#and lets not talk about mercys healing output :)))

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Shauntal

After the Marshall grid, I admit to being really worried about Shauntal.  Maybe DeNA just doesn't respect the Unova E4 anymore?  Marshall's grid wasn't great, Shauntal never got anything, Caitlin got one alt that performed really well but they haven't given her anything since, and even Grimsley's been forgotten since the PokeWars.  Maybe they just didn't care, and were willing to let them slip.

General Overview Or maybe they just don't respect Marshall.  Rude.  Ah, that’s not entirely fair, I mildly undersold him, he was really useful against Regirock this run.

Shauntal's fantastic, and fantastic in a way that's legitimately fun.  For those unaware, Shauntal's trainer move grants speed +3, evasion +2, but burns her in response.  This has been the source of much consternation, as passive burn damage without Lessen meant she died earlier than you want.  Many predicted they'd just slap Flameproof on her and call it a day.  But I am so, so pleased to announce, that is not the case.  Gritty 5 and Lessen Burn 9.  A whopping 50% move damage multiplier for free, and the best reduction of that damage she can ask for.  She even got Ramming Speed, putting her at a whole 80% damage boost on Shadow Ball, which also now packs On a Roll 2 for a 60% chance to drop special defense.  Having used Shauntal pre-grid, I can vouch for her damage as already being pretty good.  Now it's insane.

To make matters even more interesting, Shauntal got four sync power tiles, and Brain Sync 5.  It's not quite Kahili tier power, but it's not bad. So when/if she gets EX, she's another in that camp of "going to provide serious competition."  That said, of the two options, I much prefer her DPS build.  On a Roll 2 is beautiful, and a whole 80% bonus damage is spectacular.  Realistically, all she needs is gradual healing and she's effectively without drawback.  Well...except for the part where she's effectively at the mercy of a special attack/crit buffer.  That's never great.  She does have Critical Eye on her trainer move, but that’s a lot more time spent setting up then you realistically want.

Team 1: Shauntal, SC Lillie/SC Jasmine, Lucian Lucian's Growl utility is ideal for Shauntal, rapidly boosting her damage, and providing speed buffs that allow her to only use trainer move once.  SC Lillie is the ideal support partner, providing all the needed offensive stats while kicking off matching Ghost-type theme skills.  However, both she and SC Jasmine offer something critical to Shauntal: consistent recovery per action to offset the Burn damage.

Team 2: Shauntal, Sycamore, Erika This is, perhaps, an odd one, but hear me out.  Sycamore got Team Sharp Entry, and Shauntal can get Critical Eye on her trainer move.  Two uses of trainer move, then start throwing out Shadow Ball at the left side.   With Erika having similar potential special defense debuffs, you should, in theory, be able to net some special defense drops on the left.  This leads to Sycamore's sync, doubling damage and capping offensive needs, and granting Shauntal that full 80% multiplier.  Denial of left, then focus where you need.

Team 3: Shauntal, SS Kris, Renegade Cynthia Alright enough of this, let's talk business.  You wanna just punch a hole through the world?  SS Kris provides offensive buffs as needed, but most importantly, stacks of special moves up next.  Renegade Cynthia provides Ghost Zone for maximum damage output.  Between all that and her natural 80% multiplier, Shauntal is going to throw around respectable damage numbers.

Team 4: Shauntal, H!Allister, Pryce Anti-Uxie. I did it before, I can do it again.  The only hesitation is that I did it before without burns, and I'm a little concerned it would tip the scales into her dying.  But, 80% more damage also should mean actually denying its sync, so maybe it's possible.  Pryce is there because you need a filler team member to access sync in time, but it can be whoever.  Bring a Potion user if needed.

Final Thoughts I really like Shauntal.  I think her design's fun, and her concept is great, and Unovan Ghost-types rule so I just liked her fight a lot.  I'm kinda hoping she gets her own Sygna Suit one day with Cofagrigus.  So I was really worried about how she'd do in the grid war.  I'm really glad to know they let her be fantastic. This...really is great.  I love this grid.

#unit teambuilding #shauntal #common grid war

[talizorah]

What changes are you most unhappy with?

bro every single healer nerf in the past four years! they just keep nerfing the healers again and again and again and again

#most recently the baptiste nerf #but poor famous dps players felt like he was frustrating to play against #and BRIG! #she went from one of the most fun heroes to play to being practically useless #and lets not talk about mercys healing output :))) #or the fact that they nerfed ana ...... who was perfectly fine #OR the fact that ovw twitter keeps whining about how moira isnt ‘skill-based’ enough #‘shes too easy to play!!!!’ well ok we just gonna ignore the fact that new players exist huh #yall wanna gatekeep a fucking video game?????? #yeah im done i think

[liamiya]

i love my jjk insert so much 🥲

SO! he’s a good boy! he’s a nice good boy!! he has green hair cuz i want green hair but no access to good dye ToT and brown eyes likes me! he also has glasses like mine, but wears contacts for missions so he doesn’t have to worry about them!!

his technique is actually kinda complicated so get settled: i call it judgement. it’s a shikigami technique, and it channels through his tattoos! the dragon tattoo on his right arm is named justice: when he calls her name, she comes out of the tattoo! the more cursed energy he pours into her, the bigger she is and the more damage she does! except justice doesn’t do damage, she judges a person solely on their character, and if they’re a good person, she’ll help and heal them, but if they’re a bad person, she’ll just leave them alone (but she can stop cursed spirits from regenerating!). the dragon tattoo on her left arm is redemption, and she does the damage. she’s incredibly vicious towards people with bad character, and incredibly affectionate to people with good character!! if dexter passes out or falls asleep, they’ll both be pulled back into the tattoos. whenever any of the dragons gets pulled back into their tattoo, any damage they took gets mirrored onto dexter. if they ‘die,’ they’ll be forced back into the tattoos, and it has the chance to put dexter into a coma. those usually last 2-4 days.

there’s only one more dragon, on dexter’s back: mercy. mercy is... tough to deal with. dexter tries to keep justice and redemption out in small forms as much as he can, so he gets used to the constant output and he’s always ready to fight. he tried to do so with mercy at first, but he got aggressive quickly. mercy doesn’t judge on character, mercy judges on what moves. the first time, he took a chunk out of justice’s back before dexter could stop him. the chunk never went away, and wasn’t mirrored on dexter, which leads him to believe that the dragons can hurt each other permanently. because of this, he never uses mercy. if he does, his options are to not let mercy get hurt, take the damage on himself, or possibly let justice and redemption die for good. mercy is a last resort: not like fushiguro’s elephant, more like sukuna. he will literally never use mercy unless it’s a life-or-death situation.

dexter’s parents are dead 💀 but he has a little brother! his baby bro can’t see curses, and dexter can’t really live with him, he has to stay at the college, so his younger brother stays with a foster family and dexter visits and makes sure they’re treating him well whenever he can.

honestly i haven’t really though ab his preferences much? obviously he dumps for everyone around him like me, but like who would he actually be with? idk

istg if todo asks dex what his type is dex is that bitch that’ll go “tall guys who would spit in my mouth” half because it’s true and half because it makes everyone else uncomfortable (yes i am talking about myself fuck off /j)

anyway. my boy. my baby. i love him. now tell me an yourrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs

me: BRO HE B LOOKING LIKE A CHARACTER THAT I DONT REMEMBER THE NAME RN BUT TRUST ME ITS SO COOL

I love dragons, so i REALLY liked the power!! i think that the addition (lets pretend i didnt rewrite this word 5 times) of mercy can lead to so much drama, so i love it, we all love it

