How to manage a community

So, typically I want to avoid this sort of stuff. Generally blog posts that are rants/examinations don't fit an all purpose area like this, and I have no intention as to delve into either of those fully. Today, we're going to be taking a good, hard look at how Blizzard fucked up in their latest Overwatch patch, and examining what this can tell us about how to handle a multiplayer game in general. If you don't play Overwatch, I'm gonna try to keep it understandable, but no promises.

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So patch 1.8 came out a while ago, and take one look at the forums at the time... oof. People were not happy with this update, and I'm honestly fully in their court here. I'm not here to rant or get mad, though. Let's take a calm look at the individual aspects of what mess the two weeks leading up to the update were. Obviously the response from Blizzard to fix this stuff has been swift and responsible, but I still feel it's a good idea to examine what not to do.

So let's start with the elephant in the room, or in this case, omnic: Bastion. The general community consensus was definitely that he was at least a tad overpowered before a hotfix brought him down a notch. While this might seem to be just a simple bad balancing issue, I don't think that's what you should be taking from this alone. Bad balancing happens all the time in every game, and the real issue lies elsewhere, I feel.

This is a prime example of a negative player behavior loop, one that is plain to see because the test server completely failed to catch this. The root cause is a lot more general and I will get to that, but right now let's look at why offering a direct incentive is a lot more important.

So when it comes to what is beta testing, in essence, there needs to be a big incentive for players to get in on it. Remember that it can be a big ask to get players to even load up the PTR in the first place. An entire 2^nd copy of the game needs downloading, plus any and all time you spend on it won't affect your progress in the actual game. Not to mention that it can be buggy, and a low player count means worse matches, and so on. It's a big barrier to entry for many, and what rewards do they get? The satisfaction of helping the game maybe?

What we're looking at here is what would be instantly identified as a poor rewards system inside any actual game. When all you have to offer is the vague satisfaction of maybe helping, that's going to be a nonexistent incentive for anyone not caring about high level play, for one. It's easy to forget that people will still follow said systems outside of the direct game, but this is a great example of this in action.

So, what about Bastion himself? The main issue that sprung from him was ultimately swinging the balance hammer too hard, too silently. Balance is already a tricky thing to do, but what I think a lot of people forget is that the developers have to take into account the community reaction when implementing or even suggesting changes.

Now, the community is often wrong when it comes to what they think is right for balance. Rightfully so, as we're not game designers, nor do we get paid to do this. However, that fact is a tricky one indeed to balance with what's right for the game. What's right is not always what will be percieved as right, and outrage among the playerbase can run rampant, making forums a mess and from an outsiders perspective making your game and playerbase look a lot worse.

Now in this case specifically, the community turned out to be very correct in their assumptions, and Bastion did swiftly receive nerfs a mere days after his buffs went live. So why the outrage? Point number 2: communication.

See, generally Blizzard are pretty good with communication, providing regular updates and posts for the community. However, developer updates and the like can be a bit sporatic, which makes sense. However, get a change the community doesn't like and have it line up with an unfortunate 2 week radio silence on it, and, well...

It was like a weird microcosm of a really resentful community for 2 weeks, let me tell you. Players got frustrated at the changes, frustrated at the lack of communication, and frustrated at how vague everything felt. It went from a pleasant relationship to a one sided shouting match.

That is lesson number two from this whole mess. Communication, however small, matters. You cannot rely on your community to moderate their feelings nor can you assume the best. If you set a standard of communication, stick to it. Doubly so when you're introducing huge change. Those are the times when the community is at the most volatile, when it's at its worst and most emotional. That's when the real legwork by community managers needs to be put in, and that's when you can make your game and community truly great.

And to cap this all off, the community outrage seemed to disappear in one simple dev post. That's all it took. Players are not anger machines. It is possible to control them and their emotions, odd as that sounds. With the right updates and openness, anything is really possible when you're making a multiplayer game in the community.

Short and shallow post this time, been busy, sorry bout' that! Hope you enjoyed anyway.

