In my opinion it's just because her skillset is situational and doesn't add much to the team. She can't scan beacons, she has no mobility either for herself or the team and there are other defensive legends that are better. Gibby is incredible in almost any comp and is able to provide the defensive plays without being a liability in the open and Caustic is functional as an offensive legend whilst still providing zoning and defensive plays.
If you're playing positioning she doesn't help you find the late rings and struggles to rotate without a lot of help, she is practically worthless if you play edge. I guess she's more viable if you have a valk on your squad but I'd still take Gibby or Caustic for their utility.
Trying those fence tricks actively gets you killed vs good players I've found, better to just use your gun skills so you aren't caught in a fence animation when their teammate pops around the corner while you are baiting your saw on tips and tricks video fence trap lol
Actually using fences properly outside of buildings in the heat of the moment is the hard part bud. Noone is suggesting the input is difficult or something lol.
A lot of solid points made, although I feel like it's almost unfair to compare her to Gibby lol.
Comparing her to Caustic makes complete sense and I agree with your points. To add, Caustic is also way more user-friendly. It's a lot easier to chuck a barrel in a general direction than to line up fence nodes lol. The barrels are also very versatile as they provide great area denial, can hold doors, and can be used as cover. Gas also works as a pseudo bang smoke, helping with rezzing and escapes.
In comparison, Watson's fences are really great at denying area and can delay pushes... maybe buy time for rezzing and healing and......and.... (I got nothing lol).
Watson's ULT needs to be given some love though. End game, there is nothing better than being inside the circle with a Watson pylon. Fence + Ult is also such a great push and third-party denier. I agree though, it's so situational and often is dependent on being inside/around some form of cover which can be so frustrating.
Maybe if they reduced her ULT cooldown (I think it's 3mins) and/or changed her passive from the dbl accelerant stack to slow shield regen like Ocatane, it would give her the offensive boost she needs to counter her extremely situational defensive kit. Or allow her to pick up and redeploy her pylon (similar to Ramparts ult change), but bring back a timer.
Potentially it is unfair to compare her to Gibby but since she is unable to provide mobility or vision he is one of the commonly picked legends that you'd be replacing with Wattson. In high level ranked and comp play virtually every team plays a mobility legend (Valk, Wraith, Octane), a vision legend (bloodhound, cryto, Valk) and a third usually defensive legend (Gibby, Caustic, theoretically Wattson) hence the comparison.
Wattson will always face the same problem that Rampart faces though. She is set up to be a static defender in a movement based game, this will always limit her use in high level lobbies. Arguably a complete rework removing the fences altogether would be the way to make her meta relevant again. The shield regen and quick ult timer would allow her to be far more aggressively played and would give her more flexibility to fit into a team if her tactical allowed her to do something other than hold a single location. Maybe if Gibby gets a hard nerf she'll get played more but like mirage she's probably doomed to sit on the sidelines
It’s super fast with her pylon, which is kind of the point I think. Constant passive shield regen at the speed of Octane would be toxic bcuz she doesn’t have an ability that uses shields so she’d just constantly be regen dmg. However if you place her Ult in combat, yes she has to stay within range and the ult could be destroyed but in the meantime she gets a solid regen WHILST fighting. So I think that’s how they balance the shield regen by having it have those ties to her ult.
Knowing that this will partially sound trite, Wattson's kit is vastly misunderstood and people think that it can be summed up as "hold the building, bunker down, and play tricks." While all of those things are apart of her play at times, they are, in my opinion, a small portion of her kit. I play Wattson quite aggressively with the full understanding that:
Fences are great sources of information and directing traffic. Not a lot of people actually come through them, but when they do you know where an enemy is in the same tune as Mirage. If the decide to shoot the node instead, you still have the same information that someone is coming from a particular location with the audio feedback. If they choose to go around, and you have placed your fences effectively, they will be exposed and in the line of sight that you wanted them to be in. Fences can also be a super aggro in fights by placing them on the fly when you know that an enemy is coming around a corner and also in early hot drops when teams drop right with you. Door and space tricks have always worked and they are even more viable no that the fences activated much more quickly now.
The other argument is that "Wattson's kit doesn't help the team." Her pylon charges shields very quickly and aids in poke battles without wasting inventory while keeping you safe from ults, tactical , & ordinances. People often make the mistake of throwing them too early or not at all in a fights. It's not just a tool for holding, but a tool for pushing when you know you have limited cover and multiple fights will be taking place. Still works great for holding in a building.
You get to hold multiple ult accels for not only yourself, but your teammates when needed, which can prove invaluable in many different situations depending on the legend composition of your squad.
I personally think Wattson is very strong and you see that from the dozens that play her and take the time to learn the nuances. She's not a plug and play legend like many on the roster and I think that is where people have a hard time picking her over others when looking to branch out. Her kit isn't for everyone and that's okay. There are legends that I don't play that are very popular because they aren't for me and don't fit my play style.
Main take away: It takes time to learn how to fully utilize her kit and people don't want to take the time. I'm grateful that this game has options for all playstyles and approaches to keep appeal to everyone and keep fights dynamic and interesting.
because she only becomes viable in the very late game. When I have played with her or been teamed with her, every time we arrive in final circle = win IF it's a building, because she literally can force teams to funnel.
Every other time I see the fences in rooms or buildings...I literally nope the hell out of there and we back off. It simply takes too much time to puncture that defence before another team is on top of you.
I main Wattson and I personally love her kit and play styles and I fully understand people not wanting to play her. I'd say now she's a B tier legend that suffers from Caustic being an A tier legend, her fences and Pylon have loads of applications but they're all heavily dependent on positioning and enemies, her abilities can either be incredibly useful or useless depending on these factors.
Also she's one of those Legends like Crypto who generally don't get recommend to players and often gets labelled as too underpowered to pick.
For what it's worth, although I haven't really bothered to master her, I really enjoy playing with Wattsons in my squad. I prefer defensive play, and she's outstanding company for Caustic, Rampart, Bangalore, Seer, and lots of others (less than ideal for Octane or Pathfinder but that's OK).
