Overwatch Lucio Healing Guide

Overwatch Lucio Healing Guide by Mefoz

Lúcio is a very powerful healer, having the ability to stay alive longer than anyone else. His wall riding and soundwave are vital for survivability, and can often be used to keep the control of points and payload, especially on lower SR matches.

We interrupt this guide for breaking news.

Recent studies showed that there is a clear top 3.

– Lúcio

– D.Va

-Torbjörn

These 3 heroes have their names misspelled so often, it’s cruelty.

End of transmission.

Oh wow. Who knew? You know what? For that sake, I will spell Lúcio with a ú throughout this guide and comment section. Solidarity is key.

For the people who haven’t read it yet, I also released a guide on being a support in general. I strongly suggest reading this one before continuing this guide. http://guidescroll.com/2016/09/overwatch-healing-guide/

I suggest you read that one first, before reading about the specifics of Lúcio.

This guide is organised as follows:

• Sonic Amplifier
• Soundwave
• Crossfade
• Amp it Up
• Sound Barrier
• Wall riding
• Positioning and role

Warning: I try to be as in-depth as possible. This means lengthy posts.

Sonic Amplifier

Damage: 16DMG per projectile, 1 shot per second (4 projectiles), 64DMG per second.

Ammo: 5 shots

Lúcio’s main form of attacking. This gun shoots 4 projectiles in a burst, with a max of 5 bursts before reloading. Its ammo is shared with the Soundwave ability.

The projectiles fired from this gun move relatively slow and have little space between them. It doesn’t deal huge damage, even if all 4 projectiles hit, but it’s definitely enough to chip away the enemy’s health or to kill enemies that are on low HP.

I try shooting at enemies as much as possible, as it doesn’t take away from Lúcio’s healing abilities. However, it’s my lowest priority and therefore I stop shooting when more important things take my attention, such as evading or repositioning myself. In my other Shut up and Heal guides I mention that attacking brings way more attention to the healer. While this is still true for Lúcio, I care less about it as his survivability is high and I’m usually positioned within the enemy’s line of sight as Lúcio anyways. I take a bit more risk that way, but I feel it pays off in the long run.

The key to using this gun well is to predict where your enemies are going, and trying to hit them with as many projectiles as possible. This is often easier when they’re close, as enemies tend to try and dodge the incoming projectiles when they see them coming. The further away the enemies, the more time they have to dodge incoming shots.

Seeing as your Soundwave shares the ammo with your main gun, try to reload as much as possible in moments where you can’t shoot. You don’t want to be stuck without a Soundwave when you need it. When you reach 5/20 ammo, think about whether you want to use his gun again, or if you might need it for a Soundwave.

Sorry guys, that’s really all I can say about his main gun. Predict movement and keep shooting as much as you can.

Soundwave

Damage: 25 DMG per shot.

Cooldown: 5 seconds.

Sidenote: Requires 1 shot of ammo from your Sound Amplifier.

It’s probably one of the most annoying ways to get killed, but also one of the most fun ways to kill. Blasting people off of the map to face imminent death, Lúcio’s Soundwave definitely has a manual though.

While writing this guide, I tried thinking of how to explain how to use this ability. The thing is: it’s very weird. In order to have the maximum push effect, you have to be right in front of your enemy, close to him and aiming right at him to send him flying. Everything outside of that area is vague and not as effective. I honestly have no other way to explain you how it works. Just use it often and get a feel for it, but generally you should just aim directly at your enemy.

A nice thing to keep in mind is that an airborne hero flies a lot further than one that started on the ground.

Maps like Illios and Lijiang Tower are great to push people. The well in Illios and the room in the market in Lijiang Tower are blissful and grant many kills. I always try to position myself so that I can blast people to their death.

A great way to surprise enemies is to flank them with your speed boost enabled and then push them towards the abyss. You can also surprise them by flying in from above after a wall ride.

Other than throwing people off of cliffs, Soundwave has a whole range of other uses, each of which I’ll explain.

Defending yourself: When a flanker comes for you, you can blast him away to give yourself a little bit of extra time to get back to safety. This works especially well on Tracer, allowing you to survive for a looooong time.

Redirecting ults: I love redirecting an incoming Reaper as he’s using his ult. More often than not, I blast him away, pushing him out of range to shoot any of us.

Pushing people into favorable positions: When our Mei uses her ult, I try my best to push someone into it. Same goes for Reaper and Zarya. I support them by pushing people close enough to get affected by the ult. If enemies aren’t near where I want them to be so my teammates can kill them, I try my best getting them there if it’s possible with a single Soundwave.

Messing with the opponent’s defence: I just love it when the enemy team is closing in behind Reinhardt’s shield. Why? Because I flank them and then push Reinhardt out of position. Suddenly, the enemies don’t have a shield in front of them anymore. Perfect.

Redirecting a charging Reinhardt: I love messing with Reinhardts. Just getting in their heads is fun. That’s why when they put their shields up, I want to get them out of position. That’s why when they charge towards someone, I blast them away. Not only does it completely change their expected results, but you can often save the one they targeted! It’s a win/win!