A Deep Dive into Sombra's Hacking

Sombra has finally, FINALLY hacked her way into Overwatch, and seems set to do some interesting stuff with the meta. However, today I want to cast that all aside and take a close look at one single aspect of her moveset: her hacking.

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First, a brief rundown. Sombra’s hacking ability has a 12 second cooldown and may be used on an enemy hero, turret, or healthpack. If applied to a hero, they are unable to use abilities for 6 seconds. If applied to a healthpack, it becomes unusable by the enemy team and recharges faster for one minute. Turrets hacked are useless for 6 seconds. Hacking takes about 1 second and taking any damage stops the hack from going through.

First of all, we must ask what this ability’s intended use is, fairly obvious here. It’s mainly meant to deny area control and mark a target to take out. It is able to deny enemies health regen otherwise available to them, and makes areas covered by turrets safe. If you decide to hack an enemy, however, it takes on a dramatically different use. This ability is one requiring teamwork to effectively utilize. Since Sombra cannot hack while under fire, she relies on the enemy being distracted while she gets her hack off, essentially meaning teammates need to draw fire. Teammates are often needed after the hack goes through as well, since Sombra’s primary fire often will not be enough to kill the enemy by herself. While it is rather situational as a result of these caveats, it’s an incredibly powerful ability if used at the right time, enabling guaranteed picks on a weakened target, or an opening to attack by disabling a dangerous enemy.

And really, the fact that she needs a team to get stuff done with her hack is emblematic of her whole kit. Sombra is, more than anything else, an enabler for her team with this hack. Use it on a D.Va and she’s a sitting duck with no defense. Hack a Reaper or Mei and your team no longer needs worry about their invincibility-granting moves. Sombra’s hack fits the role of making your movements as a team safer rather than faster. She lets you go all in on that Roadhog, knowing he can’t slip away and heal.

On the flipside, she can also blunt the force of an enemy assault, once again ensuring safety for your team. Take Roadhog once again. Many a defense have fallen because Roadhog hooked the healer for a guaranteed kill. Sombra can, if not stop the assault, delay it with a well placed hack, forcing the team to wait as their setup has been taken away from them for a short while. On defense, Sombra fills the role of disruptor, throwing wrenches into the enemy team’s plan and letting her allies bear the brunt of an assault more effectively. Once again, she’s making a team’s defense more secure and safer.

So that’s what her hack is trying to get people to play like. But what about the mechanics of the hack itself, the numbers and effects?

The cooldown is the most interesting number on the move to me. 12 seconds is quite a long cooldown, and in fact the only moves with higher cooldowns are Soldier: 76’s biotic field, Hanzo’s sonic arrow, and Winston’s barrier. This is mainly due to the dual use of it, forcing players to choose between uses of her hack in between engagements. Since Overwatch moves at a pretty rapid pace, most fights take at most 20ish seconds to fully resolve. This means that often if you hack an enemy in the middle of a fight you will lose the ability to hack a healthpack in the aftermath, and if you hack a healthpack you may be without a valuable disrupting tool for much of the next fight.

The cooldown is in place to ensure Sombra can’t quite literally “hack the planet”. She has to decide between area control and teamfight effectiveness at any given time. Area control lasts longer, but it may not matter if one team pushes up past the area you’ve locked down.  Teamfight potential can swing a game, but if you don’t punch through the enemy lines you’re giving up a solid defense to fall back on. On a very broad level, you can think of it as risk (Offensive enemy hack) vs. safety (Defensive healthpack hack).

Ok, let’s switch over to the numbers on the enemy, mainly how long the hack lasts for. Those 6 seconds are quite deliberately chosen, as most abilities in the game have  an 8 or more second cooldown. Pluck a random ability out of the air, and there’s a good chance it falls in that 8 seconds or higher range. What this means is that it’s totally possible to, in essence, whiff your hack even if you get it off.

