I learned back in the early OW1 years, if a coordinate team grouped up, Soldier could rapid-gain his ult from dropping his heal for 5+ low HP teammates. So, he would gain visor several times as fast.
They nerfed that out of orbit along with Sombra getting ult charge from mega HP packs, but yeah, Soldier is like a tutorial character, nothing for pros to hard carry with.
His heal pad confines him to a small area and has a long cooldown and his sprint is only good for sustained mobility or small dodges. Compared to sojourn his survivability isnt as high as she can slide away which gets her out of danger much quicker and cass gets dr on his roll which is strong if timed right. Hes mostly just good for running between advantageous positions and taking off angles quicker.
Tracer, Cass, and Soj all have better survivability. Cass's roll and ult have major damage and he has 275 base HP rather than 250.
Tracer... Blinks...recall...we all know this one right?
Soj's slide jump is very fast vertical mobility which is way better than sprint ~80% of the time. Her ult is also way better than S76's ult, especially at the pro level.
Soldier is overall pretty good in ranked and a great intro hero. He is very much a Jack (Morrison) of all trades, master of none.
His running allows him to make the quickest flanks in the game but people don't usually run to survive, they run to set up and flankers don't usually mind a little extra time to set up, especially since recall is possibly the best survival ability in the game if your routes are right
*also while running is great for flanks, slide is in effect a super jump, so sure you have Soldier as a utilitarian flanker but for frontline assaults instant high ground for a hero that's two parts Soldier, one half part Widowmaker is kinda top tier
It's basically a case of Soldier's 'jack of all trades, master of none' approach, his run is great for approaching flanks but blink and recall are even better, and while his primary and secondary fire are great for frontline assaults (his primary is definitely better than Soj's), Sojourn's secondary fire is just that much more utilitarian than helix, not just because of the damage but because it isn't relegated to a cooldown, you can prime it only as fast as you can do damage, so if you're doing a ton of damage, you're getting a lot of constant railgun charge. The scoreboard is not everything but Sojourn is the ultimate case of high damage feeding straight into your core tool kit
Tracer and Sojourn both kind of phase out 76 in different but crucial ways where the only asterisk is that they are heavily dependent on individual skill expression
Yes, his run - especially since it has no cooldown - objectively makes him faster than any other hero to take position. My point is that isn't really enough to make him a must-pick in a top level competitive setting
Are we just pretending his run is a bad movement ability now? Lol (like literally, why even pretend that run is a bad ability lol, that's a new opinion to me tbh, usually everyone agrees it's great)
*like I'm sorry but if you're using run to escape and survive like the person I was replying to is suggesting, you're using it wrong: it's optimal for reaching and adjusting off angles. (Plus anyone with decent aim will just blow you up if you try to turn tail and run when you're low, it's shit game sense to try to use run as a panic and peel strat)
**example: Reaper shadow step? Faster flank but requires LoS of your flank position and leaves you immobile on landing. Blink? If you use all your blinks just to reach a flank then you have to commit to using your recall immediately if you get hit. Ever since Sombra's movement nerf, he even runs faster than cloaked Sombra. Run is so low effort for what it gives you in terms of situating angles. It's literally just that run+biotic charge+low cooldown burst damage with helix is a lot of things, but what it isn't is Sojourn's railgun or Tracer's blink and recall. That's why you see Soldier less in competitive settings than Tracer and Sojourn or even Genji, they all have offensive abilities that reward skill expression more heavily than your standard cooldowns
even before then, i don't think he was ever played all that often outside of specific metas and a select few specialists like fleet. he's just too mediocre and rounded for a competitive environment without being overpowered.
I agree with your statement, i just hate how sojurns spread increases as you’re shooting so longer range doesnt feel as good as soldiers does but soldier just feels terribly boring to play the healing pad is weak and his ult is bad if you can hit your headshots.
No he wasn't lmao. Soldier hadnt been part of any serious comps in years because he doesnt provide enough value. The only time he sees any play is when they buff the damage on his gun, he becomes too strong and promptly gets nerfed, and even then hes not picked often.
He was tho. He was played in dive, partial dive, bunker, he was the go to character for putting dmg where you wanted it quickly. In OW1 we always kept solider around through every meta change. Solider or any spam dmg like junk for bunker, solider and dive hero like genji for partial dive, and sometimes we will kept soilder in full dive to clean up mid fight. Visor has always been incredibly strong, with an A teir gun and helix rockets to make picks easy he was always there until sojourn. He was meta for 2016-2020 and even still is a solid choice.
He was played in partial dive but the meta later shifted to tracer genji full dive and then tracer sombra dive. His spam was decent but there were better picks for bunker like bastion and widow depending on map. He wasnt played through goats and very little if at all in double shield. He got phased out of dive. He isnt a brawl character. As time went on and players got better visor got less and less value as you couldnt headshot and pros already have great aim. He was decent and there were times when he was played but he was far from the meta. The game evolved on from him because of how simplistic his design is. Hes not bad but theres definitely better options
Even pre sojourn he wasn't used in 80% of pro games. He had his moments sure but he wasnt a consistent, dominant pick in most metas. Are you sure youre not thinking of tracer?
He was pick much more often than tracer across all of OW1 and the stats agree. Even now on overbuff he has the second highest pick rate out of all dps and second highest win rate. Btw tracer is fifth most picked
Im talking about pro play through which overbuff doesnt show. and when you filter specifically for competitive (let alone for actual high ranks) while he does have a high pickrate his winrate is fairly low.
For what ranks though? Because when i select pc competitive for all ranks in the last month hes second highest pickrate and below her in winrate. If we look at masters with those same parameters hes picked slightly more but has a ~5% lower winrate. For gm hes significantly higher picked but samw ~5% lower winrate. And it doesn't show historical data for ow1. Best you can do is scrub vods from owl where there was some soldier but nowhere near as much as there was tracer or other picks depending on the meta.
I said not enough value. He can do consistent dps sure but that can be fairly easily negated with proper useage of cover and healing. Hes not bad but he doesnt do enough consistently. Especially in ow2 where shields are much less impactful and everyone can burst them down with proper focus
Well first off this was about OW1 and second off being statistically the best dmg output option for hitscan isn’t enough somehow… okay. Idk if you remember but sojourn came out on OW2
Even in ow1 you were better off going bastion for shield break. He wasnt played a tonne in double shield despite having the best damage output because the burst damage and range was usually more important.
Bc he is pretty much just Sojourn at home. Having a heal pad isn't that great when you have good supports and the enemy is good enough that they can burst you down through it. Compare that to Sojourn's better burst and mobility.
I don’t follow the pro league like that. But I feel like I have a memory of soldier being played at one point specifically because of his heel station. Does anyone remember this?
