Thoughts on Supervive after 40 hours
Hello.
Over the past several weeks, I've been sharing my thoughts on Supervive on this subreddit, and wanted to continue this tradition by sharing my thoughts after playing for 40 hours.
I just want to remind people that the purpose for sharing this is to provide the devs with feedback and to generate discussion within the community. Just because my rank is mid and my skill level is mediocre doesn’t mean that my feedback is any less relevant than anyone else’s feedback in the community. The devs need our feedback to make the game better, and I make this post to do my part in helping Theorycraft to make this the best game it can be.
Addendums ------------
Before I get to the new stuff I want to talk about, I want to talk about some stuff that I mentioned in previous posts and how my opinion has changed on them, especially in conjunction with the most recent patch. Note that I won't talk about my opinions on the new patch overall (I haven't played it yet, and am actually rounding up my playtime to 40 hours to make this post instead of rounding down in my previous posts) except in how my opinions from previous posts changed and/or affected stuff in the current patch.
- In my first post, I talked about how I felt like the level cap was a genius idea to keep players from snowballing. In recent patches, I've noticed that it actually does the opposite: if a player gets enough kills to hit level 5 during the first day, then they get their ultimate and therefore a massive level lead that makes it hard for other players to catch back up. This was changed in today's patch.
- Some of my suggestions in my posts have actually gotten into the game. Match history now correctly refers to top 10 in duos as top 10 (instead of top 5), players now gain RP as a solo player (although I felt it would fit better for just squads and that it would be most important for high level players), I've had significantly fewer games that are mostly bots, and as of today's patch you can now see who your teammates were in your match history
- I've spent more time on the discord, and noticed that some of my feedback and suggestions were mirrored between the two sources, even if they're not 1-1. Also, I learned that at one point there was a Vamp Helmet, which would fix one of my major itemization issues I mentioned in my first post (although it was probably removed for a reason).
What I've Learned and What I'm Struggling With ------------
This is going to be shorter than this section in my previous post because I would like to give my character pool their own sections (apart from Myth, I'm taking a break from her to make sure my other characters are up to par), but I will talk about some other things I've learned.
The biggest thing I've done is I've reached Plat III. This isn't much, but it's higher than I was before the reset, and is solid proof that my previous plat run was not a fluke. Furthermore, I've also (embarrassingly) learned that you can only have 1 level 3 ability (currently level 4 after the patch) at a time, as I just assumed I've been getting level 3 on two abilities and then somehow had an extra ability point at level 9. Finally, I've been watching some guides (particularly from Paz and Zik), and have started implementing some advanced techniques like feathering the glider and staggering gliders during wind rings for a speed boost.
The main thing I'm struggling with is PvP combat. I'm getting into more high-elo lobbies and finding players that are either way better than me and either severely outplaying me in a way that makes me feel like I can't do anything or doing the same to other players in the lobby and finding me with a huge level/item lead that makes it a non-fight from the start. I might start playing arena to fix this problem though, since that mode is more PvP combat heavy.
Everything else I've been mentioning as something I'm learning and/or struggling with applies to this post.
Oath ---------
I have a confession: I dropped Oath. I did so for multiple reasons:
1. I was having an extremely difficult time picking him up (I talked about this in my last post)
2. I feel like I have very little agency at long ranges or if my teammate dies (apart from resurrecting them)
3. Building tank feels very bad in the early game, which is fine for some characters but not for Oath
4. I couldn't find a build I liked on him that did what I wanted
5. I found someone to replace him as my 4th character
Beebo ---------
I tried Beebo for my last post and didn't think he was a character I wanted to commit to long-term. However, I changed my mind when I decided to look at him again, and this time he just clicked.
What changed is that I realized that his RMB has a 1.4 second cooldown, and that I should be treating that as a LMB the way Myth or Shrike use their LMB. I've recognized that Mana Blade is a must (I personally run Rampage on him), but I've been struggling to find a second item I like. I've been hovering between Turbo Booster and Overdrive, with the only thing I'm confident in is that Tech Blade is not worth it on him. He was even the character I was playing when I got to plat this season, and I won that game with him too.
I still have a lot to learn with him too. I've been struggling to use both his Q and his R in combat, as I keep forgetting to recast the Q and the R I keep missing in embarrassing fashion (although the recent bugfixes should change things).
I do have a couple complaints. One is that Beebo's level 3 upgrades aren't very good (Q seems fine, but the other two are kind of awful). My other one (which seems to at least be partially fixed in the patch) was that he was very squishy for being a melee character where half his kit requires him to have some amount of durability.
Bishop ---------
Bishop has been, by far, the hunter that has clicked with me the most. Having that mix of ranged presence with initiating ability has been an absolute blast to play, and has lead to Bishop being my winningest hunter, with 7 wins (at least 2 in predominantly PvP games at a mid-high level). Keep in mind that this is all while using an AWFUL level order: I've been running RMB max, but I have literally never punched a satchel in my life and still have trouble aiming it, giving me a nearly useless upgrade.
I do want to share one win story, however, because I was really happy with this one. I'm playing Bishop with a Shrike player against another team with a Hudson and a Shrike, in one of the ice-themed areas in the top of the map (I think it was in the area right above the Academy. If you know anything about Hudson, it's that he's really good in big choke points where he doesn't need to change his RMB direction, and he was threatening to set up in one of these choke points. We manage to find him before he could set up, and I almost instantly ult him, punch him into the wall right next to me, and my Shrike follows up and kills him before he can do anything. I die for my troubles, and my Shrike wins the mirror to win the match. It felt so good in the moment, because that's what I love about playing tanks: going in, inflict tons of chaos, and set my team up for a teamfight win.
Celeste ----------
I'd like to finish by talking about my time with Celeste. Celeste has been one of my most played hunters since I started, yet I also feel like I have habits from back when I started that I need to break. Most notably, I think I might be playing too safe in some circumstances when I have to engage on my opponents with my shift in order to win the fight.
I've also gotten one win with Celeste since my previous post, and I will say: winning a round by killing with her ult is probably one of the best-feeling moves to win with in the game.