ALSO HE IS SUCH A BAD BITCH THO, I MEAN, THE SMOL BRO ALREADY MEANS BAD BITCH ENERGY CUZ ALL OLDER SIBLINGS R BAD BITCHES, AND THE RESPONSE TO TODO LMAO AKLJKLJASJKLASKJDKLSA honestly i cant judge him AND i would even add a "my type is you if you spit in my mouth" cuz then it would b so much more uncomfortable and strange for everyone

imma just go pick up my sis at school and when i come back imma slide in ur inbox with my self-insert!!! (prepare for a lot of stuff cuz god....... i wrote so much stuff for her)

#submission #THANK U FOR SHARING BTW #IT MAKES ME RLLY HAPPY #AND UR SELF INSERT IS SO INTERESTING BRO #I THINK HE WOULD B A GOOD CHARACTER IN THE JJK WORLD #also he would b a great duo with megumi

[novaeagle]

Death has graced you with his presence

I can’t photoshop the Trust Picture but I really wanted to make one of these ;-;

Selection: “Let our enemies tremble at our footsteps.”

Casimir is a very aggressive, but wise Tank. He is fiercely protective of the Healer, and trusts the DPS to do the Mechanics of a boss fight he can’t do while he clears a path for them. 

Weapons: Shivas Diamond Breaker

Passives: Casimirs Tank stance is called “God-like Aura”, and can sometimes be seen when doing big pulls as a small aura of ice around him. “VoidStalker” is a passive buff to allies damage when fighting Voidsent beings by 25%, and a buff of 10% when dealing with other Aetherical enemies like Lightwardens or magically created beasts. “True Memory” gives the party a shield negating 25% of all damage for 30 seconds when an ally goes down and stacks for multiple deaths. 

AI Behavior: 

Casimir will always ensure his party is ready to go, and focuses on keeping his healer alive. If the Healer is a PC, Casimir will start out pulling slow, but will gradually pull bigger and bigger as the dungeon progresses. If the Healer is Urianger or the Exarch, Casimir will pull as big as he can, trusting the two to keep up. When pulling into a boss fight, Casimir always keeps an eye on the Healer, and will only pull when their MP is at full capacity. While idle, he’ll either cross his arms and stare at the next ad/boss, or pull out his icicle blade and lean on it. Once the Healers MP is full, he’ll glance at them once then attack. 

If during a big pull, he begins loosing agro to the Healer or the DPS, he’ll immediately disengage whichever enemy he was attacking and launch Unmend at the target. He uses GCD AOE attacks a lot at the start of big pulls, and will usually cast a few Quietus attacks to ensure max AOE Damage output and Agro gain. He will then focus on the ad doing the most damage, Reprising it and beginning to attack it. He’s very aggressive, and very risky, staying within AOE’s and shielding himself with Dark Mind to negate the damage and receive the Blood Weapon buff.

Casimirs Souleater Combo is replaced with a four-hit sword skill combo. The first being a cone slash attack, the second places a Vulnerability on the single target until the end of the combo, the third regens MP and the fourth regens HP. The attacks are also very showy, usually being wielded as if the blade weighed less than usual with lots of stabs and feints. His drawn weapon running style is also different, he holds it backwards down by his side, almost akin to how a Samurai has his Katana. 

Casimirs has multiple different Shades, but is only able to call them out at certain times and only one at a time. “Compassion” takes the form of an Au ra female, and is called out near the beginning of Dungeons and with medium pulls and most bosses. Casimirs AI is very friendly to this Shade, sometimes seen blowing it kisses if it is still out after a fight. “Ferocity” takes the form of a female Miqo’te, and is called out when fighting sea based ads or sea based dungeons. “Ferocity” can also appear when fighting Voidsent beings, and Casimirs attitude towards it is almost fatherly, shouting words of encouragement and waving to it after a fight. “Intimidation” takes the form of a Giant Highlander, and is taken out in desperate situations. “Intimidation” can only be summoned when “True Memory” is active, and lasts for about a minute.  This Shade is different from the rest as it follows Casimir around, staying by his side and attacking the ad that is doing second most damage to him, and even taking hits for him as well. No other Shade is able to take hits or Agro from Casimir except “Intimidation”. “Desperation” is very rare, and takes the form of a tall, skinny Elezen. This Shade will follow the Healer around, and gives a buff to its Healing abilities and MP regeneration. “Desperation” is summoned usually after “Intimidation”, and can only be summoned if it is Casimir and the Healer. If Casimir goes down while “Desperation” is summoned, he is instantly Revived next to the Shade with no debuffs and full health. After reviving Casimir, “Desperation” will immediately leave. 

Casimir uses his Shields and Cooldowns wisely, casting Dark Mind as much as he can during pulls, and waiting for a Tank Buster with Bosses. Reprisal is also used as much as possible in big pulls, and only before a room wide attack or Tank Buster with Bosses. Casimir will also almost never cast LB, and will usually call out to a Melee DPS to cast the LB. 

Battle Lines:

“You are weak!” -Usually said when casting Reprisal, or when facing against Voidsent beings. 

“Life is pain, consider this my only mercy” -Usually said after killing an enemy. 

“Had me worried there for a second, Doc!”/”You never cease to amaze me with your healing skills...” -Said when his health drops below 10K during a fight, and he doesn’t have to pop Living Dead. 

“I DIE ONLY WHEN THE GODS WILL IT!” -Yelled when he casts Living Dead. 

“Why are you running? WHY are you RUNNING?!” / “GET BACK HERE!” / “Don’t touch them!” / I am your ONLY enemy here, not them!” -Said when chasing down an enemy that he’s lost agro to. 

Death: 

“Valhalla awaits me....”

“Father... were you proud of me?....”

“Finally... I can rest...”

Revival:

“Ah... back again I see.”

“The Light lives in ALL things...”

“DAMNIT! Again?!”

“Forgive me my love, I was careless.” -Said when revived by “Desperation”.

Ally Death:

“YOU’LL PAY FOR THAT!!”

“Forgive me friend... I was not able to protect you...”

“NO! I won’t loose anyone else!” 

“I am... Desperate...” / “I won’t let them hurt you!”-Summoning “Desperation”.

LB: 

“You will not hurt my friends!” -All LB.

Victory:

“Let them hear this in Valhalla, and rejoice in the sacrifice we have given!”

“Damn... not a bad start to your Cairn, eh?” / “Haha! A glorious fight and a glorious fighter by my side to share it with!” -To PC DPS.

“We couldn’t have done it without you!” / “I won’t forget what you’ve done for me.” -To PC Healer

“Let the Bards sing our names in praise, and our enemies wail our names with fear!”

“You think the Tavern will give us free drinks for this?...”

