Blizzard's team shooter Overwatch was in the first stress test weekend in the past 3 days. Many players have got a beta invite to get their hands on the hype. So how was the stress beta? As Overwatch is not free-to-play and PC standard editon is priced at $39.99 so is it worth pre-ordering or not? Below we've collected some pros and cons from players who managed to get into the beta and check out what they got to say.
1. Focusing on team play not just individuals performance - from redditor XeonTrack
I really like the way blizzard put together the 'number screen' at the end..."Put team in front of personal performance"...And it is great...A comparison of personal performances in a team game is nonsense...Especially in a gameplay such as Overwatch....Diverse character features of tanks, supports, Flankers, snipers, and DPS characters compounding in a single team will have diverse scores incomparable to each other in any sense....And accordingly, displaying the performance of your self, separately, playing a specific character personally will give you a rating in the skill level of you have achieved in the relevant fields...This highlight upon entertainment within team coordination and not single filed player performance is revolutionary...Its more accessible to the casual player, while will change the perception of veteran players overtime, highlighting gameplay, teamwork over single player ambitions...
2. "On fire system is good" - from redditor Kaissy
3. Balance is good - from redditor Tails6666Honestly, I think the "on fire" system does a really good job at this actually. You can generally see who's doing well with the fire icons.
4. "Varied characters + shorter match time" - from redditor GumpyljI have seen that gameplay is amazingly fun and balance is pretty good even if some characters feel a little weak or a little strong everyone has their niche based on my perspective.
5. A blast to play - from redditor BlackeoI can't believe how much I'm enjoying the game... I hate first person shooters, but Overwatch just has so much character and such varied gameplay between characters, that it is able to capture my interest a great deal. Shorter match time was a very good design choice, as it allows for a quick match here and there.
Overwatch was just in stress beta test so naturally expecting some flaws.The game is seriously a blast to play. Gets my blood pumping in a great way. It runs smooth as butter with minimal lag so far on my slightly above recommended specs computer and hit detection feels crisp. Comp stacking wasn't an issue and no hero felt completely overpowered over any other one especially with the option to openly switch between them.
The Cons:
1. General UI needs a lot of work - from redditor icyone
2. Damage indicators not that clear - from redditor DangasdangAlt-tabbing doesn't just minimize the game, it changes the settings from "fullscreen" to "windowed". Changing the setting back to fullscreen results in 5 screen refreshes and about 5-10 seconds of waiting.
Because you can't connect to the servers to play a game at the moment, you notice there's no indication you're even trying to connect. No loading screen, no animation indicating the game is working, just all the menu options greyed out for 30 seconds.
If you click play from the bnet launcher, sometimes nothing happens for an extended period of time but the button says "Playing" and then goes back to "Play". Clicking play loads two instances of Overwatch, but resets your video settings to install defaults.
Edit: Adding to general UI woes: Click Play and the "Searching for game..." box appears in the upper right. To signify that it found a game, it takes you to a loading screen for the map. Instead of dumping you into the game, it returns you to the menu with a new box in the upper right "Joining game..." and then times out. The loading screen should be dumping me into the game or failing, not loading me to another menu screen.
3. Not friendly to newbies - from redditor EmelenziaTo piggyback on, I'm finding damage indicators a bit vague at times. Been killed by a few Pharahs right next to me because I didn't realize I was being hit from that side. Also noticed some players being oblivious to my flanks.
4. Random fps drop - from redditor JuggerDadBrand new to the game I find the character suggestion to be really confusing.
Team needs a Sniper! Team needs a Builder.
What is a builder ? There literally no screen in entire game that calls heroes builders. I am sure Torb falls under it. But what is a builder ? Why is it important to have ? Do I really even need a builder ?
When Heroes have hidden sub-roles on top of their primary roles it just makes things really confusing.
5. Lack of kill feed and proper score board - from redditor danger_robotWhat's up with the random fps drop? like randomly I go to like 5 fps for like 5 seconds and then everything is fine.
Edit: have 2 r9 280x AMD cards.
6. The Party System needs some rework - from forum user EpicinsanityThe two biggest design decisions I don't like about the game are the lack of a kill feed and a proper score board.
I understand that they are promoting team play withe scoreboard and that different hero contribute differently. My issue is that pressing tab tells me just about nothing about the current game. It shows me my team's heroes, who is alive (if i look closely), and my own performance stats. I have no real idea how i'm doing in relation to my team or if my team is performing better than the enemy team. I basically never press tab. It doesn't help much.
The lack of a kill feed is the most perplexing thing about the game. It's hard to tell if your team wipes unless you are right on top of them. If you're a tracer, genji, reaper, or any of the other heros who are meant to be a little sneakier/flank heros it's actually a big deal if you don't know your team's status. Did 4 people on my team just die and are 20 seconds away from the front line at the spawn? Again, there is no way to know this unless you are right on top of your team. Another thing that the kill feed would do is alert you if an enemy is performing really well and needs to be countered. For example if a widowmaker is racking up kills right now there is no way to know unless your team actually communicates that. With a kill feed it would be very clear who is a major threat on the other team. Blizzard probably doesn't want "watching the feed" to be a gaming skill that is required/rewarded but a kill feed is in every esport game....
Having been playing with friends, I have discovered (like many others) that the party system needs some work/attention. If you have 4 people in a pre-made group who queue up together, right now if a 5th person wants to join, you have to all leave the group/game, and remake the group adding the 5th person. You have to pass lead around a few times to get everyone invited and takes some time.
So what about you? Been there in the first beta weekend? Do you think Overwatch is worth pre-ordering? Welcome to share your opinions with us in the comment below!
Death Knight Tier 19 Mythic
Strong removal: Mage is the class with strongest removal in the game. Most notable ones are Frostbolt and Fireball which are insanely good for their mana cost. Besides those there are other good removals for their mana cost like Flame Canon or Dragon’s Breath. It is nearly impossible to counter all the removals that Mage might have. However you do want to keep in mind what removals Mage might still have in hand. For example if you notice that instead of killing your minion with a fireball Mage decides to play a minion chances are that most likely Mage doesn’t have a Fireball or Frostbolt in hand. Knowing what cards Mage has or doesn’t have is essential if you want to have an upper hand.
Pings: Mage has a lot of pings not only from her hero power but also from cards like 
Forcing into awkward situations: It is easy to force Mage to play different ways than she wants forcing awkward trades or situations when Mage doesn’t use her cards or mana efficiently allowing you to get a tempo or card advantage. For example you see that your opponent passing turn 1 without playing anything you know that she doesn’t have a 1 drop. Following that on turn 3 you play a Murloc Raider. That way mage is forced to ping on turn 3 which is a huge tempo loss for her. You follow that up with a strong turn and now you are suddenly ahead on tempo a lot in exchange for 1 card.
Mage’s hero power is highly conditional as mentioned before. It can either kill a minion or deal 1 damage to face for 2 mana. If you manage to force Mage into bad trades you will out tempo her and gain a significant board advantage. All you have to do is play a minion or trade it into another minion so it has 1 health. That will slow down mage by 2 mana allowing you to regain board advantage. Also worth noting that Mage’s hero power is a lot more useless in the late game because in the late game very rarely will a minion have 1 health. That’s why Mage’s hero power will hit the face for 1 damage for 2 mana which isn’t as impactful.