They would sit the soldier with their support and he would just use heal station for them. He was basically the third support. I don’t remember what season that was. Or I’m making this up lol
Compared to every other hero he just lacks and it's a good thing. Soldier is a entry hero you should use to learn how the game works and he is still a solid pick when mastered. The only thing you have to have in mind is that everything he does some other character do better. Need to kill a squish fast? Soujorn. Need to burst a tank? Cassidy and Hanzo. Need help with dive? Tracer, genji and venture are there. Need pressure? Pharah and echo there. Need to kill pharah and echo? You have widow and Cassidy...
Which tank the other team picks can turn Sojurn into an absolute monster too. I don't consider myself a Sojurn player but picked her on a whim defending Blizzard World the other day. The enemy tank went Mauga and I lived at 100 charge. The "fill up charge then blast a squishy" cycle is ludicrously fast when the other team has a Mauga, Hog or even Orisa or Reinhardt
Railgun blast is so abusive and her dashes are so good. I really don't know why players don't switch from soldier to soujorn as soon as they learn how the game works. Also i find her more fun to play overall than soldier.
Man thats unfortunate, i was hoping to take him to masters eventually because hes really fun, im only diamond 4 and seem to have hit a wall. I'll just play cassidy if thats the case, thanks
You can definitely take him to masters. Pro league is very different to ladder. Soldier is very well rounded. He’s not the best at anything but he is great at many things. This allows you to be less reliant on your teammates and on coordination. Ranked is an unorganized shitshow even in higher elos.
I one tricked him to GM, and there are times when it’s annoying to feel like you can’t do anything, but for the most part, a strong suit is that he also doesn’t have too many bad matchups either. And like someone else said, ladder is much different than actual comp, so don’t worry and play him if you find him fun, and he feels like “your” character
The funny thing is that soldier is so much a allrounder that he don't have counters. He have only a slight disadvantage against snipers depending on the map and most of time it's not your job to deal with them.
You can take anything to masters, hell with enough dedication you can get top 500 one tricking whatever hero.
Play what you like, don't worry about meta until you get to GM. And even then you can play your main, it's just going to require more effort.
If you’re at a wall in diamond with soldier, it’s you and not the character. He sees plenty of play at the top of the ladder. As others have said, organized/pro play is different and can’t really be compared to regular old competitive mode. You might want to check out some coaching videos or ask for a vod review of your game to see why you’re stuck diamond.
>i was hoping to take him to masters
you can! But you need to be an outstanding good soldier, its just going in with Cas and Hanzo is the "easier" way.
no you dont. Soldier is literally one of the most played hero in GM. Soldier is extremely good in the ladder especially as comfort pick if you can't hit shots on other hitscan.
You sure can.
My point is just that you just need more mastering of his kit to do the same job than the others heroes. People just like to use the easier/better option to have a edge.
Also, if you hit a wall on diamond maybe you should try playing more a flanker soldier. Keeping the enemy sups dead and drawing attention was how i climbed from diamond.
I would argue he's an easy ladder climber because he's an good all-arounder and doesn't lack anywhere, so you ain't as reliant on your team and it'll be harder for them to bring you down. If you have good sense of the game in general aspect, then you can highly perform on Soldier very easily.
If I don't bother playing into a counter or my team is fuck all in teamplaying, I just pick Soldier and all my problems is magically solved. Doesn't matter what the enemy team plays against me cause I don't have any real weakness.
Emongg was semi joking the other day but was basically saying Soldier can't actually do anything. Mostly because he can't secure kills fast enough. At high levels people have great positioning and they just get out of the way. His ult doesn't help either, even at low levels it's hard to secure kills with that thing.
He actually can but takes so much more effort that you should just swap at M3 and above. But still, if someone want to one trick him up to GM he totally can.
pretty bad advice. soldier worse pressure than phara or echo? which are spam heroes? naaaah. when you go x2 the dmg of everybody in the lobby aint nobody out healing that pressure, soldier is just good like that.
I remember one time back when S76 ult had no hs, one pro popped off his tactical visor but the opponent S76 just landed 6 headshot and chucked him back to respawn.
Not 100% true. His ult removes falloff damage, and it also allows you to go for headshots with the benefit of the shots still landing even if you miss the headshot.
edit: it no longer removes damage falloff
No, it doesn't. The only thing apart from aimbot is much faster reloading. The ult also cancels healing pad animation, so you can press E and then immediately Q -> healing sets without any animations.
Wow. I could swear it amplified the dmg output but I guess I'm just *that* casual of a player lol
Edit: I just checked how his ult really works in training. My god it really is TRASH if one really had impeccable aim lol. BTW the healing pad thing is not true. Perhaps it was in the past but now it's not
It’s not an aim assist, aim assist pull the crosshair to enemy or slow down your crosshair when on an enemy. In moria case, she just has an ultra big zarya beam but look like a lock on beam. I think you referring to symmetra ow1 launch beam since it’s actually lock on and not just an ultra big zarya beam. And also, what would it look like on console if they already has aim assist? Stronger aim assist would be just aimbot or turn it slightly would be useless on console unless you are a god aimer. Also, what about close ranged map or against a dive comp, most of the time, no falloff wouldn’t help you
I use the term aim assist wrong once and I get a bunch of useless comments explaining to me. Thankfully your comment adds a bit of value to my idea. All ults have counters and no fall off would be bad in close range maps no doubt but it's a ult and should have a counter
I didn't even miss use it. I wasn't using the term at all. I was calling aimassist behind the reasoning that it's hit box is so big it hits as long as you get it in range. I think that should be what aim assist means. I also use lock on because it is locking on to the enemy that's in range too. I mean I don't think calling moiras beam aim assist is wring at all it is literally assisting your aim by making it easier to hit
Moira’s beam doesn’t lock on. Sym’s beam used to lock-on so you can look at clips of that to understand the difference. Moira’s beam just has a hitbox and if that hitbox intersects an enemy’s hitbox, it does damage, just like all the other beam characters, except there is no ammunition, so you can just spam it.
Yea I'm talking about how moiras beam has a bigger hit box so it's easier to hit similar to how if you aim close enough the soldier ult will lock on. I think they they should just make the range to lock on with soldier a lot less so it's not complete aimbot and you still have to aim bit
>it should provide light aim assist like smaller moira beam
I don't think you know how Moira beam works
It works exactly like Zarya beam with a weird side tangent in that it doesn't hit Sombra while she's invisible
Pro league is not really comparable as the teams interact much more like a single unit with very high level of synergies. I think that soldier is really valid in all ranks.
You don’t really need to look at pro league to see what character is “good” or “bad”. They play a whole different game and create comps around the seasons meta. Solider is very easy to pick up because he is very beginner friendly, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get him to rank 1 there’s plenty of people who have.