Imagine a scenario where Zarya has just shielded herself and an ally, and right after you hack her. Well, that hack isn’t going to do much, as she wouldn’t have been able to use her abilities on cooldown anyway. The cooldown ensures you can’t use it mindlessly, and forces to to stay cognizant of the fight at hand.

One final element adding to the cooldown is the ability to see if an enemy has their ultimate up when you hack them. You’re able to use this ability for recon as well, although it’s generally viewed as a suboptimal use of the hack purely to gain this info. Still, in the scenarios where it is useful in this way, you have a 3rd use if need be.

Last, but certainly not least, is the amount of time needed to execute a hack. It’s about 1.2 seconds, and if Sombra takes any fire at all the hack is cancelled automatically. Nothing too complex here, this is to force Sombra to use it when flanking or working together with an ally to take fire. She can’t get into the fray at full effectiveness.

So, overall, the elements of the hack are:

- Area control by hacking healthpacks

- Safe picks with an offensive hack

- Ability to shut Torbjorn’s turrets down

- Delaying enemy pushes with defensive hacks

- An inability to use it when under fire

When you put it all together, you end up with an ability that’s focused around Sombra’s team rather than Sombra. She can’t hack a turret or enemy in a 1v1, as taking fire renders the hack unable to execute. The health pack hack lasts for a minute, leaving it open for her whole team to use it. She personally doesn’t benefit from defensive hacks as she’s meant to be hard to pin down, but her teammates more in the enemy’s face do benefit.

So, overall if I had to describe this ability in a single sentence…

An area control and team enabling ability used to deny health and ability use to the enemy, making your team safer, yet cannot be used if Sombra is in immediate danger.

Whew, this article took way longer than it really should have. Did you like looking into each individual aspect of a small game element? This is something new I really enjoy and want to try more, so feedback and feelings on this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Overwatch Vs. Atlas Reactor: The Loot Box

Yeah yeah, more Overwatch AND Atlas Reactor. Sue me.

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As you have no doubt heard about Overwatch, the Loot Box system is, to put it politely, not very good. It's microtransactions in a 60$ game, and it's all RNG based, meaning you have no control over what items you get or how much money you get. And to top it all off, cosmetics are all there are to unlock, making an unrewarding system that is a blatant attempt to get money out of consumers in one of the worst ways possible.

I'm saying all this because they could and should have done better. Atlas Reactor proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. It too has loot boxes (called loot matrixes) that you gain at every level, duplicates that give you a small amount of currency, and the whole system in general being dictated by RNG. However, it takes this base and improves, improves, improves. Overwatch is the base, and nothing more. AR is the base and so much more. Let's take a closer look.

We can start with what both games actually have on a base progression level. Overwatch has loot boxes. AR has loot matrixes, character specific matrixes, a mod system to change abilities, rewards for hitting certain levels, and daily/seasonal missions.

Already you can see there's simply more to actually work towards in AR rather than Overwatch. In Overwatch, you either grind out levels or pony up some cash. In AR, if you don't want to grind levels, you can play characters a lot to gain their matrixes. You can work towards a mission for an XP boost. You can try out different mod loadouts. You can work towards a concrete reward rather than a vague RNG box. At all times, you're working towards a variety of different objectives and goals at different points. Missions are brief, and give smaller, faster rewards, while levels take a bit longer. It's all staggered out nicely, and there's never a sense of an endless grind since you're gonna achieve something just around the corner at any moment.

Not only are the rewards more plentiful, but when you actually get them, it's miles better than how Overwatch doles them out. In Atlas reactor, you are guaranteed a character skin/taunt in every matrix. This does wonders for the progression system by itself, let me tell you. Besides the obvious effect of having something of value every time you open a matrix, it also lets the good aspects of using RNG loot come out into the open.

Did you just get a legendary skin for a character you've never played much? Might as well try them out for the skin. Did you get a cool new taunt? Why not give it a spin? Forcing the player into unlockables for other characters lets them expand their play experience and pushes them to try other playstyles. Overwatch doesn't let you do this as much. The odds of getting a skin are already low, as there are icons, sprays, and voicelines in every crate too, and the odds of getting a legendary skin are even lower. So the odds of you getting a cool new skin and trying the character out are just so low as to not even matter.