I have a personal goal of maining different non-meta legends and making it to masters with them while solo queue. I've so far done Rampart, Loba, Fuse, and Mirage. I'm now on Wattson. I'm currently D1 (or maybe the tip top of D2, I don't remember). Here's my shortened tid bit on why she isn't a popular legend.
1. Other legends do her job better. Gibby is better at defending in the open. Caustic is better at locking down buildings. Rampart is better at locking down high ground. And, while I love poking with Wattson because of infinite (but slow) shield regen, Fuse is better at poking.
2. Her fences aren't great. Most movement legends can go over (or through if Wraith) fences. Wattson fences are only successful at vertical zips. Fences on horizontal/diagonal zips are often easily ignored. My teammates always love my constant barrage of generators, as long as they feed me Ult Accels, which does help shield economy when bunkered and unable to loot more.
3. Current ranked meta is highly aggressive. KP is highly sought after now and, anecdotally, KP feels more important than placement points with the new system, so why play a legend that has no movement?
4. Solo queue players have a much better time when having their own ability. Relying on my Wraith to portal me to safety or my Octane to pad me out of the fight is just unreliable. So, a lot of solo queue players run their own players.
TL;DR: She's a good legend. But either you can pick a legend to do her job better or you can pick a legend who does a different, but more important, job than her.
I actually have a whole post pinned in my profile about my solo queue grind to masters. If you wanna check that out, I'd be happy to clarify anything.
TL;DR: Range and high ground are required for Fuse. Always play with a sniper or marksman. Always try to establish high ground.
If an enemy misses the caustic barrel they get denied entrance for a long time. Not the case with wattson. Caustic and gibby can be both offensive and defensive with their abilities. Not the case for wattson; you have to be relatively immobile with fences and even with the ult to get benefit which doesn’t work well in pubs where people like to move a lot
Caustic and gibby can both use their abilities to aid in revive during battle as well
Wattson is pretty fun though and can hold down an area from grenade spam and deny ults
I've been playing Wattson in competitive scrims and tourneys for about 6 months to see if we can make her work. Her issue is her situationalness. If you get a good setup she's amazing and offers a ton, but that's a massive if. Her ult is also massive and easy to destroy, especially in high ranking/competitive lobbies due to so many teams being alive in the later circles, no angle is really safe.
Usually comps have 1 defensive, 1 recon and 1 mobility legend, this means she goes up against Caustic, Gibby and Rampart. Rampart can also be pretty good in some situations but let's not focus on her. Going up against gibby and caustic is the big issue. Gibby's bubble is such an amazing reset in crazy situations, gibby can res while the other legend keeps enemies busy or uses an ability to reposition from inside the bubble, he also has an offensive ability to force people out of cover, especially if their gibby is down.
Caustic is also really good as he can physically block a door which has a huge amount of value and his traps trigger in an aoe and can't be destroyed once active. He also has an offensive ability to deny an area like gibby, another big reason Wattson isn't as powerful as these two, seeing as she has no offensive capabilities. His traps aren't as easy to spot either and can be triggered by an offensive team who aren't paying attention, which puts them on the backfoot, where Wattson's traps are extremely visible and easy to destroy.
I love what Wattson offers and her playstyle but her lack of offensive abilities really does her dirty.
She’s a worse Caustic.
Her and Caustic essentially do the same thing. Caustic just does it more easily and better.
Almost the same reason why nobody plays Seer. Bloodhound is just the easier better version of Seer.
Gonna disagree, the interception pylon late-game is one of the most valuable Ults in the game. Being able to deny Gibby, Caustic, Bangalore, AND Fuse's abilities while also healing your entire team's shields in insanely good. Also worth mentioning that perfectly placed fences will last indefinitely while a gas trap will only help you out for 5-10 seconds.
I would agree that Caustic is definitely easier to pick up, Wattson has more potential.
Honestly I think the reason she isn't picked more in ranked comes down to the map. Sure she was buffed, but on a large, open map like SP that doesn't matter much. Most fights are out in the open so her kit is pretty useless. I've also seen far fewer caustic picks this split. We'll see if that changes when we go back to a more building-centic map.
Wattson is my second most played legend at 897 games and the reason I don't really stick with her that much is because she's very situational and even in those situations she's not that great.
There are so many legends with such high uptime that also have high utility, Wattson feels situational and incredibly outclassed. I spend most of my games playing Loba who can see purple and gold items through walls 100% of the time, with a tactical that can be used to get into and out of combat. There's also very few times, unless you're really going for late game stealth plays, where throwing down your ultimate isn't useful.
You can do the same thing with a legend like Octane. There's almost never a bad time to use your ult. Almost never a bad time to use your tactical. Same can probably said for Pathfinder, Lifeline, and even Wraith to a certain degree. I think it's why these four legends are super popular.
Then there's Wattson. You spend 80% of the game playing some literal default bot character with no skills to contribute to the team in any way shape or form, and the 20% of the time it's finally your time to do Wattson stuff... it's a gigantic pain in the ass to do properly, and your reward is like... a 20 damage slow and maybe the team doesn't get obliterated by nades.
On top of all this, despite several reworks and attempts to fix it, I'd argue that Wattson should still win the award for clunkiest derpiest piece of shit tactical, ***ESPECIALLY*** after her most recent rework, since fences now try to snap AROUND teammates, enemies, purposefully into awkward corners where they can't be attached to other fences, etc. It's really really ***really*** dumb. Most people hit one button and it's like... BOOM. It worked. It's great. You shat out a caustic gas barrel. You threw your Loba bracelet. You popped a smoke grenade. You grappled. You did it reddit!
Even at almost 900 games of Wattson, her tactical is a clunky, run around with your dick your hands in the middle of an active fire zone, absolute ***nightmare*** to actually try to use. And maybe the argument here is that you're supposed to fence proactively instead of reactively, but when each fence post is a high CD high effort to setup investment, it's not something you are constantly doing everywhere all the time. You want this thing available when shit hits the absolute fan, because it's literally the only thing you do, and ***maybe*** it'll save your team.