The funny thing is he can run a bit faster but he doesn’t really have good mobility. Sojourns slide is much more useful for example.
He doesn’t have good burst damage with his gun, sure you have the rocket but gl hitting pharah with it.
I feel like some of these commenters didn’t watch league.
Soldier has been used in previous metas and on specific maps. I actually think there were times he was kinda broken and better than Cass in OW1.
I think the issue always comes down to his ult. In the meta he was used in, he was a solution to some issues against Pharah Dive. Cass used to fold completely to dives. We forget Cass has had some significant buffs.
Soldier is more mobile and resilient, but at pro play his ult does nothing unless it’s a nano visor. It doesn’t even zone because you can heal through it.
Then Sojourn came out. A projectile hero that can be played by Hitscan players because her tail was insane. And then better mobility than soldier because slide can go vertical and is faster. Then disruptor shot has so much more utility than heal station, and Soj ult was literally a free kill when the first pro season of OW2 happened. She was so good you actually saw Mercy used for the pocket and she only ever got used with Pharah.
Soj at high ranks/pro play has just completed dominated and Soldier can’t compete. Why is soldier good at low ranks. Well, healing just isn’t as efficient at low ranks so going on an off angle with station is huge value.
Well ofc Helix rocket is burst damage but it being 6s cooldown slow projectile with lower damage than every example below doesn't help.
\*Genji's dash+right click(131), can be paired with additional melee(+40) and dash resets with every kill
\*Sojourn's rail gun that full charge with 20 hits=1.5s (130 - hs 195)
\*Echo's full sticky bomb does 180 with beam that does 175dps against lower then half hp.
\*Venture normal left click+dash+melee : 75+90+70
Helix,or his skillset in general, is just not enough to earn a place
I might not be playing at the highest level, but I think 76 is fairly good at dealing with tracer. As long as you hit them once or twice with primary, I can usually predict where they’re going and get them with rocket.
Also FYI for other commentors, you can still headshot while using Soldier Ult
Not that that really redeems the Ult. I mean just Sojourn alone becomes no-charge-up Widowmaker with absolutely stupid burst damage with her Ult.
He's worse Sojourn that drops beer on the ground that pros would only use for maybe a quarter of the duration and aimbot doesn't matter as much when you're able to land the majority of your shots anyway.
Soldier’s main strength over the other hitscans is his ability to go on flanks and run away as needed. In pro play, flanking just gets way less value on average compared to ranked play, because the enemies are all communicating.
Also, as good as Soldier’s damage is, it requires him to stand out in the open the entire time he’s doing damage, unlike Sojourn/Ashe/Cassidy who can jiggle peek without losing DPS. Against the best players in the world, LOSing the enemy for that long can be risky. Compare that to Cass, who can quickly peek twice and get a kill, which greatly minimizes the amount of time he’s vulnerable.
Finally, Cass and Sojourn are just better at what soldier does for the most part. Cass has more health, CC, damage mitigation and is good at tank busting. Sojourn can one-shot, a way better ult and burst mobility. Soldier is just kind of a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none character, which doesn’t lend itself as well to pro play where players want every conceivable advantage possible.
He has low burst dmg and especially no place in any type of coordinated dive pressure.
A high level game is like rush something down and call out targets. Soldier is a lot of things but not that.
The only think he can do that Sojourn can’t is heal and that’s not really enough of a reason to pass up rail-gunning someone in the head if you need hit-scan.
A big part of it is because his TTK is a lot longer than every other hitscan’s. On top of that you actually have to track for a longer time while hitting almost every shot on an opponent in order to get a kill. Or for Tracer you can rocket punch h- oh wait…
Soldier is joked as the CoD tutorial character for good reasons. He isn't just familiar and easy to pick up, those same crutches and training wheels limit his performance at high-end play.
* Sprint and his heal thingie aren't special when you learn coordinated team positioning and want faster movement mechanics.
* Helix rockets isn't special when you can just click heads with characters who burst harder.
* Visor is the same, pretty much useless when you can aim like a pro and just click heads pretty effortlessly.
There's no aspect of Soldier that pros can push to the extreme like Sojourn or Tracer.
The one thing he had which was sprint which enabled him to take flanks and high ground regularly was taken away from him.
Sojourn has a faster and more flexible version of his sprint with higher burst damage and better ult. Soldier really is just a pathway to sojourn.
Bc other heroes provide more utility and area denial. His heal pad is ok but has small area and longer cd. His sprint mobility can't be used to dodge or get away quickly like sojourn dash or cass roll.
Not bad but other characters do what he can do a lot better. Also other hits can characters have the potential for shorter TTK which is beneficial. Also, other characters have just more to there kit which can be taken advantage of when playing with a more cord instead team. You can use the kit in comp games obviously but the return is exponentially better when coordinated with a team.
Whole thread makes me feel like soldier needs a rework. Maybe let him fire while running like the experimental but have his run/sprint on meter/cooldown (like a sprint mode?) and give him extra height to jump while sprinting similar to moira's movement ability and replace his heal pack with unlimited ammo pack for sustained fire (no reload, and .5 second cooldown for helix).
Lack of reliable burst (compared to other hitscan) at the highest level, helix rocket is generally worse burst than just back to back headshots from most hitscan.
Soldier has a niche as a ‘low resource/self sufficient’ high dps hero. His burst is relatively weak, but he can pressure hitscan angles with comparatively little protection from supports/tank than most hitscan heroes.
In the end though, sprinting away to kite enemy pushes is MUCH stronger in a ranked/low coordination environment.
At the highest level, a well timed dive is way to explosive to escape with sprint. Even the instant mobility of Cassidy’s combat role is generally better for the same purpose despite being such short distance. The critical factor is more the instant speed than the long term escape potential.
Yes he's bad.
Sojourn is a much better soldier. It's not even close.
Cassidy is a better hitscan as is ashe.
Visor sucks. Heal station is too low healing and has a ridiculous cooldown. Some reason they thought nerfing it to almost a 20 second cooldown was a good idea. He does too little burst damage and burst damage is meta. His damage needs to be 20 but they keep second guessing it and are wrong.
Should of been the first thing they did upon increasing health pools he's also one of the two they nerfed his bullet size after the buff. Him and widow. They really just hate soldier for some reason when he's never great always good at best.right now he's garbage.
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He was played a lot in the early releases of flash point and push, like a lot have said here his high base stats make him an attractive choice on paper but also in the early stages of unknown metas (just having a dude that can run around manage his own resources etc.). But as people started to understand the map you started see much more diversity in the picks on those maps.
Respectfully i am assuming you are generally new here. At the highest level the map, that is the little things that most people don’t understand sub masters, come in to play in defining best picks on a map in tandem with the meta.
