As an ex T500 ball player. Nothing let’s you know how good you are doing on ball better than having your team be equally mad at you as the enemy team :)
I have only met a few good ball players but one of the biggest things I noticed is that good ball players die almost 0 times every game, except unlucky sleeps or ults. It's scary what ball can really do, and doomfist is very similar too
@@vytrexi9693 yeah and that’s honestly why I find him so frustrating to play against. He’s just a constant nuisance that without stuns became 3 times harder to deal with
I remember having a ball player in one of my ranked games and our soljourn reported him for throwing even though ball is carrying our team and the soljourn died like 15 times even with a pocket Anyway give queen and ball players a chance
personally I love all the skins on every ball. they're so fun to play with and have in my hands! i'm great with them when I'm in control of moving them around!
Since OW2 launched I have only seen 5 ball matches, only 1 of them was on my team, and it was the same dude from the enemy team the previous match. All of them have been nightmares to deal with for the enemy team. I was actually so impressed with the ball who ended up on my team, when I saw them select Zarya I asked them "Hey do you mind playing Ball? I know you're pretty good with them." Dude proceeded to swing around the map like a crackhead spiderman all match while I tried to stick on him as much as possible as Lucio. Sadly we did lose the match, but it was one of those super fun matches that was down to a 99/99 overtime fight. The loss was unfortunately 100% my fault for getting Rein pinned and not being able to sound barrier the fight.
I always loved hammond, he is by far my favorite tank. I'm a support main and i have jack shit idea how to play tanks, especially ball, but he is like my third favorite hero. There is something magical about movment heros in my opinion, my favorite dps heros are Tracer and Genji. And while these heros may not be that efective at first, they shine when you master them. When i first saw hammond i was like "so far this is the hardes character in the game" and i don't think that changed. Mastering your movment is sometimes so chalenging that you just whant to smash your keyboard to the ground. My point is movment characters while beening the hardest (in my opinion) characters to master, are most rewarding, and just fun. Especially Hammond
LET'S FUCKING GO W VIDEO ABOUT THE MOST BASED TANK IN WATCHING OVER THE VIDEO GAME 😎💪 The main "problem" with Ball is that by simply *existing* in the game he forces every player on his team to actually *be good at the video game* if they want to win because a good Ball turns every game he's in into a deathmatch. His job is to disrupt, to force enemies to use their resources on him while the rest of his team help each other to take adventage of the chaos that he created, but if the DPS can't hit shots, and if the supports don't even know where to position now that the tank isn't directly in front of them anymore (not all the time ofc Ball usually goes back to his team in downtime) then they will just spend the whole time confused not knowing what to do because they are so used to the tank player standing in front bulldozing everything for them.
This is literary the same as having a doom on your team in season one. I play duo with a guy who mains doom while I main ana and playing with him caused my sleep dart aim to get much better as that was the only way for me to not get imidietly killed by a season one soujurn in our backline. I feel like season one doom and ball are like two alternatives to the same playstyle
Your point on how content creators/pros/streamers say things like “supports are weak” and how those takes give that roles’ players an easy avenue to shift blame really resonated with me. I feel like I’ll see a YT short from a streamer where they just say their opinion and suddenly it’s the community’s gospel.
Depends on if you’re Sojourn’s tapeworm or Kiriko. If you aren’t, then yeah, you’re considered a throw since you’ll be instakilled because you got no tp or janky movement. Lucio can move fast, but that’s all he does, he can’t heal and his gun kills slower than smearing poo in a wound and dying from sepsis. The people who aren’t playing meta supports can’t keep up, or don’t do enough trying.
The same content creators who call themselves "the best [insert hero]" and then you watch their actual streams where they can't cherrypick the good parts, and have a good laugh.
People don't like thinking independently and underestimate the value of communication (essential when diving) when looking at the meta for high level play. Same people that will parrot complaints about having a ball probably never ping anything or try to coordinate with their team. If the ball player is good he makes a amazing dive tank.
I honestly do think that ball is one of the most balanced heroes... Not just because he's good, and has plenty to counter him... But the skill gap. He can dominate if you get really good with him. If you're not though, he feels like a throw at times. Unlike say hog where you can still do good if you haven't played him much. You have to learn him, master him, and you can (no pun intended) wreck the enemy
Most fun tank to play, imo. The problem is that bad ball players go in with no sense of timing, looking for the 5 man piledrive and then die. So they feed like crazy (the damage recieved and the healing after piledrive) and then the team fight happens, ball team most likely loses and then the ball goes do the same again while the rest of his team is going back on point. I had this happen for entire matches. I love ball, is my favourite tank to play but also I think he has the most feed potential and requires some sort of understanding from his teammates about coordinating with him and the average suppor/dps player just wants a flesh wall between them and the enemy because they think that's guaranteed value (and sort of makes up for their poor positioning).