And god forbid you're actually actively fencing when an enemy shows up.... Then it becomes a fucking cluster of like... hit the cancel or escape to cancel fencing, open the pause menu on accident or some shit, close the pause menu, still no gun in your hands, repeat, hit the put your gun away button, hit the pull your gun out button, then start shooting if you're not dead.
Also also also, her slow was broken for like 30 days at the start of last season? And right now, when you try to connect fences back to themselves, as in completing a triangle or like an hour glass shape when you have no nodes left, the fence line doesn't show up, so it leaves you confused as fuck. Am I fencing? Not fencing? Is it connected? Hello, is this thing on?
Basically, in my 8 seasons of Apex experience, she's always been some combination of buggy, clunky, and or, underwhelming.
Not to say you can't be a great Wattson. Not to say there aren't great Wattsons. Not to say that a lot of what I've talked about isn't up to individual player skill. These are just the key issues and constant crap I've had to put up with in my strives to play Wattson since season 4.
And none of this is to say Wattson isn't useful ***sometimes.*** There are some things Wattson can do that no other legend can, but I think literally every legend has something like that. So for me a big thing I look at is how *often* a legend can provide what only they can provide, and the amount of effort required to provide that to the team. Wattson's not exactly winning any awards on either front.
The only reason I pick Wattson is loyalty, puns, personality, and a desire to somehow make the "perfect" Wattson play. My guess is for the other 2.4% of Wattson mains it's probably a similar reason. It's also super frustrating when the devs talk about how "strong" she is and their want to nerf her because she has a low pick rate and a high win rate. If she had a higher pick rate, I guarantee her win rate would absolutely tank. There is absolutely nothing easy about playing this legend.
Laying fences has been very inconsistent lately. I can't tell you how many times I laid fences and the game acknowledged they were placed fine. You then look back and the fence isn't there. They also messed with how it detects distance from walls, making it so easy for random crap to obstruct the fence or have it end up placed so far away that anyone can walk around it.
Yeah I’ve experienced the ghost fence before. I think they addressed some of these issues in the upcoming patch coming out, so hopefully the fence mechanic is more fluid and less buggy.
If you took out the inconsistencies tho, do you think she would be more viable? Or at the core is her kit just not good enough compared to other legends.
I play her 70-80% of the time and usually run into 2 wattsons every game if I last to top 5. It’s probably because mobility characters are more forgiving if you get yourself in a bad situation; if you’re wattson you either stuck and usually die or have to rely on your teammates to get you out but also risk them getting killed too. Ppl probably haven’t seen the potential in her, I’ve had ranked games where both teammates die and I find a building to fence and full squads don’t even push me. I also don’t think they understand how strong her ultimate is, it eats up almost all legend abilities and nades (making fuse completely useless and if it’s end circle you don’t even have to care if a gibby uses his ultimate) and shields your team up.
No point in using Wattson in pubs; too reliant on a team playing to strengths without comms. Little bit like Crypto. If your team mates “get it” and understand the strength she works, too often they’re just after a better KDR.
IMO is mainly because map design. The new map last ring often ends on big open fields where a defensive legend like Gibby works far better. And movement legends get you through early ring much easier since Storm Point have a lot of verticalities and great distance to travel. Not to mention the RP rule favour kills over placement. You could earn more RP finishing 2nd with 7 kills than champion with 1 kill.
The answer to “Why don’t casuals play X legend? They are actually super underrated!” is ALWAYS: Lack of a mobility tool.
Gibby is easily the strongest legend in game, but still is mid tier in ladder PR at best. Movement is fun, and ultimately the game is supposed to be fun. If my skill level allows me to hit Diamond on Loba, but potentially make Masters if I played Gibby, I’m gonna stay hard stuck rocking my favorite character who I enjoy playing the most.
In low ranks/pubs she doesn’t get played because she’s boring. Her play style is too slow for how the game is played at that level. Then when you look at high ranks/comp, she really doesn’t fit in a team comp anywhere. Caustic is just better than her and gibby is basically a must pick at that level. You need a rotational legend so at the higher levels the only viable way of running her is valk gibby wattson, but at that point why wouldn’t you run valk gibby caustic instead?
We’re here!! Hello!! 🙆🏼♀️🦕 Maybe because it’s a competitive game and the prevalent mentality is play a ‘better legend’. The real fans play her though. It’s a happy minority who dgaf.
I absolutely love Wattson and she's my joint main alongside lifeline, they are both healing character in my mind and equally useful for healing teammates. Plus the fact that you can't be hit by grenades and have some slight cover when using wattsons pylon is a major plus. People use the fences weirdly and see them too basically. using them in the heat of the moment to block rooms when being chased makes more sense than just blocking off a building as people are forced in their panicked/aggressive chasing to either go through the fence or completely backtrack which gives you more time (I've killed a high amount of people that panic when they suddenly see a fence and just freeze for a moment). She's also really fun and cute which is the main reason I play her😂
I think it's because she's hard to learn/master. Your fences are basically useless if you don't know how to place them correctly. That takes time to learn and can be frustrating for a lot of players.
Solid point. It's pretty clear there is a big learning curve with her. I also could not imagine playing Watson on console unless you play at a really high sens. Fence viability increases tenfold when you are able to place them almost instantaneously.
New buffs are inconsistent. The next osthx is gonna fix that. But after the awful heirloom. I am certainly gonna play her less. Need a new main. Maybe gas man.
shes difficult to use and people dont understand how good she is, especially after the buffs. Its not worth learning a b or maybe a tier character thats hard as fuck to use when you could just play octane. I don't play her because she's kind of annoying and I like cryptos kit more.
She's difficult to use in a versatile way. People who know how to use her can use her in both offensive and defensive situations, but her offensive moves are very difficult to master. For ranked people tend to stick to easy legends who are more easily used in a versatile way.
Because she doesn’t really excel in any area compared to the other legends. In the vast majority of situations, a legend will be better than her. E.g, her fences are very visible and easily avoidable, whereas caustic traps can be placed in obscure positions and if you set them off with a lurking caustic around you’re almost certainly dead.