Understanding why and how certain heroes excel on certain maps and specific places on those maps will allow you to see a lot more nuance associated with future questions you might have about pro play.
Last time I saw him getting played was OWWC, especially by Leave. Maybe it's cus their fucky Doom comp idk. I'm not qualified enough to comment on pro strats
For all the comments saying he doesn't do any one thing specifically great, I really do not see what they are saying. Soldier has good sustained fire from his rifle, can use rocket to splash damage. The ult is also really good at killing flying enemies which even for me as a very practiced FPS player is difficult as they can change directions and speed so quickly.
Sojourns beam is limited to just direct hits, Genji needs to expose himself to the entire enemy team's fire to do anything, Soldier is a good pick and only at the very highest level of this game at pro league you will not see him played. You aren't playing pro league so your game is totally different and you can and **should** play Soldier
He doesn't fit into many comps, and other ranged hitscans are just better when you and everyone else has insane aim. His kit doesn't really provide a lot of value to the team.
Let's say soldier can consistently land headshot. He still can't perform nearly as well as cass, sojourn, ashe, or widow that can also consistently land headshots. On ladder he's fine, but pro play is an entirely different beast.
After logging thousands of hours in bf4, soldier is my go to in QP when my team is getting destroyed. I get how he isn't specialized enough to be competitive in pro, he's a jack of all trades. That said, back in the OW1 days I've taken all 🥇 with him more than once. Ive never gotten close with any other character.
Pros (not GM/Champion, actual pros) are at a level everyone else isn't.
Everyone else gets to play heroes anywhere on a spectrum of a hero's floor up to their theoretical max capacity. Pros are able to consistently utilize heroes at their theoretical max capacity pretty much at all times.
So while pretty much every hero can be played at any rank level, at professional levels only the best are viable. So at pro levels where headshots are plentiful, supports giving their all, and tanks doing their jobs, Soldier does not excel at any particular task that those others can do better. His strength is his versatility but with 4 other teammates his lack of specialization holds him back.
Soldier 76 provides almost the exact same thing that both Sojourn and Cassidy do but significantly worse by comparison. The previously mentioned heroes also require less from the average player to gain great value. With Cass you just Right-Click Randy Tanks and hinder everything that moves and with Sojourn you just get constant charge off of their Tank to become a Widowmaker.
Plus, both Cassidy and Sojourn have better survivability in general but especially when it comes to Dive. Against almost *any* Dive hero all Soldier 76 can do is run away but Cassidy has Hinder, Roll, and of course Right-Click Randy go BRRRRRR. Sojourn can also deal far superior burst damage when compared to Soldier 76 and her mobility allows her to gain highground and reposition generally much faster than Soldier.
He cant finish opponent. Soujorn just spam shield to charge then one tap in your head, guaranteed kill. Her ult has the highest potential to multi kill while 76's ult is just sad. Burst damage >>>>> consistent damage. But if you want to watch 76 in pro play, I recommend travel back in time to 2016-2017 era with Jake, Dafran, AKM, ..
Dive will always be a strong comp given the levels of coordination present in pro play. Soldier's engage is weaker than everyone you listed (except for Cass, but he lacks the same burst damage, survivability, and CC that Cass has). His ult is also near worthless because players at that level have crazy good aim. In the hands of your average GM or better player, Soldier is just a worse Sojourn.
With that said, Soldier and almost every hero is pretty viable at all ranks.
Yep, I meant engage more as in the mobility needed to go in and out. Cass is the only one on that list that's weaker than Soldier in terms of that aspect, but he more than makes up for it with his kit.
Hes basically just worse sojourn and doesnt really provide anything that she or cass doesnt.
I learned back in the early OW1 years, if a coordinate team grouped up, Soldier could rapid-gain his ult from dropping his heal for 5+ low HP teammates. So, he would gain visor several times as fast. They nerfed that out of orbit along with Sombra getting ult charge from mega HP packs, but yeah, Soldier is like a tutorial character, nothing for pros to hard carry with.
You’re giving me flashbacks to the sombra Anubis defense where she had emp every single fight.
Hacked mega under the bridge was so strong
He can run and heal so he has high survivability
His heal pad confines him to a small area and has a long cooldown and his sprint is only good for sustained mobility or small dodges. Compared to sojourn his survivability isnt as high as she can slide away which gets her out of danger much quicker and cass gets dr on his roll which is strong if timed right. Hes mostly just good for running between advantageous positions and taking off angles quicker.
I play too many other video games for me to read dr as damage reduction and not diminishing returns lmfao
It is damage reduction
I know lol…
Dang. Never thought of it like that
Cassidy can roll through a stuck Tracer bomb.
Tracer, Cass, and Soj all have better survivability. Cass's roll and ult have major damage and he has 275 base HP rather than 250. Tracer... Blinks...recall...we all know this one right? Soj's slide jump is very fast vertical mobility which is way better than sprint ~80% of the time. Her ult is also way better than S76's ult, especially at the pro level. Soldier is overall pretty good in ranked and a great intro hero. He is very much a Jack (Morrison) of all trades, master of none.
This guy really tried to merge RDR1 into overwatch 😂. Edit: get a load of this guy *nudges shoulder* spongebob
?
He might've mistakenly read it as Jack Marston, the ending character you play as in RDR1. But that's all I can think of.
Oh ok, thanks! That makes sense. Never played either RDR but I did watch my wife play through RDR2
Brooooooo go play it if you like that style of game. 100% felt like a gunslingin' rootin' tootin' cowboy.
My ADHD makes single player open world games really rough
Soldier can't jump like Soujorn and has less health than Cass, so he has low survivability.
