Part 9: Back to Business and Dive Incoming
Image Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Bastion mercifully getting the nerf he deserved sent our robotic friend tumbling back down the ranks. The meta went back to business as usual, with teams experimenting and nobody really coming across a thoroughly dominant playstyle. Triple Tank, standard 2/2/2, and even triple DPS all saw some play in the coming weeks. Every tank was largely considered viable… except for the newly introduced Orisa. The protecting robot didn’t fit into the fast-paced, mobile metagame at all.
A true resurgence of Pharmercy was the only thing that truly changed during this period of time. The continued dominance of Soldier: 76 made many teams initially hesitant to test out the old standby of Pharmercy, but Pharah turned out to be an exceptional choice on certain points that had places for her to duck and hide. Triple Tank was still relatively common as well. With proper support, Pharah could absolutely feast on these teams. Not to mention the fact that Team Resurrection was a looming threat over all of this, although giving up on the utility from characters like Ana gave made the call tough (because, again, Lucio was all but required).
Dive Incoming
As the weeks went on, dive began to pick up in usage. Tracer became the most popular DPS hero and Winston the most popular tank. Buffs to Mercy and nerfs to Ana hit, which led to a comparative drop in Ana’s usage. Meanwhile, Pharmercy was still on the rise. Soldier was being played less and less thanks to the metagame achieving a level of verticality that he struggled to keep up with.
A change to Lucio made him even more mobile while nerfing his auras, which further egged dive into the limelight. Now D.Va was showing up as well, thanks to her Defensive Matrix making it very easy to approach. In addition, bulkier team compositions were still viable, as all tanks except the scorned Orisa had good usage. Pharmercy began to fall off a bit as teams adopted the “ignore her and just GO” strategy. Heroes like Genji and Soldier stayed good. 2/2/2 dive was beginning to take shape.
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