Date played: January 15th, 17th and 18th
Platform: PS4
Today's hero is Zarya.
Role: Tank
Difficulty: ★★★
HP: 200
Armor: 0
Shields: 200
Total: 400
Favorite quote: "In Russia, game plays you."
Favorite map to play on: Oasis
Appearance
Zarya has a great, unique look. She is a large Russian woman with short, hot-pink hair. She sports a big tattoo on her left arm and wears heavy armor on her chest and legs. She's got a really nice smile and honestly, I think she's very pretty. She is a professional weight-lifter too, so she's got some big fucking arms. She speaks Russian very often during gameplay, and most of her voice lines are hilarious. Her weapon is gigantic and I think it just might be my favorite looking main weapon in the game.
Skills
Weaknesses
Zarya is one of my favorite heroes in the game, maybe even my second favorite after Reinhardt. She excels on attack or on control maps, though I'll usually stick to Rein for defense. She is extremely durable, and she can dish out some massive damage once her weapon is charged up.
Her strongest ability has to be her shields though. It's great at stopping a big attack, like a Roadhog Hook, a Reaper Death Blossom or even a D.Va self-destruct. It can save allies too, like someone that is being pinned by a Reinhardt charge or someone stuck by a Tracer Pulse Bomb.
Because of the way her weapon works, Zarya often begins battles on the back line, then once she's shielded enough damage, she'll move to the front of the fray with her dangerous Particle Cannon. She works great against Genji too, since he can't deflect the beam.
Zarya is even better when paired with another tank, any of them really. That way, she can duck out to let her shields and cooldowns recharge. She works particularly well with Mei also... A frozen enemy is easy for Zarya to melt down.
Reinhardt might just be the hardest hero to fight as Zarya. He can block all of her attacks, and can even force her out of position with a well-timed charge. I also have trouble against good snipers as Zarya, because her only way to defend herself is with the Particle Barrier, and when it's not available, she's a really easy target for Widow, Ana or Hanzo.
I really fucking love Zarya. Not only is she a powerful and versatile hero, she's also one of the most engaging and fun heroes to actually play. Timing her barriers correctly and knowing when to duck in and out of combat is so much fun! She's also one of the heroes that makes you feel really powerful when things go right. You feel fucking invincible with her when things go well.
Worst enemy: Reinhardt
Best teammate: Mei
Most satisfying kill: D.Va
Rating ★★★★★
Platform: PS4
Today's hero is Zarya.
Role: Tank
Difficulty: ★★★
HP: 200
Armor: 0
Shields: 200
Total: 400
Favorite quote: "In Russia, game plays you."
Favorite map to play on: Oasis
Appearance
Zarya has a great, unique look. She is a large Russian woman with short, hot-pink hair. She sports a big tattoo on her left arm and wears heavy armor on her chest and legs. She's got a really nice smile and honestly, I think she's very pretty. She is a professional weight-lifter too, so she's got some big fucking arms. She speaks Russian very often during gameplay, and most of her voice lines are hilarious. Her weapon is gigantic and I think it just might be my favorite looking main weapon in the game.
Skills
- Particle Cannon: Zarya's main weapon. It shoots a close to mid-range beam. Alternatively, she can lob an energy grenade that damages all enemies in a small radius.
- Particle Barrier: Zarya shields herself with an energy bubble that lasts for 2 seconds and can absorb 200 damage. Any damage absorbed by the shield is transformed into energy for the Particle Cannon.
- Projected Barrier: This is the same as the Particle Barrier, but it shields a teammate instead.
- Energy: Any damage blocked by the barriers is transformed into energy that boosts the particle cannon's damage output. There's a little meter that shows the amount of charge, from 0-100. The higher the number, the bigger the damage.
- Ultimate - Graviton Surge: Zarya launches a projectile that creates a sort of gravity well, pulling any nearby enemies into it, holding them in a small area for 4 seconds.
- Zarya eats D.Va alive. D.Va's main defense system, the Defense Matrix, does not block Zarya's particle cannon beam. This means that Zarya can put a lot of pressure on D.Va and make her retreat, or die.
- No hero snowballs better than Zarya. She's a little tough to get going at first, but once you block a few shots and get that charge level higher on her gun, she can melt people's faces off real quick, a little bit like Symmetra can. Plus, her lobbed energy grenades can deal a lot of damage to a clumped group.
- Zarya is a lot more resilient than her 400 health pool suggests. While she has the least amount of hit points of any tank, half of it is shields that recharge, and her Particle Barrier is an extra 200 HP of protection. Zaray can survive some real tough shit.
- Graviton Surge can be one of the best Ultimates in the game. While on it's own is doesn't do that much, when combined with other Ultimates, it's fucking savage! All enemies are clumped up? Send out a Hanzo dragon, or a Pharah Barrage, or a Junkrat tire, etc.
Weaknesses
- Zarya has no mobility options, so she is really slow overall. This makes her a good target for fast heroes like Tracer, Sombra and Genji. She is also really slow to come back to the battle from death.
- Using the barriers effectively is rather difficult. The timing on them is tricky and they really don't last very long. This means that they are best used when already taking damage, which can be risky.
- Aiming the Particle Cannon's beam takes some getting used to. It's range is kind of hazy and tracking a fast enemy with it is rough.
- Graviton Surge is really easy to waste. It can be absorbed by D.Va, it can be deflected by Genji, it can be walled off by Mei, etc. It can also be blocked or escaped pretty easily by some heroes. Reinhardt and Winston can shield, Tracer can blink out, Sombra can teleport out, Symmetra can toss out her shield, etc.
Zarya is one of my favorite heroes in the game, maybe even my second favorite after Reinhardt. She excels on attack or on control maps, though I'll usually stick to Rein for defense. She is extremely durable, and she can dish out some massive damage once her weapon is charged up.
Her strongest ability has to be her shields though. It's great at stopping a big attack, like a Roadhog Hook, a Reaper Death Blossom or even a D.Va self-destruct. It can save allies too, like someone that is being pinned by a Reinhardt charge or someone stuck by a Tracer Pulse Bomb.
Because of the way her weapon works, Zarya often begins battles on the back line, then once she's shielded enough damage, she'll move to the front of the fray with her dangerous Particle Cannon. She works great against Genji too, since he can't deflect the beam.
Zarya is even better when paired with another tank, any of them really. That way, she can duck out to let her shields and cooldowns recharge. She works particularly well with Mei also... A frozen enemy is easy for Zarya to melt down.
Reinhardt might just be the hardest hero to fight as Zarya. He can block all of her attacks, and can even force her out of position with a well-timed charge. I also have trouble against good snipers as Zarya, because her only way to defend herself is with the Particle Barrier, and when it's not available, she's a really easy target for Widow, Ana or Hanzo.
I really fucking love Zarya. Not only is she a powerful and versatile hero, she's also one of the most engaging and fun heroes to actually play. Timing her barriers correctly and knowing when to duck in and out of combat is so much fun! She's also one of the heroes that makes you feel really powerful when things go right. You feel fucking invincible with her when things go well.
Worst enemy: Reinhardt
Best teammate: Mei
Most satisfying kill: D.Va
Rating ★★★★★