Others:

Casimir is very friendly towards most of the Scions. If Y’Shtola is with him, he will flirt with her a lot during fights, and compliment her clothes or hair at the beginning of the dungeon. During lulls in the battle, he’ll also throw out some corny pickup lines about battle. Casimir will talk to Y’Shtola the most out of all the others. If Alisaie or Alphinaud is with him, he will call out encouragement, and compliment them after fights. With Alisaie he throws out lots of uplifting statements, usually saying he’s glad to have her with him, or that he couldn’t think of any other Red Mage he’d rather have by his side. With Alphiaud, he does much the same, but in a teasing manner, usually along the lines of a Politician or Scholar knowing how to fight. With Ryne he’s fatherly as well, but mentions Thancred in a good light a lot and stating how he had taught her well. Urianger gets a lot of Star related jokes, and before the start Casimir will usually ask him how the stars align for this dungeon. There’s a rare death voice line where he asks Urianger to create a new constellation of him. The Exarch gets flirted with a lot, but most of it is teasing... or so the Exarch hopes. Before battles, Casimir will pose before the Exarch, or blow him kisses and laugh. 

#TRUST MEME #Casimir Moreau #CASIMIR #FFXIV OC #FFXIV RP #FINAL FANTASY XIV ROLEPLAY #FINAL FANTASY XIV OC #FINAL FANTASY ROLEPLAY #final fantasy oc #FFXIV DRK #FFXIV TRUST #TRUST

[burningfestivalpersona]

Rune Factory 3 Bachelorettes (Plus Micah!) as Etrian Odyssey Classes... or, at least, My Best Attempt

Micah: Honestly, there’s a lot of options. Among other things, because the player can make him do whatever they want. However, thematically speaking, Farmer would fit for fairly obvious reasons, and is even available in Nexus.

Of course, if you’d rather play into the whole half monster thing, Rover and Wildling are both classes that focus on summoning animals.

Alternatively, if you like transformations and don’t care about canon whatsoever... Fafnir. Definitely Fafnir.

Shara: Botanist from EOV. It’s a support class that’s focused on healing, lorewise, with the use of various plants. Given that one of the easiest thing to remember about Shara is ‘flowers,’ it seems like a pretty good fit.

The Botanist can choose to specialize as either a Merciful Healer that continues to learn healing, or a Graced Poisoner that prefers to inflict status effects. Of the two, Graced Poisoner actually seems like the better option, purely because of the sort of things she tries to make Micah eat if you marry her. No! I don’t want your Ironleaf! Stop trying to kill me!

Raven: Sadly, classes that can both heal and set things on fire are few and far between. A Zodiac with a fire-based build would work, however, especially if she is also subclassed as a Medic or equivalent class.

Alternatively, you could have her be a Rover with a Flying Falcon specialty, which can both shoot things and have a summoned hawk paralyze opponents, but that’s a long way to go for the sake of a joke.

Collette: Would probably be best suited towards being a War Magus, with opportunities for both high damage output and some basic support abilities. This has very little to do with the fact that she would look adorable in those hats, really!

Marian: ...Hexer. Definitely. It’s the original class to specialize in inflicting binds and ailments, more than a little squishy, and more than a little creepy. Can break at least one game with the right build. Can control opponents to turn them against each other. Doesn’t have to dose them with tea beforehand.

...Actually, class her as something else. The way things are, she’s too powerful.

Sofia: ...Sofia, are you going to talk straight long enough for me to give you a class? ...Didn’t think so. I’ll just... put you down as a Sovereign for the whole rich girl thing and move on, then.

Kuruna: Probably one of the elemental magic classes. They all do exactly the same thing, more or less, but EOV’s default Celestrians look vaguely similar to her and Ondorus, and Warlock is a Celestrian class by default, so... Warlock, with Zodiac from EOIII and Nexus coming in at a close second for reasons of fashion.

Carmen: Buccaneer. This is entirely lore-based, but it’s also definitely something she could do if she ever put her mind to it. If more of these people were sane, they would be terrifying.

Pia: Pia, I’m sorry, there is no mermaid class. You could, however, be a Gunner that invests everything in ice attacks and Medic Bullet?

...Yeah, I thought you’d like that.

Sakuya: Instead of the main series, Sakuya is best suited a class from the Etrian Mystery Dungeon spinoff- the Wanderer class.

This class focuses mainly on traversing and surviving the dungeon- gathering materials, digging through walls, and walking on water are all available to this class. In addition, Wanderers posses many varied attacking skills, which specialize in doing damage to one particular kind of opponent.

In the main series... she’d probably be a Ninja. Shino wouldn’t let her leave the house otherwise.

Daria: Daria’s particular form of insanity is one that is very hard to put into words, much like the rest of Sharance. However, the original Troubadour is the only class I can think of off the top of my head that focuses on artistic expression, so let’s go with that. She can match Meg!

#video games #etrian odyssey #rune factory 3 #themed guilds #there is something very wrong with sharance #they're all crazy

[nitewrighter]

Gency Week Day 6

Forget-Me-Not

A little late but here’s some Genji and Mercy reminiscing with photos!!!

----

Genji stood in the doorway of the apartment--their apartment--well, it was about to be their apartment, before, it had just been her apartment, but now with Genji staying over practically every night, they figured they might as well make things official. 

“...You have to have more than that,” said Mercy, putting her hands on her hips.

“I... lived with monks and was raised by ninjas,” said Genji with a shrug as he adjusted the duffel on his shoulder. There was a single box in his arms with some of his things as well. A handful of the things in the box were just things he had picked up since answering the recall and coming to the Watchpoint. There were some wooden frames of his disassembled sword stand sticking out of the box, but not much else.

“I mean, I knew you were always a bit of a minimalist, but...” Mercy trailed off.

“You’re minimalist too,” said Genji.

“I... I decorate! I have my relief tchotchkes!” said Mercy.

“I love that you travel and save lives all over the world and people pour their heart outs to you and give you heartfelt gifts for your relief work and you just call them ‘Relief Tchotchkes.’” He craned his neck to look into her office, “Most of them are in one place though, anyway.”

“...I just... this is going to sound weird and obsessive, but if we’re both living here, I.... I want this place to feel... lived-in, you know?”

“Your office is definitely lived in,” said Genji, smugly.

“Har-har,” said Mercy, rolling her eyes.

“We could do the college dorm thing--hang up christmas lights, get some tacky movie posters...” Genji walked past her with a smile in his voice, “You like ‘They Came From Beyond the Moon,’ right?”

Mercy huffed and snickered. “...Pictures,” she said after a few beats.

“Mm?” said Genji.

“We should put up pictures--like, in frames.”

“Like an old couple?” said Genji. 

“Athena can make some high-quality prints--we have pictures of ourselves, right?”

Genji paused and put his box down on the table. “Do we?” he tilted his head.

----

“Agents--It’s been a while since you’ve made your way back to my primary terminal,” said Athena.

“Well you are everywhere, technically,” said Mercy.

“I do like having you take the time to come here, though,” said Athena.

“We like the big screen,” said Genji.

Athena giggled. “What can I help you with?”

“This is going to sound odd but, do you have pictures of us?” asked Mercy.

“Many Overwatch agents dump their photos into my data stores when they run out of storage on their own comms but won’t delete them. I can run a cursory facial scan?” Athena suggested.

“That would be wonderful, Athena, thank you,” said Mercy.

“Scanning,” said Athena, the screen blipped for a few seconds, “Excluding official and bodycam footage, I have 249 image results for Agents Shimada and Ziegler. I can filter it by photos containing both of you where you are among the center subjects?”

“That works.”

“Right. I have 45 photos from the ‘general’ folder of other agents, and 11 photos from a file recently dumped by Agent McCree titled, ‘Watchpoint Cryptids.’”

“...’Watchpoint Cryptids?’” repeated Mercy.

“I believe it’s a joke on how difficult it is to get a photo of either of you,” said Athena.

