Yo, Steven here with another Overwatch guide to improve your play. The guide today focuses on Lúcio, the Wall-Grinding D.J. Like the previous guides I will be breaking down this D.J’s abilities with some strategies and tips thrown in. First let’s start with his passive ability: Wall Ride.

Passive Ability: Wall Ride

Movement Speed: 7.7 meters per second

The ability that draws players to Lúcio in the first place, Wall Ride makes any wall Lúcio’s personal skate park.

Pro: Freedom

Wall Ride allows Lúcio the greatest freedom of movement out of any character in Overwatch. While wall riding, Lúcio is able to reach the same heights as Pharah. The ability to wall ride also allows Lúcio to perform flanks that other characters can’t.

Con: No double dipping

Lúcio treats walls like dip at a party; he will not ride the same wall twice in a row. Or any wall facing that direction for that matter.

Key Tip: Plan a route.

Because wall riding takes some getting used to, it’s best to start off with planning a route. In the video above, I planned to take that path because I knew it would take me behind the enemy. By taking that path I was able to boop Orisa off the edge to my teammates below. I was also able to get some damage in with Lúcio’s primary weapon.

Primary Weapon: Sonic Amplifier

Type: Linear Projectile

Reload: 1.25 seconds

Ammo: 20

Lúcio’s weapon is his Sonic Amplifier, a modified megaphone that blasts out sonic waves in four round bursts. Each projectile deals 20 damage on their own and the gun is capable of headshots.

Pro: Damage Output

For such a small gun, Lúcio can put out a lot of damage. If he lands a full burst of body shots he deals 80 damage, 160 damage if they are all headshots. That’s provided he lands all those shots, which brings us to his gun’s weakness.

Con: Slow Projectiles

The sonic waves that Lúcio fires are slow. This makes it easy for enemies to dodge his shots and for him to miss in equal amounts.

Key Tip: Lead and predict your targets.

When playing as Lúcio you must always be in touch with your inner fortune teller. Adopt the habit of leading your targets and predicting where they will be to maximize your damage output. Speaking of output, Lúcio’s next ability cranks the volume output to eleven.

Secondary Fire: Soundwave

Type: Frontal Wave

Ammo Usage: 4 rounds per shot

Cooldown: 4 seconds

Soundwave is Lúcio’s secondary fire that produces a frontal wave that knocks enemies back. This knockback is a great way to create separation and even pick up some environmental kills.

Pros: Separation and environmental Kills

Soundwave is great for creating separation between Lúcio and his crazier fans, like that cyborg ninja. The knock back can be as far as a couple of meters away or down the edge of a cliff.

This kill potential makes Lúcio a menace on maps with steep falls like Illios: Light House and Lijiang: Night Market. Enemy teams will fear having their backs to the edge when a Lúcio is on point, or they soon will. These knock backs come with a cost though.

Con: Ammo cost

In addition to a cooldown, Soundwave also has an ammo cost. This means that players have to make sure that they have ammo in the clip before blasting people off cliffs.

Key Tip: Know the maps.

Knowledge of the maps, especially where edges are, truly benefits Lúcio because it gives him another weapon. In the clip above I got two key kills on tanks because I knew exactly where the edge was. This allowed my team to steamroll the point and take it in overtime. As nice as it is to get frags, the main goal of Lúcio is to support his team. He does this with his Crossfade ability.

Ability: Crossfade

Healing: 16.25 health per second on allies, 12.1875 on self

Movement Speed: +30%

Range: AOE 10 meters

Lúcio supports his team through his music. His music is limited to two songs he can switch between. The songs on his playlist are his speed song, which boosts movement speed, and his heal song which regenerates health. Crossfade is an Area of Effect (AOE) ability. This means that if his teammates are in his aura range, they get the current song’s benefit.

Pros: Mass healing, retreats and engages

Since Crossfade is an AOE ability it allows Lúcio to heal everyone at the same time with his healing song. This AOE also allows Lúcio’s team to make coordinated pushes and retreats faster and easier with his speed song. This sounds great, but as with everything in life, nothing is perfect.

Cons: Low heal rate and range

Crossfade’s healing song has the lowest base heal rate of any healing ability in the game. Ironically, the AOE of Crossfade is also its greatest weakness because it keeps Lúcio near the front lines and near danger.

Key Tip: Shuffle the songs.

Finally, when you are playing as Lúcio make sure to switch up the songs based on the situation. If your team is pushing in on the point, have your speed song pumping. If a teammate gets low switch to your healing song. Never limit yourself to one song because by doing that you are limiting Lúcio’s abilities. You do not want to do that because that ends up hurting your team.

Lúcio uses his next ability when his team is in danger and he needs to kick it up a notch.

Ability: Amp It Up

Healing: 46.8 health per second on allies, 35.1 on self.

Movement Speed: +70%

Duration: 3 seconds

Cooldown: 12 seconds

If his team is in a jam Lúcio can use Amp It Up to boost the effects of his songs.

Pros: Quick healing and fast set up

Amp It Up allows Lúcio to quickly heal critical allies as well as bringing them to the objective faster. On defense this can be critical because it allows your team to get set up faster. While on offense, increased speed can also bring your team to the payload to continue an overtime push.

Cons: Cooldown and duration

Since an Amp It Up makes Crossfade so powerful, the long cooldown and short duration make sense. However, this doesn’t mean it’s not a weakness.

Key Tips: Timing is everything.

Because of the high cooldown and short duration of Amp It Up, timing the ability is key. The best moment to use Amp It Up with the heal song is when your teammates are at half health. While the best time to use it with the speed song is when your team needs a quick engage or retreat.

Yet when all else fails, Lúcio can protect his allies with his ultimate.

Ultimate: Sound Barrier

Health: 500 barrier

AOE: 30 meter radius

Duration: 6 seconds

Lúcio’s ultimate has the D.J. dropping the beat to provide his team with 500 health barriers. These barriers only last six seconds and start to decay as soon as the ultimate is cast.

Pros: Offensive and Defensive Ultimate

While Sound Barrier is mostly used as a response to enemy ultimates, Lúcio’s ultimate can be used offensively. What this means is that Lúcio can use Sound Barrier to initiate a fight by having his team group up and then using an Amped up speed song to rush the point. As a result the enemy team must face six heroes with tank like health.

Con: Vulnerable to EMP

Most noteworthy is Sound Barrier’s weakness to Sombra’s EMP ultimate. Sombra’s EMP will strip your teammates of their shields if it hits them.

Key Tip: Timing and communication.

As with every ultimate, timing is key to their success. As a rule of thumb, the safest use of Sound Barrier is in response to enemy ultimates. In the video above I do just that. Also, if you are going to use your Sound Barrier to initiate a fight, tell your team. Because that way you can make a coordinated push. Coordination with your team is paramount to being an effective Lúcio.

Strategy

The strategy to playing Lúcio effectively is to always keep positioning in mind. Due to Crossfade’s AOE you must make sure that your team is in range to benefit from it. There is a number under your crosshairs that tells you how many people are in range. Also keep in mind that one of the advantages of Lúcio is that he can taxi teammates from place to place. Most importantly remember that Lúcio is a support, which means that all actions must be taken with the team in mind.

That’s it for the Wall-Grinding D.J. Hopefully this guide helps you get in tune with Lúcio. Let us know what you think in the comments below. The next guide will be covering the “Pharmacy” combo of Pharah and Mercy.

From all of us at TGH, I’m Steven and we wish you good luck in your future games.

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