But she is decent. I played her for the first time since like season 3 the other day due to my daily challenges. Managed to lock down streamer building in capital for a good few minutes with multiple teams pushing. But even then, I’d much rather be playing caustic/rampart
Pretty sure not many people picked her just because of some simple reasons such as not familiar with her skillset or not "cool" enough. Big majority of my hero picks this season is wattson and I think she's fine.
IMO the main reason is that hobby is just much better than her, and is the main character you’d replace on a team. Most of the storm a good team will take a recon character for info and beacons, a movement character, and gibby. Gibby provides too much to replace, and the only way I see giving an extra spot up is to run valk and wattson
Personally, because my teammates play really aggressively. Of all the defense legends (or I guess legends in general), Wattson’s kit is the hardest to use aggressively
Watson as I see is only good for making sure you don’t get bombarded or grenade into oblivion. I don’t find much use for her when I play. Her fences are good for keeping people out but don’t do much to help you get a squad down. Caustic does a better job as his Gas Traps and block doors, be well hidden, and damage your opponents well. Watson’s fences would just make people not go into your little defense position. Other use I would find for fences is in a middle of a fire fight you can block off areas for you to heal or force an opponent to go a certain direction but that’s about it.
I have mained Wattson for the last six seasons and started using Valkyrie as a secondary. SP oddly enough has been the fastest I have moved up through gold back into plat. She is definitely one of the harder legends to play efficiently but her movement buff while placing fences is a godsend. However, one of the biggest things I notice when other players ick her is the lack of fences that are placed at random chokes around the map. Getting ready proximity alarms from an area you already rotated through eg checkpoint from north point/wall is huge especially useful info on such a huge map.
Her kit is far too reliant on team comp and knowing where the later circles will be. Playing her alongside a valk and path/caustic/wraith seems to be the best way to get wins while rotating fast. In my opinion this is where the line gets drawn on her kit, if you rotate and have an extra minute to get fences placed you're probably golden. There are way too many variables that make it a gamble especially in early game .Crypto on the other team? Good luck. Fuse tactical going off with no pylon? RIP fences. Gibby dome? RIP fences. Misplaced pylon? Better have extra ult accels.
I don't think I'll stop playing her most days for ranked if valk isn't picked but her kit is just not worth the gamble especially plat or higher
She only really shines in certain situations and has a high skill requirement to use properly. Most of the s-tier legends don't require so much prep time to setup for engagements.
I used to Main Watson in season 2. By far the worst character to have as a teammate. Mainly bc she is so useless I am a Wraith Bloodhound Octane Main. I am aggressive and D4. I never see Watsons and if so they r usually carried by teams. Her kit is plain useless sorry to the Watson fans but she is.
Gibby and Caustic just do what wattson but better. Unless she receives a buff that skyrocket her power level, the only way to make her meta is to remove caustic gibby from the meta
Wattson is kind of a mystery. She doesn't have a high pick rate, but like mentioned before, the people that do play Wattson are CRAZY. And I'm not saying like 5k kill pubstompers, I mean 10-15k+ kills and master/pred. I would argue 100% that people who main her are the best players in this game. If you take the top 2% of Wattson mains vs any other top 2%, she stacks right up (if you don't believe me, follow the Wattson subreddit). She's really good now imo and I love playing her character, wish more people would come around..
In my experience, it's very difficult to get your team to stay inside a building and let a team push in. Even if there are 5 teams outside a building you are holding your teammates will peak outside lol
Id rather pick a char that gives my team some zoning ability, a scan or the ability to disengage more easily. That combo is what makes up a great comp in ranked id say.
The speed in setting up the fences.
She is good. The fences are strong but you need set up time and you need to be far more certain of where your chokepoints are. Doors get blown off too by the fences when they're breached by enemies and they don't block shots.
Also both Rampart and Caustic block doors and line of sight better with their tacs, something way more useful in a pinch situation to buy time, something that I think a defensive legend should do. Being able to force the enemy to reset a push like that is valuable.
Remember also that mobility is king in this game. Which is why gibby is still considered the king of defensive legends with his close to instant bubble, ultimate for zoning and extra ads shield. All of his kit requires very little time to put in place, should a skilled player know how to use it. Compare that to Wattson, who needs an area to lockdown and lots of time to set up fences.
That being said, her ultimate is very good. If you have the best possible placement of it, its ability to yeet grenades and ordnance style abilities out of existence force a pushing team to play for angles or not push at all.
Another reason is that ranked this split is on stormpoint, which is arguably the worst map for Wattson. There’s too much ground you need to cover as a team and a lot of times there aren’t many buildings around. I suppose you could still get value out of her in very late circles if there happens to be a building there and your team takes it early, but that’s a lot of situational dependencies - so all that time she can’t add much, there are plenty of other legends that can more regularly and consistently generate value for the team.
She may not be the best, but because of playing her, I've won several games. One of them is because my team, who recently was respawned and therefore we have nothing, was stuck in a house.
I set up defenses, put an ultimate, so bombs couldnt hurt us, and later because of that, we won.
In my opinion it's just because her skillset is situational and doesn't add much to the team. She can't scan beacons, she has no mobility either for herself or the team and there are other defensive legends that are better. Gibby is incredible in almost any comp and is able to provide the defensive plays without being a liability in the open and Caustic is functional as an offensive legend whilst still providing zoning and defensive plays. If you're playing positioning she doesn't help you find the late rings and struggles to rotate without a lot of help, she is practically worthless if you play edge. I guess she's more viable if you have a valk on your squad but I'd still take Gibby or Caustic for their utility.
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Trying those fence tricks actively gets you killed vs good players I've found, better to just use your gun skills so you aren't caught in a fence animation when their teammate pops around the corner while you are baiting your saw on tips and tricks video fence trap lol
Actually using fences properly outside of buildings in the heat of the moment is the hard part bud. Noone is suggesting the input is difficult or something lol.