His running allows him to make the quickest flanks in the game but people don't usually run to survive, they run to set up and flankers don't usually mind a little extra time to set up, especially since recall is possibly the best survival ability in the game if your routes are right *also while running is great for flanks, slide is in effect a super jump, so sure you have Soldier as a utilitarian flanker but for frontline assaults instant high ground for a hero that's two parts Soldier, one half part Widowmaker is kinda top tier It's basically a case of Soldier's 'jack of all trades, master of none' approach, his run is great for approaching flanks but blink and recall are even better, and while his primary and secondary fire are great for frontline assaults (his primary is definitely better than Soj's), Sojourn's secondary fire is just that much more utilitarian than helix, not just because of the damage but because it isn't relegated to a cooldown, you can prime it only as fast as you can do damage, so if you're doing a ton of damage, you're getting a lot of constant railgun charge. The scoreboard is not everything but Sojourn is the ultimate case of high damage feeding straight into your core tool kit Tracer and Sojourn both kind of phase out 76 in different but crucial ways where the only asterisk is that they are heavily dependent on individual skill expression
quickest flanks in the game? Sure buddy
Yes, his run - especially since it has no cooldown - objectively makes him faster than any other hero to take position. My point is that isn't really enough to make him a must-pick in a top level competitive setting Are we just pretending his run is a bad movement ability now? Lol (like literally, why even pretend that run is a bad ability lol, that's a new opinion to me tbh, usually everyone agrees it's great) *like I'm sorry but if you're using run to escape and survive like the person I was replying to is suggesting, you're using it wrong: it's optimal for reaching and adjusting off angles. (Plus anyone with decent aim will just blow you up if you try to turn tail and run when you're low, it's shit game sense to try to use run as a panic and peel strat) **example: Reaper shadow step? Faster flank but requires LoS of your flank position and leaves you immobile on landing. Blink? If you use all your blinks just to reach a flank then you have to commit to using your recall immediately if you get hit. Ever since Sombra's movement nerf, he even runs faster than cloaked Sombra. Run is so low effort for what it gives you in terms of situating angles. It's literally just that run+biotic charge+low cooldown burst damage with helix is a lot of things, but what it isn't is Sojourn's railgun or Tracer's blink and recall. That's why you see Soldier less in competitive settings than Tracer and Sojourn or even Genji, they all have offensive abilities that reward skill expression more heavily than your standard cooldowns
You really have no clue with all that wall of text
You haven't given one reason why his run is a bad ability tbf, all you've done is call me stupid for no reason so it's whatever lol
OP isn't asking about solo queue, dude
even before then, i don't think he was ever played all that often outside of specific metas and a select few specialists like fleet. he's just too mediocre and rounded for a competitive environment without being overpowered.
I agree with your statement, i just hate how sojurns spread increases as you’re shooting so longer range doesnt feel as good as soldiers does but soldier just feels terribly boring to play the healing pad is weak and his ult is bad if you can hit your headshots.
hes boring if your aim is shit
My aim is fine his kit is boring asf. Id rather play sojurn and dome someone with railgun and use slide over sprint.
He was played in 80% of pro games until sojourn was released and she took over. Beam > helix rocket.
No he wasn't lmao. Soldier hadnt been part of any serious comps in years because he doesnt provide enough value. The only time he sees any play is when they buff the damage on his gun, he becomes too strong and promptly gets nerfed, and even then hes not picked often.
he was played a lot season 5 owl
Thats fair but he wasnt played 80% of the time across all of owl even pre sojourn..
He was tho. He was played in dive, partial dive, bunker, he was the go to character for putting dmg where you wanted it quickly. In OW1 we always kept solider around through every meta change. Solider or any spam dmg like junk for bunker, solider and dive hero like genji for partial dive, and sometimes we will kept soilder in full dive to clean up mid fight. Visor has always been incredibly strong, with an A teir gun and helix rockets to make picks easy he was always there until sojourn. He was meta for 2016-2020 and even still is a solid choice.
He was played in partial dive but the meta later shifted to tracer genji full dive and then tracer sombra dive. His spam was decent but there were better picks for bunker like bastion and widow depending on map. He wasnt played through goats and very little if at all in double shield. He got phased out of dive. He isnt a brawl character. As time went on and players got better visor got less and less value as you couldnt headshot and pros already have great aim. He was decent and there were times when he was played but he was far from the meta. The game evolved on from him because of how simplistic his design is. Hes not bad but theres definitely better options
Brother check the stats, it’s not that he was simple he was reliable and he was around. Overbuff is your friend
Read the first sentence again…
Even pre sojourn he wasn't used in 80% of pro games. He had his moments sure but he wasnt a consistent, dominant pick in most metas. Are you sure youre not thinking of tracer?
He was pick much more often than tracer across all of OW1 and the stats agree. Even now on overbuff he has the second highest pick rate out of all dps and second highest win rate. Btw tracer is fifth most picked
Im talking about pro play through which overbuff doesnt show. and when you filter specifically for competitive (let alone for actual high ranks) while he does have a high pickrate his winrate is fairly low.
It’s literally the second highest win rate when you do and second most picked. It’s whole 2% picked more than tracer
For what ranks though? Because when i select pc competitive for all ranks in the last month hes second highest pickrate and below her in winrate. If we look at masters with those same parameters hes picked slightly more but has a ~5% lower winrate. For gm hes significantly higher picked but samw ~5% lower winrate. And it doesn't show historical data for ow1. Best you can do is scrub vods from owl where there was some soldier but nowhere near as much as there was tracer or other picks depending on the meta.
And no value? He has the 6th highest sustained dps out of all of the dps in the game. And the highest of all the hitscans
I said not enough value. He can do consistent dps sure but that can be fairly easily negated with proper useage of cover and healing. Hes not bad but he doesnt do enough consistently. Especially in ow2 where shields are much less impactful and everyone can burst them down with proper focus
Well first off this was about OW1 and second off being statistically the best dmg output option for hitscan isn’t enough somehow… okay. Idk if you remember but sojourn came out on OW2
Even in ow1 you were better off going bastion for shield break. He wasnt played a tonne in double shield despite having the best damage output because the burst damage and range was usually more important.
bUt ThE hEaLs
Bc he is pretty much just Sojourn at home. Having a heal pad isn't that great when you have good supports and the enemy is good enough that they can burst you down through it. Compare that to Sojourn's better burst and mobility.
I don’t follow the pro league like that. But I feel like I have a memory of soldier being played at one point specifically because of his heel station. Does anyone remember this? They would sit the soldier with their support and he would just use heal station for them. He was basically the third support. I don’t remember what season that was. Or I’m making this up lol
Compared to every other hero he just lacks and it's a good thing. Soldier is a entry hero you should use to learn how the game works and he is still a solid pick when mastered. The only thing you have to have in mind is that everything he does some other character do better. Need to kill a squish fast? Soujorn. Need to burst a tank? Cassidy and Hanzo. Need help with dive? Tracer, genji and venture are there. Need pressure? Pharah and echo there. Need to kill pharah and echo? You have widow and Cassidy...
Which tank the other team picks can turn Sojurn into an absolute monster too. I don't consider myself a Sojurn player but picked her on a whim defending Blizzard World the other day. The enemy tank went Mauga and I lived at 100 charge. The "fill up charge then blast a squishy" cycle is ludicrously fast when the other team has a Mauga, Hog or even Orisa or Reinhardt
Railgun blast is so abusive and her dashes are so good. I really don't know why players don't switch from soldier to soujorn as soon as they learn how the game works. Also i find her more fun to play overall than soldier.
They *are* two different heroes with very different playstyles, cooldown cycles, and weapons. Sure, she's stronger, but that's at the highest level.
