Lucio’s Sound Barrier may be one of the best defensive ultimates in Overwatch, but using it at the wrong time can be a lot worse than some players realize.
Having “over health” in Overwatch in the form of shields or armor can give some heroes some major survival tools. This is health that is temporary, and not part of a hero’s main kit.
Shields Sigma gains from absorbing damage with Kinetic Grasp, or Doomfist’s shields from his Best Defense passive, are examples of this.
However, nothing gives as many shields as Sound Barrier. Once it’s used, each teammate within Lucio’s line of sight radius receives 750 shields for six seconds.
This can be crucial in protecting your team from enemy ultimates, to keep them alive, or to help capture a point by overwhelming foes with the extra shields plus a Speed Boost.
While all this sounds great, the big problem is that shooting Sound Barrier gives ultimate charge. So, if your team isn’t prepared, you could actually be gifting the enemy a major advantage in the ultimate economy.
The absolute biggest way to throw with Sound Barrier, mind you, is by using it and then having the enemy boop you and your team off the map with environmental kills. Scoring environmental kills on big HP targets can grant tremendous ultimate charge and booping an enemy who received Sound Barrier could take you from 0 to 100.
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Case in point, this clip by Redditor ‘giusemira9898’ showcasing how Winston can get ultimate charge for kills scored at the very end of Primal Rage.
The reason the Winston player was able to get the ultimate online again so quickly is because an enemy Lucio used Sound Barrier. Even though the monkey knocked an Ana and a Symmetra off, the shields from the ultimate made it more like Winston was eliminating tanks.
Just imagine if a Lucio used Sound Barrier on his Roadhog teammate, giving him 1,350 HP only to be knocked off the map one second later. That would be a lot of ultimate charge for the enemy team and, as we know, ultimates are key to winning team fights – and winning team fights wins you matches.
Think twice before using Sound Barrier next time there’s a possibility of your teammates getting booped off the map. It could end up being the difference between winning and losing games.
