Overwatch

Soundquake is really just a name at this point. That name could be applied to a new hero with a sonic-based kit, and if there isn't a good place in his or her kit for "like chest missles" as Timmy said in the announcement trailer, then they could just write it into the character's backstory as something Soundquake used in the past but has since abandoned.

As for Junkertown, I'm very interested in seeing more about the Queen of Junkertown. My guess is that Athena will be swapped out for the queen in the announcement video.

x7: Amongst skilled D.Va players, the thing is to basically time DM instead of leaving it up constantly. Even with the cooldown, you can basically hold it against characters like Pharah, Tracer or Roadhog (who have gaps in between their attacks about the same or longer than DM's cooldown) for far longer than the maximum time (I've seen someone keep a Tracer busy for 10 seconds). So it'll make it harder to use, but it's still going to be pretty viable.

You can actually shut down a lot of heroes that way, so it's dominating the metagame, which is why it's being nerfed (in the current meta D.Va's basically a shut-down-everything-with-defence-matrix-while-being-very-boring-to-play bot) and he attack's being buffed to compensate.

Ha Junkrat & Roadhog are so charming, that was a hilarious video.

Hope we get to see shit in Junkertown & meet the Queen.

So any bets as to who is getting the cinematic short this wednesday?

Either Lucio & Symmetra, Sombra & Zarya, or Dva solo.

@D.Va changes: Those sound nice. Hopefully they'll make her a lot more fun to play.

@Soundquake's missiles: There's plenty they could do to differentiate them from the rockets we have in-game. They could be homing, comically huge, or apply a status condition on hit, just to name a few possibilities.

If D.Va's getting a new skill, I'm going to think it's her who'll get a new short. Not to mention she would be one of the characters that is in dire need of cinematic and background exploration.

I would guess that if Lucio-Sym gets one, it's to commemorate the Utopaea map later down the line.

People have been guessing that Junkrat and Roadhog will get the short thanks to Junkertown but I honestly don't think they really need one.

I'm hoping for D.Va or Zarya vs. Sombra.

I feel like the short would align with a more official announcement of the update, if that were the case. I mean it's possible that we'll see an update announcement on wednesday, but it feel odd they'd leak it in a forum post so close to the moment if that were the case.

So they're finally making an air counter for Pharah in re-worked D.Va? Cool. I think the new skill makes up for losing a lot of the Defense Matrix since I play D.Va pretty aggressively anyway.

She's in much better shape than poor Roadhog.

I originally thought Junkrat and Roadhog was likely, but since the Junkertown announcement itself came with a short, I think the one being released on Wednesday will be something different.

edited 21st Aug '17 4:12:31 PM by Falrinn

I'm looking forward to playing on Junkertown and I liked the short that went along with it's reveal. More Junkrat and Roadhog is always a good thing in my book. Makes me wonder who will be in the cinematic short on Wednesday though.

So, the main problem with Roadhog right now is that people want to go back to playing him as an Offense instead of a Tank, because he's terrible at mitigating or blocking damage and people mostly just gain Ult charge off of his immense HP pool.

What if Ult charge from damage was based less on the number of damage done and more on the percent of health bar decreased? Not entirely, if it was entirely changed than Tracer would be the optimal Ult battery and Roadhog would give almost no Ult charge whatsoever. Just strike a balance between both the number of damage dealt and the percentage of health bar decreased as they charge your character's Ultimate.

"So any bets as to who is getting the cinematic short this wednesday?"

Someone on the official forums pointed out:

Last year at Gamescom, all the Overwatch badging featured Bastion and they premiered the Last Bastion short.

This year, all the Overwatch badging is Pharah. Ergo...maybe Pharah short?

I believe they'll be implementing a change to him in the next patch where he'll be able to move and take less damage while healing. It's not on the level of Reinhardt or Orisa, but it improves his overall survivability and encourages him to body-block more. Running with allies will also bring back up the danger of his hook, but make it less a matter of him just having an insta-kill. I doubt as many people will object to being killed after being pulled into two or three people, and if they are they're going to whine about him no matter what so best not to worry.

I just watched the short, myself. It was interesting how much more cartoony than usual the animation style was. It felt vaguely like an SFM film, to be honest.

The reason for that, I believe, is that the short was using in-game assets.

Aside from a more in depth preview of Junkertown and the animated short, what do we think the chances of their being another major announcement on Wednesday?

I'm still holding out for some sort of dedicated PvE mode.

I got both event Widowmaker skins in subsequent lootboxes.

And i got biker Reaper and Greifhardt in the same box. I feel lukcy.

I have all of the event skins. I am done. For now.

I got Biker Reaper, which is probably the event skin I cared least about... ah well.

They just showed a clip of Mercy on Jeopardy!.

Welp, no event skin. Especially not the Mercy skin. Such a pity. Better luck next time.

Why's that, then?

Someone on the development team said two vague, but interesting things: they are looking to change Mercy in some ways, and they have no shortage of ideas for future characters, specifically including support.