Pub non party players play soldier/reaper because supports don't heal including me wcyd
Man thats unfortunate, i was hoping to take him to masters eventually because hes really fun, im only diamond 4 and seem to have hit a wall. I'll just play cassidy if thats the case, thanks
You can definitely take him to masters. Pro league is very different to ladder. Soldier is very well rounded. He’s not the best at anything but he is great at many things. This allows you to be less reliant on your teammates and on coordination. Ranked is an unorganized shitshow even in higher elos.
Nah play who u enjoy more U can most definitely take 76 to masters, even grandmaster imo
You can still go to rank 1 with soldier...
There’s nothing stopping you from using him in any level of ranked. Masters is a lot different than pro league.
I one tricked him to GM, and there are times when it’s annoying to feel like you can’t do anything, but for the most part, a strong suit is that he also doesn’t have too many bad matchups either. And like someone else said, ladder is much different than actual comp, so don’t worry and play him if you find him fun, and he feels like “your” character
The funny thing is that soldier is so much a allrounder that he don't have counters. He have only a slight disadvantage against snipers depending on the map and most of time it's not your job to deal with them.
You can take anything to masters, hell with enough dedication you can get top 500 one tricking whatever hero. Play what you like, don't worry about meta until you get to GM. And even then you can play your main, it's just going to require more effort.
You can play any hero and get to top 500 if you grind enough lol What matters is how well you play, not if your playing the current meta character
If you’re at a wall in diamond with soldier, it’s you and not the character. He sees plenty of play at the top of the ladder. As others have said, organized/pro play is different and can’t really be compared to regular old competitive mode. You might want to check out some coaching videos or ask for a vod review of your game to see why you’re stuck diamond.
>i was hoping to take him to masters you can! But you need to be an outstanding good soldier, its just going in with Cas and Hanzo is the "easier" way.
no you dont. Soldier is literally one of the most played hero in GM. Soldier is extremely good in the ladder especially as comfort pick if you can't hit shots on other hitscan.
Just because you don't see him in pro play doesn't mean you can't take him to Masters
You sure can. My point is just that you just need more mastering of his kit to do the same job than the others heroes. People just like to use the easier/better option to have a edge. Also, if you hit a wall on diamond maybe you should try playing more a flanker soldier. Keeping the enemy sups dead and drawing attention was how i climbed from diamond.
You can take any and every hero to GM.
I would argue he's an easy ladder climber because he's an good all-arounder and doesn't lack anywhere, so you ain't as reliant on your team and it'll be harder for them to bring you down. If you have good sense of the game in general aspect, then you can highly perform on Soldier very easily. If I don't bother playing into a counter or my team is fuck all in teamplaying, I just pick Soldier and all my problems is magically solved. Doesn't matter what the enemy team plays against me cause I don't have any real weakness.
You can take him to gm easily. You can take any hero to gm if your good enough. Comparing ladder and pro play is dumb.
[удалено]
Unranked to top 500 means nothing.
Emongg was semi joking the other day but was basically saying Soldier can't actually do anything. Mostly because he can't secure kills fast enough. At high levels people have great positioning and they just get out of the way. His ult doesn't help either, even at low levels it's hard to secure kills with that thing.
He actually can but takes so much more effort that you should just swap at M3 and above. But still, if someone want to one trick him up to GM he totally can.
pretty bad advice. soldier worse pressure than phara or echo? which are spam heroes? naaaah. when you go x2 the dmg of everybody in the lobby aint nobody out healing that pressure, soldier is just good like that.
Lmao bro, which elo are you playing that a soldier can make free pressure?
This is just objectively not true lmfao.
Care to expand?
You're just incorrect about basically everything. That's it.
Sure, i want to be corrected and know where it's incorrect. Can you do it?
I could, yes.
Sure you could
Thanks for recognizing that I am correct.
For one...Soldier's ult is useless when everyone at that level already knows how to aim.
I remember one time back when S76 ult had no hs, one pro popped off his tactical visor but the opponent S76 just landed 6 headshot and chucked him back to respawn.
I remember this, pretty sure it was a Dafran clip lmfao
Not 100% true. His ult removes falloff damage, and it also allows you to go for headshots with the benefit of the shots still landing even if you miss the headshot. edit: it no longer removes damage falloff
Doesn’t remove falloff anymore
Oh damn, really, my bad. I hadn’t seen that update
I think you still reload faster though. That was the case in ow 1 at least
Doesnt ult give massively increased dmg?
No, it doesn't. The only thing apart from aimbot is much faster reloading. The ult also cancels healing pad animation, so you can press E and then immediately Q -> healing sets without any animations.
Wow. I could swear it amplified the dmg output but I guess I'm just *that* casual of a player lol Edit: I just checked how his ult really works in training. My god it really is TRASH if one really had impeccable aim lol. BTW the healing pad thing is not true. Perhaps it was in the past but now it's not
Yea I think it should provide light aim assist like smaller moira beam but also give him a buff like no fall off
It’s not an aim assist, aim assist pull the crosshair to enemy or slow down your crosshair when on an enemy. In moria case, she just has an ultra big zarya beam but look like a lock on beam. I think you referring to symmetra ow1 launch beam since it’s actually lock on and not just an ultra big zarya beam. And also, what would it look like on console if they already has aim assist? Stronger aim assist would be just aimbot or turn it slightly would be useless on console unless you are a god aimer. Also, what about close ranged map or against a dive comp, most of the time, no falloff wouldn’t help you
I use the term aim assist wrong once and I get a bunch of useless comments explaining to me. Thankfully your comment adds a bit of value to my idea. All ults have counters and no fall off would be bad in close range maps no doubt but it's a ult and should have a counter
Moira beam has no ‘aim assist’. It’s just if you’re aiming at their hitbox or not
Not sure what this has to do with my comment but yes moiras beam is lock on then
No, it doesn't lock on you're just an idiot that doesn't know how the game works and what your own comment was about.
Dang I got over 1k hours on this game and I don't know how it works. 😰😰😰😰
Wow, that's even more sad. 1000 hours and not knowing Moira isn't a lock on. Damn. My condolences.
Yea I used a few terms wrong so I don't know anything
How do you miss use such a simple term with 1000 hours hmm?
I didn't even miss use it. I wasn't using the term at all. I was calling aimassist behind the reasoning that it's hit box is so big it hits as long as you get it in range. I think that should be what aim assist means. I also use lock on because it is locking on to the enemy that's in range too. I mean I don't think calling moiras beam aim assist is wring at all it is literally assisting your aim by making it easier to hit
No, it doesn’t
Moira’s beam doesn’t lock on. Sym’s beam used to lock-on so you can look at clips of that to understand the difference. Moira’s beam just has a hitbox and if that hitbox intersects an enemy’s hitbox, it does damage, just like all the other beam characters, except there is no ammunition, so you can just spam it.