“Well.. scroll through what we have?” said Genji.

“Understood,” said Athena.

There were very few photos from Genji’s Blackwatch days--both for the obvious reason that Genji was in Blackwatch, and the fact that back then Genji didn’t like having his photo taken. Mercy looked frazzled and overworked in nearly every photo of the old days. There was the old lineup of Winston passing the physical for active agent duty with Tracer cheering next to him, but both Mercy and Genji were practically on opposite ends of the photo there. From there photos of both of them seemed to be taken more frequently, no doubt thanks to being put on a strike team with Tracer, who tended to take a lot of photos to deal with gaps in her memory from Chronal disassociation. 

There were a handful of group photos. There was a photo of the first time their strike team was all suited up---Genji seemed more confident in this photo than almost all the other previous photos combined with his new prosthetics. They agreed to frame that one. There was one photo of Mercy and Genji sleeping on each other’s shoulders on the orca with Tracer in the foreground holding a marker. Then there was a blurry bluish selfie of Tracer, still holding the marker, with Genji chasing her in the background with a crudely drawn mustache on his faceplate and Mercy chasing after him. There was a photo of Winston and Tracer victoriously holding up empanadas after the Havana mission (it would have been a nice photo to frame if it hadn’t caught Mercy mid-chew.) Then there was another selfie--apparently taken by Genji given the angle of his arm, taken within Mercy’s lab. Mercy had dark circles under her eyes and was dramatically posing at a petri dish.

“...I don’t remember that one,” said Mercy.

“You don’t remember that one? You were half-crazed from caffeine overdose and what must have been 30 hours without sleep. You had just cracked a new compound that would reduce the number of individual nanobots in the biotic tether without sacrificing healing output and you had me take this photo for posterity.”

“You remember that?” said Mercy.

“You passed out two minutes after this was taken,” said Genji, “I had to carry you back to your on-site apartment.”

Mercy reddened a little. “Oh...” she said quietly, “Sorry about that.”

“I didn’t mind. You’re carrying the team half the time, someone ought to return the favor now and again.”

Mercy smiled, then looked up at Athena’s screen. They scrolled through a few more---Reinhardt grinning with his arms wrapped around them both, easily dwarfing them.

“I like this one,” said Mercy, “I could see it framed.”

“I think he cracked a rib of mine when we took that,” said Genji.

“I healed you,” said Mercy, “Let’s frame it.” Genji just chuckled.

“What was the first one we ever took together?” said Mercy, scrolling back through the archives.

“This one’s from you, Agent Ziegler,” said Athena bringing up a photo of Mercy looking sweaty and frazzled in a sweatsuit with Genji’s arm strung over her shoulders. Genji had his very first prosthetics, rudimentary leg blades and a somewhat omnic-looking prosthetic arm. Genji’s face was covered by a surgical mask and several bandages. Both were giving a thumb’s up. It was clearly a clumsy selfie being taken by Mercy.

“...Your physical therapy,” said Mercy.

“I can’t believe I didn’t make you delete that,” said Genji.

“It was your first steps since the--since we met,” said Mercy.

“I was on so many painkillers...” muttered Genji.

“Oh you can tell,” said Mercy. She looked at Genji and smiled.

“What?” said Genji.

Mercy nodded her head at the photo on the screen.

“That one?” said Genji.

“It’s our first photo together!” said Mercy.

“I look like a disaster,” said Genji.

“We both look like disasters!” said Mercy and then she said, with deep ache in her voice, “It’s our first photo together!”

“’Greasy topknot and sweats’ is a very different disaster from ‘freshly tenderized pork loin wrapped in metal and bandages.’” 

“Genji...” Mercy squeezed his arm slightly. 

“...we’ll make one print, but that doesn’t mean we’re framing it,” said Genji, folding his arms. He gave a glance to Athena, “What about something more recent?” asked Genji.

“This one was... 5 months ago. In Nepal,” said Athena, bringing up a photo of Genji with Mercy next to him, Zenyatta on the other side, and several Shambali monks behind them. Genji’s mask was off and his scars were crinkling with his smile.

“Oh that one’s much nicer,” said Mercy, “We can frame that one.”

“It will be nice to have a piece of Nepal in our home,” said Genji with a slight smirk in his voice. 

“Our home,” Mercy repeated the words and looked at him. She couldn’t really place last time she called a place ‘home’ let alone said the word ‘our’ in front of it.

“And this one,” said Athena, bringing up a photo of just Mercy and Genji, also a selfie, being taken in front of one of many of Nepal’s mountainous vistas.

“That one’s beautiful...” said Mercy.

“That one’s my comm lockscreen,” said Genji.

Mercy snorted. “So we’re framing that one,” she said with a smile.

“I can live with framing that one,” said Genji. He started counting on his fingers, “So there’s the group photo with our strike team, the photo with Reinhardt, the physical therapy photo---which, we are not putting that one up in the living room---and the two pictures in Nepal. I’d say that’s plenty!”

“That’s only five,” said Mercy, folding her arms.

“Well... we’re going to take a lot more, and so many of these are just work-related. We should take pictures of us on dates, on vacations, pictures at parties, holidays, wedding photos--”

“Wedding photos?!” Mercy sputtered.

“...hypothetical wedding photos,” said Genji.

“You’re just moving in and now you’re talking about wedding photos,” said Mercy with a smirk. 

“Hypothetical wedding photos,” Genji said a bit more insistently, “What if we get married and I say, ‘Oh Angela, I want to put this picture of us at our wedding up, but then where will we put this photo of our Strike team eating empanadas?’”

Mercy snickered. “You’re thinking very far ahead.”

“I’m a ninja. We pride ourselves on being prepared,” said Genji.

Mercy just smiled and looked back at the screen. “I suppose home is a thing you build, then--we shouldn’t just push everything out there all at once...”

“Well, yes,” agreed Genji, “At the same time, looking at these photos... you’ve been home for me for a long time, Angela.”

Mercy blushed and tucked her hair back. “You’re home for me too,” she said quietly. There was a beat and then she elbowed him. “We are not putting the empanada picture up.”

“No we are not,” said Genji with a chuckle in his voice.

#gency #gency week

[1-1-s1ay-2-2]

The problem of me

It’s difficult for me to even begin explaining my personal problems and what I’m going through in my life right now. It’s not easy to talk about because there’s so much shit taking place at any given time. The opposite of ideal...that’s what seems to happen in my life.

I understand the laws of attraction and abundance. I know that I’m reaping from a lot of bad choices that I’ve made in my lifetime, and they’re slapping me hard in the face with no mercy for my mind.

It kinda feels like my mind took a midnight train going anywhere a long time ago.

It’s got me down in ways that leave me not knowing how to get back up. The circumstances of my life and surroundings, situations and relationships that are overwhelming and frustrating.

I’m focused on this positive attitude thing and trying my best to see life through those pretty rose colored glasses, glass half full, always a silver lining type thing, but ya know what...wow, it ain’t easy trying to change yourself. Trying to keep the output from matching the input.

Some people can be pretty rotten, and in effect, they have this amazing ability to make others feel pretty rotten, too. Everything you’re getting from outside of you, your childhood, relationships, people’s treatment of you — that’s input. Your mind processes it all. You are molded by the input.

Who you are becomes apparent in your output. It’s a psychological task making the output exactly what you want or need it to be — despite the chronic negative input. That would be if you had a traumatic or lonely childhood, repetitive bad relationships, people’s ill treatment towards you.

