Pokéwatch: Someone play a Support already!

Over the last week and a half I've been combining my longtime interest in Pokémon with my appreciation for the more recent Overwatch.  I thought it would be fun to go one by one through the different heroes of Overwatch and determine which creatures each of them might use.  Both Overwatch and Pokémon feature large casts of diverse, iconic characters, and it wasn't difficult to find three Pokémon for each character that represent their abilities and personality in their own game.  If you've missed any of the previous installments, you can check those out right here.

Part one: Genji, McCree, Pharah

Part two: Reaper, Soldier: 76, Tracer

Part three: Bastion, Hanzo, Junkrat

Part four: Mei, Torbjörn, Widowmaker

Part five: D. Va, Reinhardt, Roadhog

Part six: Winston, Zarya

We'll be looking at the Supports today, starting with Lúcio, Mercy, and Symmetra.  Support characters are a lot of fun to play, and they're what I gravitate to when I'm playing online.  A good team pretty much needs at least one support to win, and even though they don't usually get the Play of the Game, it's gratifying to know that your team wouldn't have done as well without you.  Support players often land in the top four at the end of a match, and I'll always vote for a support if they did a good job of keeping the team healthy and in the fight.  

 Fry may be a degenerate, but he's right about this.

Lúcio

You can find artwork of each Overwatch character interacting with a Pokémon at ElStrawFedora's DeviantArt page.  I've used several in this series, but there are even more that I haven't.  Check 'em out!

Lúcio's probably my favorite character to play as in Overwatch. All of his skills tie in to his backstory as a inner-city D.J. on the streets of Rio De Janeiro.  Using advanced technology, he's figured out how to harness the power of music to aid others.  His Healing and Speed songs affect anyone in his line of sight, and he can switch between them at will depending on the needs of his team.  He can also use his Sonic Amplifier to shoot blasts of damaging audio at enemies, or push them back with a Soundwave blast.  He can't do spot healing directly, but he can use Amp it Up to increase the power of one of his songs, greatly increasing its effectiveness for a few seconds.  His ultimate ability is Sound Barrier, and once it's charged he can use it to provide anyone within range of his song with a shield-- it doesn't last very long, but can be instrumental in pushing a point or neutralizing an enemy's ultimate.  Tracer's reemergence and her belief that the world can always use more heroes was what inspired Lúcio to join Overwatch.  Like her, Lúcio always has a positive attitude and he frequently offers words of encouragement to his team as he rollerblades around the battlefield.

 Lead Pokémon: Loudred (#294)

Type: Normal

Reason: Most folks looking at Loudred for the first time dismiss it as some sort of Mickey Mouse/Pegleg Pete hybrid.  Upon closer inspection however, it becomes apparent that Loudred's "ears" are speakers, and its ability Soundproof makes reference to audio effects and the amplified sound its big mouth makes possible.  Furthermore, the speaker ears somewhat resemble the business end of Lúcio's Sonic Amplifier.

Support Pokémon: Chatot (#441)

Type: Flying/Normal

Reason: Lúcio usually keeps his weapon set to the healing beats of Rejuvenescência, but occasionally it's more prudent to switch over to We Move Together as One to get to a contested point or to get the team out of the way of impending damage (like D. Va's Self Destruct) more rapidly. Chatot is a parrot with a musical note for a head, and its Tangled Feet ability means that it becomes much harder to hit when it's confused, allowing it to more easily avoid danger.  It was a gimmicky Pokémon in the fourth generation because its signature move, Chatter, made use of the DS's microphone to overwrite the game audio with whatever you recorded when the move was used.  The louder you yelled into the microphone while recording the audio, the more damage the move would do.  It can also use several sound-based moves like Hyper Voice and Sing.

