Overwatch Zenyatta

[Vlad 411]

This thread is for comments about our Zenyatta guide for Overwatch.

[Haven 0]

There's another less noticeable advantage: Zenyatta has no footsteep (like Genji) because he floats in the air. If the enemies haven't seen you, they won't hear you coming either.

I think we also need lists of "Good vs." and "Bad vs.". For Zeny, there's no real hero he counters hard. His orb of discord is simply a threat to any hero getting caught by it.

For hard counter, I can name Tracer as his bane. Reaper is also dangerous, but your ulti can mitigate his. Genji is another bad match for Zenyatta, kite him to a friend and let them tear him to shred because Discord Orb has 100% uptime on him unlike Tracer and Reaper. Practically anyone who can get closer than 5 footsteps from you without dying from Discord orb is a threat.

[Agapyr 0]

Despite being squishy as hell, Zenyatta can be played rediculously offensive. Orb of Discord has to be up as Long as something is in LOS. Going for headshots you can even melt a tank without problem. But as Zenyatta is one of the least mobile heroes you should always try to Keep your distance while still staying with your teammates. Be always on the lookout for flankers as you are an easy target.

[Vlad 411]

On June 6, 2016 at 4:31 AM, Haven said:

There's another less noticeable advantage: Zenyatta has no footsteep (like Genji) because he floats in the air. If the enemies haven't seen you, they won't hear you coming either.

I think we also need lists of "Good vs." and "Bad vs.". For Zeny, there's no real hero he counters hard. His orb of discord is simply a threat to any hero getting caught by it.

For hard counter, I can name Tracer as his bane. Reaper is also dangerous, but your ulti can mitigate his. Genji is another bad match for Zenyatta, kite him to a friend and let them tear him to shred because Discord Orb has 100% uptime on him unlike Tracer and Reaper. Practically anyone who can get closer than 5 footsteps from you without dying from Discord orb is a threat.

Thanks for the suggestion; I've added a mention of the lack of footstep noise. About the heroes the counters/synergies section, that's something we still plan to add, but I'll need to find the time to do it with all the WoW Legion updates that are coming :)

 

On June 6, 2016 at 5:25 PM, Agapyr said:

Despite being squishy as hell, Zenyatta can be played rediculously offensive. Orb of Discord has to be up as Long as something is in LOS. Going for headshots you can even melt a tank without problem. But as Zenyatta is one of the least mobile heroes you should always try to Keep your distance while still staying with your teammates. Be always on the lookout for flankers as you are an easy target.

I definitely agree that you can play offensively as Zenyatta, but as you also point out, your low mobility means it's usually better to keep your distance. I'm not going to modify the guide for now about this (since I don't think newer players really need to be told to try to play offensively as Zenyatta), but I'll monitor the issue and maybe edit it later. Thanks.

[Agapyr 0]

On ‎08‎.‎06‎.‎2016 at 11:05 AM, Vlad said:

...I don't think newer players really need to be told to try to play offensively as Zenyatta...

Agreeing with you on that. New players should try to play according to the selected role. As Zenyatta that is not necessarily being in the middle of the enemies trying to get a solo teamkill. At least you are no longer a guaranteed onehit for Widowmaker.

[Guest AmiBorg]

Single bodyshot from Widowmaker no longer kills Zenyatta.

[Vlad 411]

On June 29, 2016 at 10:38 PM, Guest AmiBorg said:

Single bodyshot from Widowmaker no longer kills Zenyatta.

Ah, thanks for pointing this out. I had forgotten to remove it from here, I only removed them from the Widowmaker guide :) Doing it now!

[Guest Rumbleburst]

Orb of Discord has been nerfed to only increase damage by 30% instead of 50%.

[Guest Helmic]

We need another update.

Zenyatta is no longer one of three healers.  Ana exists now with a similar role of off-healer and he often has to be compared to her for value.

Zenyatta's right click no longer does reduced damage per hit and has quite a few more uses.  Using RMB to fight Tracers or Genjis is useful because you can charge your shots while they're using their mobility and survival abilities, waiting until after the blinks and double jumps and reflects to then throw multiple balls rapidly at them and likely hitting with at least one.

