Howdy all, Leggerless here, and in collaboration with Ian "Vakyoom" Taylor, we present you "Short Cuts;" a quick, easy, and sweet educational series giving you the tasty 'short cuts' like a box of Aunt Jemima's pancakes featured on this site. For the veterans, this serves as a quick review and a reminder of what's possible. For the new players just joining Overwatch, this helps improve map knowledge and better flanking ability! There will be a new feature each week related to this series every Monday, so keep an eye out then!
Quick review: a shortcut in Overwatch is a method of travel not normally seen or accessible only to a few heroes. Taking advantage of these shortcuts gives you an edge against an enemy team, competitive or casual, and often leads to a win for your own team! Here's a list of your typical heroes designed to and able to access most, if not all, shortcuts within the game:
- Pharah
- Lucio
- Junkrat
- Winston
- Reaper
- Genji
- D.Va
- Widowmaker
For the more unusual options, like Mei and Soldier: 76, the video below shows every hero able to use one of these shortcuts in Volskaya Industries. Watch it to see them in action!
Now that you've seen the methods, let's go over the advantages of each one.
Volskaya 1: Lake Shortcut A
This path lets you skip around the main path going towards point A. As this is the only real alternative, most teams focus their attention on the area below the skyway for incoming enemies. On the flank, only 1 or no heroes typically go to the platform you're reaching, so there's little resistance going in. Be careful if there's an enemy Mei though; she can Ice Wall the path and force a suicide on you!
Volskaya 2: Lake Shortcut B
There's 3 places heroes take cover at when a push on point B comes from the west: the north side of the point, behind the walls on the east side, or the south side. Additionally, you'll find a pocket medic--Mercy typically--taking cover here and waiting for a chance at a POTG and multi-resurrection. This path goes along the south side, giving you immediate access to the area right south of the point, a catwalk to go above the enemy, an easier firing angle at the area north of the point, and a shortened path towards the east side close to where the defense comes out of their spawn. Be wary of a Torbjorn turret or another character playing sentry over this shortcut; they can pick you off during the attempt and once you cross easily if you aren't careful.
Volskaya 3: Factory Shortcut
This path is more of a hat trick than anything but still notable. There's a few avenues of immediate entry past the wall into the point B zone: the flying platforms, the front door, an elevator, and a side path leading towards our other shortcut. This shortcut provides a fifth path and goes around the wall on the north side. It's an angle your enemies don't normally have their sights on, so it's a decent surprise for an unaware enemy, and most people don't place sentries or turrets at the angle you'll arrive in from. The shortcut is harder to pull off compared to the others however.
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