There’s a huge difference between positive and negative input. And the really shitty part about it is — you can’t control the input. The input comes at you whether you want it or not. Your task, as an individual, is processing the input without letting the input crash your system.

Cause when you crash...

It’s a perpetual cycle of spiraling downwards...and the only way to float upwards is by facing all the rotten things in your life, all the rotten people who done ya wrong, all the rotten things you did and said to others, even your own rottenness has to be faced before you can identify, let go of or change it, and decide for yourself that you are going to heal.

Identifying it for what it is. Deciding what you’re going to do about it, and doing it. It takes a lot of will power, determination, and dedication to see such a self-improvement project through to the end, but it is indeed possible.

#my deaf ears #deafinitelyhear #writing #personal #dealing with life

[paulinedorchester]

I can’t say that I really enjoyed Juliet Gardiner’s book Wartime: Britain 1939-1945, which I read a couple of years ago. Particularly coming right after Norman Longmate’s How We Lived Then, it left a sour taste in my mouth. (In a nutshell: Longmate, a veteran of the war, wrote a book about courage and sacrifice; Gardiner, born a few weeks after V-E Day, wrote one about fear and suffering.)

However, Gardiner does introduce the reader to several eyewitnesses to the war about whom I immediately wanted to know more, particularly an American expatriate who when the war broke out was living with her family in an apartment in St. John’s Wood, London. Gardiner, who refers to this woman as Margaret Cotton, quotes several times from her wartime journal. She really could write. A litany-like summary of the damage caused by a V-2 attack is particularly powerful:

The act of destruction and death took a few seconds. The rescue of victims took a few days. The billeting of the homeless will take a few weeks. The healing of the injured will take an indefinite time. The clearing of the bombed and burned site will take months. The rebuilding will take years. The dead are dead.

In her back-matter Gardiner credits these excerpts to an Imperial War Museums file with the assigned title Private Papers of Mrs E H Cotton. (”Mrs,” let’s remember, has traditionally meant “the wife of,” so I simply assumed that those were her husband’s initials.) Since my chances of being able to examine those papers - Mrs. Cotton’s wartime journal, and an apparently unpublished memoir derived from it - any time soon are just about nil, I decided to see whether I could find any more excerpts online. Searching for <”margaret cotton”> didn’t turn anything up, but <“mrs e h cotton”> led me to several books published since 2000. Some of what I found there has turned out to be false: it turns out that she was neither married to a British businessman nor “a young mother at the time of the war,” as certain self-described historians would have it. And one book asserted that her name was Ernestine - not Margaret. Hmm.

Somewhere, I picked up the information that Mrs. Cotton wrote the memoir for the benefit of her grand-daughter, whose name was Penelope. So I searched for <penelope cotton> (not as a phrase) and, to my great surprise, hit the jackpot.

Cotton, Ernestine Hunt.1 Journal for Penelope. New York: Vantage Press, 2005. 

Ernestine Hunt Cotton - nicknamed Peg, which may explain Gardiner’s confusion - and her husband, Dick, both Mayflower descendants,2 relocated from the suburbs of Boston to London during the winter of 1934-35, when he became the managing director of British Rola, an offshoot of an American electronics manufacturer. When the war began they had two daughters in their twenties, Alix and Martha, and an adolescent son, Gerry. Alix was engaged to a Fleet Air Arm pilot; as commonly happened during the war, the wedding took place earlier than originally planned, and it gives very little away to say that Alix soon found herself a widow with a small child. Martha was training as a speech pathologist, possibly after a year in medical school. (Mrs. Cotton doesn’t make this clear, and may have conflated the two.) Regardless, Martha had to give up her studies in 1940 when her training school closed for the duration. She joined the British Red Cross.

Mrs. Cotton writes that the family’s move came about as a result of the Depression, but I am skeptical. The Cottons were clearly very well-off: Gerry attended La Châtaigneraie, near Geneva, before the war; when this became impractical he was sent instead to Bryanston, in Dorset. The growing unavailability of household help during the war - the Cottons were accustomed to employing a cook, a housekeeper, and a maid - was a recurring problem. For the  last year or so of the war they had homes in both city and country. All of this, along with Martha’s post-secondary studies, whatever they were, had to be paid for somehow.

No, my hunch is that Dick Cotton was doing some sort of classified government service. His initial mandate at British Rola seems to have been to shift its output from loudspeakers and make it “a main artery for pumping life blood into the R.A.F. - literally, for the factory produces a certain type of mechanical pump, built into the planes,” Mrs. Cotton wrote in 1940. Throughout the war he dealt with people at very high levels of the war effort, in both the U.K. and the U.S. He made several return trips during the war, sometimes traveling under very difficult conditions and spending a good deal of time in Washington, D.C., and was one of the organizers of The American Committee for the Defense of British Homes, which donated weapons to the Home Guard. He also appears to have been aware of the existence of the V-weapons, and of precisely how dangerous they would be, several months before they came into use. At one point his wife writes of him talking “in the usual cryptic way of men nowadays - men who are doing a job a bit on the hush-hush.”

In any case, the British Rola factory was located in Acton until October 1940, when severe bombing in that area led the Ministry of Defence to approve (in the form of an order, mind you) its immediate evacuation to a pre-selected site in Bideford, Devon. The entire Cotton family followed suit, and the memoir becomes in part a story of adjustment to country life. With some difficulty, they found a place to live in Instow, three miles from Bideford: Springfield, a nine-bedroom Georgian mansion in a questionable state of repair. While they lived there, the house became a center of hospitality for Allied service personnel generally and, beginning in 1942, for Americans in particular. (At one point the household realize with alarm that they’re sheltering some AWOL sergeants.)

Mostly, though, this book is about the day-to-dayness of the war as it affected one family whose circumstances were a tad unusual. It is clearly the memoir part of the IWM’s papers, and the only clue as to when Mrs. Cotton wrote it is her observation that

This type of fog - a “pea-souper” - is now practically non-existent in London. New buildings have central heating, and there is a law prohibiting the use of any coal save that which has been rendered almost smokeless.  

Some passages seem to be lifted directly from the wartime journal, so that we get dizzying transitions between events in progress and those that have occurred some time in the past. And Mrs. Cotton herself can be a bit dizzy at times. After leaving Bryanston, Gerry made multiple attempts to join first the American and then the British armed forces, but was foiled by his susceptibility to what his mother persists in referring to as “anti-philatic shock.” I can only assume that she means anaphylactic shock. (Gerry ended up on the assembly line at British Rola; Alix was a V.A.D. at Bideford Hospital.)

There is also the matter of the book’s production. Vantage Press, which went out of business in 2012, was one of the original vanity publishing operations. Authors’ typescripts - this one was created with word-processing software that was already out-of-date in 2005, and was apparently produced on a dot-matrix printer - were treated as camera-ready copy and were not subjected to any editing whatsoever. The result in this case is a book riddled with typographical errors. The substitution of it’s for the possessive its is so consistent that it becomes annoying all by itself.

Journal for Penelope is nevertheless worth reading. A Republican (of an era long before ours) married to a Democrat, deeply generous in her impulses, a mistress of the vivid simile (”My stomach curled up like a caterpillar”), Ernestine Cotton is very good company. I’d still like to read the original journal - something tells me there’s a good miniseries lurking there! - but this book is an acceptable, and welcome, substitute.

