Overwatch Tips: How to Play as Lúcio

Lúcio in Overwatch

Lúcio is an interesting addition to Overwatch’s Support heroes. Unlike his peers, Lúcio’s support ability is a constantly active passive ability that effects himself and all nearby allies. Lúcio therefore has the ability to provide support to multiple allies at any given time, the only healer currently available that allows you to do so.

This is due to Lúcio’s primary ability, Crossfade. Although constant and passive, the player is given control of the effect Crossfade is providing, switching it between healing and buffing speed by pressing the primary ability button. This makes Lúcio a devastating Support on Offense, especially on Control maps, as the speed buff Crossfade provides can ensure your team get to the capture point first.

Lúcio’s second ability is Amp It Up. This ability provides a temporary boost to the effects of Crossfade. This can be used with Crossfade’s speed buff at the start of a map to help your team push right from the start. It can also be used to boost Lúcio’s healing output, which can save a team on Defense that has just been hit by a particularly nasty push.

Lúcio is the Support character in Overwatch most at home in the think of battle. his constant heal makes him able to take real punishment from high DPS characters, allowing Lúcio to engage them close range. His weapon, the Sonic Amplifier, shoots sonic projectiles in bursts of three with a secondary fire that is a close range blast that knocks enemies back. This makes Lúcio very good at pushing tanks like Roadhog and Reinhardt off of the objective and staying out of range of their weapons. This secondary fire is also the most reliable way of getting Environment Kills (by ring out) in the game. On maps like Ilios and Nepal, Lúcio excels at drawing enemies in and then blasting them off of the map.

Key to using Lúcio is mastering his movement. Lúcio rides around on sonic roller blades which give him a slight skid to his movement. This enables Lúcio to move erratically,making it hard for enemies with tight bullet spread to hit him. They also allow Lucio to Wallride. Jumping onto a wall while moving lets Lúcio glide along it, adding another dimension of movement to his dodging. By moving in irregular, zigzag patterns and switching Crossfade to change the speed of movement, Lúcio is able to counter most sniper characters. He also acts as a good counter to Offense characters like Reaper, Genji, and Tracer, especially if you can keep them off balance with Lúcio’s secondary fire.

Lúcio’s Ultimate, Sound Barrier, provides massive shielding to Lúcio and nearby allies. This makes it a great tool to have when defending a control point as it can provide much-needed protection in a dire situation. It is often best used if you hear an opponent using their Ultimate, as it provides enough shield to protect from Hanzo’s Dragonstrike, Reaper’s Death Blossom or Pharah’s Barrage.

Lucio makes a great partner for Tanks like Reinhardt and Roadhog, as Crossfade’s speed buff makes these usually slow characters fast enough to move to allies in need and, if they start taking too much damage, a switch to his healing ability buffed by Amp It Up can extend their life greatly.

Lúcio’s Abilities

Sonic Amplifier (Primary + Secondary) – Left Click + Right Click/R2 + L2/RT + LT

Lúcio’s sonic pulse gun. It fires a triple burst of sonic blasts as it’s primary fire with a close range pulse that causes a large knockback for it’s secondary fire.

Wallride – Passive

Lúcio’s sonic roller blades allow him to glide along walls by jumping into them as he moves. This is a great tactic for surprising enemies and avoiding their line of fire.

Crossfade – Left-Shift/L1/LB

Lúcio’s primary ability is a passive ability that provides either a speed buff or healing to nearby allies. Switch between the effects by pressing the primary ability button.

Amp It Up – E/R1/RB

Lúcio’s secondary ability provides a boost to Crossfade. Use it with the speed buff when charging down a capture point or with Lúcio’s healing passive to rescue allies near death.

Sound Barrier – Q/Triangle/Y

Once Lúcio’s Ultimate is charged he leaps forward, unleashing a sound wave that boosts all allies’ shields in the vicinity. Most useful when helping allies to survive an opponent’s Ultimate.

Backstory in Overwatch

Here’s Lúcio’s official Overwatch backstory, straight from Blizzard:

• Real Name: Lúcio Correia dos Santos
• Age: 26
• Occupation: DJ/Freedom Fighter
• Affiliation: None

Lúcio Correia dos Santos grew up in Rio de Janeiro, in a poor and crowded favela that was hit hard by the financial upheaval following the Omnic Crisis. As Brazil began the long process of recovery, he wanted to find a way to lift the spirits of those around him. He found his answer in music and its power to bring people together and even help them forget their troubles, if only for a short time. He performed on street corners, in block parties, and as he got older, at a string of legendary underground shows.

But Lúcio’s close-knit community was thrown into chaos when the multinational Vishkar Corporation secured a contract to redevelop large tracts of the city. Lúcio and his neighbors had been told that the development would improve their lives. However, that promise never became a reality. Vishkar imposed controls on the residents in the name of building a more orderly society: enforcing curfews, cracking down on what the company perceived as lawless behavior, and exploiting the populace as a cheap labor force.

Lúcio wouldn’t stand for it. He stole Vishkar sonic technology that had been used to suppress the people, and he converted it into a tool to rally them to action. In a popular uprising, they drove Vishkar out of their neighborhoods. Lúcio’s leadership made him a star overnight and a symbol for positive social change. His music skyrocketed in popularity. Whereas he had once performed locally, he was now filling arenas across the world. He built up a career doing live shows, and became something of a national icon in Brazil.

With his newfound fame, Lúcio realized that he had an opportunity to make a difference and change the world for the better.

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This post was originally written by Oisin Kilkenny-Fletcher.