On a second point, AR has another type of loot matrix: character specific matrixes. Get a character up 5 levels, and the game will give you a matrix guaranteed to give you a character specific skin or taunt. This is one of the many ways in which AR gives you quite a bit of control over the RNG. You get skins for a character you want with these, mitigating the frustration of RNG a lot. It's an important step helped along by missions.

Every day you get a daily mission, and there are season chapters that give you several long term missions. The effect of these are twofold: immediate goals and help with other goals. You get something to work towards, something concrete, not dictated by RNG. A quest like “Play 5 games” or “Play 2 games as a certain class” gives you a short term goal to work towards and contributes towards the longer term goal of a matrix.

Meanwhile, Overwatch has... a first win of the day XP boost. At best, you lose a few games before getting this, not a fun player experience. At worst, you get this already small boost immediately, and then what do you progress on?

And to cap this all off, AR has stuff outside cosmetics to play around with. You can actually change your characters with mods, and try out different playstyles. You get the opportunity to try out individual playstyles, a much more powerful motive than simply trying out a new team composition. Team comp diversity immediately disqualifies solo queue players from this depth, as it's almost impossible to get 5 other people on the same page quickly, if they even want to. And even if you can, you're not changing anything about how you play. If you play Roadhog in one team comp and  then another, well, he's still playing the same. Individual depth lets you take control of the gameplay and have a guaranteed difference in two different games.

So why is this all so important? Like I mentioned in a previous post, progression is a key factor in retaining a lot of your audience for a long period of time. Some people are motivated by gameplay, some by improvement, and some by unlocking stuff. You lose a lot of people if you mess progression up. And even ignoring that, it just makes the game better for crying out loud! Would you rather play a game with a satisfying unlock system or not? Even if it doesn't affect you, it makes the experience better since more people will now be playing.

Look, I've tried to be unbiased and distant throughout this whole thing, but the fact is this demonstrates something quite distasteful on Blizzard's part. They can no longer have the defence of there being no better way to do this system, because another game has just done it better. What reason could there be except wanting more money? I have been thinking on this for days, and I can't think of another reason for the life of me.

Blizzard, you have no conceivable alternative motive at this point. Another game has done your system infinitely better as of now, and you need to step up or fess up. Either improve your system, or just say you want to squeeze money out of people. There can be no other reason.

And as for Trion? Keep doing awesome stuff with Atlas Reactor. If you keep going on like this, I'll be with you all the way.

Overwatch and Progression

Overwatch has a progression problem.

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Overwatch is a fantastic game in so many ways. It's got stellar characters, great maps, grade A game design, and some spectacular sound. But outside that, the actual game, it's got a glaring issue I want to discuss here today. You see, Overwatch has a terrible, terrible progression system.

Now, some of you may be shrugging your shoulders right now and saying “so what”? I'll get back to why this is so bad in a bit, but first I want to start by breaking down how Overwatch fails in this area.

I like to divide successful progression systems into 3 general categories. Gameplay based, unlockable based, and change based.

Gameplay based progression systems either let you unlock more gameplay elements (think Call of Duty), or they let you customize loadouts for many different playstyles (again, like Call of Duty). This lets the player play around with the mechanics the more they play, and the progression comes from a deeper understanding of the game mechanics. Note that this does not just mean getting better at the game. It comes from being able to unlock/use customization ways to change how your character can play.

Unlockable based is a catch-all term for anything you can unlock that doesn't affect gameplay. Cosmetics, emotes, that sort of stuff. It provides progression in the form of more fun stuff to show off, and the ability to customize yourself how you want.

Finally, change based progression is the type of change where the game is balanced and updated over the years. Adding new content and changing the current content, essentially. Look at any MOBA, with many characters and items to tweak, and how different the meta will be from month to month, and you get the idea. This can only really work if the developer constantly updates and supports the game.

