How to maintain your skills

in Overwatch

Maintaining your skill with a limited amount of time can be a struggle. In this guide, we are going to show you techniques that you can use to make sure you are staying on the same level.

We know how it is when you are really busy and have little-to-no time to play. Sometimes you just can’t make time to play your favourite game. This hurts your skill however, and it will be harder to get back to the game after not playing for a few days or a week. Your skill rating may stay on the same level, but you are rusty and out of shape, which will result in consecutive losses and the demolishment of your motivation.

In this guide, we are presenting some tips that you can use to keep in shape, if you are able to commit at least 5 minutes every day. Try to do as much from the following list as you can for the best results.

Have goals and track them 

It’s easy to think that one game a day will keep you in shape. But in all honesty, there is too much unpredictability in the matchmaking to rely on a single match. You should use your time efficiently and effectively. This means that you should have some goal that you are working towards instead of just playing instinctively. 

What are these goals?

• I want to die less. 
• I want to get the first pick in every teamfight. 
• I want to farm my ultimate in every two fights. 

Have a single goal and work to achieve that. A very important part here is that these can all be tracked and measured after every game.

Try to play every day 

Avoid getting rusty. Even if you just want to keep in shape by playing without a goal in mind, it can be really beneficial if you can play every day. It will be much easier to perform well when you have time to grind more than a single game. Even if you use this time for aim drills or some ability practice, you will benefit from it greatly.

Have a schedule

Our brains love habits. Sitting down to practice, just for the sake of maintenance is a thing that our brains deem to be boring. This can be hacked if you have a ritual or a schedule for your practice. Do it before work or school, or right after you get home in the evening, does not matter, until you do it consistently.

Track your progress

Tracking your achievements is important. Don’t just set goals, track your progress as well. Hit the tab screen at the end of the game, check your statistic and note it down to a sheet of paper. Or input it into a Google sheet, whatever works for you. (Or…use Omnicoach 😁)

Another incredibly useful thing to do is to record and review your own games. Don’t do this every day, but you can include this into your weekly maintenance schedule. Reviewing will help you see your mistakes more clearly, allowing you to set more suitable goals for yourself. (Again Omnicoach 😁)

Practice instead of playing – custom game scenarios

Another thing that you can do to maintain your skill efficiently is to not jump in a real game straight away, rather set up a custom game and practice a core mechanic of your character. With proper settings, you can make a specific situation happen many more times compared to a competitive ladder game, making this a really efficient way of practice. This is one of the reasons why we have added character specific exercises to our Omnicoach analysis.

An example: Create a custom game with a Control Point map against bots with Reinhardt, and you are only allowed to kill with your Charge ability. Do a practice like this for 5 minutes every day to keep in shape.

Practice things that are shared between characters

The best things to practice are the skills that are transferable between characters. For example if you are a hitscan player, it may be the most beneficial to practice your headshots (either have it as a goal in a live game, or setup a practice scenario where you only drill this aspect of your skill). Other examples: projectile control, shield dancing, dodge, ultimate control, etc. Figure out where you lack and work on it.

When you are not playing:

You probably have a lot more free time that you realize. Commuting, work and school breaks can all be used to hone your skills, even without playing the game. Some of the things that you can do:

• Read game theory threads on Reddit. You can learn a lot from these and from the comments under the main thread.
• Watch educational streamers. They explain what they are doing, so you don’t have to figure it out.
• Read educational guides. Like this one.

We hope these tips will help you in maintaining your skill level. If you have tips of your own that worked for you, please share them in a comment below. 

Our Discord server is waiting for you if you want some Overwatch related chat. 

This article was created with the professional support of Overwatchdojo