I think this video is a great piece of the "look at your team, play to the team's strength" approach to the game. You've got a zen/mercy? You see lack of healing, i see a discord orb and a damage boost - that's a high damage recipe for deliciousness
I gotta agree that movement heroes are imo the hardest ones to master, Im a bit of a Lúcio main and I love his wallride, it was very tricky learning it at first, but then, as people have pointed it out, it becomes pretty fun and rewarding! I love trying some rollouts from spawn, getting booped and still managing to come back, contesting the point forever by just jumping around wall to wall, I genuinely think its one of the most fun mechanics, I think ball is super fun too, but still, quite hard to master, but they always make the games more interesting :) Wich is why i say, whenever someone is flaming our tank for picking ball "yea, give the ball a chance, we'll have fun atleast!"
On a similar note, I think Zen is also a sleeper pick. When I tell a team that I'm choosing Zen and we aren't going to out heal their damage, they mostly listen and actually take less damage. Also, a few coordinated discord orbs will MELT hogs and any other flankers that try and go for me. Finally, when I have the perfect teammates, and I use trans at the right time, it's actually a night and day difference. We go from being bullied and losing ground, not looking great, to pushing forward and murdering their entire team in a few seconds with no ults except trans. He's the best support for getting a teams act together.
Yeah, zen is great but have you ever played against a sojourn having good aim? Against a good sojourn you can not even peek for more than a second. You peek>optional:sojourn slide jump>pew pew pew 30-40 trickling damage>boom>you are dead.
Finally! Someone who understands how fun the fast hitscan disruptor can be to play. You feel like you're on adrenaline, you feel like you have to plan ahead and it's more exciting than any other hero I played as it always feels different. Other heroes play the same but ball FEELS different each game as you adapt to your enemy and map, and I personally believe I can play a good wrecking ball I even bought a golden gun cause I loved the hero when he first came out. I just wish I could play him without feeling like a hinderance despite giving my favorite hero a chance.
It is true that when i get ball player in my team, usually they're either really really good, creating a lot of space and getting values, sometimes straight up carrying games or just bad maybe because they were trying the hero and then immidiately swap off sadge. But yea the learning curve of ball imo if one could reach his max potential could be really rewarding. One of my friend is a master elo ball player and he just either demolishes enemy team or not performing well bcs he gets hard countered or everyone focuses on him. But. He. Doesnt. Swap. Respect tbh.
ive always liked having ball as my tank as long as hes getting value. it really does point out your positioning mistakes if ur losing with a good ball player. for example i like playing brig when we have a ball because i can sit and just keep my sup and maybe a less mobile dps alive while ball is pissing off the enemy team for 6 minutes
I loved the touch of mentioning how the scoreboard makes it so we can all see who's doing poorly as he's showing a game of himself being outstated by almost everyone, even Kiriko. Stats don't matter that much tho, but still a great touch
I'm a ball player too and i get so much criticism even though recently more people notice ball's impact. I'm not t500 or anything but im masters and know my way around the character. thank you
Love the vid as a dps main with my ranked buddy being a ball main (ps I don’t play sojourn that’s gay) my buddy gets way to much hate even though he is better then most people in the lobby. I pops off with a 18k damage 1 death and 35 kills and people still tell him to get off ball it’s crazy everyone is viable in someway so people should give them a chance. It’s the same thing with Cassidy (I main him) I hit most of my shots high damage high kills and people are still mad. Just give the people who aren’t playing meta a chance
as a very skilled ball player, I can agree with this. when you come brawling down the map bopping the entire team off the map. it's so satisfying. when you constantly can be a pain in the ass towards the other team.. when they start to repick to try and counter you. they are out of their comfort zone. and your team should have an easy win!
8:10 In argument for the dps side, when playing with a ball your stats are generally going to be worst due to you trading a strong front line for ball's strong independent flanking ability (compared to what reinhardt provides the team for example). It's rough playing a game where your ball isn't getting space so it's like a 4v5 with the off-chance of an ambush event. I personally don't mind ball players, but if we are not clicking as a team the first one I'm asking to switch is ball
The problem with a lot of Ball mains is they strictly play ball and instead of damage adapting and playing around the ball they just complain and don’t wanna experiment.