Crossfade

Healing: 12,5 HP per second.

Speed boost: 30% speed increase.

Sidenote: Always enabled and you can switch whenever you want.

This ability is passive and always on. It steadily heals all of the people within a pretty big range, as long as they’re within your “line of sight”. You don’t necessarily have to see them, but they have to be able to be seen if you were to stand still and look around from your location. You see how many people are within range indicated by the number in the middle of your screen.

The biggest question for every Lúcio is when to use healing and when to use speed boost. I personally try to use speed boost as much as possible, but whenever someone needs health I turn healing back on.

Moments where I use speed boost are not uncommon though, I often switch between the two. I’ll list a few useful moments.

Running away from an ult: Speed boost is your friend. If you see a D.Va or Reaper using an ult, switch to speed boost and try to get away.

Running away from flankers: Saving yourself as healer is key. Using speed boost to this end is very helpful in that. You’re just that bit faster than the others, so speed boosting as you’re running to find cover or teammates can often save your life.

Helping heroes chase retreating enemies: Enemies often try running away when they’re low on health. Usually our Reaper follows those heroes and tries to kill them. Just give him that little bit of extra speed to ensure a the job is done!

Dodging incoming bullets: When contesting the point or payload, that little bit of extra speed is very helpful. Just switch back and forth between speed and healing to ensure maximum lifetime.

Lúcio Taxi Service: If you made an Uber account you could make big money as Lúcio. Crucial team member got killed and you can leave your team without your heals? Just go back and forth to carry your dead team member back to position. Entire team except for you got killed during a push? Lúcio Taxi Service. Wanna flank your enemies at the start of a match? Lúcio Taxi Service.

Amp it Up

Healing: 40 HP per second.

Speed boost: 70% speed increase.

Duration: 3 seconds.

Cooldown: 12 seconds.

Amp it Up is Lúcio’s Crossfade boost. Whichever effect you have active gets boosted for 3 seconds. Quick note of use: You can swap between healing and speed boosting, even while you have Amp it Up on.

Amp it Up is perfect to give your team the health boost they need. Whenever I see someone getting low on health, I use my Amp it Up to quickly get their HP back up. During every fight, I try to use it almost the instant it’s off its cooldown, healing as much as I can. This doesn’t mean spamming the Amp it Up button though.

I try using Amp it Up as much as possible, but I do keep an eye out for when not to use Amp it Up. If my teammates are close to full health or when I see the enemy team grouping up and getting ready for an attack, I save it. Due to the long 12 second long cooldown, you do not want to be caught off guard by not having your Amp it Up ready when you need it.

Using Amp it Up is also perfect for speed boosting. Especially when roleplaying Uber, Amp it Up can bring you to your destination so much quicker. Whenever I need to reach a location quickly, I always use speed boost combined with Amp it Up.

Sound Barrier

Effect: Temporary 500 shield barrier.

Duration: 6 seconds.

Lúcio’s ultimate is a very important ultimate. It can save heroes, help initiating a push or even the battlefield if another Lúcio is using his Sound Barrier.

Sound Barrier is very powerful. It basically gives you and any of the teammates within range, indicated by the number in the middle of the screen, a huge amount of shield. Enough shield to block even a few ultimates, such as Junkrat’s exploding tire of instakill.

Obtaining Lúcio’s Sound Barrier is quite easy during matches. The more you heal using Amp it Up, the quicker it goes. It also helps if you’re actively involved in killing enemies.

Lúcio’s Sound Barrier has a few very specific use cases. I personally do not use the ultimate in any other scenario.

When the enemy uses 1 or more threatening ultimate: This is obviously the most common reason to use the Sound Barrier. You and your team are in imminent danger because of an ultimate such as Zarya’s Graviton or Reaper’s Death Blossom. This is a perfect moment to counter their utls with your own. Just be aware! If you have a Zenyatta in your team, odds are he’s thinking the exact same thing.

When your team is racking up damage, fast: This is another obvious situation. Your team is being slaughtered and you cannot heal fast enough to keep everyone up to full health. Again, just as the previous situation, watch out for a Zenyatta with the same idea! Communicate!

When you want to initiate a team-wrecking push: When your team is pushing a point, you can use your Sound Barrier to give yourself the cutting edge to beat the enemy team. This is especially useful when neither team has an ultimate to use.

When you want to level the odds: Their Lúcio just used his Sound Barrier? It’s a 5v6? These are perfect moments to use your ultimate. Whenever the odds are against your team winning the fight, you can use your Sound Barrier to even them, or actually get the odds to smile in your general direction. Just be careful though: some situations just can’t be saved, even with your ult. If it’s a 2v6, don’t waste your ultimate.