Finisher: Mega Lucario (#448)

Type: Fighting/Steel

Reason: Apart from the similarity in their names, both Lúcio and Lucario share a stylin' dreadlock haircut and... uh, earstyle, and there's a passing resemblance in their color scheme as well.  Lúcio is probably the most popular support class to play because it's easy to change up what you're doing to best serve your team's needs... he has a lot of flexibility depending on the situation. Mega evolving Lucario gives it Adaptability, which raises the attack damage of its Fighting and Steel moves by an additional 25%.  Finally, Lúcio can be very difficult to eliminate thanks to his self-healing, and with Drain Punch, Lucario shares this trait.

Analysis: Lúcio's team has two Normal types on it, and Lucario's Steel subtype means it will also be vulnerable to Fighting type moves.  Chatot's Flying type counters Fighting moves well but opens it up to some additional weaknesses, namely Electric, Ice, and Rock type moves.  His Loudred will need the Eviolite to stand a chance against his rivals, but its Normal type allows it to learn some surprising moves.  His Lucario will need to avoid Ground, Fighting, and Fire moves, and it would benefit from an attack boosting item of some sort to power up its Drain Punches.  Lúcio doesn't have a lot of power on his side, but he may surprise people with how difficult it is to take down his Lucario. 

Mercy

This artwork was created by ElRayo on Reddit.

Mercy is the closest thing Overwatch has to a straight healer; while she does carry a sidearm, she's not much good in a one-on-one fight.  Instead, she prefers to keep her team's health topped off with her Caduceas staff, or amplify their damage when healing isn't needed.  If she can't heal someone in time to save them, her Resurrection ultimate ability can bring them back from the dead at full health to continue the battle.  

Lead Pokémon: Blissey (#242)

Type: Normal

Reason: Early in the Pokémon animé, the medical centers were always staffed by a woman named Nurse Joy, and she was always assisted by a Chansey.  In the second generation, Chansey gained an evolution, and the Nurse Joys of the world simultaneously upgraded to Blissey.  Blissey has one of the highest hit point totals in Pokémon, and it can use its signature move Soft-boiled to undo some of the damage that its team has taken.  What's more, its hidden Healer ability lets it cure status effects of teammates in multi battles.  That won't come into play since we're only doing one-on-one fights in this exercise, but I thought it was worth mentioning.  In addition to its healing powers, both Mercy and Blissey have less-than-fully functional wings attached to them.

Support Pokémon: Shedinja (#292)

Type: Bug/Ghost

Reason: Mercy's Valkyrie armor makes her appear like an angel, right down to the wings and halo.  Shedinja looks a lot like her, and is itself a very unusual Pokémon.  Shedinja is the molted carapace of a Nincada, left behind when it evolves into Ninjask.  In the games, evolving a Nincada with space in your party results in both Pokémon appearing in your team. Shedinja got the short end of the stick compared to Ninjask, as no Shedinja has more than a single hit point.  But it's not quite as weak as it seems because of its ability, Wonder Guard, which prevents all non-Super Effective attack moves from doing damage.  If an attack move isn't Ghost, Dark, Fire, Flying, Rock, or Fire, it won't be able to hit Shedinja.  While this does protect it from most direct damage, it remains quite vulnerable since it will still take damage from weather, entry hazards, and poison.  As mentioned above, Mercy is very dependant on her team for protection, so she and Shedinja have a lot in common.

Finisher: Togekiss (#468)

Type: Flying/Fairy

Reason: Mercy's Guardian Angel ability lets her leap to a friendly player's position to heal them or assist with boosted damage.  She can also make use of Angelic Descent to slow her fall, making it appear as though she's flying gracefully above a battlefield.  Togekiss represents her kindhearted nature as well as her ability to fly from teammate to teammate, topping off their health and augmenting their firepower.