So, how does this all relate to Overwatch? Quite simply, Overwatch lacks a good, solid foundation for any of these progression systems. It has nothing to unlock in the gameplay department, as all the characters are open from the start, and no way to change any of the character's playstyles or moves. It doesn't lend itself well to change based progression, as there are only 22 characters to change and update, so Blizzard can't update the meta very much. And finally, I think we can all agree a luck based system for unlockables is a horrible idea.

The loot box system is the only concrete progression Overwatch has, and it fails on nearly every level. It doesn't give the player a goal to work toward, because they can't control what items they buy. Even with the caveat that you can get gold from duplicates, it still means that how much you save is entirely dictated by RNG. And there are seasonal items, still dictated by RNG, but with a time limit, meaning players are locked out from some items as well.

We can quibble all day about why this was done in this manner, but that's unimportant. What is moreso is why Overwatch not having a satisfying progression system is important, and here we come back to what I mentioned at the start. A lot of people reading this are going to say, “So what?” To a lot of people, the raw gameplay should be what really matters, with cosmetics and progression not being all that important. And that's fine, because it's not what's really important to you.

Here's the issue. Raw gameplay isn't enough to keep a lot of people playing for a long time. A lot of people want change as they play, whether that be through gameplay or cosmetics. Having a bad progression system can really hamper how long a game lasts for, as a lot of people aren't going to keep playing if there's nothing satisfying to work towards.

Gameplay isn't enough to keep a lot of people engaged if they're not aiming to get truly good at the game. Overwatch is a special case because it's a lot more cheery and casual than other shooters in tone. A lot of people are going to be playing it because of the characters and world. How do you think they'll feel when the unlocks that let them have fun with the world are completely out of their control?

Overwatch having a bad progression system is not a gameplay issue, it's not a game world issue, and for the truly dedicated, this really isn't an issue in the first place. It's a reach issue. If Overwatch wants to engage more people and get them talking, it would do well to ensure as many people can be motivated as possible.

Paladins Vs. Overwatch: Just Stop

I might be a wee bit frustrated.

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I had a whole nice article planned, you know. It was going to talk about Paladins, and why I'm so excited about it, how to handle a game right, and what elements can be missing from a game and not matter as much. I'm sure it would've been good, too.

But nope, rather than the internet talking about this new and interesting game, the only thing I've heard is “IT RIPS OFF OVERWATCH AHHHHHHH”.

I think we might be having an issue with the line between “ripoff”, and “similar”, guys. I'm really frustrated that a unique game is having all discussion about it sucked into an argument over whether it copied another, and I think we mayyyy need to actually discuss what a ripoff really is.

So, for all intents and purposes, let's start with what a ripoff should be defined by. Merriam Webster defines it as “something that is too much made like something else”. Obviously that's very subjective, and altogether not very useful to define by any objective standards. Instead, let's first look at this in the only objective manner anyone can: the legal system.

I'll be using U.S law, since that's where Blizzard and Hi-Rez are based, and I'll just be linking sections on Wikipedia because that site's the easiest for anyone of limited legal knowledge to read.

When it comes to intellectual property law, there are 2 pertinent areas that could be applied here. Game mechanics can't really be patented, as companies who try basically find them unenforceable. So that leaves trade dress.

Trade dress basically gives protection to any visual design of a product. It's why you can't make a Mario fan game and sell it for profit(or really for any reason when it comes to Nintendo). I highly doubt anyone would confuse Paladins for Overwatch, they look so incredibly different. No way this would hold any legal water.

Trademark wouldn't apply because no duh. Industrial Design rights don't apply either because the mechanics are different, and they don't serve the same function under the law. Not copyright either, that only applies to direct asset rip offs really. Any way you look at it, there is no way possible that a legal case could be made for either game ripping the other off. It just couldn't happen.

And as for Paladins being a ripoff in spirit, well that's a bit different from person to person, and I don't really want to get into that directly. What I do want to talk about is how this sucked up all other discussion about Paladins into a meaningless black hole.

