by wackygonz

Introduction

Lucio is probably the most misunderstood support hero in the game due to his ability to easily switch from speed and healing mixed in with his ability to take duels with enemy DPS. The biggest thing with Lucio is timing, meaning there are certain situations where a Lucio player should be, to provide value. I think a lot of players don’t realize how much speed boost impacts a team fight. This leads to players not getting the full potential of Lucio’s kit or mismanaging it for the wrong situations. In this guide, I will break down play styles, positioning, and the different abilities Lucio can provide for a team. I will not be covering wallriding and other notable tips as those will be part of a future advanced guide.

Play Styles

• With any hero in Overwatch, there are distinct ways that players like to use their heroes. For Lucio, I’ve found 4 distinct play styles that I’ve experienced in ranked, scrims, and tournaments. There will always be pros and cons with each play style, and certain play styles can work in a certain situation but might not in a different one. It’s important to adapt a certain play style that works for you, while taking different parts of each play style to become a better all around Lucio player.
  • Shotcalling Lucio: The hardest play style to master, as it requires a good amount of game knowledge, awareness and leadership qualities. When playing this, you don’t want to micromanage your team, but instead make simple call outs and control the pace of fights. This is done by calling flanks, where the team should go, when to disengage from fights, ultimate tracking, etc. as just a few examples. This type of play style, in my opinion, is the best for playing in organized teams but is the hardest play style to climb with, in ranked. This is because, shotcalling is a skill, and just like mechanics, game sense, and cool down management, is a skill that can be learned through practice and learning from mistakes. The drawback is that learning to shotcall WELL takes a lot of practice and patience to master. There will be times that as a shotcalling Lucio you will make the wrong calls, but remember that’s part of learning.
  • Heal Only Lucio: This type of play style is most commonly found at the lower levels of ranked for players who under utilize Lucio’s speed or are forced onto Lucio for the first time. They usually gain their ultimate the fastest because they’re always on healing but lack midfight value because they are never on speed. I’ll get into managing speed/healing more but know that if you’re only healing as Lucio, you’re not getting the full potential out of Lucio’s kit.
  • Aggressive Lucio: These are the Lucio players who like to be up with the tanks and in the face of the enemy team. They aren’t necessarily solo fragging DPS but are enabling their tanks with speed to get them into the fight faster. This type of play style can be risky as there is a higher chance of dying, being upfront with the tanks
  • Reddit Lucio: This is a play style where the players transform Lucio from a support into a DPS. It’s a common play style at the highest level of ranked but can suffer in a scrim/tournament environment. The drawbacks is that this play style requires the Lucio to get quick frags without feeding then returning to his team. When the Lucio goes for a frag it can leave the other support exposed or tanks lacking speed. It requires the most mechanical skill as having good wallriding techniques is a must.

General Positioning

• Positioning is the biggest issue I’ve noticed with Lucio players as they get lost in a team fight and have no idea where they should be. Remember that Lucio is still a 200 HP hero, meaning that he can still get one shot by a lot of things. So, it’s important to still be relatively near a wall or cover to give more survivability to Lucio, as it’s important for any hero, to never be in exposed space for too long.
• If you’re playing in a deatball comp then it’s good to be in the middle of the team to provide valuable speed and healing.
• If you’re playing in a dive comp, where players will naturally be spread apart, you have to pick your spots and figure out if you should be peeling for your fellow support or enabling your tanks and DPS, while keeping in mind your own survivability.
• Positioning also depends on enemy comps as an enemy dive comp will most likely be looking to dive your other support or DPS. So as Lucio, you can be there to speed them away from danger or heal them to turn a duel into a 2v1. When against a deathball comp, then generally you don’t have to worry as much about flankers and can focus on getting your team into more aggressive positions.

Being the Bodyguard for Your Fellow Support

• Lucio has always been the best support to peel and protect the other, more vulnerable support. He can speed them away, heal them to turn duels into a 2v1, he can boop enemies away, while dishing out his own damage.
• During a team fight, enemy players will always look to kill supports when they see them as they know they are the most vulnerable and the most valuable role to a team. As Lucio, you can be there to either prevent that, or force them to spend so much resources and time in trying, that the rest of your team is able to kill the rest of the enemy team.
• Personally, when I see my support in trouble, I will mostly favor helping them because I know it will give the team the best chance to win if all supports are alive. There are times however, to not peel for a support because no matter what they can’t be saved. Remember, other players make positioning errors and can expose themselves to the enemy team and there’s no amount of healing, speed, or damage that can save them from their own mistake. Don’t add to the mistake of your teammate by going halfway across the map to help and then dying yourself.