1For anyone unfamiliar with this usage, which as far as I know is purely North American and which seems to be fading away, Mrs. Cotton took her husband’s surname while using her maiden name as a middle (second) name to be included or not as the occasion required. My mother did the same thing; likewise Mercy Otis Warren, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Florence Prag Kahn, Oveta Culp Hobby, Marian Wright Edelman, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Katharine Jefferts Schori, and many others.

2The Mayflower was the first ship to bring non-Native settlers to the region now known as New England, arriving from Plymouth in November 1620. Stereotypically at least, descendants of its passengers are wealthy, entitled, clannish, repressed, highly conscious of their status, and found primarily on the Atlantic seaboard.

#world war II #u.k. home front #american civilians in britain #memoirs #ernestine hunt cotton #a long post for the weekend

[nycto-draggo]

[Conversation with a friend of mine shifted to talking about overwatch]:

A friend of mine: I was playing overwatch dude.

Me: .............Xbox or PC, I forget

A friend of mine: Xbox.

Me: Fuck.

A friend of mine: I also have it on PC

Me: My best games are the ones I do with friends--

Me: No shit, I partied up with an irl friend of mine recently and we fucking slaughtered

Me: It was wild

A friend of mine: Awesome dude

A friend of mine: I haven't been able to do shit.

A friend of mine: At one point I just gave up and played Hanzo

Me: Yep.

A friend of mine: I was killing it as Sym tho

Me: I very fucking persistently play Bastion because fuck the system

Me: blizzard is literally prejudiced against all bastion players

Me: EXCEPT zylbrad [who fucking ruined the class with his rein/mercy pocketing herpes] because he makes them money

A friend of mine: Yep.

A friend of mine: Anyways, have you ever sniped snipers as Lucio?

A friend of mine: Because I have

Me: Ooh.

A friend of mine: I made a dude fucking switch because I kept wrecking his shit

Me: I've.

Me: Gotten sniped by Lucios.

Me: As Bastion

Me: Because apparently his sound gun out damages BASTION'S FUCKING SELF HEALING

Me: I'M NOT KIDDING YOU. THAT IS BULLSHIT.

Me: HE'S A HEALER.

A friend of mine: PPFFFFFT

A friend of mine: And here I am struggling with anything that moves too quickly

A friend of mine: Even if I do have 36 hours on Lucio

Me: I ah.. 60+ hours on Bast.

Me: That's active hours too. Can't say the same for [total time playing] TF2 sadly.

A friend of mine: That's cool. At least you know your character well.

A friend of mine: I'm just spread out across the support roster

A friend of mine: WHICH IS GETTING A NEW CHARACTER SOON

Me: I do. Too bad he's literally the weakest class in the game.

Me: Ironic, given he has the highest damage output.

A friend of mine: Wait who's the weakest class?

A friend of mine: And plus doesn't Zen have a high damage output with Sym?

Me: Bastion.

A friend of mine: Oh

Me: Y'know what's weak? A 500 DPS [point blank] class with no mobility options unless he burns his ult

Me: Gets focused on sight by literally everyone, who always throw dignified tactics out the window for the sake of killing him [I.e. peeking around corners/divebombing with deflect]

Me: Gets NO HELP from his team unless they're fucking retarded and neglecting the other four/three teammates by pocket healing/barrier pocketing

Me: And gets harassed by ALL ELEVEN other people on the server for playing the class for even a fucking SECOND.

Me: People that get in arguments with me constantly use my hours on bastion as ammo against me. It's like how they attack me for being silver when I gave up on competitive just a couple games past placements.

A friend of mine: I honestly don't do comp because of what my teammates might do tbh

Me: But you know the best part?

Me: Blizzard supports the blatant harassment.

Me: I very rarely report people that harass me for playing bast, because I don't have time to report literally everyone, obviously.

Me: But you know where most of the 'im reporting u' calls come at me from?

Me: Arguments where I tell enemies to stop focusing me [ex. chasing me past my team's point just to get petty kills]

A friend of mine: ....?

Me: Me telling mercies on my team to fuck off.

A friend of mine: That's pretty stupid.

Me: Me being ''''idle'''' because I always uproot and walk the fuck away if a Reinhardt/orisa/Winston/sym/torb sets up on me.

Me: I have been chat banned no less than three times for this. The third one is active until FUCKING CHRISTMAS.

A friend of mine: I'm actually guilty of giving Bastions shields tbh, but only that. After I place it down, I let him cover an area while I go cover another one.

Me: //squint//

Me: I get that you mean well

A friend of mine: But only on Xbox.

A friend of mine: On PC I'm on my own.

Me: But really, don't. For people like me, all it does is get me focused exponentially harder.

Me: And the pocketer NEVER suffers consequences.

Me: Hence I have to preemptively tell them to stay the fuck away from me.

A friend of mine: Yep.

#Overwatch #cancerwatch #This is why I prefer TF2. People only make passing complaints if you play pyro.

[needletail]

Mercy Guide 101

This is going to be a fairly lengthy post and so it’ll be put under a read more, but as I’m finally approaching 100 hours on Mercy in Quick Play and an additional 50 in Competitive, I thought I’d like to make a little guide to give an insight to how I, personally, play Mercy. In my opinion, it has been a fairly successful in games. I’ve hit a point where I’m definitely good with Mercy, and I just need to finesse some more things - and so I’ll put a quick disclaimer here that I am still learning. This is just a collection of things I do and think about. Any additions to help me learn would be amazing.