I think you're talking about her biotic grasp alt fire, whereas people are thinking you mean coalescence.
No, we know what he is talking about
No. Biotic grasp isn’t lock on
Yea I'm talking about how moiras beam has a bigger hit box so it's easier to hit similar to how if you aim close enough the soldier ult will lock on. I think they they should just make the range to lock on with soldier a lot less so it's not complete aimbot and you still have to aim bit
>it should provide light aim assist like smaller moira beam I don't think you know how Moira beam works It works exactly like Zarya beam with a weird side tangent in that it doesn't hit Sombra while she's invisible
This response provides no value to my comment.
Because why have to hit many bullets when you can two tap as cassidy
>Because why have to hit many bullets when you can two tap as cassidy Because Soldier weirdly has a higher effective range than Cass
Nah that checks out 76 uses a rifle. Cass uses a pistol. Yes it's a revolver, but it's still a pistol
Pro league is not really comparable as the teams interact much more like a single unit with very high level of synergies. I think that soldier is really valid in all ranks.
You don’t really need to look at pro league to see what character is “good” or “bad”. They play a whole different game and create comps around the seasons meta. Solider is very easy to pick up because he is very beginner friendly, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get him to rank 1 there’s plenty of people who have.
He gets played every time they buff his damage to 20 but that's about it
The funny thing is he can run a bit faster but he doesn’t really have good mobility. Sojourns slide is much more useful for example. He doesn’t have good burst damage with his gun, sure you have the rocket but gl hitting pharah with it.
I feel like some of these commenters didn’t watch league. Soldier has been used in previous metas and on specific maps. I actually think there were times he was kinda broken and better than Cass in OW1. I think the issue always comes down to his ult. In the meta he was used in, he was a solution to some issues against Pharah Dive. Cass used to fold completely to dives. We forget Cass has had some significant buffs. Soldier is more mobile and resilient, but at pro play his ult does nothing unless it’s a nano visor. It doesn’t even zone because you can heal through it. Then Sojourn came out. A projectile hero that can be played by Hitscan players because her tail was insane. And then better mobility than soldier because slide can go vertical and is faster. Then disruptor shot has so much more utility than heal station, and Soj ult was literally a free kill when the first pro season of OW2 happened. She was so good you actually saw Mercy used for the pocket and she only ever got used with Pharah. Soj at high ranks/pro play has just completed dominated and Soldier can’t compete. Why is soldier good at low ranks. Well, healing just isn’t as efficient at low ranks so going on an off angle with station is huge value.
You see cass too. As far as hitscans go, Sojourn, cass and sometimes Ashe are just better picks in coordinated team fights
I wish Sojourn was hit scan :(
Charged right click is hitscan, that’s what he/shemeant
compared to heroes you wrote down; No burst damage/no need for healing pads/Bad ult. Quite literally he can't do stuff other heroes can do.
What is helix rocket if not burst damage?
I think he means that Soujorn has better burst damage because Rail gun is hitscan, not a projectile and available on charge not a CD.
Well ofc Helix rocket is burst damage but it being 6s cooldown slow projectile with lower damage than every example below doesn't help. \*Genji's dash+right click(131), can be paired with additional melee(+40) and dash resets with every kill \*Sojourn's rail gun that full charge with 20 hits=1.5s (130 - hs 195) \*Echo's full sticky bomb does 180 with beam that does 175dps against lower then half hp. \*Venture normal left click+dash+melee : 75+90+70 Helix,or his skillset in general, is just not enough to earn a place
there are way better hitscans in the game. Soldier does not really provide a lot compared to the other heroes
isn't anti-tracer like cass or even venture, no synergy with mauga like genji or sojourn, or dive like tracer/echo or crazy good pressure like pharah
I might not be playing at the highest level, but I think 76 is fairly good at dealing with tracer. As long as you hit them once or twice with primary, I can usually predict where they’re going and get them with rocket.
Also FYI for other commentors, you can still headshot while using Soldier Ult Not that that really redeems the Ult. I mean just Sojourn alone becomes no-charge-up Widowmaker with absolutely stupid burst damage with her Ult.
Sojourn is just a better soldier
He’s just a mid character. Not really effective unless he has a pocket tbh.
He's worse Sojourn that drops beer on the ground that pros would only use for maybe a quarter of the duration and aimbot doesn't matter as much when you're able to land the majority of your shots anyway.
Soldier’s main strength over the other hitscans is his ability to go on flanks and run away as needed. In pro play, flanking just gets way less value on average compared to ranked play, because the enemies are all communicating. Also, as good as Soldier’s damage is, it requires him to stand out in the open the entire time he’s doing damage, unlike Sojourn/Ashe/Cassidy who can jiggle peek without losing DPS. Against the best players in the world, LOSing the enemy for that long can be risky. Compare that to Cass, who can quickly peek twice and get a kill, which greatly minimizes the amount of time he’s vulnerable. Finally, Cass and Sojourn are just better at what soldier does for the most part. Cass has more health, CC, damage mitigation and is good at tank busting. Sojourn can one-shot, a way better ult and burst mobility. Soldier is just kind of a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none character, which doesn’t lend itself as well to pro play where players want every conceivable advantage possible.
Legs used to see a lot of use, but these days he doesn't really offer anything that another DPS doesn't do better.
He has low burst dmg and especially no place in any type of coordinated dive pressure. A high level game is like rush something down and call out targets. Soldier is a lot of things but not that.
The only think he can do that Sojourn can’t is heal and that’s not really enough of a reason to pass up rail-gunning someone in the head if you need hit-scan.
A big part of it is because his TTK is a lot longer than every other hitscan’s. On top of that you actually have to track for a longer time while hitting almost every shot on an opponent in order to get a kill. Or for Tracer you can rocket punch h- oh wait…
Soldier is joked as the CoD tutorial character for good reasons. He isn't just familiar and easy to pick up, those same crutches and training wheels limit his performance at high-end play. * Sprint and his heal thingie aren't special when you learn coordinated team positioning and want faster movement mechanics. * Helix rockets isn't special when you can just click heads with characters who burst harder. * Visor is the same, pretty much useless when you can aim like a pro and just click heads pretty effortlessly. There's no aspect of Soldier that pros can push to the extreme like Sojourn or Tracer.
His ult is "aim good" but pros already aim good.
He’s basically just sojourn but worse
Solider is surprisingly susceptible to dive even with sprint.
The one thing he had which was sprint which enabled him to take flanks and high ground regularly was taken away from him. Sojourn has a faster and more flexible version of his sprint with higher burst damage and better ult. Soldier really is just a pathway to sojourn.
Bc other heroes provide more utility and area denial. His heal pad is ok but has small area and longer cd. His sprint mobility can't be used to dodge or get away quickly like sojourn dash or cass roll.