When you want to trigger enemy ults: Even though I just said a 2v6 is not a good moment to use your ult, it sometimes is. I try to keep close watch of all ultimates the enemy throws at us. This way I can guess when they’re ready to use their ultimates and when they’re not. In some specific cases, I do trigger my Sound Barrier just to have two of them pop their ult. I don’t recommend you doing this when you start playing Lúcio, as it requires planning out when your team pushes are, which ults you need for a push, which ults could counter that push and if the enemy is prone to pop their ult. It’s a high risk, high reward tactic.

Wall Riding

Before I say anything about wall riding, I want you to look at a video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YH0ePK5ia50

Jamie Allegro explains wall riding so well, his videos are a must-see for anyone interested in Lúcio. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him personally for the videos he makes.

Hope he’s reading!

[TRIGGER WARNING] Jamie explicitly states “Wall Riding on PC”. The trick to doing this on console is remapping your keys, so it becomes very easy to look around and jump at the same time. If you go to the controls section of the options, you can remap your keys for all heroes, as well as for specific heroes. Switch to the Lúcio tab and set your jump to a nice button you feel you can press while looking around with the right thumbstick (so X might not be the best option). I personally set jumping with Lúcio to L1 / Left Bumper and his crossfade ability on X.

Wall riding is very important for Lúcio. It can help you flank, it can help you escape quickly and it can help you reposition within an instant. Learn it. Master it. Spend time training your wall rides in a custom match on every map. Look at Lúcio wall ride videos. It’s your bread and butter, so use it!

I can’t really explain when you should or shouldn’t wall ride. The important thing to remember is that you should have a clear goal of why you want to wall ride, and a clear route if you’ve planned on wall riding. Professional skiers and snowboarders study the mountain before going on top of it to ride it down. They plan their routes carefully so they don’t get surprised along the way. Try doing the same with Lúcio’s wall riding. Plan your result.

When the enemy pushes, Lúcio is often a high priority target. Wall riding can shake off your targets, allowing you to survive much longer. Try constantly getting in and out of sight to distract the enemies or have them focus on someone else, so that you’re not easy to hit and your teammates can focus on the distracted enemies.

One thing to remember is that you can shoot while wall riding. Use this to your advantage! Shoot at people if you can.

Positioning and your role

Positioning

Positioning as Lúcio is totally different from the other healers. Lúcio can move quicker and can use his environment to get on top of almost every walkable surface there is. His speed makes him harder to hit and his Soundwave can save his life on many occasions. Because of this I prefer to stay a little closer to my teammates during a battle. I move from one teammate to the other, while shooting at enemies and trying to disrupt them with my Soundwave. Moving between teammates keeps me relatively safe, and I can push enemies away when needed. Whenever I get fired on and I’m losing HP, I retreat a bit, positioning myself behind the team (usually behind a tank). I stay there until I have full health again, while still shooting at the enemy team.

The downside to this is that if you get too focused on the fight, you’ll lose the overview that you need so badly as support. You might not be aware anymore of where the enemies are and what the status of your teammates is. This is why it’s vital to use your Amp it Up ability at the right moments. Don’t lose yourself in the fight, and you’ll be just fine.

Usually at the start and end of a fight you can find me skating on the walls higher up in the map or on top of highground. From here you can often heal most teammates, and you can easily see what the situation is. Being high up you are often the first to see who’s coming in to attack, so you can call it out to your teammates.

Another thing Lúcio is good at, especially on lower SR and quick play, is to contest points and payloads by skating around. Points often have a nice wall or two which you can wall ride. Many players don’t have that good an aim, so they’ll often have trouble killing you. Sometimes they even use their ultimate just to kill you! KotH maps in particular have a lot of nice walls (you can wall ride inside of the well in Illios, Nepal has a column in the middle of one of the points, Lijiang Tower has a column in the middle of a point).

A Lúcio jumping left, right, up and around a payload can also keep it from moving or extend overtime for a long time. As long as Lúcio makes irradical movements, he should be able to survive quite a while. A hard counter to this though is another Lúcio, who can use his Soundwave to blast the first Lúcio off of the payload.

Do remember that these two aren’t all that viable anymore the higher your SR gets.

Your role as support

Lúcio is mainly a healer. His first and foremost objective should be to keep his team up to full health. Lúcio is very valuable just by being alive, so wall riding to safety or to dodge incoming bullets is very viable.

However, Lúcio is also a great tool to have when fending off attackers. Reaper teleporting in? Wait for him to be done with the teleport and blast him away again, before calling out his position you blasted him to.

Lúcio can also defend complete sides on his own, when the map allows it. Lijiang Tower Market has the point surrounded by a cliff to fall off of. If Lúcio defends the left or right side (where the enemies can come from), he can push so many people to their death. This allows the rest of the team to focus on the front door. A nice thing about this is that you still heal your team from there! Just don’t get lost standing with your back to your team the entire time. I usually do quick peeks, switching my sight between the side I’m defending and my team. Never get caught by surprise!

Final words

I hope you enjoyed reading this guide and learned things from it. This concludes all of what I have to say about playing Lúcio. He’s hard to explain properly, so please do not hesitate to ask stuff through the comments section!