Everyone’s playing Overwatch, even in the Heroes rotation

Today in Overwatch news… wait, what? This post is about Heroes of the Storm? Oh. Uh. Excuse me.

You may have wished you read that Overwatch post because very little is happening in Heroes this week — and we’re seeing a lot of players hitting up the just-launched Overwatch instead. And that includes Team Blizzard Watch. As Mitch succinctly stated, “My Heroes thoughts: errbody’s gonna be playing Overwatch so who cares? #YOLO360noscope”

Well, that’s team commitment for you. Chromie and a bunch of hero changes went live last week, but this week even the Heroes team seems to be Overwatch-obsessed, putting Tracer into the free rotation for the first time and adding a new Widowmaker skin for Nova.

But there’s still a new rotation, so let’s get to it.

Not on the rotation, but still a popular choice amongst team members who aren’t totally drawn in by Overwatch is newcomer Chromie. We really love her, but if you haven’t picked her up yet we recommend waiting until next week when her price will drop down to 10,000 gold.

Dan: I’ve been playing just about no one but Chromie since she hit the test server two weeks ago and still can’t get enough of her. I top the kill list for my group more often than not by timing her W + Q combo to land at the same time. Add to that her level 1 Compounding Aether quest talent to increase the damage of her Shifting Sands Q and the level 4 Piercing Sands talent that makes her Q hit two enemies instead of one to accelerate finishing the quest. Soon she is a monster taking out any enemy dumb enough sit still long enough to be taken out by her combo. Good times.

Alex: Can my published response to all this be “Chromie sux”?

And now this week’s rotation:

Assassins

Falstad

Anna: On the pro scene Falstad is a favorite, with big DPS and unmatched global mobility. You can never be totally sure where his gryphon will take him. Is he soaking top lane? Nope, wait, he’s down by the bottom lane objective. Use this to your advantage to mop up every last drop of XP you can.

Li-Ming (Unlocked at player level 12)

Anna: I’ve been playing Li-Ming a lot recently. She is very, very tricky to play well, because so many of her abilities are longer-range skillshots. However, getting an Arcane Orb kill blind through the bushes across some terrain (uphill in the snow) is such a rush. If you want to try her out by all means do, but if you’d like to master her, I’d suggest watching a pro stream her so you can see how they take advantage of her skillshot-heavy kit.

Tracer (Unlocked at player level 15)

Anna: Get in line, Overwatch is the new hotness. Tracer is the new hotness, too. Her mobility makes her an absolute terror in the Nexus. She’s a particularly solid pick for Hero League, a bit less favored on the pro scene. While dive-heavy comps are common in both, without a shotcaller to direct the team to chew through her nougaty center, Tracer can get away with literal murder easily in less organized groups. So, because this is the first time she’s on free rotation, expect your early week Tracers to feed pretty hard while your teammates get their feet under them.

Specialists

Sylvanas

Anna: Sylvanas is an excellent choice if you know you’re going into a map with a big boss. With her trait, she can lock down the enemy structures from firing while the Infernal or Dragon Knight or whatever destroys them, meaning they’ll be nice and healthy when it’s time to knock down that core.

Zagara

Support

Li Li

Tassadar (Unlocked at player level 5)

Warriors

E.T.C.

Sonya

Anna: Raise the oooAAAHHHHHs for Sonya. She’s seeing a bit more play now that bruisers are back in vogue, but usually only after Illidan or Thrall in the pros. She has more survival options but doesn’t have quite as much burst, so she doesn’t fit quite as well in the meta. Her Ancient Spear makes her excellent at diving though. Luckily for fledgling Sonyas, there aren’t many stuns this week. Beware heroes like Muradin and Kerrigan, with knockbacks and stuns that interrupt her Whirlwind healing.

Stitches (Unlocked at player level 7)

This week’s freebies should be going live soon, so jump online to take advantage of them. And, as always, we’ll see you in the Nexus!