Whether you’re an itsy bitsy baby Overwatch player or that Junkrat who keeps using his exploding tire to hunt me and only me (I WILL FIND YOUR HOME), you’ll fare about the same against a room plastered with death lasers: poorly.
Popular Team Fortress 2 youtuber Muselk has been branching out into Overwatch‘s beta recently, and he’s brought his penchant for inventive strategies with him. Case in point: The Kill Room. The idea is remarkably simple, to the point that Blizzard should probably do a balance pass on this one.
Reality bending Dragon Ball Z scouter enthusiast Symmetra can stick tiny laser turrets on any surface she pleases. Muselk’s idea? Instead of spreading them out and wearing opponents thin, cram every possible laser sentry — not much of a threat at all individually — into a single compact room. Then lure people in and begin cackling maniacally.
The result? Hilarious carnage. Only the tank-iest of characters could make it through, albeit significantly worse for the wear. Everybody else got zapped to smithereens within 1-2 seconds of entering. It also worked pretty well in tight hallways and well-concealed archways.
I’m sure this is, to an extent, a strategy Blizzard expected people to attempt. I mean, look, we’ve all fantasised about being a James Bond villain at some point or another; tens of cleverly arrayed laser sentries and a little cunning can go a long way. Like moths to a flame. Good, GOOOOOD. But I’m not sure it should have the potential to be this devastating, especially with some Overwatch maps being centred around a series of clear choke points.
That said, the laser-ees in this situation do have themselves partially to blame. As Muselk points out in the video, there were routes around the rooms he picked. People could’ve flanked him and his partner in LASERCRIME. Sometimes, though, when faced with impossible odds, human beings find it in their very souls to transform into heroes. Sorry, not heroes. Idiots. I meant idiots. We see a challenge, a goal, or in this case, an enemy-shaped light at the end of the laser tunnel and shout, “CHARRRRRRRRRGE.” Typically, this decision-making process, if it could even be called a process, does not end well.
You know, on second thought, maybe this Overwatch strategy is an example of everything working as intended after all.
Comments
7 responses to “Overwatch’s Silliest New Strategy: Kill Rooms”
I’ve fallen victim to this, but it’s not that big a deal. I don’t think there are any maps where you can’t easily bypass them and do whatever you need to do.
The most effective use I’ve found of Symmetra’s turrets is to stick ’em where the healthpacks are. Because the damage they do is so lackluster, you need to target the enemies that are already hurting to reliably get kills with them.
Something is effective at killing in certain situations and there is already talk of it needing to be “fixed”. And this is in a beta? Hmm I can see where this game is headed…
Kotaku is overstating the effectiveness of Symmetra’s killroom. If you let Symmetra set up this killroom AND die to it time and time again without taking an alternate path then that player/team deserves to lose.
You need three Symmetra’s on your team for this to be effective meaning that you’re closing off many other strategies and these rooms can literally be avoid by walking around them. What needs to be balanced or fixed here exactly?
Why would they do a balance pass on this? To have enough turrets you need to commit two players to Symmetra. And then those two have to commit to a single room that is always avoidable, they even mention it in the video. It’s a neat strat, but only effective in low level pubs, and even then it will be less and less effective as the general pop learns to avoid it.
Kotaku, stop being a nerf whining @$#*%
This is why it’s a silly strategy (because it doesn’t really need to be nerfed or touched whatsoever). And Nathan says towards the end that you can take alternate paths and that it doesn’t actually need a balance pass. It’s light hearted.
There is one assault map with an arch that is a total choke point without alternate paths.
One or two people can lay enough lasers to insta frag Roadhog. With support it is a very difficult point to break, but not impossible.
It already is balanced, by Junkrat or Pharrah or any kind of splash damage that would make short work of that kill room. Thats what I think makes Overwatch interesting, not every character can handle every situation, but theres still a counter for pretty much anything if you switch to the right character for the given situation.