Overwatch pro Surefour reveals movement tricks to improve your play

DPS heroes can often make or break a team’s performance in Overwatch, and fortunately, these new tips from Toronto Defiant’s Lane ‘Surefour’ Roberts can ensure you get a leg up over the competition in no time.

One of the most accomplished DPS players in Overwatch history, Surefour is known for his flashy aim on hitscan heroes such as Widowmaker and Tracer. 

While aim often speaks for itself, movement also plays a major role in winning, and Surefour has revealed a handy trick that will help players improve their mobility on a host of heroes, and might overhaul the way you think about movement in Overwatch entirely.

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While a number of Workshop modes shake up the formula and tweak familiar game types, plenty of creations serve as a means in which to practice certain heroes. Rather than having to load into a quick play match or simply shoot defenseless targets in the practice range, Workshop modes can level up monotonous routines and help you reach the next level on a wide array of characters. 

Putting a unique twist on the game as a whole, Surefour showcased a unique Workshop mode that transitions the camera from that of a first-person perspective, to an over-the-shoulder third-person point of view.

Enabling this unique perspective sheds new light on the way in which heroes move around in the world of Overwatch. From a third-person overview, it can be far easier to asses just how your movement is actually visualized by the character model.

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Put bluntly, “one of the best ways to survive long enough in Overwatch, is to abuse movement mechanics,” Surefour argues, and with the third-person Workshop mode, players are able to easily gauge the effectiveness of their movement tactics.”

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“The best way to learn how to move and abuse these mechanics in Overwatch, is you can go into a custom game, look up one of the third-person mods, and you can just see how your character moves.”

Referred to as an “AD/AD spam,” this label is given to the janky movement of DPS heroes that appear to be strafing from side to side quickly. This is done in order to make yourself a far more difficult target to hit. With your hitbox constantly changing, it can be challenging for players to connect with lethal shots.

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However, Surefour outlined that spamming too quickly can actually be detrimental. “If you do too tight of an AD/AD, you stay in the same spot. But if you get the pattern right,” and allow for slightly bigger movements in each direction, “it becomes very hard for people to shoot you.”

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While this effect can be replicated on a number of heroes, the pro argues it is most effective when playing Tracer. When you spam the maneuver in third person, you’ll see Tracer’s head is moving incredibly far due to her full-body lean, as opposed to a more subtle adjustment from the likes of Soldier: 76 and McCree.

Through the third-person mode, you’re able to see the impact of not only strafing, but crouching as well. While some heroes crouch quite deeply and lower their overall hitbox as a result, others remain at roughly the same height.

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Ashe for instance, barely moves her head down at all when entering a crouched stance. “All crouching does when playing Ashe is make you move slower,” Surefour explained. “Most of the time it’s just better to AD/AD and never crouch.”

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Aiming and timing the use of your abilities are obviously important factors in Overwatch, however movement and positioning can be just as vital.

Diving into this third-person mode and coming to grips with the unique movement of each character could be just what you need to improve your performance and survive far more often in heated battles.