Things You Should Avoid Doing In Overwatch

Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch offers players the chance to meld the action of first-person shooters with the strategy found in MOBAs like League of Legends or Dota 2. With so many heroes available to play, you're going to want to sample each one and take them onto the battlefield. But before you go stomping around in a Primal Rage as Winston or telling everyone, "It's high noon!" as a McCree, here are a few things you should avoid doing, in order to help your team achieve victory.

We know it's tempting to go "lone wolf" and show everyone what a superstar you are, but try to fight that urge in Overwatch. It's a team-based shooter for a reason, so go find a game with a Free-for-All mode if you're trying to Rambo it up. Overextending yourself, no matter what hero you are, tends to just get you killed, leaving your teammates with one less asset in a team-fight. Your absence could mean the difference between capturing a point, or bringing down a powerful opponent who's just popped an Ultimate. Sure, you might look cool taking out the enemy Roadhog with your Ultimate, but your teammates won't be impressed if they're left all by their lonesome, to fight off more players than they can handle.

There are times when camping in first-person shooters is appropriate, but we'd urge you to avoid doing it in Overwatch unless you're well-protected. Yes, setting up Bastion as a turret near an objective can be fun the first few times your opponents try to rush the point, but they'll ultimately switch to heroes who can make short work of the plucky little robot. It's just a simple rule, really: "If your enemies know where you are, don't be there." Besides, you'll be even more annoying to the other team if you keep changing positions, screwing up their plans, and raining death on them from an unknown location. It keeps things fun, you know?

We know how incredible it is to get the spotlight at the end of a match and get the "Play of the Game" replay that highlights your awesomeness, but you shouldn't play the game just to get it. If you're obsessed with trying to rack up kills and line up an Ultimate that will take down the entire team, then you're not worrying about the objective. When you don't worry about the objective, that's when the entire enemy team overruns your defenses and takes control of it. Getting that replay at the end is sweet, but it could cost your team the victory, and instead of being showered with praise and awe, you'll likely get buried in insults and salt.

We know you fight hard out there, taking down D.Va and Reaper players left and right, but do you know who works just as hard behind the scenes? Your support teammembers! Not enough love is given to players who take on the roles of Mercy, Zenyatta, Lucio, Symmetra, and Ana — characters who make sure your health is topped off, your shields are up, and that you're buffed up enough to take down several enemies at once. Support could even get you that Play of the Game you so desperately want, so it's a no-brainer to want to protect them, right? Leaving your support to fend for themselves and die quickly at the hands of enemy heroes is a good way to make sure your team loses. Be sure to escort a support character, and help them help you!

As you play through a game and perform your hero's role well, you'll build up your Ultimate gauge. Once it gets full, you'll have access to your Ultimate ability: a powerful skill that could turn the tide of battle into a tsunami that you can ride to victory. With that said, you shouldn't hang onto it hoping to use it at just right time, because chances are you'll waste it that way. We're not telling you to pop your Ult as soon as you get it, either, but be smart in how you use it. Try to time it for when it'll be most effective, like when trying to capture a point or survive a team fight. Plus, since your gauge refills on its own over time, you can keep playing well to get yet more Ults under your belt.

It might be tempting to stack heroes (which is filling a team with the same kind of hero), but it probably won't be effective in battle. There's a reason why the game warns you if you have too many tanks, supports, defensive, or offensive heroes, and that reason is called "balance." While it's funny to think about a bunch of Winstons jumping around in a Primal Rage and making opponents catch all their gorilla hands, chances are that they'll go down easily against a team with a solid composition. With that said, we do encourage you to try it every once in a while, just for the "lulz," but we don't recommend it otherwise.

Perhaps the biggest mistake anyone can make is queuing for Competitive Mode by themselves. More often than not, you and your team will get steamrolled if you solo-queue. It's called "Competitive Mode" for a reason, so you better believe that players will be bringing their A-games and will probably be partied up with at least one friend. Being partied up and communicating well can mean all the difference between sweet victory and crushing defeat in a team-based game like Overwatch, so make sure you bring a buddy. This way, you'll be able to coordinate with each other and issue alerts about dangerous enemies, or whether or not an objective needs to be protected ASAP. There's strength in numbers, so make sure that you squad up when playing Overwatch, or else it'll be "man down" super-quick.