Playing "Smart" with Mauga - Overwatch 2
0I try to get across why I think Mauga will struggle at the highest level and show off some QP games with him. Again, just to reiterate, I don't think he is weak. I also know it sounds very daft to say he's not good into certain comps therefore he is bad. It's disingenuous to the concept of OW2 and why it has the ability to swap heroes. There are supposed to be counters. However, I think you kind of have to play around the Mauga to make it work and you are so susceptible to nades, poke and snipers; that the specific comp you would want to run him into is so niche that it wont be worth trying. Again, I am talking about high level play. Like you haven't seen Hog at OWWC. I don't think you'd see Mauga.
Overall, the tank excels at close range where you can blitz enemies down int he range of your dual guns (very close because of spread). He is also good at short-midrange by poking with lefty til burn then swapping to righty for crits (this has synergy with other burn effects like ashe and torb). He is really bad at long range. His gap close is really only horizontal so he wont be great on maps with a lot of verticality (like Gib). Also, you despite being cc immune are very susceptible to dying whilst charging. Rein can cancel and use his shield health. Mauga has to cancel and then E and do dmg (ideally crits). Before this procs though, I find Mauga often just falls over. So he wont be great on maps with long sightlines either like Rialto. I also think his utility is best used selfishly (at least his neutral kit). I tried to use the E occasionally to help a low DPS, but it makes it so much harder for you to contest objectives that way. You also don't have a great ability to peel for flankers. As a result, I think supports that lack mobility like Zen don't pair great with him, even though you raise his DPS to insane levels. Also, supports that lack a bit of team utility like Mercy, Moira and to a lesser extent LW (he has pull but other than that...) don't feel great with him because they don't make up for Mauga's shortcomings in this department.
He will be good though in maps where you can force enemies into shorter range duels like Antarctica where you can short distances and then retreat behind corners. Also, you can catch flankers with ult on the shorter close flanks. As a consequence of not having to close large gaps you can also churn out DMG. He might be the highest DPS tank now in the game and this DMG has a high output between reloading. So, if someone comes up with a comp that really treats him well and plays to his strengths, he could definitely be the focus and carry of the team.
If I were to pick heroes that work well with this guy: Ana (Nano and especially nade on him when he E's are insane survivability tools that can swing fights), Bap (Big burst heals, Window in your cage basically will allow you to wipe anyone stuck in there will you), Lucio (just to speed you around, so you take less poke closing or crossing gaps). In DPS Mei (you can blizzard the cage, great ult combo. Wall also very useful to split people off that Mauga can then punish), maybe weirdly Ashe (the dynamite burn procs you right clicks and shifts his strengths towards midrange poke, where your shift then can be used for catch. This would be good into an opposing tank that doesn't have good poke). I think other than that, many other DPS work fine with him, like Cass, Soldier, Junkrat, Bastion. I would say that I think Pharah and snipers aren't great with him. I think he will take too many support resources to get the full value from him that Pharah will also want a pocket support from. For snipers, they would just prefer a shield hero basically. Otherwise they are disadvantages into duels when the enemy has one. Mauga also doesn't operate well at their effective range.
Again, I just want to say I am not trying to complain about this or seem whiney about it. I am just trying to state facts of what I think he is good at, and what he is bad at. It's just unfortunate that right now, some of the heroes I think are good into him (Ana and Sigma) are both very playable right now and can kind of be flexible enough to exist in a wider range of comps.
Anyway, I will try and get on tomorrow at twitch.tv/andolono tomorrow to play a bit more before he is removed from the game again. We'll see what Blizz does with this "data".
My X is @andolono
Other Videos By Andolono
Other Statistics
Overwatch 2 Statistics For Andolono
There are 4,819 views in 85 videos for Overwatch 2. This game accounts for over 5 days of watchable video on his channel, or 5.27% of the total watchable video for Overwatch 2 on Andolono's YouTube channel.