Orb of Harmony being placed on flankers is generally considered good practice as now Zenyatta's healing is even less impressive when compared to Mercy's or Ana's.  Orbing a Winston, Genji, or Tracer as they're about to dive is very normal, and now that Zenyatta isn't as extraordinarily fragile as the guide still implies (200 HP, 150 of which is shielding) he can afford to maintain that line of sight - and even if the orb goes off, 3 seconds of healing at 30 HPS is still a shitload of near-invulnerability for those heroes, you can just reapply the orb to someone else.

Since so much of Zenyatta's value comes from discord orb, there really should be more info about using it properly.  It no longer gives a 50% boost to damage against a target and placing it on more wily heroes might not be the best idea; ease of hitting a target for your entire team really needs to factor into your play, and you should always be discording out-of-position enemies in particular as they're very easy for your team to quickly burst down.  You should also emphasize the need for the Zenyatta to verbally call out targets - focus fire in Overwatch is powerful, and Zenyatta in particular struggles to get any value without it.

Transcendence is best used to counter enemy ults - most famously Genji's Dragonblade which now lasts only 6 seconds, the same length of Zen's ult.  Using it to just heal is a bit of a waste, Zen's ult charges rather quickly as he can both deal damage and heal and if he can trade his ult to both nullify a more expensive enemy ult AND make his team nearly invincible during the process so that they can deal their own damage he can very easily swing a fight.  Using it as part of an offensive push has the added downside of restricting where your allies can move - unlike Sound Barrier allies need to crowd around Zenyatta and it's not unusual for enemies to just run away for a little bit to wait it out with the enemy team having issues chasing them for fear of getting caught outside the aura.  You're also likely to waste several seconds in transit.

There should also be a quick mention about using Transcendence with a Lucio on the same team.  Very often both supports will ult to counter the same enemy ult, resulting in a dramatic waste that the enemy can exploit.  Transcendence is cheaper and activates instantly while Sound Barrier has a delay and costs much more, so generally the Zen should ult first against ults he can counter while the Lucio ult should be used second.

[Valks 2,375]

20 hours ago, Guest Helmic said:

We need another update.

The guide does need reviewing, I agree. I'll make a note for our writers and make sure it gets reviewed. Thanks for your in-depth comments on the new-style of Zen! :)

[Guest Red Drift]

One thing it seems that EVERYONE has missed, and as a zen main, is my MOST utilized technique out of anything, and that is the orb of destruction (alternate fire) melee cancel. The reason this is SO useful, is when charging, you cannot place orbs on anyone, and due to the firing time, often puts you in a dangerous position if a fast flanker surprises you. With the melee cancel, you can stop the charge and stop the fire time (it still uses the ammo). This can be useful in a number of situations, firstly; if you are behind your team and you catch sight of a dangerous flanker, you can cancel the charge to place an orb on them faster and start firing the normal fire of orb of destruction to effectively stop them from taking you out while you are releasing your charged shot. Secondly; if you are charging the shot, and a teammate becomes drastically endangered, you can cancel the charge, allowing you to place an orb on them significantly quicker allowing a teammate to survive when otherwise they would have died. Thirdly; it can be used if you do not want to reveal your location, if you see that it is a dangerous shot and will reveal your location to enemies making you vulnerable, you can cancel the shot in sacrifice for the ammo allowing for a retreat. And lastly; if an enemy is clearly about to ult and you have your alternate fire shot charged, you can quickly cancel it to place a discord orb on them (HOWEVER, note, it may be more effective in the case of mccree, reaper, etc. to just continue the charge shot as they are very slow moving so the charge shot will kill them instantly).

[Shine 144]

Thanks red drift, it is a minor oversight but definately useful. I think a mention can be made of the melee cancel. Currently our OW guides are lackluster in some area's (ana and sombra are not included yet for example) but this is something that will get fixed over time.

I don't play zen much but I will be using this melee cancel from now on. might get me out of some sticky situations.