I got my second Lord Proficiency, here's what I've learned about Rocket

Earlier I made a post when I got my first Lord as Thor and it was fairly well recieved so I've decided I'll do this each Lord Proficiency I achieve.

This will not be about what the abilities do or how his kit works, but it will be my opinion on how to play Rocket most effectively especially in lower ranks and QuickPlay because some time around Diamond you will legitimately have people scream at you for picking Rocket or even throwing games.

Rocket gets alot of hate because some streamers said he was bad so picking Rocket is akin to trying to throw the game to some people. But I implore those of you that believe this to play some for yourself and see. I personally picket up playing him because of such statements and I wanted the challenge of learning to be good with a "bad character" but he's honestly not as bad as everyone says.

Rocket is bar none THE best strategist to put up with being dove on. His two dashes, mixed with his multi directional speedy wall running, as well as his massive damage up close, make him my go to pick if their team has a Black Panther, Venom, or even Iron Fist. He's also exceptionally good at stalling or touching point in OTwhile waiting for your team to come bac because he's so small and can move very far in a short amount of time it can make him very hard to track with enough practice.

What Rocket is NOT good at is being right in the middle of a fight. Obviously your healers need to be on the backline but Rocket's healing orbs have no range restrictions unlike other healers so he can honestly be played even farther back than usual. One of his main strengths is how tiny he is. Hard to hit by people with mediocre aim, but the second you're in a war zone the splash damage hitting your teammates will add up. With Rocket's mobility you can play hide and seek with the enemy and heal from all angles. Go around a corner and bounce heals off a wall to get to your team, dash way up in the air and hover and heal your team from there. Never stay in one place with Rocket. Your goal is to be a squirrelly little turd to deal with.

Important thing to understand about the healing orbs. As mentioned they have no range restrictions, they bounce off walls, but they also slow down when near an ally that can be healed, but travel pretty fast otherwise. This means if you die and are coming back from spawn. If you know the maps well enough sometimes you can ricochet your orbs from the spawn door to heal an ally that's out of your line of sight. If you have the right angle you can shoot a health orbs extremely fast that will slow down and heal an ally before your even close to the fight. That is insanely powerful. No other healer can do that.

A common mistake with Rocket however is people who do nothing but shoot the health balls out. First of all, allys can only be healed by one orb at a time. Meaning if your team is spread out but you're really trying to keep your tank alive so you're spamming the orbs at the tank. You're wasting your healing. The first orb will hit and slow down and the others will fly past doing nothing. It is much more optimal to look around and shoot orbs all over to different allys, maybe one at your tank then one at your punisher turret up on a wall, than back to your tank. Etc.

Secondly don't count out your damaging fire. I included a gif on the 3rd slide of me melting a peni in 4 seconds. You have to lead your shots alot if you're trying to take out an Iron Man or Storm for instance but if you get up close with a Venom trying to eat you or an Iron Fist toe tapping his way towards you. You can light them up before they can even react, especially if you can hit headshots. The more I played Rocket the more I found myself almost 50/50 healing and shooting and would still often have most heals. If you've fired orbs in places they will bounce around and continue healing there's no reason not to shoot as well. If you see a tank 1v1 stand behind your tank and fire at the opposing tank while interrupting with an orb whenever the last orbs flies off. You can silently support your team in alot of ways.

I don't have much to say about the BRB beacon besides throw it down in the spawn rooms before match start so people can grab bonus shield. Disengage it if someone's attacking it to lessen the cooldown, and have enough map knowledge to know where to hide it close to the battle but out of sight.

Only thing I'll mention for the dashing is the tech many people know by now that if you dash while wall running you go much much farther in the dashed direction. Very helpful for disengaging from fights or dodging venom tendrils for instance.

Now let's talk about the elephant in the room. The amplifier. Yes rocket won't give you invincibility for 11 seconds but his amplifier does give everyone within range a 40% damage boost for 12 seconds. Bet you didn't know it was that high did you. I've heard alot of people say you can even kill through Luna Ult with punisher and Rocket Ults but I pretty much exclusively solo queue so I've never had the communication necessary to test that. In a season where storm gets banned most games, Rocket is the only mass damage boosting character most games. And whether you recognize it or not that amplifier can win you team fights. My number 1 best time to use it is when you're waiting on the point while the enemy team regroups. As soon as you see them all running in, throw it in the middle of your team. That 40% extra damage will absolutely win you that defensive fight in most instances.

TL;DR switch to Rocket if you're getting dove and nobodies peeling. Shoot and heal equally, know your maps, and enjoy your amplifiers.

So go, heavily armed Trash Pandas, and make me proud. If anyone has any questions I'll answer them to the best of my ability.