Speed is More Important Than Healing (Crossfade)

• I say this because I see a lot of Lucio players on healing the entire duration of a team fight. Lucio only provides about 16.25 healing per second and then 46-47 healing when amping it up for 3 seconds. So no matter what, Lucio will never provide significant healing when compared to Ana, Mercy, Moira, and even Zenyatta. Yes, he does provide AOE healing but not everyone will always be in that radius to receive that healing, as it only covers a small distance.
• Like I mentioned previously, speed can be used to save players from bad situations or enabling them to be more aggressive. For example, a Tracer and Winston dive your Ana in the backline and you’re the only one to help her. Will Lucio’s 16.25 healing be able to out sustain the damage from a Tracer and a Winston even with Ana’s bio grenade? Probably not, but if you use speed to get the Ana out of range from at least the Winston and then switch to healing to help deal with the Tracer and dishing out your own damage, then that gives a better chance of keeping your Ana alive as opposed to being only on healing.
• Speed can also help enable slow heroes like Reinhardt, Zarya, and Reaper to be more aggressive. These heroes want to be in the middle of a brawl and be up close and personal with the enemy team. When being on speed, this helps them close distances onto targets that would otherwise be able to escape. How many times have you played Reinhardt and that pesky Mcree you want to bash his face in is just a few meters out of swing distance. You know what can solve that? Speed.

Value Out of Boops (Soundwave)

• We’ve all seen the insane reddit plays of Lucio players getting 5 man boops on Lijiang Tower, but the boop can be used for just more than environmental kills.
• Like I previously mentioned, boops can be used to save your teammate by forcing an enemy back. Timely boops, can save your teammate from a Reinhardt pin, a Roadhog hook or a Mei setting up for the kill shot, can also be valuable ways to save a teammate.
• It can also be used aggressively, to push an enemy into a predictable pattern to make them easier to hit, but be careful not to boop them away from your teammate who is just about to kill them.
• Booping enemies into your team also isolates them for a quick pick if your team can follow up on it. Just be careful not to trade your life when doing this unless you know it’s worth.
• Boops can set up plays like booping the Reinhardt to the side, allowing for your own Reinhardt a free shatter.
• Timing melee with the boop can also get a quick 55 burst damage onto an enemy if they’re close enough.
• Be creative with Lucio’s boop, these are the main examples of how to utilize it but there are many other examples that i have not mentioned that can give value to your team.

Amp is the Most Valuable Resource (Amp it Up)

• This ability is probably the biggest indication of a really good Lucio player. Amp it up has one of the longest cool downs, of 12 seconds and lasts for 3 seconds. With any ability in a game, there is a right time to use it, and having a longer cool down time means that using that ability in the wrong situation can make the difference between winning and losing a team fight.
• Amp can be used to help heal boost critical teammates in the middle of a team fight.
• You can use amp speed to enable teammates during their ultimates like Soldier 76, McCree, Zarya, Rein, Roadhog.
• Speed the team through an important area of a map, where the team is most likely to take damage. This allows a team to minimize unnecessary damage taken when passing through these areas. Chokes are the most common uses but tell your team where they should go or else you’ll just be amping speed at the choke the whole time.
• The important thing is that amping should always have a purpose, don’t just amp because it comes off of cool down.

Breaking it Down (Sound Barrier)

• There are 4 main uses for Sound Barrier
  • Countering enemy ultimates like Blade, Graviton, Shatter, etc.
  • Sustaining during a team fight to maintain health
  • Initiating a team fight and focusing down a target quickly during that time
  • Using it after an enemy support uses their support ultimate
• Most players understand that using sound barrier is important for countering DPS ultimates like Genji’s balde or Soldier’s tactical visor. What tends to happen though, players have built the habit of dropping the beat when they hear those sound queues. I’m not saying you should never beat drop to counter those ultimates, but there are situations where it is better to hold onto sound barrier. For example, your team just won a team fight, and the last remaining player is a Genji who decides to go for a hero blade when you’re a full 6 team. A genji ulting doesn’t give him any extra health, and as a team you should should all be able to focus him down without needing to use sound barrier.
• It’s important to fully assess the situation first, before dropping the beat, sometimes your teammates can be out of LOS to not receive the sound barrier or your tanks can be there to stop the incoming damage.
• Other times I like to hold onto sound barrier, if I know the enemy team has 5 ultimates coming into the next team fight and if they use all of them, they will definitely win the team fight. So in the next team fight, I can use sound barrier to give my team an advantage.
• Another good tip about sound barrier is that when against a Sombra, and you know she has EMP, it’s fine to hide and then after she EMPs you can drop the beat to save your team.
• Sound barrier can also be used to sustain team fights, if your team needs to win a team fight and your team may have just lost their main healer.
• Think of crucial support ultimates as not saving your team but more of momentum changing ultimates. Like an enemy team that is pushing your team very aggressively and all of a sudden your drop the beat can stop their momentum for a counter engage.
• Remember that Lucio’s sound barrier only provides shields, so it’s a good idea to get your teammates to max health as the shields decay.

These are the main points about Lucio that should help players looking to pick him up or Lucio mains feeling stuck and wondering what they’re doing wrong. I haven’t covered more advanced tips in this guide, as that will be in a future guide but if you want a vod review or check out other guides for different heroes I have links below.