OW Meta Discussion

I was asking enigma some questions about the current meta privately, and asked me to post them here so he and others could answer them publicly, helping everyone out in the process. We can then use this as a general meta discussion as well, going over all of the current strategies and setups used in competitive play.

Here are some of the questions that I had originally asked. I will post more as I think of them, and of course I encourage everyone else to post to help get a discussion going.

1. What is the generally/most used 6 man setup? 3 dps, 2 support, reinhardt?
-How does this change on attack vs defense?

2. Which DPS heroes are most commonly used?

3. Is lucio always used, no matter the map or situation?

4. Is lucio-zenyatta the most common and or best support setup?
-If so, in which scenario would you use mercy rather than zenyatta?
-Symmetra?

5. Is reinhardt the tank primarily used/always used? Which others are seen in the current meta?

6. Do teams ever run two of the same heroes?
-If so, which ones do you most commonly see, and in what situations?

7. Do you generally wait for a good portion of your team members to have their ults before pushing, or just use them as members of your team get them to try and gain smaller advantages in team fights, attempting to get the jump on the other team before they can get their ults?

Obviously some of these things change quite frequently, but we can keep this as an ongoing discussion.

also, i see double winston is a thing now. annoying as shit lol

My thoughts - based on watching some games (Haven't played any comp yet) and just some general thinking.

1. I think you generally use more tank(s) on offence for more meat to take ground 'easier'. Reinhardt is almost staple because you just provide a wall for your team and just slowly take ground, + his huge cc ult sets up a lot of things. (Note: not 'always' the case, just a somewhat general guideline).

2. Seems pretty mixed depending on what tourneys we've been watching. Genji, McCree, reaper probably get the most play, splash a bit of soldier and to a lesser extent pharah in there.

3. Lucio is in a really strong place rn. I don't think I see him never being used without some changes. AoE heals that can be huge on demand (12 sec cd mind u), swaps to speed boost for a quick push

4. Lucio has the aoe heals covered, while zen dishes out long range damage, debuffs someone annoying on their team to keep track of them/swaps to priority heroes (doubt this happens too often - not required really) and has a flanker or frontline with a permanent heal. Mercy I can see using if you have a much more static defence, perhaps with a widow or a pharah spamming (could be useful for spamming down shields a bit easier with a dmg boost, but zen's kit is just too good imo), but I can't see those two dps being used too much AT THE MOMENT.

Symmetra I see working less and less the further u get pushed back to ur base - she's pretty useless on offence IMO because you start spawning closer and closer to the point anywho. Teleporter loses value on defence the further you get pushed back, plus her weapons are p rubbish in fights and the shield isn't that great. Better off with another anything almost

5. See point 1. Winston sees a lot of play due to high mobility, big aoe shield and his ult causes huge disruption and essentially a 2nd life. Zarya is played a fair bit here and there I think (maybe not too much atm), but she's more an "offtank"+ utility than tank

6. 2x winstons, 2x reapers, 2x lucios are pretty common atm. Defence and offence - lots of in your face fighting.

7. I think this is too situational to call (at least for me). I think for offence they can generally just keep pushing without ults to force enemy ults and don't really get punished for it.

This is just what I've observed in the past week -- the meta's rapidly changing so what you'll see next week could very likely be different.

What is the generally/most used 6 man setup? 3 dps, 2 support, reinhardt? How does this change on attack vs defense?

I've never seen a team run with more or less than two supports, but every team's experimented with both triple DPS and 2 tank 2 DPS on both offense and defense.

Which DPS heroes are most commonly used?

Every "offensive" hero sees a fair amount of use with the exception of Tracer. Reaper's definitely one of the most popular picks though at the moment.

Is lucio always used, no matter the map or situation?

Yep. Lucio's an extremely strong support. He:

• puts out a ton of DPS,
• has engage/disengage,
• has passive/active healing,
• has a multi-purpose ult
• most durable support by far
• has the highest skill cap of any support by far

Is lucio-zenyatta the most common and or best support setup? If so, in which scenario would you use mercy rather than zenyatta? Symmetra?

It was a common pairing in the tournament today, but "best" is a term that's impossible to apply in this context.

Mercy's value over another support is almost entirely in her ult (res), and on payload maps it's less about the specific situation (most of the time) than it is how the team wants to approach fights in general. With a Mercy on your team you want to fight, blow as many enemy ults as you can, die together, and hopefully get good res off. This is a lot harder to do now though because Mercy's res range was nerfed (40 -> 15 yards) and the ability to fly to teammate's dead bodies was also removed.

Symmetra's viable on the defense of the first point, but I don't see her being very useful past that.

Is reinhardt the tank primarily used/always used? Which others are seen in the current meta?

Reinhardt isn't used nearly as much as he was before (always), but is definitely still played. The tournament today showcased the power of double Wistons with double shields. Zarya's seen a decent amount, Roadhog's played on occasion, but D.VA is notably absent in teams' lineups.

Do teams ever run two of the same heroes? If so, which ones do you most commonly see, and in what situations?

Double Lucio used to be one of the few cases, but double Reaper and double Winston was very popular today.

Double Lucio is generally never a bad pick just because of the strength of the hero.

Double Wiston and/or double Reaper has an insane amount of in-your-face fighting potential that can't be ignored. It doesn't seem like any team has come up with an answer yet without more-or-less mirroring the lineup.

Do you generally wait for a good portion of your team members to have their ults before pushing, or just use them as members of your team get them to try and gain smaller advantages in team fights, attempting to get the jump on the other team before they can get their ults?

This is a question that I can't really answer with other than "it depends" -- the right answer in one situation may be the wrong one in another.