Analysis: There's no disguising the fact that Mercy's Shedinja is her team's weak link, and she'll be fortunate if it survives first contact with an opponent.  If she does manage to face a team without one of the six types of damage Shedinja is vulnerable to, it changes from a liability into an invulnerable superbeast, capable of taking out an enemy team singlehandedly by using damage over time attacks like Toxic.  Both Shedinja and Togekiss will take double damage from Rock and Dark moves, though any damage at all will remove the former from play.  Her Blissey is an excellent wall, capable of stalling everything apart from Fighting moves while the poison does its work.  Togekiss is a great complement for Blissey, as its Fairy and Flying types give it a quadruple resistance to Fighting moves.  Mercy's team is stronger than it appears at first glance, but has the potential to fall apart rapidly depending on what the opponent throws down.

Symmetra

You can probably guess the source by now, but I really do encourage anyone with an interest in this subject to check out the work on display.

Symmetra is an unconventional Support character, and one of the hardest to master.  She can't provide any healing for her team, instead providing them with extra maximum health in the form of a minor shield buff.  For this reason, it's a good idea to pair Symmetra with another Support capable of healing incoming damage.  She's a very defensive character, capable of holding a point with her hardlight sentry turrets or getting her team back in the fight sooner with her ultimate, a Teleporter pad.  She can do a surprising amount of damage by using her Photon Projector weapon to lock on to an opponent, or it can be charged up to fire slow moving orbs of concentrated energy.  Symmetra is described as suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and detests chaos and disorder.  She believes that she can make the world a better place by using her special ability to manipulate hardlight, reshaping the world in the image she thinks suits it best.  

Lead Pokémon: Golduck (#055)

Type: Water

Reason: Although Symmetra's forehead is covered by her headpiece it's quite likely that she's concealing a bindi, the traditional Hindu marking that represents creation and unity, and is sometimes referred to as the third eye.  Golduck shares this characteristic, and can also make use of some Psychic moves like Light Screen to bolster its team's defenses.

Support Pokémon: (#137)

Type: Normal

Reason: Symmetra's hardlight constructs take the form of simple polygonal shapes, so it makes sense that she'd be attracted to a Pokémon she could easily recreate in hardlight form.  Porygon's been around a long time; when Pokémon Stadium was first released, the graphical limitations of the Nintendo 64 made pretty much every creature in it look a lot more like Porygon than they probably should have.

Finisher: Arceus (#493)

Type: Variable (depends on hold item)

Reason: Symmetra's stated desire is to bring order to the world, and what better ally could there be than the god of the Pokémon universe?  Arceus can change its type based on its hold item, and if it holds something other than a Plate it will stay a Normal type Pokémon.  Its type affects its signature move, Judgement, making it attack with whatever element corresponds to the plate it's holding.  There's even something of a resemblance between the two, as Symmetra's headpiece looks a bit like Arceus' mane and ears.

Analysis: Symmetra works best when she has time to prepare, and her Arceus will work best if she shifts its type to best attack the weak point of her opponent.  Since she won't have foreknowledge of her opponent's team though, she'll likely pick the type that will have the widest possible coverage.  With only 3 weaknesses and 5 types it deals extra damage to, that would be the Fighting type.  Her support Porygon was once one of the most powerful  Pokémon available, but power creep has lessened its appeal somewhat.  That said, it's still a reasonably good creature, and only needs to worry about Fighting moves.  It can even cover its own weakness by learning Psychic or changing its type with Conversion 2.  Golduck will have to be careful of Grass and Electric moves, but since there have been surprisingly few Water types in the competition so far, Symmetra might be able to surprise some people when it's time to throw down.

While I had intended to finish up today, it took longer to write this than I had anticipated.  So, we'll finish up tomorrow with Zenyatta and then move into the rest of the tournament.  

That's all for today.  As always, thanks to Pokestadium for the Pokémon sprites, and especially to Pokecharms for their trainer card macro.  Thanks also to Curvedlines, who posted all the sprite sprays for the Overwatch heroes.

LOOK WHO CAME:

Kevin McClusky   

Agent9   10

Batthink   1

M Randy   1