This is frustrating to me not just because I'm a Paladins fan (although I do enjoy it immensely), but it's not a good way to go about things. One part of this post is talking about how by all objective standards, Paladins is quite different from Overwatch. The other part is a cry for reason, a plea for it. Because this stuff happens, guys.

League of Legends and DOTA 2 are very similar in a lot of areas. Call of Duty and Battlefield are similar in a lot of areas. Half the fighting games on the market are close in nature. So many RPG's copy stuff from each other. Platformers borrow from each other with reckless abandon. So why in the frakking heck is Paladins suddenly considered so shameless?

A few things could be the culprit here. First off, the timing isn't great. Overwatch is still very relevant in the public eye, so any game with similarities is going to draw eyebrows from at least a few people. Adding to that is the fact that several popular internet personalities (I am looking SQUARELY at you, Dunkey) kinda jumped on the bandwagon and made a deal about it being similar. It's quite unfortunate how nowadays these people do have to rush research just to get more clicks because otherwise you're not going to last. And finally, it's a competitive market, and ulterior motives can therefore be drawn more easily. Sad but true.

I understand that games don't exist in a vacuum, but when exactly did games start to be judged entirely outside of their own merits? The outrage culture of the internet has certainly shown itself to be prevalent, so I suppose it's no surprise that a game I like would bound to be consumed by it eventually. I guess I'm just... I don't know. A bit disappointed? Regardless, this seems to ultimately be a good cautionary tale for any dev wanting to make a game similar to one on the market already. Watch your step, everyone.

Now can I please write an article about Paladins and why it's good?

The Best Overwatch Ults

Man, isn't Overwatch great? The hype with this one is strong, to be sure. It's not wrong, either. Overwatch is fun to watch, play, talk about, and even to write about. That in mind, my week's been mostly internet free, so I'll refrain from most of my more complex ideas about this game and do a fun list. Sound fun?

Please note that the criteria for these ults is a mix of my personal favourites and how good they actually are. I'll be taking into account how they help the team, you yourself, how coordinated your team must be, and most importantly the number of scenarios the ult is good in. And more personal stuff like how satisfying they are, how fun it is to use, and of course my personal opinions. That in mind, here we go!

This list was written as of July 17, 2016. Please note that any updates and new heroes after this point cannot be taken into account.

21. Zenyatta: Transcendance

Poor, poor Zenyatta. Considered to be basically the worst hero by many, his ult doesn't exactly help matters. Zenyatta floats up in the air and creates an area where your teammates will be healed rapidly. Zenyatta himself is invincible. Few issues here. First, Zenyatta can't do anything while in his ult besides move. That's bad, as you're down a team member. And second, it forces your team to clump together, making them easy pickings the second the ult ends. Alas, despite a good concept, this ult falls flat. Zenyatta really needs more. I feel bad for the guy.

20. Winston: Primal Rage

And here's another ult that I feel is supremely underwhelming. Winston's a good hero most of the time, and great fun to play, but his ult has a few too many shortcomings to be of much use. Winston gains health up to 1000 and goes on a rampage, only using melee attacks for the ult's duration. Issues I have with this ult are that you just can't do enough to be of much use most of the time. Your attacks don't do much damage and knock enemies out of range, meaning cliffs are your only hope of eliminating enemies. It's a good disruptor, but Winston does that well enough already, and he has less options in this ult. It requires a good team to back you up, something solo queue can lack. It's not a bad ult, per se, but it has too many annoyances for me to enjoy it more.

19. Tracer: Pulse Bomb

Wait, wait, WAIT. Put down the pitchforks, Tracer fans. Her ult is this low mainly because of how it interacts with her kit. Tracer is a backline harasser, and this ult fits well. She throws a sticky bomb out, which explodes after a short fuse. Issue is that the ult in a vaccum isn't very good. The bomb has such a short radius that it is unlikely to hit someone if you miss, and it usually only takes out one target. That said, it's not at the bottom because it does fit her kit quite well. The ability to blink in, take a single target out, and rewind away is quite useful, and the ult is a good addition to her kit. It's just not a good ult by itself.