1. Damage Buffing vs The Pistol As we all probably know, Mercy’s damage buff can be useful - but a lot of Mercy players that I’ve seen will prefer to use damage buff over her pistol, which can often result in not enough damage output. It’s important to know that her pistol can do a surprising amount of damage, and if you have another healer who can keep the others topped off (as long as they aren’t critical / below half health), it’s completely fine to pull out your pistol and scare off some of the squishier targets while everyone else focuses on tanks or stronger dps characters. This can also count in your own Zarya’s graviton! You can shoot at a Reinhardt barrier or sneak behind and give them a scare. I’ve managed to trick Reinhardts into turning around to shield my attacks, and then he’ll be killed and ultimately the entire enemy team can be wiped. The pistol is excellent, but do not use it all the time! It’s a heavily situational weapon, but it can change the course of a game if used well. I have a section below dedicated to the pistol, so I won’t talk more about it. Damage buffing is, of course, very useful - you can boost Hanzo’s dragons or D.VA’s self-destruct, giving it the possibility of either killing or severely injuring someone who might not have been affected too badly before (though the self-destruct generally one-shots, but it damages people who are just inside its range but not close enough to be killed; a damage buff can sometimes cause squishy characters to get outright killed by this if they’re already a little hurt, and it’s hilarious to watch) - it’s also super good to damage boost a Reinhardt’s fire strike, though team coordination is needed with this. I succeed in buffing a Rein’s fire strike by talking to them in competitive, but in quickplay it’s much harder to pull off and is usualy down to prediction. Not only will Rein get his ult charge from this, but you will too! So in short? Damage buffing is good, but remember that you have a weapon if your team isn’t outputting enough damage.  2. Positioning Possibly the largest difference that I’ve noticed between my gameplay and, say, a less-experienced Mercy’s gameplay is often how we position ourselves. I try to break line of sight all the time! It makes it harder for people to see me, and if they have to peek to get me, it’s highly likely I have someone with me - especially when I’m in a two or three stack. More often than not, the person who dares to peek me will get charged by a Reinhardt or fucked over by my high charge Zarya, or even just shot down by my Soldier. Your teammates will often be your best friends; your counters, such as Winston or Genji, will often be spooked away by a strong-hitting friendly. Hell, Winston and Genji are often scared away by a friendly Winston or Reinhardt. Tanks are the best to stick to, but it’s good to know when you can fly with Pharah (it’s rare; but there’s another section on this), or when you should try to stick with flankers (a two-healer situation only). If you don’t have a tank that has a barrier, try to stick to walls or higher ground - unless the enemy team has a Pharah, in which case, you should try to stay in enclosed spaces, or near a hitscan such as Soldier or Mccree, who can take her down surprisingly easily if their aim is good. If your team has a Widowmaker or someone else who keeps their distance (preferably on the high ground, but low works too), it might be useful to stick beside them until your team needs healing. Widowmaker is extremely mobile and so is Mercy, making them a scary duo when it comes to moving around. Widow can get Mercy to areas that even Pharah might not be able to access, which makes her an all around useful partner. I have a duo-queue partner who often plays Widow in quickplay, and sticking to him has saved my life. Sure, people will accuse you of pocketing a Widow, but if they’re getting healed by you when they need it, they can’t complain.  The flanker situation is a harder thing to talk about. See, you need two healers for it, and flankers are highly mobile and need to be quiet. Mercy is a high-priority target, and so she isn’t ideal to stick with flankers. Personally, I recommend allowing your Zenyatta (very ideal) or Ana (not as ideal, but she can heal from a distance) go and deal with healing flankers. Sure, Ana is a tank-healer, but if you’re right by your tanks, it will help. I will only go and help flankers if they’re being harrassed or I have a good Lucio who stays on heal on my team. Lucio can generally keep everyone topped up on health and keep them alive until you return; don’t leave him for too long, but you are free to move between your flankers with the comfort of knowing your team has a constant supply of heals. Usually, however, it is best to let flankers either come to you or grab healthpacks. The former is the more ideal situation. I hate being with flankers unless it’s King of the Hill maps (such as Ilios; it often keeps me away from boopable ledges), but sometimes you need to do it. If you’re a solo heal, stick with your tanks and primary dps. Flankers can look out for themselves, and you need to remember this. 

3. “My team won’t protect me, so I’m dead all of the time” This is a positioning flaw on your part, and this is something I’ve had to learn. Your team do need to protect you, but they can’t babysit you all the time. If anything, you’re the babysitter. You need to keep a tab on your health as well as theirs, and you’re a vital part of battle. Don’t complain about not being protected - but do try to get their attention if you’re being harassed, or look for escapes. You’re going to be attacked. It’s how healers are dealt with, being harassed by flankers (especially Tracer). However, if one of your tanks simply watches as you get killed, then you can complain. This has happened a lot, even in competitive, and then they beg for heals. These are people who you should..probably ignore, actually. Heal them when needed, but don’t start yelling. They can and will throw. Sometimes people will just watch as you’re killed, in which case you should probably pull out your pistol and try to damage your attacker. 

4. Mercy’s Pistol  It does a surprising amount of damage, shoots quickly, and has a decent ammo supply. The reload animation is long, so meleeing to get someone to back off is recommended when it needs to reload. Now, there are a good few situations in which you can pull it out; to help your team when you have a Zarya ult (mentioned above), to work on Rein’s shield, to add more damage when no-one needs healing, to deal with flankers, and so on. Keep in mind that it is a projectile weapon and so you need to predict where the enemy will go (I usually strafe back and forth while shooting, I often get headshots because I’ve learned how most characters will move). You can pull it out a lot, which surprises a lot of people! However, do not pull it out when people need heals. Do not keep it out - you are a support character, not a dps. You can add dps when needed, especially if your secondary healer (if you have one) tells you that it’s fine (though I would not recommend it when you have a Zenyatta, as he is a dps-support in himself and so there will usually be enough). It’s actually easy enough to kill 200hp or 150hp heros like Genji, Tracer, or softshell D.VA. They cause little damage to you (and you heal over time), and you cause a lot of damage to them. Most of the time, they make back off. As long as you make Tracer waste her recall and don’t shoot at Genji’s deflect, you’ll be fine. Working on your aim as Mercy is actually a useful thing, because you’ll die much less and generally be more useful, because you’re dealing with flankers that, once they kill you, will go on to kill your tanks or disrupt the backlines and so damage how your team works. 

5. Pharmercy This is undoubtedly one of the strongest and most deadly combinations in the game, but also countered harshly by hitscan such as Soldier or Mccree. Hell, Zenyatta can take these two down rather quickly too. It’s important to judge when it’s okay to pocket your Pharah. You need a secondary healer (usually Ana or Lucio, don’t leave Zenyatta alone), and you need to be aware of the enemy team. Being in the sky leaves Mercy extremely vulnerable to attack, as she only has slowfall to save herself - but I’ve been saved in situations where I’ve completely let go of the spacebar and I’ve dropped behind cover. This is especially useful in Soldier’s ult, where he will usually go for the Pharah first; it gives you time to escape. Ensure that at least one other person is in your line of sight so that you can fly to them if you really need to. Pharah may only be a 200hp hero, but she is extremely durable. Her constant flitting and bounciness means that she can survive on as little as 10hp if you can’t get into the sky. Most Pharah mains will also drop down for heals if they’re desperate, or they’ll find a healthpack. After all, Pharah can easily fit into the flanker category. Pharmercy may be strong, but it’s not necessary all the time, and your team will often need you more often.  The main time to pocket a Pharah is when she’s ulting. Heal her, do not damage boost her, as people will try to shoot her down immediately and if you have the delay of switching from damage boosting to healing, she could die. Her rockets do enough damage as it is (especially if she’s well-positioned), so she’ll be fine without a damage boost, and she’ll get more kills if she’s alive.  I do not pocket Pharahs unless I know they’re worth it. Gauge if your Pharah is skilled. Do not fly with an unskilled Pharah, because you will both die pretty quickly on. The more skilled a Pharah is, the easier it is to Pharmercy! 

