Wall riding Guide Part 2- Nuances and more.

This is the second part of the wall riding guide. If you haven't read the first one, and want to understand this one, read it. It's a very in depth guide on wall riding, and is a good read. What I want to talk about here are some more of the nuances of wall riding and the reason it's important. I want to clarify- I have experience, but am not all knowing. If you have any complaints or points against what I have written, please tell me. I would always love to learn more about my favorite character.

If I wanted to give an easy excuse for why wall riding is important, I would say that you would't be using all of his kit. It's as if a mercy player never used her passive, and didn't float. But wall riding is fucking confusing and complicated, which is why it deters a lot of players. But there are several reasons for it's importance. First, it is often what separates lucio players of different skills. For example, you would not see someone in Plat moving like Eskay. That wouldn't make sense(unless it's one of eskay's smurfs, in which case, tell him I said hi). Second, It builds off of his other abilities. You can wall ride up to spots in order to get a sick boop or to get out a sound barrier before you get killed. Third, It hurts your enemies on a psychological level. No, I'm not joking. This is a legitimate part of my play style. Who would you get more pissed off dying to- A McCree who double tapped you, or a Lucio who flew at you at the speed of sound(got places to go, got to follow my rainbow) and then dunked you while you couldn't land a shot. Nobody expects to be assassinated by a Lucio unless you already did it to them. And people perceive Lucio as a weak, unthreatening character, so they might tilt if you annoy them enough. Even just not dying can enrage your enemies. I've been messaged so many times where in people commented on my slipperiness, usually insulting me or my mother( or both), then leaving a lenny face. And if the enemy team focuses you for this, You already won.

It goes deeper than that though. What confuses people is the difference from Lucio to Lucio in wall riding. You can usually tell when someone is better or worse at wall riding just by watching them. I like to rate people on a scale of 1-100, with one being no skill at all, and 100 being someone who has mastered the ability. I would personally rank myself a 75, as I am at the point where my skill often baffles people and is generally impressive, I don't know everything. The best wall rider I personally know and am friends with is probably 80-83. And they are an absolute mad man on walls. So lets define the ranks. 1-10: Did you know that lucio had a passive? No? That makes sense. These people have no experience. They can't wall ride, and some outright refuse to use this ability. 10-20: You know it's there, and can kind of use it, but it's still alien to you. These players have trouble doing it in combat, and the momentum is all over the place and fails to give them any help. Due to this, they forget the ability in combat or just general gameplay.20-30: You've started to grasp how the ability works, but momentum, cross fading, and chains are still out of reach. You might start to have wall riding muscle memory. 30-40: The speed is now under your control, and you can do some cool stuff, but it is still the basics.40-50: You can start doing more complicated maneuvers, but it is still not consistent. Chains are still very abstract to you.50-60: You completely understand the basic works of wall riding.At this point, wall riding is part of your gameplay and is automatic. You can do stuff like chains, but the precise movements are still hard. 60-80: The small details are starting to come together, and you become a beast to kill in combat. But you might still struggle with stuff like complex rollouts or slide jumps. 80-100: Congrats, you just wasted a good chunk of your life becoming a lucio god. People in the 95-100 category are streamers like Eskay, Rammy, Plasma Napkin, and Feltup(sorta). The reason I am giving you this tier list is it is important to define where you are and what you need to work on. I am really good at combat wall riding and jukes, but I struggle at doing more complex chains and rollouts. To work on this, I'll play with some of my Lucio main friends and explore a map looking for chains to learn and practice. It's important to understand your own skill before you can grow. Now my reference to feltup might confuse some of you reading if you have seen him play. Although he mainly relies on his superior game sense in fights, the man is a god at wall riding when it comes to rollouts. So, he still counts.

Now, I feel it's time to talk about the extra nuances of wall riding. First on the chopping block- Aim and Momentum. If you didn't know, wall ride has a peculiar way of judging how it gives lucio momentum. It gives you the boost in the direction you are looking when you jump off a wall. You can test this on your own. Try jumping in a corner while looking down, then looking up. The height of the two jumps will be massively different. But it gets way more complicated in an actual game. When preforming chains or rollouts, the common consensus is to look where you want to go, and this works(most of the time.)If you need to see some for yourself, Eskay has made some great videos detailing stuff like this. But as a fair warning, I struggle with using this ability a lot, so don't be too harsh on yourself if you can't master it right away.

Another facet of wall riding is simple intimidation and annoyance. In the previous guide, I said to be as annoying as possible when fighting select targets. It's all about getting in their heads and causing them to focus or tilt. People tend to get pretty peeved when losing to a lucio, even more than if you just booped them off the map(although on 2nd point hanamura defense, you can enrage people by killing them out of spawn.) You don't even have to win a fight, just be a general annoyance to kill. One of the other facets of intimidation is just plain skill. Unlike a lot of abilities, where telling skill is very subtle, It is not that hard to tell when a Lucio is good at wall riding. Remember, People get confused when they know you're good, but they are used to getting easy picks on Lucios.

Although this guide is much smaller than the previous, I wanted to at least discuss these topics so I can cover what is important to mastering Lucio. I hope this can help some one learn my beloved character. Speed Boop out.