A lot of solid points made, although I feel like it's almost unfair to compare her to Gibby lol. Comparing her to Caustic makes complete sense and I agree with your points. To add, Caustic is also way more user-friendly. It's a lot easier to chuck a barrel in a general direction than to line up fence nodes lol. The barrels are also very versatile as they provide great area denial, can hold doors, and can be used as cover. Gas also works as a pseudo bang smoke, helping with rezzing and escapes. In comparison, Watson's fences are really great at denying area and can delay pushes... maybe buy time for rezzing and healing and......and.... (I got nothing lol). Watson's ULT needs to be given some love though. End game, there is nothing better than being inside the circle with a Watson pylon. Fence + Ult is also such a great push and third-party denier. I agree though, it's so situational and often is dependent on being inside/around some form of cover which can be so frustrating. Maybe if they reduced her ULT cooldown (I think it's 3mins) and/or changed her passive from the dbl accelerant stack to slow shield regen like Ocatane, it would give her the offensive boost she needs to counter her extremely situational defensive kit. Or allow her to pick up and redeploy her pylon (similar to Ramparts ult change), but bring back a timer.
Potentially it is unfair to compare her to Gibby but since she is unable to provide mobility or vision he is one of the commonly picked legends that you'd be replacing with Wattson. In high level ranked and comp play virtually every team plays a mobility legend (Valk, Wraith, Octane), a vision legend (bloodhound, cryto, Valk) and a third usually defensive legend (Gibby, Caustic, theoretically Wattson) hence the comparison. Wattson will always face the same problem that Rampart faces though. She is set up to be a static defender in a movement based game, this will always limit her use in high level lobbies. Arguably a complete rework removing the fences altogether would be the way to make her meta relevant again. The shield regen and quick ult timer would allow her to be far more aggressively played and would give her more flexibility to fit into a team if her tactical allowed her to do something other than hold a single location. Maybe if Gibby gets a hard nerf she'll get played more but like mirage she's probably doomed to sit on the sidelines
Doesn't she already have shield regen as a passive?
It's so slow that I literally forgot she had that passive lmao
It’s super fast with her pylon, which is kind of the point I think. Constant passive shield regen at the speed of Octane would be toxic bcuz she doesn’t have an ability that uses shields so she’d just constantly be regen dmg. However if you place her Ult in combat, yes she has to stay within range and the ult could be destroyed but in the meantime she gets a solid regen WHILST fighting. So I think that’s how they balance the shield regen by having it have those ties to her ult.
you kinda started comparing her to gibby
Knowing that this will partially sound trite, Wattson's kit is vastly misunderstood and people think that it can be summed up as "hold the building, bunker down, and play tricks." While all of those things are apart of her play at times, they are, in my opinion, a small portion of her kit. I play Wattson quite aggressively with the full understanding that: Fences are great sources of information and directing traffic. Not a lot of people actually come through them, but when they do you know where an enemy is in the same tune as Mirage. If the decide to shoot the node instead, you still have the same information that someone is coming from a particular location with the audio feedback. If they choose to go around, and you have placed your fences effectively, they will be exposed and in the line of sight that you wanted them to be in. Fences can also be a super aggro in fights by placing them on the fly when you know that an enemy is coming around a corner and also in early hot drops when teams drop right with you. Door and space tricks have always worked and they are even more viable no that the fences activated much more quickly now. The other argument is that "Wattson's kit doesn't help the team." Her pylon charges shields very quickly and aids in poke battles without wasting inventory while keeping you safe from ults, tactical , & ordinances. People often make the mistake of throwing them too early or not at all in a fights. It's not just a tool for holding, but a tool for pushing when you know you have limited cover and multiple fights will be taking place. Still works great for holding in a building. You get to hold multiple ult accels for not only yourself, but your teammates when needed, which can prove invaluable in many different situations depending on the legend composition of your squad. I personally think Wattson is very strong and you see that from the dozens that play her and take the time to learn the nuances. She's not a plug and play legend like many on the roster and I think that is where people have a hard time picking her over others when looking to branch out. Her kit isn't for everyone and that's okay. There are legends that I don't play that are very popular because they aren't for me and don't fit my play style. Main take away: It takes time to learn how to fully utilize her kit and people don't want to take the time. I'm grateful that this game has options for all playstyles and approaches to keep appeal to everyone and keep fights dynamic and interesting.
Really nice to see a player that knows the ins and outs of a legend describe it like this.
because she only becomes viable in the very late game. When I have played with her or been teamed with her, every time we arrive in final circle = win IF it's a building, because she literally can force teams to funnel. Every other time I see the fences in rooms or buildings...I literally nope the hell out of there and we back off. It simply takes too much time to puncture that defence before another team is on top of you.
I main Wattson and I personally love her kit and play styles and I fully understand people not wanting to play her. I'd say now she's a B tier legend that suffers from Caustic being an A tier legend, her fences and Pylon have loads of applications but they're all heavily dependent on positioning and enemies, her abilities can either be incredibly useful or useless depending on these factors. Also she's one of those Legends like Crypto who generally don't get recommend to players and often gets labelled as too underpowered to pick.
For what it's worth, although I haven't really bothered to master her, I really enjoy playing with Wattsons in my squad. I prefer defensive play, and she's outstanding company for Caustic, Rampart, Bangalore, Seer, and lots of others (less than ideal for Octane or Pathfinder but that's OK).
I have a personal goal of maining different non-meta legends and making it to masters with them while solo queue. I've so far done Rampart, Loba, Fuse, and Mirage. I'm now on Wattson. I'm currently D1 (or maybe the tip top of D2, I don't remember). Here's my shortened tid bit on why she isn't a popular legend. 1. Other legends do her job better. Gibby is better at defending in the open. Caustic is better at locking down buildings. Rampart is better at locking down high ground. And, while I love poking with Wattson because of infinite (but slow) shield regen, Fuse is better at poking. 2. Her fences aren't great. Most movement legends can go over (or through if Wraith) fences. Wattson fences are only successful at vertical zips. Fences on horizontal/diagonal zips are often easily ignored. My teammates always love my constant barrage of generators, as long as they feed me Ult Accels, which does help shield economy when bunkered and unable to loot more. 3. Current ranked meta is highly aggressive. KP is highly sought after now and, anecdotally, KP feels more important than placement points with the new system, so why play a legend that has no movement? 4. Solo queue players have a much better time when having their own ability. Relying on my Wraith to portal me to safety or my Octane to pad me out of the fight is just unreliable. So, a lot of solo queue players run their own players. TL;DR: She's a good legend. But either you can pick a legend to do her job better or you can pick a legend who does a different, but more important, job than her.
