this mechanic, players are able to choose the amount of exposure to other players.

The game will be a unique blend of online and single player elements that focus primarily on immersion. Much of the drama and events will be player-driven as they navigate this unique space simulator.

The game’s release is to be announced but should be expected in 2016.

5. Overwatch

New from Blizzard, Overwatch is another great game to expect this year. Although there were a few beta tests last year, the full launch is planned for some time this year.

The game will be a team-based shooter thatallows you to play one of twenty-one heroes. The cast of heroes is incredibly diverse: anything from your standard human character to a gorilla scientist named Winston.

The game is expected to release in Spring of 2016.

4. Mass Effect: Andromeda

Mass Effect: Andromeda takes place in the distant future after the events of the first three Mass Effect games. The game will not relate much to the previous three games and choices from the games may be recognized but they will not factor into the major events of Andromeda.

The player will get to explore the new Andromeda galaxy and set out on an all-new adventure.

Players loyal to the franchise will recognize some of the core elements that make the Mass Effect games what they are: new worlds to explore, interesting characters, and action-packed gameplay. All the while, players will get to experience new mechanics and gameplay that has not yet been announced.

As the year progresses, gamers can expect to hear more news about what to expect in the game and they can get excited about the new addition to the Mass Effect universe.

The game is anticipated to release in the fourth quarter of 2016.

3. Torment: Tides of Numenera

The Angel of Entropy is hunting the Changing God and all of the things that he has made – including your character. Your character is known as the Last Castoff and you are the last in a chain of beings that were the result of the Changing God’s constant changing of bodies. Travel across the Ninth World, alternate dimensions, and distant worlds to build your legacy and find your god, the one who sired you, before it is too late and the angel of entropy destroys you, all other castoffs, and the Changing God himself.

Backed by a kickstarter, Torment: Tides of Numenera gives an exciting RPG experience. Richly crafted, the game is focused on story and contains rich dialogue to entice gamers into the isometric world. The game promises to uphold its four pillars advertised in the kickstarter:

A deep, thematically satisfying story; a unique world; a rich, personal narrative; and choice with real consequences.

The game also continues the thematic legacy of Planescape: Torment, a critically acclaimed game from 1999.

Enjoy this vast and satisfying world set to release later this year.

2. X-Com 2

In X-Com 2, become the commander of a military organization struggling to combat the alien occupation of the planet. It takes place twenty years after the aliens have defeated humanity. Through the turn-based battle system, the player will fight for the liberation of humanity.

Beyond simply fighting, the player will also maintain control of the Avenger. The Avenger was previously a alien barge but has been converted into the player’s mobile base.

The game will offer features such as customization of soldiers, new enemies, and a new faction.

It is scheduled to release on February 5th of this year and is available for preorder.

1. Dark Souls 3

Dark Souls 3 makes the top of my list of great games to expect in 2016. Dark Souls 3 is a game that I am highly anticipating, and you should to. As a fan of the Dark Souls franchise, this game is supposed to round out the series while still maintaining all the elements that players know and love.

Some things to expect in Dark Souls 3 are a new mana bar, difficult combat, and a story that promises to be amazing and elusive.

The game will be released in April 2016 so be sure to watch for the exciting addition to the Dark Souls franchise.

There are some new free games coming out in 2016 to look out for as well.

Love horror? Here are some new horror games coming out in 2016.

While you're waiting for these games to be release, enjoy some of the past Final Fantasy games (ranked best to worst).

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The Action-Packed Battleborn Fight

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