You Beautiful Devs, and some more Speculation

Duos!

I'm so tremendously stoked about this LTM. I don't need to ( but I'm going to ) say I called it. It's finally a resolution to my not having any friends in my time zone!

Let's go ahead and hazard some meta speculation.

I'll be omitting Revenant from this, because it's not confirmed as of right now.

I'm guessing an uptick of Wattson/Caustic, Wattson/Wraith, and Wattson/Lifeline sets. The heal/shield boost of Wa/LL is going to play a role, but I suspect that the loot and drop location distribution will mean fewer Ulti Accels in those teams. With Cap City being such a prevalent drop site for fast action, seeing those two parking garage style buildings trapped up by Wa/Ca teams early on is fairly predictable. The fact that clambering through various levels of the structures is possible means fast flanks and aggressive incursions are still possible. Map and building familiarity will play a huge part to that particular location. W/W teams will have fence portal traps, giving them access between locations for rapid re-positioning and suicide portals. It's a good approach early-game, particularly given the popularity of the area.

Pathfinder/Octane and Pathfinder/Wraith High Mobility teams are going to be highly effective. Since it takes less time to wipe two players ( assuming focused fire becomes more popular, I don't know why it's not), being able to Loot and Scoot with fast in and out action puts Octane and His Legs at an advantage. Circle Looting from P/W teams, with their ability to span huge distances in a short amount of time, means the outlying areas will see more activity. I expect to see Lava drops and Thermal popularity getting more popularity with the P/W sets. Overlook is pretty hit or miss right now, but Skyhook has a beacon and excellent rotation options for nearby rings.

Gibby/Lifeline teams will have a massive advantage in regards to healing and third party defenses, particularly with ranged meta. Looting and reviving under a dome will be decisive in those circumstances. I expect to see situations where fourth and fifth parties turn one fight into a graveyard of death boxes. Gibby/Bangalore assault teams will bring a serious rain of pain down with third party sneak attacks, forcing fighting teams to either separate or change their approaches. With ranged combat being preferred, I expect to see one team lose a player and the other team take the brunt of the airstrike while the single remaining player from team 1 gets mopped up. Smoke domes will get G/B teams looted up for pushing the recovering team, a team that will have just popped a bunch of heals or shifted positions to their possible detriment.

I don't see a ton of value here for Crypto and Bloodhound, but I expect to see those absolutely beautiful Bloodhound Physical Copy skins being shown off anyway. ( Seriously, it's such a nice skin. ) Hunting down respawning solos or flexing on third party situations are going to be a big deal. particularly since that EMP can hit two full Duo squads at once. Swatting fences and Nox invulnerability means a good counter to W/Ca teams will be Ca/Cr teams. That's a fun fight to think about, one that will really come down to hitting your shots and positioning more than abilities and ultimates.

Mirage/Anyone. Decoys and false-flag Bamboozles draw fire. That's a huge deal with locating enemies once you're out of Cap City or Sorting or whichever high distribution location. M/Cr will be meme material for days, since their relationship is already a blend of serious competence and silly swagger. M/BH teams offer a new look at locating and tricking players into revealing their location. The loud and fiercely accurate BH ulti is an excellent way to draw fire while M circles around to flank while invisible.

I'm excited to see if they drop a new Legend here, and what sort of weapon balancing they bring forward. Since a Double Tap G7 will hit for 108 if you get it right, I think it should stay where it is. The possibility of cutting muzzle flare is still there, and I really hope it goes through. I'm going to leave the cheese cannon out of this one.

The ring will probably be similar to the Solos, starting early and closing faster. Camping should be discouraged, and this is a good way to do it. Vault Assaults are getting more popular, and I suspect more tunnel fighting to go on. Trainyard, Geyser, and Lava will definitely see more activity, since both lootbots and vaults are close together there. I don't expect to see anything going on in that killing zone north of Trainyard, but there'll be a few new buildings going up. I've already seen the surveyor flagged posts in a few spots.

Whatever they do, whatever we do, I am excited to get set and go hard with my randoms. The fact that all of these partied-up Duo teams can keep talking to each other and not pinging anything won't be such a burden on the communication experience of their random thirds any longer is nice.

Good on you, Respawn, for keeping it lively. I'm stoked.