The Importance of Lucio: The Art of Engaging and Disengaging

Knowing when to engage and disengage as a team is a vital skill high-level players should be aware of. Lucio is the only hero in the game that provides a movement boost. A large part of playing with a Lucio is communicating with your teammates on telling them when to engage and when to disengage as a team. Being able to engage properly as a unit will allow you to catch people off-guard and out of position. Finding enemies who are in that state will allow your team to pick up free kills seconds before a team fight erupts. Knowing when to disengage is also an important skill to learn when playing Overwatch. When the enemy team decides to pop ultimates, being able to disengage as a team will make sure those ultimates are wasted. Being able to disengage with one Lucio speed boost away will give your team an advantage in the ultimate economy.

Engaging – Genji dashes in with Dragonblade

In this situation, your Genji has decided to use his Dragonblade to engage the enemy. Genji’s Dragonblade is powerful but becomes even more powerful when the team follows up with him. Playing Lucio in this situation, it is important to communicate with your team to push in when the Genji activates his Ultimate. Pushing in with your Genji allows your team to either finish off kills or deal enough damage to set up kills for Genji. By doing this, Genji can get his Dash resets, allowing him to have an easier time getting all the kills required to win the team fight. Again, it is imperative that you communicate with your Genji asking him when he is going to use his ultimate. Try and keep your speed boost for this exact situation to push in your teammates into the fight.

This is a perfect example of when and why you should engage as a team. The enemy team should be focused on the Genji as he is using his ultimate. If they do focus on the Genji swinging away with his Dragonblade, it allows the rest of your team to potentially clean up after the Genji. The other reason that you should be engaging with the Genji’s Dragonblade is that you create a massive distraction for the enemy team. This creates space for your Genji to clean up with his ultimate.

Disengaging - Enemy Nano Visor on the high ground

 

In this situation, you don't have a Sound Barrier and the enemy team's Soldier 76 has used his Tactical Visor in conjunction with Ana’s Nano Boost. The Soldier 76 positioned on top of the buildings with everyone in his sights. Your team is posted at the gate, pushing the payload. In this situation, it is important to understand that your whole team can simply back off back into the courtyard of Hollywood Point A. Backing off into the courtyard makes it impossible for the Soldier 76 who is positioned on top of the buildings to have line of sight of your team. By disengaging and falling back, it completely wastes the Soldier 76's ultimate while not using any other ultimates to counteract the enemy.

This is an excellent example of when to disengage from a fight. It is important in Overwatch to understand that you cannot win every fight with brute force. Understanding when a fight is lost and falling back limits the amount of ultimate charge the enemy team can get while making them waste their own. Disengaging here allows your team to have the edge regarding the ultimate economy during the game. In this situation, backing off has made the enemy use two of their ultimates while all you've done is use a Lucio boost ability.

Final Thoughts

Lucio has a higher pick rate the more you climb the Overwatch ranked ladder. Usually, players who have a better understanding of the game know the importance of Lucio because of the scenarios which I have discussed. With one ability making you able to start fights and run away from fights, you will not have a single ability more valuable. This makes Lucio the most picked hero in professional play for a reason and being able to understand Lucio's role and why he is so important will give you a better player.

If you have any questions or want to give any feedback on the article, be sure to message me on Twitter @Zefhus

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