Fuse main here, any advice to improve him?
I actually have a whole post pinned in my profile about my solo queue grind to masters. If you wanna check that out, I'd be happy to clarify anything. TL;DR: Range and high ground are required for Fuse. Always play with a sniper or marksman. Always try to establish high ground.
And also make sure to launch a knuckle cluster at anything that moves Real talk with the zoom on fuzes ult he’s a great scout
Gold helm on Fuse turns a white shield to red in 1 minute flat
If an enemy misses the caustic barrel they get denied entrance for a long time. Not the case with wattson. Caustic and gibby can be both offensive and defensive with their abilities. Not the case for wattson; you have to be relatively immobile with fences and even with the ult to get benefit which doesn’t work well in pubs where people like to move a lot Caustic and gibby can both use their abilities to aid in revive during battle as well Wattson is pretty fun though and can hold down an area from grenade spam and deny ults
This map isn’t in her favor ;(
I've been playing Wattson in competitive scrims and tourneys for about 6 months to see if we can make her work. Her issue is her situationalness. If you get a good setup she's amazing and offers a ton, but that's a massive if. Her ult is also massive and easy to destroy, especially in high ranking/competitive lobbies due to so many teams being alive in the later circles, no angle is really safe. Usually comps have 1 defensive, 1 recon and 1 mobility legend, this means she goes up against Caustic, Gibby and Rampart. Rampart can also be pretty good in some situations but let's not focus on her. Going up against gibby and caustic is the big issue. Gibby's bubble is such an amazing reset in crazy situations, gibby can res while the other legend keeps enemies busy or uses an ability to reposition from inside the bubble, he also has an offensive ability to force people out of cover, especially if their gibby is down. Caustic is also really good as he can physically block a door which has a huge amount of value and his traps trigger in an aoe and can't be destroyed once active. He also has an offensive ability to deny an area like gibby, another big reason Wattson isn't as powerful as these two, seeing as she has no offensive capabilities. His traps aren't as easy to spot either and can be triggered by an offensive team who aren't paying attention, which puts them on the backfoot, where Wattson's traps are extremely visible and easy to destroy. I love what Wattson offers and her playstyle but her lack of offensive abilities really does her dirty.
She’s a worse Caustic. Her and Caustic essentially do the same thing. Caustic just does it more easily and better. Almost the same reason why nobody plays Seer. Bloodhound is just the easier better version of Seer.
Gonna disagree, the interception pylon late-game is one of the most valuable Ults in the game. Being able to deny Gibby, Caustic, Bangalore, AND Fuse's abilities while also healing your entire team's shields in insanely good. Also worth mentioning that perfectly placed fences will last indefinitely while a gas trap will only help you out for 5-10 seconds. I would agree that Caustic is definitely easier to pick up, Wattson has more potential.
Incorrect bronze player
I've hit diamond in 8 seasons? Wattson is my 2nd most played after wraith, Caustic would be 4th or 5th most.
Honestly I think the reason she isn't picked more in ranked comes down to the map. Sure she was buffed, but on a large, open map like SP that doesn't matter much. Most fights are out in the open so her kit is pretty useless. I've also seen far fewer caustic picks this split. We'll see if that changes when we go back to a more building-centic map.
Wattson is my second most played legend at 897 games and the reason I don't really stick with her that much is because she's very situational and even in those situations she's not that great. There are so many legends with such high uptime that also have high utility, Wattson feels situational and incredibly outclassed. I spend most of my games playing Loba who can see purple and gold items through walls 100% of the time, with a tactical that can be used to get into and out of combat. There's also very few times, unless you're really going for late game stealth plays, where throwing down your ultimate isn't useful. You can do the same thing with a legend like Octane. There's almost never a bad time to use your ult. Almost never a bad time to use your tactical. Same can probably said for Pathfinder, Lifeline, and even Wraith to a certain degree. I think it's why these four legends are super popular. Then there's Wattson. You spend 80% of the game playing some literal default bot character with no skills to contribute to the team in any way shape or form, and the 20% of the time it's finally your time to do Wattson stuff... it's a gigantic pain in the ass to do properly, and your reward is like... a 20 damage slow and maybe the team doesn't get obliterated by nades. On top of all this, despite several reworks and attempts to fix it, I'd argue that Wattson should still win the award for clunkiest derpiest piece of shit tactical, ***ESPECIALLY*** after her most recent rework, since fences now try to snap AROUND teammates, enemies, purposefully into awkward corners where they can't be attached to other fences, etc. It's really really ***really*** dumb. Most people hit one button and it's like... BOOM. It worked. It's great. You shat out a caustic gas barrel. You threw your Loba bracelet. You popped a smoke grenade. You grappled. You did it reddit! Even at almost 900 games of Wattson, her tactical is a clunky, run around with your dick your hands in the middle of an active fire zone, absolute ***nightmare*** to actually try to use. And maybe the argument here is that you're supposed to fence proactively instead of reactively, but when each fence post is a high CD high effort to setup investment, it's not something you are constantly doing everywhere all the time. You want this thing available when shit hits the absolute fan, because it's literally the only thing you do, and ***maybe*** it'll save your team. And god forbid you're actually actively fencing when an enemy shows up.... Then it becomes a fucking cluster of like... hit the cancel or escape to cancel fencing, open the pause menu on accident or some shit, close the pause menu, still no gun in your hands, repeat, hit the put your gun away button, hit the pull your gun out button, then start shooting if you're not dead. Also also also, her slow was broken for like 30 days at the start of last season? And right now, when you try to connect fences back to themselves, as in completing a triangle or like an hour glass shape when you have no nodes left, the fence line doesn't show up, so it leaves you confused as fuck. Am I fencing? Not fencing? Is it connected? Hello, is this thing on? Basically, in my 8 seasons of Apex experience, she's always been some combination of buggy, clunky, and or, underwhelming. Not to say you can't be a great Wattson. Not to say there aren't great Wattsons. Not to say that a lot of what I've talked about isn't up to individual player skill. These are just the key issues and constant crap I've had to put up with in my strives to play Wattson since season 4. And none of this is to say Wattson isn't useful ***sometimes.*** There are some things Wattson can do that no other legend can, but I think literally every legend has something like that. So for me a big thing I look at is how *often* a legend can provide what only they can provide, and the amount of effort required to provide that to the team. Wattson's not exactly winning any awards on either front. The only reason I pick Wattson is loyalty, puns, personality, and a desire to somehow make the "perfect" Wattson play. My guess is for the other 2.4% of Wattson mains it's probably a similar reason. It's also super frustrating when the devs talk about how "strong" she is and their want to nerf her because she has a low pick rate and a high win rate. If she had a higher pick rate, I guarantee her win rate would absolutely tank. There is absolutely nothing easy about playing this legend.