Like how often do you truly run into a good ball? Are you helping him be the most efficient ball player he can be? Obviously you shouldn’t be expected to carry but you shouldn’t immediately blame the ball for why your team isn’t clicking
Ball can constantly harass the backline. He can constantly keep the 2 supports busy. And to peel the supports sometimes a dps can also join with them. He is creating so many options and opening for the 4 of you. You guys can put pressure on opposite tank while the ball is harassing. Eventually the supports will face the dilemma "should i heal my tank or my other support" and thats how you will get a pick. Also he can boop a tank into a bad position. It is upto you how to secure the kill. Dont blame ball. If you cant co-operate with him, you should learn how to co-operate instead of asking him to change. If you cant read the moment when to engage and hold angle to avoid shooting shields, you should learn them instead of asking ball to switch. If you are playing hanzo and widow and cant hit shit, dont blame ball and ask him to change. If your dps sucks then they dont deserve that rank. Also blame blizzard for their aweful mm/sr system.
@@abirmandal4021 Or since you don't have a frontline their Orisa or Roadhog runs you down. You can list what ball can do if you play him to perfection, but roadhog can more with less effort. Ball is selfish in nature as you are demanding the team to play around you. Switching the ball off will provide the biggest "switch up" due to his playstyle being so unique compared to a traditional tank.
I completely agree. Learning a character who takes skill really is rewarding, the problem is that this game rewards constancy. Characters like roadhog who take space or flank with consistent one shot combos is what people are used to and what wins people fights. This is my main problem with overwatch’s competitive queue, most of the time team comps are the same and people rarely play anything different than who meta. If you lose for not playing whos meta your usually who the team blames which really stinks. There is nothing wrong with playing who’s meta but people should have the option the character who they want to play first. Similarly I play Cassidy and am usually told to switch off for Ashe pretty quickly. It must be a lot worse when your on tank though.
A quote from Beaver is a t500 ball player. "In a 4300-4400sr lobby, you can play ball. You just need to play like a 4700 player to get the same value as the other tank on hog or orisa." Essentially saying that on ball the skill to reward curve is skewed to where you need to put in more to get the same value as other tanks
i think the main problem with ball is that every new player sees a tik-tok (Fuck you Bame) and immediately wants to play him without knowing how hard he is to master. He can be EXTREMELY oppressive if you fully master his kit but if you get a bad ball on your team its just a throw pick and the enemy team will just walk through you
In my opinion there only bad player in the game are the toxic ones. Just becouse someone isnt performing well as character dosent mean they are banned from playing it. Most "bad" ball players are just pepole learning the character yet their teammates treat them like they're throwing. If my teammate isn't playing as well as someone elso on our or the enemy team than thats not their fault thats the fault of the matchmaking to match pepole of difrent skill levels together. So the only time I think its good to bring up how bad a person is performing in a match is if that player is being toxic in the voice or text chat.
we're in season 6 now and your support rant has aged like a fine wine, they actually made support a baby easy role I remember ana being hard to play, now I dont remember when was the last time I lost a duel against a dps as her, suports got so braindead easy they're actually boring to play now and it used to be the role I played the most, now ironically I play mainly tank which is arguably the weakest role rn, guess I like being challanged
yeah as a mix of all classes, i play to the best of my ability and just try and have fun, if we lose im not going to blame anyone but myself, and then take a think about the mistakes i made in the match and try and improve them
Just played a game on ball and a dps told me tanks should have the highest damage and the most kills out of the team. At the end of the game out damaged the lobby and out killed on my team but he said I only got 1k more than the best DPS on our team and that's why we lost. Because I played ball. Breaks my ball mains heart 🥺.
Tbh i hate the state OW community is in. You can be playing casual and some toxic dickhead will yell at you for picking the wrong character, the un-meta character thats gonna make em lose. And im just sittin here like i just wanna have fun man.. Not like youre gonna lose rank or anything. Iunno, as Dunkey once said "it went from a game with many wonderful characters, to a game where you get yelled at for picking the wrong one". Its sooo boring when people pick the same characters over and over, expecting nothing to change, its insanity!