6. The Art of Pressing Q  Ressurection is a very useful ability, and can turn 4v6 into 6v6, 3v5 into 6v5, and generally turn the tables around. Most people think that Mercy should wait for the magical five-man res or something else Play of the Game-worthy, but that’s not it. I mean, first of all, a quintuple res will not usually get you play of the game unless you gain multiple assists with it or there’s just nothing else the game can think of, but second of all, it could be game-costing. Temporarily ressing your Reinhardt so that he can contest the Payload while your team returns from spawn can save the game, and so can a quick temporary res on your Roadhog who has ult. If someone has ult, they become a priority to ressurect in an intense moment, because it could make it or break it. It’s possibly a well-known fact that Mercy is, in a way, one of Zarya’s counter. She might get an incredible graviton where she kills five members of your team, but if you’ve hidden yourself away, then her work becomes undone as you swoop in and res your entire team, causing her so-very hurt team to become the underdogs in the fight. Ressing fully restores health, so your team will be as if they’ve just spawned, whereas the enemy team will likely be in the middle of trying to heal from the team fight. They won’t be ready to fight again, so it’s a very easy team wipe. It’s always tempting to res when the enemy team starts staggering your spawns and no-one groups up. Don’t. Don’t do it. It wastes your res - only res if they’ve staggered multiple people at the same time but your team still intends to push. I find it absolutely hilarious when I watch other Mercy players solo-res their Tracer because they’re scared of a staggered spawn - it wastes their ult entirely. Of course, I’ve done it myself a couple of times (especially considering it can save my life due to the invulnerability I gain, but I’m teaching myself against it). There’s a huge difference between having res at a crucial moment vs “nearly” having it.  Something I’ve noticed quite a lot is, after a Mercy has been unable to save four or five of her players while she doesn’t have res, they’ll have it at 90% but they’ll back off. Now, your team will be respawning in a staggered way (unless it was a quintuple / quadruple, in which case they’ll come back together), and you are super close to ult. You know an extremely fast way to grab that 10%? Shoot people. Shoot a Roadhog. He’ll feel inclined to heal himself. Once you have res, pull it off and bam, you might’ve just secured the point.  Ressing at a good time can save an entire game, and I cannot tell you how satsifying it feels to pull off a game-saving res. It’s not always for the POTG, it’s usually to try and secure a victory. (Of course, note that you shouldn’t hold onto res for too long. You can usually gain it back pretty quickly, and if you only have res once for the entire game even though your teammates are dying, you’re holding onto it too much. In a good game where I pull off helpful resses, I can have res up to five or six times). (Another note; try your best to have res for Overtime. It will save your game. Trust me.)  

7. Teamwork  This does not count for quickplay (though you can try your best), but moreso for comp. If you want to climb the ranks as a Mercy, you need to be a huge team player. Mercy is one of the characters who actually doesn’t have much to do aside from healing and damage buffing (and sometimes shooting), so callouts are a Mercy main’s best friend. Make sure you have a mic, and talk to your team about the flanker to your left, or the fact that Tracer just killed herself with a Pulse Bomb. It doesn’t matter if they saw it! Someone might’ve missed it, and they’ll appreciate it. Also, warn your team of potential enemy ults. This often includes checking the kill cam real quick if you’ve been killed - and this is a huge thing when you’re kill by Genji or Zarya. Check the percentage. Trust me, it’ll help your team a lot if they know what to expect. Once I’ve checked the enemy’s ult percentage on the kill cam, I’ll often go into spectator mode to try and help my team even from the grave, and I’ll tell them when I’m heading back. You might get lucky and have someone come to pick you up to speed it up. Also! Tell them when you have res! It encourages them to try to die closer together, but also to drag out enemy ults. The more violent your team are, the more scared the enemy team will be, and so they’ll use ults in an attempt to get the objective without being contested. Joke’s on them, you’ll have res; just make sure you’re hidden. Teamwork is the KEY to being a good support main, let alone Mercy. You don’t have to look at a teammate when you’re healing, so you can check the skies and behind you and your team can focus on the people in front of them. Making callouts is a wonderful skill to have, and your team will appreciate it too. 

Overall, Mercy has a very basic premise at first glance, but she’s all about practice and skill. You need to learn to be mobile, you need to know when to use Guardian Angel and Res, and you need to try to keep track of both enemy ults and your own ults. She’s easy to pick up and hard to master.  At present, I’m only Silver-ranked, but I have the goal of reaching Diamond this season, and my heart is completely set on it. 

A little side-note: please, please do not solo-queue as Mercy when you’re in bronze to gold tiers. Sometimes it can go right, don’t get me wrong - but mostly it’ll go to shit. Solo-queuing as her can be dodgy even in higher ranks from what I know, but in the low ranks it can cause a lot of damage. I’ve had to climb from roughly 700sr because I solo-queued and damaged my sr severely; but I’m in the 1700s now, because I know to queue with my friends. 

There probably are some things that I’ve missed, but this is generally how my thought process can go in a single game. Good luck in future games, and thank you for reading this far if you have! 

#overwatch #mercy #overwatch guide #apollo.txt

[whitemamba]

Hi Shoo, I'm thinking in getting into OW, I'm a support main in lol, so I'd like to play a support in OW. Who do you recommend me to main?

Okay so… it all really depends on how good your aim is or not, but if you have decent aim, definitely go with Ana, and if you don’t… still Ana.

She’s the most OP healer in the game, has three different utilities (sleep, heal grenade and anti-heal), can snipe and kill by herself very easily, her heal output is ridiculous (AND her nade boost the heals of your second healer)  and her ult is extremely useful combined with other ults. 

If you’re planning to play competitive, she’s the one you gotta go for, because none of the other healers let you carry like her. And even if you don’t wanna play competitive, still, she’s so much better than all the other healers and definitely worth to learn to play early, learning how to land the sleep dart and non-scope shots will pay off, believe me. I think she’s the healer you can play the most aggressively, too, and overall she’s the most fun to play if a bit difficult to master. Tons of decision making and positioning that you will only learn about once you play her.

The second option is Lúcio. He’s the second most useful healer, and also has the most survivavility. He’s way simpler to play than Ana and a great option for beginners and people with poor aim. His ult is very useful, too. You basically just exist as Lúcio, very rarely do you need to go out of position to help kill someone or boop someone off the map. You do need to deal with decision making when it comes to using speed or heal boost, but it’s not very complex. Unfortunately, Lúcio lacks the power to actually carry, so it can feel a bit frustrating because you feel you’re not doing much, but only by being there he’s so strong. He’s not the most picked hero along with Rein for nothing.

Then, Zenyatta. The problem with Zeny is that he’s extremely difficult to master, because unlike Ana, he can’t defend himself very well unless you’re godlike with him. His projectile shots are a bit weird to get used to and even if they have a large hitbox, you still need good aim. He is also a very specific pick, only good for certain compositions, and his healing is weak. His ult is also nullified by Ana’s nade, which makes it useless if there’s an Ana on the enemy team. He’s more of an offensive hero, you use him when you’re certain you can kill and wreck shit on your own, or when your teammates can shred whatever fool you discorded. I really like him, it’s just that he has a high skill ceiling and Ana and Lúcio are just so damn strong man. Still a great hero to learn, just… high risk, sometimes not great reward.

Mercy is garbage. Like straight up. People think her not dying after ress is a buff, but her ult is just as useless with that ‘improvement’. Her heal is weak and slow unless your team is full of 200 hp heroes, her damage boost is so weak compared to zen’s discord, she’s easy to kill, she has to choose to either heal or attack, has not many defensive options… and to boot, she’s kinda boring to play. You just click right and left and Q sometimes i guess. Flying around is fun, but when you see you can’t heal your teammates properly or your ult reviving your teammates just for them to get killed again…. Feels bad dude. Imo she needs a rework badly, she’s just no good except in pharm.ercy, and even that is not that good against players with brains. She’s good if you wanna relax i guess, just keep in mind she’s like a player less.

Symm is considered an assist but imo she’s a defense hero and that’s why i left her for last. She’s good only in certain maps, but in those maps, she’s a goddamn goddess if you know how to play her. She’s very fun to play and if you can’t aim it doesn’t matter, you just gotta know positioning and where to place your turrets and where and when to place your TP (please don’t use shield gen, it’s almost never worth it). You can’t really be a symm main imo, because you’ll rely waaay too much on the map (and mode) to win matches. She’s still extremely useful so definitely learn her.

And that’s it! If you have any more questions ask me dude, i love talking about OW o/ good luck on your gamin

#anonymous