After every other season blizzard introduced us to a new hero. In the hope of getting more people to lure towards the game or to get old players to retry the game. Whatever the reason behind it I am sure you don’t want the details. But after introducing more than a dozen heroes in the game. The old Overwatch 1 heroes still dominate the game whether it’s the pick rate or their effect on the game. You would always see these OG characters in the spotlight.
To find out the real name of Mei, check out our guide here.
In this blog, I will talk about one of these OG overwatch 1 characters. “Mei” is going to be our talking point here. She is a damage-class hero and She was one of the first 21 characters that came with the original game. To be precise, in this blog, we will talk about her abilities, playstyle, team composition, etc., so basically, this blog will be a guide for her. But before all of that, I want to know a little bit about her backstory so you can feel a little more connected to her as a character.
As climatologists Mei and her team were sent to Antarctica for research purposes. Due to a snowstorm, her team was sent into cryostasis. Unfortunately, the turbulent storm lasted far longer than anticipated which resulted in as mei being the only survivor on her team after being in cryostasis sleep for nine years. With the help of her robot, she invented technology to escape Antarctica and joined the new overwatch.
Now that her backstory is in the back of our minds let’s just jump right into the details of her playstyle:
Playstyle:
Mei is one of the few heroes who could play as a defense while being in an offense class. There are a few playstyles that mei shine on i will talk about some of them. So read carefully you might find a new playstyle to place yourself in.
The first playstyle is a lot safer and you could get a lot of value out of it since you don’t have to do much heavy lifting for your team. Here’s what this playstyle is all about. Being at the backline provides me an opportunity to block chokes with her wall while freezing the enemies and helping her allies. Try to position yourself close to your support teammates since, being a DPS, she does not have a lot of health herself. Since she does not have her icing ability anymore, so mei can no longer freeze her enemies, but she can still freeze herself to heal and protect in some situations. So you should try to use it as a peel or a bait.
The second playstyle is being an aggressive but sensible player. She could use her ice walls to gain an advantage over her allies to give them a new angle for jiggle peeking or to save them. Not only that, her wall is good for isolating the 1v1’s. By using the ice walls, you could create 1v1 fights with an advantage.
The second thing is to be a better aimer. Since mei doesn’t have good damage on her left click fire, you need to nail your headshots with your alt-fire to get some worthwhile damage on the enemies. Playing aggressively with Mei is kind of hard and it takes a lot more practice than playing her as a defender. So be sure to keep this in mind before trying the aggressive playstyle.
Abilities and their best usage:
Cryo-Freeze:
The first on the list of her abilities is her cryo-freeze. I would not talk about her primary weapon because those do not count as abilities. So what does this cryo-freeze do? Upon activation, it freezes mei for 5 seconds which makes her invulnerable to any enemy damage, it also heals her 62 hp per second which means after using it she gets her health bar to the max. It also reloads her weapons. The downside of cryo-freeze is that she could not move while being in the freezing state.
Which makes it easier for the enemies to kill her instantly after getting out of the freeze. So you have to time it correctly or it can become your deathbed. Now how to use this ability for the maximum value. Firstly you could use it as bait, especially in low elos. Here’s what you need to do: you need to activate the cryo freeze in front of an enemy now. Since you are invulnerable, the enemy will try to shoot you, and it will distract him. Now, when he is shooting, just call out your ally, and he will get an instant free kill on the enemy.
The second usage is against the abilities it is a great way to avoid abilities, especially the ultimates. You could use the cryo freeze against D.A.V.’s ultimate to save yourself or against Illari’s Captive Sun. whatever you do, just time the ability correctly, or it can become a liability to yourself.
Ice Wall:
Her ice wall is a great ability to defend herself and her allies. Mei can create an enormous in front of herself. The width and height of these walls are 3 meters and 8 meters respectively. Each of the pillars has 250 health and there are 5 pillars in the wall. The duration of the ice wall is 5 seconds. Now that you know most things about it let’s get to know what is the best use case for the ice wall.
First and the most obvious use case is to use the wall to defend and block entrances and chokepoints. Now, because the duration of the wall is only 5 seconds, this option is only usable while you are committing to a site or to defend an ally. The second use case is a bit better, in my opinion, and it is to use the ice wall as a peeking angle because it can provide your hanzo or widow an off angle to peek from. Cassidy could also use the wall to jiggle peek the enemies.
Blizzard:
At last, let’s talk about Mei-Ling Zhou’s ultimate. In my opinion, her ultimate is good but not that strong. Now let’s what it does shall we?
Upon activation, Mei deploys a weather-modification drone that emits winds of snow in an area of 10 meters. The duration of the ultimate is around 4 seconds. Enemies who get caught in the blizzard get debuffed up to 40% in their movement speed and then 20% per second afterward. It also damages the enemies for up to 20 hp per second. Those enemies who try to linger around in the snowy storm get frozen which makes them a comfortable target to kill.
Unlike other abilities, where the question is “how to use the ability,” in the case of a blizzard, the question changes towards when to use it. There are multiple timings that you want to catch for using Blizzard the first one is either capturing or defending a point. Especially while you are at the very last of capturing or defending it considering that blizzard only lasts for 5 seconds.
You can also combine it with other teammate’s ultimate to get the best possible value out of it.
The second time for the ultimate to be usable is to use it in team vs team fights cause upon activation, the blizzard will make the enemies split up or if they will get frozen, so it’s a sure bet to use in team fights.
Team composition:
As a DPS Mei needs a good ally around her to support her. Here are some of the best heroes that go well with her kit.
Cassidy:
The first one on the list is Cassidy. As I have mentioned before, Cassidy’s precise revolver, coupled with Mei’s walls, can be destructive. Mei is best suited to being more tactical and controller of the situation. On the other hand, Cassidy is more of a face type of hero, which makes this duo a genuinely good choice.
Reinhardt:
Reinhardt is also a terrific choice for the duo with Mei. Reinhardt’s barrier protection, coupled with Mei’s ice wall, can prolong the hold of a choke. Secondly, both Reinhardt and Mei love to control the crowd Reinhardt’s earth shatter can bring enemies down, and in the meantime, Mei can freeze to make a comfortable kill streak out of the enemies.
Hanzo:
The last pick I have to do with Mei is Hanzo. As I have mentioned in the blog, Mei can isolate fights with her walls, which makes opportunities for Hanzo to take easy 1v1s against the enemies. Other than that, Hanzo and Mei’s Ultimate also work well together. Firstly, Mei can freeze up the enemies. After freezing, Hanzo can use his dragon strike to wipe out the entire team.
Orisa:
Currently regarded as the best tank in the game Orisa can be a superb choice to pair with Mei. Since Orisa is a tank with huge damage capabilities, Mei can stay at the backline, providing a bit of hand in a fight while also keeping the distance between her and the frontlines.
Wrapping it up:
We have come to the end of this blog. We have disclosed many details about Mei whether it was her playstyle, abilities, or team composition. If you read the blog carefully and apply everything that I have written in it. I am pretty confident that you would be a great mei main in the future.
Now, if you liked the blog, comment down below, and if you did not, also comment down below your reasons for disliking it. Till then goodbye.