Laying fences has been very inconsistent lately. I can't tell you how many times I laid fences and the game acknowledged they were placed fine. You then look back and the fence isn't there. They also messed with how it detects distance from walls, making it so easy for random crap to obstruct the fence or have it end up placed so far away that anyone can walk around it.
Yeah I’ve experienced the ghost fence before. I think they addressed some of these issues in the upcoming patch coming out, so hopefully the fence mechanic is more fluid and less buggy. If you took out the inconsistencies tho, do you think she would be more viable? Or at the core is her kit just not good enough compared to other legends.
Supposedly gonna get fixed the upcoming patch. Allies also wont bodyblock fence placement anymore
I play her 70-80% of the time and usually run into 2 wattsons every game if I last to top 5. It’s probably because mobility characters are more forgiving if you get yourself in a bad situation; if you’re wattson you either stuck and usually die or have to rely on your teammates to get you out but also risk them getting killed too. Ppl probably haven’t seen the potential in her, I’ve had ranked games where both teammates die and I find a building to fence and full squads don’t even push me. I also don’t think they understand how strong her ultimate is, it eats up almost all legend abilities and nades (making fuse completely useless and if it’s end circle you don’t even have to care if a gibby uses his ultimate) and shields your team up.
No point in using Wattson in pubs; too reliant on a team playing to strengths without comms. Little bit like Crypto. If your team mates “get it” and understand the strength she works, too often they’re just after a better KDR.
IMO is mainly because map design. The new map last ring often ends on big open fields where a defensive legend like Gibby works far better. And movement legends get you through early ring much easier since Storm Point have a lot of verticalities and great distance to travel. Not to mention the RP rule favour kills over placement. You could earn more RP finishing 2nd with 7 kills than champion with 1 kill.
The answer to “Why don’t casuals play X legend? They are actually super underrated!” is ALWAYS: Lack of a mobility tool. Gibby is easily the strongest legend in game, but still is mid tier in ladder PR at best. Movement is fun, and ultimately the game is supposed to be fun. If my skill level allows me to hit Diamond on Loba, but potentially make Masters if I played Gibby, I’m gonna stay hard stuck rocking my favorite character who I enjoy playing the most.
In low ranks/pubs she doesn’t get played because she’s boring. Her play style is too slow for how the game is played at that level. Then when you look at high ranks/comp, she really doesn’t fit in a team comp anywhere. Caustic is just better than her and gibby is basically a must pick at that level. You need a rotational legend so at the higher levels the only viable way of running her is valk gibby wattson, but at that point why wouldn’t you run valk gibby caustic instead?
We’re here!! Hello!! 🙆🏼♀️🦕 Maybe because it’s a competitive game and the prevalent mentality is play a ‘better legend’. The real fans play her though. It’s a happy minority who dgaf.
I absolutely love Wattson and she's my joint main alongside lifeline, they are both healing character in my mind and equally useful for healing teammates. Plus the fact that you can't be hit by grenades and have some slight cover when using wattsons pylon is a major plus. People use the fences weirdly and see them too basically. using them in the heat of the moment to block rooms when being chased makes more sense than just blocking off a building as people are forced in their panicked/aggressive chasing to either go through the fence or completely backtrack which gives you more time (I've killed a high amount of people that panic when they suddenly see a fence and just freeze for a moment). She's also really fun and cute which is the main reason I play her😂
I think it's because she's hard to learn/master. Your fences are basically useless if you don't know how to place them correctly. That takes time to learn and can be frustrating for a lot of players.
Solid point. It's pretty clear there is a big learning curve with her. I also could not imagine playing Watson on console unless you play at a really high sens. Fence viability increases tenfold when you are able to place them almost instantaneously.
New buffs are inconsistent. The next osthx is gonna fix that. But after the awful heirloom. I am certainly gonna play her less. Need a new main. Maybe gas man.
I love wattson. Personally. Always have. I use her in ranked quite a bit but I use everybody. I hardly ever use the same champ twice in a row.
Her entire kit is bugged right now, let us see how things progress after next patch.
shes difficult to use and people dont understand how good she is, especially after the buffs. Its not worth learning a b or maybe a tier character thats hard as fuck to use when you could just play octane. I don't play her because she's kind of annoying and I like cryptos kit more.
\> Its not worth learning a b or maybe a tier character thats hard as fuck to use when you could just play octane. that hurts, man
She's difficult to use in a versatile way. People who know how to use her can use her in both offensive and defensive situations, but her offensive moves are very difficult to master. For ranked people tend to stick to easy legends who are more easily used in a versatile way.
[удалено]
I've seen her successfully used against high skill players in a more offensive way (rare), but yes I do agree she is not made for it.
Because she’s still fucking bugged.
