Marvel Rivals

[John Price]

 

[JaegerDice]

Finally got to Platinum. Had some really frustrating matches where nobody wanted to play Tank or Strategist, so I was basically doing my best to keep 4 or 5 people alive all by my lonesome as they bounced around the map. It went poorly.

Finally LFGed on the official Xbox club, got a proper team together and we went 10-0. Psylocke is just sexy Genji, and I am HERE for it.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Played it a bit at launch, didn't jive with it at first. Gave it another go and i fell in love lmao.

They absolutely nailed the art style for starters. Most, if not all their designs for the characters are clearly taken from each hero/villain's most iconic look but with enough of their own spin on it where it stands out.

Gameplay is solid since to me, it feels like it captured what made overwatch incredibly successful in the early going in the sense no hero really plays the same. You have your basic "shoot things" DPS like Punisher and then hyper complex heroes that require a lot of effort (maybe a bit too much given burst is usually king in hero shooters) to utilize like spiderman. Supports are actually fun to play here. Tanks i'm not super big on at the moment but they even have something for me as a long time Reinhardt player in Doctor Strange. There are a couple design choices that i do admittedly find a bit head scratching. Certainly not bad but a bit..odd. Winter Solider having a pistol as his primary fire and having it be projectile rather than hitscan is a bit weird. Spiderman being probably the most popular character out of Marvel's catalog and having him be uber difficult to play.

Other choices i applaud, like having Black Widow being almost entirely useless. All the overwatch players were afraid of her being broken because the majority is tired of playing against something that goes so against the game's core design. Thankfully she's not so that's a big plus in my book.

I also surprisingly don't hate the lack of a role queue. At first i was a bit concerned, but it seems like the dev team actually did a decent job with their claim of "we see multiple comps that work well." at least for now. I've seen 3 DPS/1 tank/2 healer, 2/2/2 and 3 tank/3 healer all work relatively well. I think the only true non-negotiable part of this is you need at least two healers since it certainly doesn't feel like anyone is built to solo heal here. Whether this holds as people learn and optimize the game remains to be seen, but so far good job.

Only in silver right now but the two buddies i play (as am i) are long time OW players that ripped through bronze winning 10 of our first 12 matches in comp so i imagine we'll probably settle in around gold/plat once we have more time to put in.

 

[JaegerDice]

Played it a bit at launch, didn't jive with it at first. Gave it another go and i fell in love lmao.

They absolutely nailed the art style for starters. Most, if not all their designs for the characters are clearly taken from each hero/villain's most iconic look but with enough of their own spin on it where it stands out.

Gameplay is solid since to me, it feels like it captured what made overwatch incredibly successful in the early going in the sense no hero really plays the same. You have your basic "shoot things" DPS like Punisher and then hyper complex heroes that require a lot of effort (maybe a bit too much given burst is usually king in hero shooters) to utilize like spiderman. Supports are actually fun to play here. Tanks i'm not super big on at the moment but they even have something for me as a long time Reinhardt player in Doctor Strange. There are a couple design choices that i do admittedly find a bit head scratching. Certainly not bad but a bit..odd. Winter Solider having a pistol as his primary fire and having it be projectile rather than hitscan is a bit weird. Spiderman being probably the most popular character out of Marvel's catalog and having him be uber difficult to play.

Other choices i applaud, like having Black Widow being almost entirely useless. All the overwatch players were afraid of her being broken because the majority is tired of playing against something that goes so against the game's core design. Thankfully she's not so that's a big plus in my book.

I also surprisingly don't hate the lack of a role queue. At first i was a bit concerned, but it seems like the dev team actually did a decent job with their claim of "we see multiple comps that work well." at least for now. I've seen 3 DPS/1 tank/2 healer, 2/2/2 and 3 tank/3 healer all work relatively well. I think the only true non-negotiable part of this is you need at least two healers since it certainly doesn't feel like anyone is built to solo heal here. Whether this holds as people learn and optimize the game remains to be seen, but so far good job.

Only in silver right now but the two buddies i play (as am i) are long time OW players that ripped through bronze winning 10 of our first 12 matches in comp so i imagine we'll probably settle in around gold/plat once we have more time to put in.

Interestingly, after mainlining Marvel Heroes for the last week, I have an itch to get back into Overwatch again.

I love the messiness and experimentation in Rivals, but there are times it gets.... really messy. When like, you have 12 characters in the battle, and the 3rd person view combined with the emphasis on CQC makes it feel kinda hard to follow and bit random. It's not bad, but I felt myself feeling like 'I kinda wish there was another playlist with role queue or character bans, just to kind of, slow things down and spread things out a touch'. If only for a bit of variety here and there between 'normal' matches.

But I haven't played Overwatch since like season 11, so I'm completely out of the loop as far as the meta. Are Tracer and Pharah still pretty good?

 

[Blitzkrug]

Interestingly, after mainlining Marvel Heroes for the last week, I have an itch to get back into Overwatch again.

I love the messiness and experimentation in Rivals, but there are times it gets.... really messy. When like, you have 12 characters in the battle, and the 3rd person view combined with the emphasis on CQC makes it feel kinda hard to follow and bit random. It's not bad, but I felt myself feeling like 'I kinda wish there was another playlist with role queue or character bans, just to kind of, slow things down and spread things out a touch'. If only for a bit of variety here and there between 'normal' matches.

But I haven't played Overwatch since like season 11, so I'm completely out of the loop as far as the meta. Are Tracer and Pharah still pretty good?

Pharah's kit has changed entirely. She's now more of a hit and run character that can no longer hover in the air infinitely if you know how to manage her jets.