18. Symmetra: Teleporter

This is an ult that provides great utility. In literally 1 scenario. Defending point A in capture point mode. A teleporter is useless at point B, and it's not quite as good on a moving payload. Basically, this ult is simple and tremendously useful when the time is right. Problem is, time's almost never right.

17. Roadhog: Whole Hog

The placement of this ult is really moreso based on my personal preferences here. Roadhog blasting enemies with a constant stream of shrapnel sounds cool, and yeah, it's effective, disruptive, and great at capping points. I just don't like using it much. I dunno, it's just not very satisfying to me. There's no big hit, just a lot of small ones that never feel substantial. Use this one to your heart's desire if you like. I'll stick to the ol' hook-shotgun combo.

16. D.Va: Self Destruct

Oh, D.Va. How.... meh you are. It shows in her ult as well. Blowing her mech up dealing massive damage all around can be quite effective indeed. The issue is how easily it can be avoided. All you have to do is hide behind a wall, any wall, and it is 100% negated. It is crazy easy to dodge this ult if you know what you're doing. The saving grace it has is that it will force enemies to scatter, something very helpful. But otherwise, it's very tricky to use.

15: Hanzo: Dragonstrike

"Ryū ga waga teki wo kurau!" is a battlecry feared by many. And it lives up to it's name... just not how people expect. It is not an ult you just throw out and kill enemies with, contrary to popular internet knowledge. It is instead more useful as a way to force enemies out, get them off a point. It's also quite useful if you can use it stealthily, aiming from a wall the enemy doesn't expect. Regardless, this ult doesn't like up to the potential the internet says it has, but it is still quite useful indeed.

14. Lúcio: Sound Barrier

Man, I wish this ult could be higher. I absolutely love playing Lúcio, and his ult is one of the best in the game for me. In a group. Here's the issue. Lúcio giving his team around him a sheild to push or defend points with has fantastic utility, great flexibility. If my team is coordinated there is almost no scenario where I don't want Lúcio backing us up. As those of you who solo queue know, coordination online is a rare beast. Often it's next to impossible to get your team to get near you to make this it truly effective. So just know that if that wasn't an issue this ult would be much, much higher.

13: Bastion: Configuration: Tank

Ahhh, Bastion. The salt powered robot has an ult that some consider underwhelming or just not as good. Me? Oh man, this ult's fun. I could go over how vulnerable Bastion can be, how this ult runs in opposition to his playstyle, yada yada. Letting out a battlecry of Tw-tweet Tw-eeeeeeeet and storming across the battlegrounds as a motherfreaking Tank never gets old. The fun factor is high in this one, and it's sure to be an ult I'll continue enjoying for a long time.

12. McCree: Deadeye

It's High Noon........

I swear, that is the single scariest sound in Overwatch. It's the right mix of menacing, threatening, and the ult is as deadly as it sounds. This ult isn't as infallible as some will say, with it actually requiring a good amount of skill and timing to pull off effectively, and frankly I'm terrible at it. But oh man, a good McCree is terrifying if they use this ult right. Whether to just pick off a single target or to wipe a team, rest assured that if you're in the line of fire, it's all over.

11. Pharah: Barrage

Pharah's ult is an ult that once again is hard as heck to pull off. This time, however, I'm not completely terrible at using it! Pharah lays down some JUSTICE and as the name implies, barrages her enemies with rockets. This ult causes serious damage, and thanks to Pharah's incredible mobility she can hit you from almost anywhere. And that's also it's main weakness. If you use this ult in the wrong spot, you're a stationary target in midair and you're toast. I like this ult quite a bit because it's impossible to mindlessly pop off and use effectively. You have to think, wait, and strike at the right moment. A good mix of power and skill.

