Clever Zarya trick in Overwatch denies enemy ultimate charges
A simple click of the mouse can deny your enemy a vital ultimate charge if you find yourself at the wrong end of a frustrating boop off of the map while playing as Zarya.
There’s a reason why “boop compilations” in Overwatch are so popular. It’s thoroughly enjoyable to watch big, strong tank characters get bounced over the edges of a map, as you imagine someone behind the keyboard regretting their role choice.
But in addition, literally knocking off tanks provides a big bonus to a character’s ultimate charge. To those unfamiliar with the specific statistics, heroes gain charge equal to the amount of damage they do to enemy players, and that includes environmental kills.
Lucio, the boop kingEnvironmental kills count as doing damage equal to the victim’s health at the time of their death, so the larger the health a hero has when they’re knocked off, the more ultimate one gets. This puts tanks in the crosshairs for anyone who wants to boost their ultimate with an environmental kill
But only the last ability that counts toward an environmental kill, so as one fan pointed out, Zarya can deny the enemy that booped them the ultimate charge, by right-clicking and using her Particle Cannon’s article fire as she falls. Her death turns into a suicide that gifts the enemy who knocked her off with nothing.
The idea was posted to the Overwatch subreddit by user Gr4b, and it prompted an outpouring of suggestions from the community on how to replicate this ultimate denial with other heroes.
One user replied that Sigma’s primary fire, Soldier 76’s rocket, and D.Va’s rockets all negate the ultimate charge if used before that character’s demise.
Another user shared a video from Overwatch guides master KarQ, who posted an entire video on all the characters who can negate the ultimate charges from knockback abilities.
Another user suggested something even more cheeky, for players that get charged off by Reinhardt while playing Orisa. According to ScreamSalad, you can throw your Halt ability above your head and activate the pull ability to pull him down with you.
In a game designed to build up your ultimate meter as fast as possible, the ability to deny that ultimate from your enemy is as pivotal to winning as it is satisfying to accomplish.
It takes a degree of mental focus to be able to pull it off under distress, given that you’re seconds away from death, but the effects could mean the difference between an enemy having or not having an ultimate during the final push.