Tracer still does okay in the middle ranks but for the most part the game's meta has solidified around burst damage. So characters like Ashe, Widow, Cassidy, Baptiste (because blizzard doesn't understand how to balance supports) and usually with a Mercy pocket. Absolute snoozefest of a game because the devs couldn't balance their way out of a paper bag.

In their quest to make tanks less centralizing, they made them overly strong in the start of OW2 then nerfed them multiple times to the point they are now irrelevant and exist only to explode in fights. Bad enough where a lot of the tank players got fed up (hi, i love rein but rein has been useless for eons) and either left, or in the case of a lot of the content creators, latched on to rivals because it doesn't feel like a waste of their time.

Unless of course you are a Zarya fan. Zarya for some reason has no legitimate counter and she either checks or counters most of the other tanks.

Supports are also grossly overtuned in a lot of aspects but while also being unfun to play.



Don't bother going back, keep the fond memories you have lol.

 

[JaegerDice]

Pharah's kit has changed entirely. She's now more of a hit and run character that can no longer hover in the air infinitely if you know how to manage her jets.

Tracer still does okay in the middle ranks but for the most part the game's meta has solidified around burst damage. So characters like Ashe, Widow, Cassidy, Baptiste (because blizzard doesn't understand how to balance supports) and usually with a Mercy pocket. Absolute snoozefest of a game because the devs couldn't balance their way out of a paper bag.

In their quest to make tanks less centralizing, they made them overly strong in the start of OW2 then nerfed them multiple times to the point they are now irrelevant and exist only to explode in fights. Bad enough where a lot of the tank players got fed up (hi, i love rein but rein has been useless for eons) and either left, or in the case of a lot of the content creators, latched on to rivals because it doesn't feel like a waste of their time.

Unless of course you are a Zarya fan. Zarya for some reason has no legitimate counter and she either checks or counters most of the other tanks.

Supports are also grossly overtuned in a lot of aspects but while also being unfun to play.



Don't bother going back, keep the fond memories you have lol.

Noooooooo, how could they do that to my girl, Parah? :

Thanks for the info. I'll hop back into Valorant if I need a more structured experience instead.

 

[John Price]

 

[John Price]

 

[JaegerDice]

I hope the leaks about Ultron are real. Great character and looks like a fun kit!

I am kinda surprised that Dr. Doom isn't going to be the new free hero for the next season, given the team of this season. But whatever.

 

[John Price]

 

[John Price]

This game is very, very popular now, everyone is talking about it.

I was struggling to find an addictive video game I could just spend hours on. I used to play a lot of battlefield but 2042, something just seemed off. Still was able to grind a bit but it wasn't really that game where you could just play hours and hours on end.

This is a game you can just sit and play repeatedly if you have the time. I could only play 45 minutes today but you could sit for 2 or 3 hours playing this, or even longer. It's very addictive, quick, and fast paced. If you lose, fine, quick queue and start up again.

For someone who just didn't game as much, this really has gotten me back into the mix again.

I like to use the following:

Vanguard: Captain America. As long as there are 2 strategists to heal I can hang around the capture point or "cart" and mash everything in view. Just throwing the shield, charging, beating up squishy healers, good fun. Been going 20-7 with a few kill streaks with Cap.

Duelist: Don't have as much experience as everyone basically wants to DPS and for the good of the team I will usually switch out to tank or healer unless someone already has those roles. Last time I played as Punisher which was pretty good on defense. You can just fire your weapon, pretty standard, and if the cart is coming you can set up the turret and machine gun away.

Strategist: I like using Adam Warlock, healing is pretty simple. Mantis is supposed to be good too but I need to do more testing.

What characters is everyone else using?

 

[Nemesis Prime]

I've been sticking with Punisher or Black Widow.

Downside is I find I'm getting merked fairly easily as these two but of everyone I've used so far, I like their gameplay best.

 

[John Price]

Punisher is pretty good for defense and the gun is pretty accurate. Been getting some tips on cover but the ult is pretty cool.

Need to start testing out Mantis soon, apparently it's really easy to use and heal teammates while dealing dmg with the boost

 

[Blitzkrug]

I've been dabbling in all 3 roles since comp requires a bit of flexing (either who you play or in some cases your mental health when 4 people instalock DPS)

Support wise i've been mostly playing Mantis. (one rank away from max proficiency) The amount of versatility she has is kinda whack. Being able to damage boost oneself, an ally and having two orbs left over to heal/damage boost someone else at the same time is crazy good. Her ult seems to work fairly similarly to Zenyatta's transcendence in the sense the raw burst healing is enough to outtank most ults outside of a couple specific ones. Adam Warlock is my fallback pick but i'm not a fan of how immoble/defenseless he is (apparently still a top tier support regardless) especially since Mantis is one of the few characters with a get off me/defensive cooldown to keep annoying ass flankers at bay. Luna Snow feels like a bootleg Lucio.

Tank took me a bit to get settled but i've found familiarity in the more...barrier oriented tanks. Doctor Strange, Magneto, Hulk to an extent. Strange being arguably the most straightforward tank to me given the amount of time i played Reinhardt. Bonus that he also happens to apparently be the best tank in the game. Magneto i dig but hate his ult. Hulk is by far the most fun of these three but he feels like he's ass in some aspects. Blows up too easily compared to others.

Damage is the one spot where i don't feel comfortable. While it was easily my weakest part of my hero pool in a game like overwatch there were at least a couple characters you could stick me on and not have me look like a complete trash can. Soldier, Ashe, McCree. Here? Ehhhhhhh. Punisher is my fallback but the rest of the DPS feel like they either take too many steps to get value (Wolverine, Black Panther, Spiderman, Psylocke), too much shit to micromanage (Namor, Moon Knight) or i just suck ass with in the case of Winter Soldier. Cannot get used to the fact a pistol user is for some reason projectile and his hook/grab thing i cannot land to save my life.