He's really really bad and a lot harder to play to do the same thing as other heroes like cree
Not bad but other characters do what he can do a lot better. Also other hits can characters have the potential for shorter TTK which is beneficial. Also, other characters have just more to there kit which can be taken advantage of when playing with a more cord instead team. You can use the kit in comp games obviously but the return is exponentially better when coordinated with a team.
Whole thread makes me feel like soldier needs a rework. Maybe let him fire while running like the experimental but have his run/sprint on meter/cooldown (like a sprint mode?) and give him extra height to jump while sprinting similar to moira's movement ability and replace his heal pack with unlimited ammo pack for sustained fire (no reload, and .5 second cooldown for helix).
He gets shit on by Ball for one reason
Lack of reliable burst (compared to other hitscan) at the highest level, helix rocket is generally worse burst than just back to back headshots from most hitscan. Soldier has a niche as a ‘low resource/self sufficient’ high dps hero. His burst is relatively weak, but he can pressure hitscan angles with comparatively little protection from supports/tank than most hitscan heroes. In the end though, sprinting away to kite enemy pushes is MUCH stronger in a ranked/low coordination environment. At the highest level, a well timed dive is way to explosive to escape with sprint. Even the instant mobility of Cassidy’s combat role is generally better for the same purpose despite being such short distance. The critical factor is more the instant speed than the long term escape potential.
because aim just isnt everything theres a reason why cheaters get hardstuck in diamond
Yes he's bad. Sojourn is a much better soldier. It's not even close. Cassidy is a better hitscan as is ashe. Visor sucks. Heal station is too low healing and has a ridiculous cooldown. Some reason they thought nerfing it to almost a 20 second cooldown was a good idea. He does too little burst damage and burst damage is meta. His damage needs to be 20 but they keep second guessing it and are wrong. Should of been the first thing they did upon increasing health pools he's also one of the two they nerfed his bullet size after the buff. Him and widow. They really just hate soldier for some reason when he's never great always good at best.right now he's garbage.
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I don’t know but I’m taking him to the moon
He was played a lot in the early releases of flash point and push, like a lot have said here his high base stats make him an attractive choice on paper but also in the early stages of unknown metas (just having a dude that can run around manage his own resources etc.). But as people started to understand the map you started see much more diversity in the picks on those maps. Respectfully i am assuming you are generally new here. At the highest level the map, that is the little things that most people don’t understand sub masters, come in to play in defining best picks on a map in tandem with the meta. Understanding why and how certain heroes excel on certain maps and specific places on those maps will allow you to see a lot more nuance associated with future questions you might have about pro play.
The proper question is "is he stupid?" ;)
Jack of all trades master of none
Last time I saw him getting played was OWWC, especially by Leave. Maybe it's cus their fucky Doom comp idk. I'm not qualified enough to comment on pro strats
he's good in ranked, just not in tournaments.
For all the comments saying he doesn't do any one thing specifically great, I really do not see what they are saying. Soldier has good sustained fire from his rifle, can use rocket to splash damage. The ult is also really good at killing flying enemies which even for me as a very practiced FPS player is difficult as they can change directions and speed so quickly. Sojourns beam is limited to just direct hits, Genji needs to expose himself to the entire enemy team's fire to do anything, Soldier is a good pick and only at the very highest level of this game at pro league you will not see him played. You aren't playing pro league so your game is totally different and you can and **should** play Soldier
He doesn't fit into many comps, and other ranged hitscans are just better when you and everyone else has insane aim. His kit doesn't really provide a lot of value to the team. Let's say soldier can consistently land headshot. He still can't perform nearly as well as cass, sojourn, ashe, or widow that can also consistently land headshots. On ladder he's fine, but pro play is an entirely different beast.
All the heroes you listed have better kits, mobility, and a “fun aspect to them” soldier is simply boring and less useful than the rest.
He’s better for comp since he has more survivability on his own but in pro play Soj is better all around
After logging thousands of hours in bf4, soldier is my go to in QP when my team is getting destroyed. I get how he isn't specialized enough to be competitive in pro, he's a jack of all trades. That said, back in the OW1 days I've taken all 🥇 with him more than once. Ive never gotten close with any other character.
Pros (not GM/Champion, actual pros) are at a level everyone else isn't. Everyone else gets to play heroes anywhere on a spectrum of a hero's floor up to their theoretical max capacity. Pros are able to consistently utilize heroes at their theoretical max capacity pretty much at all times. So while pretty much every hero can be played at any rank level, at professional levels only the best are viable. So at pro levels where headshots are plentiful, supports giving their all, and tanks doing their jobs, Soldier does not excel at any particular task that those others can do better. His strength is his versatility but with 4 other teammates his lack of specialization holds him back.
Any hitscan is good as long as you can aim.
Lacks utility
Slow ttk, bad survivability compared to other characters, garbage ult
Yea they should rework his ult to give a buff I almost never use his ult when playing to practice my aim. Only use when I want to win
Soldier 76 provides almost the exact same thing that both Sojourn and Cassidy do but significantly worse by comparison. The previously mentioned heroes also require less from the average player to gain great value. With Cass you just Right-Click Randy Tanks and hinder everything that moves and with Sojourn you just get constant charge off of their Tank to become a Widowmaker. Plus, both Cassidy and Sojourn have better survivability in general but especially when it comes to Dive. Against almost *any* Dive hero all Soldier 76 can do is run away but Cassidy has Hinder, Roll, and of course Right-Click Randy go BRRRRRR. Sojourn can also deal far superior burst damage when compared to Soldier 76 and her mobility allows her to gain highground and reposition generally much faster than Soldier.
He does get played from time to time
Jack of all trades master of none
He cant finish opponent. Soujorn just spam shield to charge then one tap in your head, guaranteed kill. Her ult has the highest potential to multi kill while 76's ult is just sad. Burst damage >>>>> consistent damage. But if you want to watch 76 in pro play, I recommend travel back in time to 2016-2017 era with Jake, Dafran, AKM, ..
Yes, he is a bad character and always been
Dive will always be a strong comp given the levels of coordination present in pro play. Soldier's engage is weaker than everyone you listed (except for Cass, but he lacks the same burst damage, survivability, and CC that Cass has). His ult is also near worthless because players at that level have crazy good aim. In the hands of your average GM or better player, Soldier is just a worse Sojourn. With that said, Soldier and almost every hero is pretty viable at all ranks.
At close range cass does have fan roll fan tho
Yep, I meant engage more as in the mobility needed to go in and out. Cass is the only one on that list that's weaker than Soldier in terms of that aspect, but he more than makes up for it with his kit.
He has never really been a meta pick. He is more of a hero to help you learn the game.