I remember that while I was playing ball at some point, I had the second most kills, potg, most damage, and most mitigated damage. That game the entire lobby basically called me slurs and swore at me for the ENTIRE GAME of push.
keep up the content bro. also could we get a vid on your opinion in meta rn with ashe and sojourn getting pocketed all game, imo mercy damage boost should be tweaked down a bit
I am personally a support player(mostly mercy/lucio), and I don't know if it is just me being Lucky or all the Ball players being that good, but every time I get a Ball on my team he either just carried the whole game or did a great job at making the enemy team so mad that they had at least one leaver, and honestly I kind of respect every Ball player, Even if they don't play the best and take a long time to get ready for the play. The ball on the enemy team tho is painful... everytime... ;(
I just find ball so frustrating to play against. Since all the soft CC doesn’t take him out of ball form. And only tanks and Ana get to take him out of ball form. So it’s SO MUCH harder to deal with him. Especially when your playing DPS. I like to play all 3 roles a decent amount and whenever I play against ball on DPS I feel helpless to stop him. Especially with the removal of chain hack on sombra I can hack him, then he just has to stall for the 1 second for his abilities to come back online and roll away back to his team like nothing happened
Its actually so sad as a ball main myself everyone will jump to telling me to switch and saying the actual most horrible things I've ever heard on voice chats
I love ball players they are so rare but when I get them on my team they are the ball one tricks that ONLY PLAY BALL. So they always know what they are doing. He isn’t the worst tank in the game at least tho that goes to JQ.
Hampter is the only character who can survive a 1v5 with proper management of his shields, heathpacks, and mobility. If I die more than 5 times as ball it generally means the enemy is way better than me or my team isn't backing me up. He has the most health in the game after shields are used and any health pack is close to him. Only issue is he has next to no presence on point so being the only tank is a major nerf. If anyone wants to learn him he is insane in open queue as a dual tank then you essentially just play DPS. Learn the ropes then drop the tank, adjust slightly, and enjoy surviving every team fight, ult stack, and even a nuclear strike.
I like this video It straight up showed me how Hammond can pretty much carry if given a chance and good back up and I personally just always saw him as an underpowered tank who became outdated going from OW1 to 2 But no clearly I just had yet to see someone actually use him as he's intended A high execution tank with heavy shut down potential I should note I primarily play support (mostly Mercy and Kiriko) and I just had a hard time attempting to heal ball and when I did use him I would get clapped in seconds so yeah
Lmao, I can't believe you posted this video right after i left a custom game were the entire server agreed to pick Hammond, and it was just a ball appreciating/worshipping server
Honestly, the main problem I have with having a ball on my team is my lack of experience of playing with one. I'm a lucio main, so I love playing with a winton, dva, and dive in general. But I just don't understand the main engage timing (I have the same problem with doomfist). Because ball is so mobile, I have no idea if the piledrive he is going to do is one he's gonna stick around and engage, or just a distraction. As I'm writing this I'm realizing that theres not much difference depending on what he slams, but still. What can a support (in my case a lucio, but I would like to hear about the others) do to help out the ball?
@@4m4n40 I've watched both. Frogger's vid was pretty good and taught me a bit, but KarQs wasn't as helpful. I already know how to play against most of the roster, I struggle playing with them.
I have been retrying characters that I sworn off instead of just "meta" characters and have actually been having a blast. Hammond is one of those that I didn't initially like and this video might get me to try him again.
I’m a ball main and I can say with true honesty that he is such a underrated character he has a lot of potential and the amount of toxicity you get is absurd #ballneedslove
good to see another aussie ball 1 trick, im in plat and its rough especially in this region i have 7.75 elims per life after 14 hours yet only 59% winrate
I’m a ball player and the most annoying character on your team is mercy mains. They always complain how bad you are and how their dps are insane with 10-15 and blame you
Awesome video man, I really enjoyed it. You made me want to pick up ball again and while I will probably regret that, I now feel okay with taking the heat for a while
I played ball once and God dam that little hamster can survive the gang bang of the enemy team, can be mobile and fun at the same time solid choice for thank!
As a new player and support main, even when we win playing with a ball on the team instead then any other tank is that it is more "stressfull" to play with him as your tank, even when he does get value, before he gets that value he puts the team in a position where they are basically in a 4v5, until they disrupt the enemy team from behind and since I am not at a high rank we as a team might not even be able to capitalize on that, since the dps might not even hit their shorts or i might not heal as effectively, the right target in that moment, of course I have never asked a ball player to switch, everyone should play how they want, but having ball as a tank is kind of more "stressfull" even if you win. Basically my point is that all other tanks can cover for dps and support's mistakes by not letting them die, ball does not do that for a good part of the fight
I've always hated ball for the opposite reason: He's fucking disgusting with the caveat that the player has to bee good with him. In the hands of a good ball player, he is absolutely INFURIATING to play against and he's one of the least fun heroes to play against. He is up there with a lot of the other High Mechanical Skill heroes that make the game a complete disease to play when in the hands of good players. I can respect the players that put the time and effort into mastering them, but I do not respect the characters they play. I also think he fundementally breaks that Damage, Tankiness, Mobility design philosophy but that's a different matter.
