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Blog entry by Carri Coats

Overwatch vs. Battleborn: Which is the Better Hero Shooter?

Overwatch vs. Battleborn: Which is the Better Hero Shooter?

Tracer's signature move is her Blink, which allows her to warp in any direction up to three times in a row. The key here is to make sure that you always have at least one blink at your disposal, as getting caught in a standard one-on-one firefight without movement abilities almost always leaves Tracer at a major disadvantage. One of the cooler aspects of her Blink is that it can totally be used to get across large gaps, allowing her to sneak around characters like Bastion and Widowmaker. Tracer's Recall ability allows her to rewind time in a manner similar to that seen in Super Time Force, allowing her to move back to a previous position. What makes this ability particularly special is that Tracer's ammo and health counts will be restored to whatever they were at that particular point in time, so this ability is absolutely crucial for fighting against characters with far more health than her. Finally, her ultimate is the Pulse Bomb, which is essentially a sticky grenade with a massive damage count and relatively low area of effect. Bear in mind that the Pulse Bomb can totally kill Tracer, so if you're looking to throw it into a crowd of enemies, make sure that you have your Blink or Recall available to get out of the danger zone.

In addition to the Concussion Mine, Junkrat's Steel Trap is effective when used strategically. By placing a large bear trap on the ground, Junkrat has the ability to lock any foe who walks over it in place for a set amount of time. Not only does this make it super simple to eliminate players with the Frag Launcher, but it also is going to enable other players to get easy eliminations as well. Finally, Junkrat has one of the most devastating ultimates out of the entire roster, as his Rip-Tire can be steered into groups of enemies before it's remotely detonated. Needless to say, the keys to the Rip-Tire are pretty simple: guide it into a group of enemies (often on the objective) and ensure that Junkrat is hidden while he's controlling it.

Besides the size of this update, the rate at which this Heroes of the Storm update arrived is particularly noteworthy. Since they resumed in 2022, most of these updates have had two to three months between them, and about a month between the patch's arrival on the Public Test Realm and the live release. Not only did this patch arrive faster than usual – less than two months after the last Heroes of the Storm update – but it also came the same month as it hit the PTR. While this could mean nothing, Heroes of the Storm ’s 10-year anniversary is on June 2, leading many fans to wonder if the increased attention could herald something big in store for the MOBA's big milest

Heroes of the Storm has officially rolled out the first update of 2025, featuring some balance changes, bug fixes, and the return of Brawl Mode. Players can enjoy these special game modes on a rotating, biweekly basis in Heroes of the Storm right now, starting with the Lunar Rocket Racing minig

Despite what my love of recent independent titles like Hyper Light Drifter , Firewatch and The Banner Saga 2 might suggest, I have a strong history with games of a more bombastic persuasion. My most played game of all time, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, found a way to capitalize on the combination of my love for multiplayer chaos and my susceptibility to addictive feedback loops. Granted, I would never claim that Modern Warfare 2 is some sort of godlike game, but there was something about its complete lack of balance and downright brilliant map design that tapped into a very specific portion of my mind.

Aside from Tracer, Reaper seems to be a favorite for more casual players (AKA you'll sometimes see full teams comprised of the two). Despite his relatively low barrier of entry, this hero-hunting mercenary also boasts a pretty high skill ceiling. Reaper's Hellfire Shotguns are absolutely devastating from short range, though they dramatically lose effectiveness as encounter distance increases. For this reason, you're going to always want to try and attack him from mid-to-long range. What's more, Reaper generates a collectible health orb whenever he kills a foe, meaning that he can go on some absolutely devastating runs if opposing players get too close.

Perhaps the slowest character of the bunch, Roadhog is a tank in every sense of the term. With 600 hitpoints, Roadhog has the highest health count of any of Overwatch's heroes, and he puts that to good use with his Scrap Gun, a shotgun-like weapon with diminishing power based on range. If you choose to play as this beer-gutted savage, you're going to want to be right up in the action at all times, as one shot from point-blank range will take out pretty much any other hero. Of course, this also means that he's fairly vulnerable to snipers, as he's a massive target that can't really fight back against enemies that are out of range of his weapons and abilities.

At the time that I'm writing this, I've completed 101 matches in Overwatch's current beta. It's affected my normally rigorous workout schedule, free In-game rewards my level of contact with friends and family and the number of hours of sleep that I've gotten. When I booted up Overwatch to pull that statistic from my Career Profile, I had to consciously force myself to exit the application in order to finish this article. Yes, I have a genuine Overwatch problem, and it's kind of the greatest thing ever.

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