10: Reinhardt: Earthshatter

The German tank comes smashing into the top 10, and with good reason. This ult is simple, yet so, so effective. Reinhardt smashes his hammer down and knocks down all enemies in front of him. Those enemies are now yours to gleefully beat down on and destroy. Not much else to it. Simple, fast, effective, deadly. Now if only I could get my teammates to actually get behind my shield...

9. Torbjörn: Molten Core

Honestly, I swear Torbjörn shouting “Molten Corrrreeeee” is more effective than the actual ult itself. What this ult provides more than anything else is area control. No way enemies are gonna walk into a level 3 turret, and this lets you zone and control the paths of your foes, an often underrated aspect of competitive games. Torbjörn also powers up and becomes an effective disruptor, with a rapid fire gun and massive amounts of armor. This ult just provides so much all around utility, and is a great addition to the Swedish engineer's kit.

8. Reaper: Death Blossom

Ah, the good ol' blossom of death. Teleport in, press Q, and watch the bodies drop. Nah, it's not quite that simple. Death Blossom, if played well, is in my opinion the single best method to wipe a team completely and utterly. If you couldn't tell, I'm a fan of ults that require plenty of skill to use well. A bad Reaper will walk in and ult. A good reaper will teleport to the left, wait for enemies to clump, then jump down from a roof and ult them. That is what makes an ult interesting and fun to pull off.

7. Junkrat: RIP-Tire

Besides being an excellent pun, RIP-Tire is an ult to be feared. A rolling, lethal bomb, if you hear “FIRE IN THE HOLE” it's good cause for panic. And once again, you can't just mindlessly let it rip. It can be destroyed, so careful positioning is required. And besides all that, it's just so much fun. An effective clearer, killer, and all out powerful move to be sure.

6. Soldier 76: Tactical Visor

Aren't aimbots great? As long as it's a game mechanic. The Tactical Visor ensures every single shot you fire will find its mark, and it can be quite deadly. But often what it's more useful for is that if forces enemies to take cover lest you mow them down. It either gives you many kills OR helps your team push forward. I can't turn down an ult that useful.

5. Mei: Blizzard

Well, now Blizzard's just stroking their own ego, naming an ult after themselves. But in all seriousness, this is one of the few ults I am flat out scared of. I know that if I'm caught in it, that's basically it for me. It not only provides a great offensive tool, it can also block entrances and zone enemies out. It's probably the ult that has the most varied use in the game, and only further cements Mei's reputation as a troll of epic proportions.

4. Genji: Dragonblade

Everyone's favourite overplayed cyborg ninja comes slashing in with my favourite ult of the offensive characters. Genji drawing his dragonblade and going to town is quite a striking image, but there's more to it than mindless slashing. What makes this ult effective is that Genji still has access to his reflect and dash while using it. That means he can still defend himself and has access to great mobility. Used well, a good Genji can and will destroy with this ability. Not much else to say.

3. Zarya: Graviton Surge

My favourite tank and character comes in with my favourite tank ult. “Fire at will” is an excellent way to describe this ability, because that's exactly what one needs do. What I love most is that it works great even in a crazy disorganized team of random players. You fire it off and the team basically gets a big “SHOOT HERE” sign. Disruptive, effective, and easy teamwork. What more could you ask for?

2. Widowmaker: Infra-Sight

I have never once been in a situation where this ult is not useful to EVERYONE. A wall hack on a lower charge time that everyone gets? Yes please. Rushing the point? Pop it and make sure enemies aren't hiding. Defending? Pop it and check for flanks. Just died? Pop it, and your team gets a buff from halfway across the map. This ult is fantastic.

1. Mercy: Resurrect

No other ult could possibly get this spot. Reviving dead teammates is immensely useful, and truly what can help your team going. Completely negating everything the enemy team just threw at you is in my opinion the single best ability you could ask for. It keeps rushes, defences, flanks, alive and kicking. It keeps your team going, and momentum is the single most important thing to maintain here. Heros never die, indeed.

So, did you agree? Of course you didn't. Shout at me in the comments about how wrong I am if you'd like, and I hope you enjoyed this. Have a nice day, and thanks for reading.