Good video, glad to see some ball love balls a rough pick since many balls dont know how to work with their team, and just play like theyre solo and in my experience are the most likely to feed. Being good at a character will always be better than meta, hence why there are some amazing mercy players at high comp levels. Shes not meta, but the players know her so well that it doesn’t matter. I think the second half of the vid was really out of place tho- it just went off the rails, and took away from the overall message. Similarly, while i agree on surface level with your points, its hard to say without context. Stats don’t determine a players effectiveness in a match in a game like overwatch. There are just too many factors that cant be counted for (eg. an ana sleeping a nano’d player, or a genji getting key picks to win team fights). In the context that you were feeding in a match, if agree with the dps. In the context that you played with restraint and knew when to go in, id agree with you. Its just a weird rant since theres no context.
the other thing that's kinda stupid about "pick [some other tank] because I want to win" is the fact that... what if someone is a ball one trick? what if they don't have much experience on any other tanks? or what if they're just worse at other tanks? (personally I'm the last one) if that person switches off ball without a reason (countering a counter for example), they'll be even mOre useless than that person thought ball would be. ESPECIALLY since now they're upset, so they'll play even worse than they otherwise would
Digging the style on this and the genji video! Although, imo, the support/dps rant ruined the pacing and made the video unnecessarily long, it also has nothing to do with ball. If you were to make more of these kind of rambles i think you should state your point quicker or have bullet points while talking so it's more structured. Maybe it would have been cool if the support/dps ramble was expanded into it's own video but I understand that you might not want to. Overall a cool vid though B)
As a game designer myself, I wanna ask everyone: If you could change anything about Hammond, improve his kit, change an ability etc. What would you do? Keep his kit the exact same? I'm genuinely curious!
I think his guns are kinda generic compared to his kit, all sorts of close range abilities and playstyle, but then he just has generic fps machine guns, it’s strange because they look to be 4 heavy machine guns that would do incredible damage (each one would realistically be stronger than an assault rifle like soldier’s or widow’s primary) but altogether they are no better than any DPS’s single gun. I think it would be cooler if they were something more interesting like flamethrowers (his original weapons during development) that would go well with his “get in, cause close-range chaos to multiple targets, and get out” play style
@@moltensh4dow506 Yeah, i always kinda found it weird they moved away from the flamethrower idea. Like they keep going for it, testing, then swapping the idea for a gun. I dont think it would be too hard to setup since its 2 Mai's guns but red and does damage over time than slows down. Coulda legit had ball smacks do 2x damage to burning enemies for some kind of combos. And the mine field bombs coulda set enemies on fire too.
@@moltensh4dow506 flamethrowers have a mixed track record in gaming (pyro from tf2) and I guess it was felt to be easier to introduce a hitscan automatic weapon. Although I agree Hammond with a flamethrower would have been a nice addition to weapon variety in the tank role.
@@ScoutOW2 I think they dropped the flamethrowers for several reasons 1. I think they thought flamethrowers would have been *too* good with how well they would go with his kit, and would lead to too much multi-target burst damage. 2. Even though flamethrowers go well with his playstyle, it wouldn’t go very well with his theme, since he’s all about physical contact and momentum, he’s wrecking ball, not fire ball. 3. Even though there’s killing, shooting, slashing and i think even some blood when an enemy gets damaged, and even enemies burning and wincing in pain when ashe lights them on fire, maybe Blizzard thought it would be too far for their age rating to have a character blazing enemies in a gout of fire *while* they are screaming in pain.
@@moltensh4dow506 1. Yeah it would be pretty OP if its as powerful as other weapons, but i dont think it should have killing potential, deals low damage but setting them on fire causing your main ball attack do more damage. 2. Yeah but their theme is always based on their moves, while having flamethrowers maybe they planned on calling him something like Fireball? He does turn into one rn while going high speeds. 3. Iunno about that tbh. They have stated fairly recently (i forgot the source) that theyre working on a fire guy recently. Which they keep doing over the entire lifespan of the game, but always end up reworking the flames out. And plus Ashe's TNT never got reworked in OW2 to not set enemies on fire. Maybe its cause (coming from someone who plays TF2) flamethrowers kinda dont feel as good to shoot. They dont have that impact ya know. In TF2 its always more fun to set the enemies on fire, swap to a shotgun or flare and finish them off. Just look at Mai, imagine her without that ice shard launch.