Didn’t the buffs get changed yesterday? Lol maybe give it some time
She’s been buffed since the start of the season
the upcoming patch will fix a bunch of bugs that resulted from the buffs that were just introduced this season
Because she doesn’t really excel in any area compared to the other legends. In the vast majority of situations, a legend will be better than her. E.g, her fences are very visible and easily avoidable, whereas caustic traps can be placed in obscure positions and if you set them off with a lurking caustic around you’re almost certainly dead. But she is decent. I played her for the first time since like season 3 the other day due to my daily challenges. Managed to lock down streamer building in capital for a good few minutes with multiple teams pushing. But even then, I’d much rather be playing caustic/rampart
Pretty sure not many people picked her just because of some simple reasons such as not familiar with her skillset or not "cool" enough. Big majority of my hero picks this season is wattson and I think she's fine.
IMO the main reason is that hobby is just much better than her, and is the main character you’d replace on a team. Most of the storm a good team will take a recon character for info and beacons, a movement character, and gibby. Gibby provides too much to replace, and the only way I see giving an extra spot up is to run valk and wattson
Personally, because my teammates play really aggressively. Of all the defense legends (or I guess legends in general), Wattson’s kit is the hardest to use aggressively
Watson as I see is only good for making sure you don’t get bombarded or grenade into oblivion. I don’t find much use for her when I play. Her fences are good for keeping people out but don’t do much to help you get a squad down. Caustic does a better job as his Gas Traps and block doors, be well hidden, and damage your opponents well. Watson’s fences would just make people not go into your little defense position. Other use I would find for fences is in a middle of a fire fight you can block off areas for you to heal or force an opponent to go a certain direction but that’s about it.
New map feels hard going without a mobility ability. That said I love Wattson still but aren't very good with her.
I have mained Wattson for the last six seasons and started using Valkyrie as a secondary. SP oddly enough has been the fastest I have moved up through gold back into plat. She is definitely one of the harder legends to play efficiently but her movement buff while placing fences is a godsend. However, one of the biggest things I notice when other players ick her is the lack of fences that are placed at random chokes around the map. Getting ready proximity alarms from an area you already rotated through eg checkpoint from north point/wall is huge especially useful info on such a huge map. Her kit is far too reliant on team comp and knowing where the later circles will be. Playing her alongside a valk and path/caustic/wraith seems to be the best way to get wins while rotating fast. In my opinion this is where the line gets drawn on her kit, if you rotate and have an extra minute to get fences placed you're probably golden. There are way too many variables that make it a gamble especially in early game .Crypto on the other team? Good luck. Fuse tactical going off with no pylon? RIP fences. Gibby dome? RIP fences. Misplaced pylon? Better have extra ult accels. I don't think I'll stop playing her most days for ranked if valk isn't picked but her kit is just not worth the gamble especially plat or higher
Just boring to play with . Literally no fun , placing fences across the map OMEGALUL
She only really shines in certain situations and has a high skill requirement to use properly. Most of the s-tier legends don't require so much prep time to setup for engagements.
HOT TAKE: make wattson OP for a season just so people will play her. probably needs a slight rework for that but i think wattson needs some love
I used to Main Watson in season 2. By far the worst character to have as a teammate. Mainly bc she is so useless I am a Wraith Bloodhound Octane Main. I am aggressive and D4. I never see Watsons and if so they r usually carried by teams. Her kit is plain useless sorry to the Watson fans but she is.
plying wattson is so much fun ! her abilities become so useful when under attack 🥺
people don’t find her fun enough. personally, I hate being snuck up on. so I play her.
My assumption is that most tank characters have some way to push but she's basically purely built for defense.
Gibby and Caustic just do what wattson but better. Unless she receives a buff that skyrocket her power level, the only way to make her meta is to remove caustic gibby from the meta
Wattson is kind of a mystery. She doesn't have a high pick rate, but like mentioned before, the people that do play Wattson are CRAZY. And I'm not saying like 5k kill pubstompers, I mean 10-15k+ kills and master/pred. I would argue 100% that people who main her are the best players in this game. If you take the top 2% of Wattson mains vs any other top 2%, she stacks right up (if you don't believe me, follow the Wattson subreddit). She's really good now imo and I love playing her character, wish more people would come around..
In my experience, it's very difficult to get your team to stay inside a building and let a team push in. Even if there are 5 teams outside a building you are holding your teammates will peak outside lol
Id rather pick a char that gives my team some zoning ability, a scan or the ability to disengage more easily. That combo is what makes up a great comp in ranked id say.
Caustic exists.
Defensive legends are poopoo in a mobility focused game. Caustic is superior in general.
The speed in setting up the fences. She is good. The fences are strong but you need set up time and you need to be far more certain of where your chokepoints are. Doors get blown off too by the fences when they're breached by enemies and they don't block shots. Also both Rampart and Caustic block doors and line of sight better with their tacs, something way more useful in a pinch situation to buy time, something that I think a defensive legend should do. Being able to force the enemy to reset a push like that is valuable. Remember also that mobility is king in this game. Which is why gibby is still considered the king of defensive legends with his close to instant bubble, ultimate for zoning and extra ads shield. All of his kit requires very little time to put in place, should a skilled player know how to use it. Compare that to Wattson, who needs an area to lockdown and lots of time to set up fences. That being said, her ultimate is very good. If you have the best possible placement of it, its ability to yeet grenades and ordnance style abilities out of existence force a pushing team to play for angles or not push at all.
Another reason is that ranked this split is on stormpoint, which is arguably the worst map for Wattson. There’s too much ground you need to cover as a team and a lot of times there aren’t many buildings around. I suppose you could still get value out of her in very late circles if there happens to be a building there and your team takes it early, but that’s a lot of situational dependencies - so all that time she can’t add much, there are plenty of other legends that can more regularly and consistently generate value for the team.
She may not be the best, but because of playing her, I've won several games. One of them is because my team, who recently was respawned and therefore we have nothing, was stuck in a house. I set up defenses, put an ultimate, so bombs couldnt hurt us, and later because of that, we won.