Dish out the deets! (rumours or not!)
I've not really tried any of the supports beyond Mercy. Mercy is pretty nice, using her ult feels great and the mobility getting around is really useful, no more soldiers rocket jumping away and leaving me stranded.
Lucio seems ok, but... eh. I have no idea how to even approach playing the other support heros though. Zenyatta... has orbs?? Not a clue what they do. Even during my ~10 minutes playing during mystery heroes I didn't work out what they did.
Rumours of Sombra: She works for Talon, is a sniper like Widowmaker, friend of Reaper. All I know is that she's kind of a mix between Zenyatta and Widowmaker. She has a sniper rifle that can either heal allies, or apply debuff to enemies. A super-long range healer.
Mercy is awesome like 75% of the time. I'm finding that if my team is lacking DPS, she really shines with her off-click staff skill. She also has one of the highest DPS of all the supporters with her Cadaeus blaster. If my team however is lacking in mobility (so we have like Reinhart, Phara, classes with lower mobility than say Widowmaker, Tracer, Junkrat, Hanzo), Lucio does better. Pump out the healing beats when you're pushing onto an objective, drop the beat off cooldown aslong as it's in a fight, and pop up speed boost if you need to get away to save yourself, get back into the battle, or are pushing off of/escorting the payload out. Boost these things as necessary, again, off cooldown. Lucio requires a bit more insight on how maps are set up and where things are, mainly because you can use his wall riding ability to get in/out of fights quickly, push people around or steathly contest points. One of my favourite things to do is on Ilios, where this is a point with a large pit in the middle. You can perma wall ride in that as Lucio (AND GET OUT!), while contesting the point. Really fun if you can pop in there unnoticed and confuse the enemy long enough for your teammates to get back. Pop out when they're there and drop some healin' tunes.
Zenyatta's a good off-support class. You can run him as a primary support, but he works really well with a Mercy, or a Lucio. I actually think he's the best DPS support class outside of a damn good Mercy. You want to be passing his harmony orb around a lot. Someone low? toss it to them, wait a few second. Someone else? Toss it to them. Discord orbs go out asap too. You can use them to coordinate down DPS spikes on heroes as it amplifies damage taken to that hero by 5%(?). But, in solo fights, his discord orb (forever known as Discorb) is the thing that will cause him to totally eat your face. Unless you're a tank and Genji, Zenyatta's a pain in the ass 1v1 because of this. However, without an ally nearby with Harmony, he's at a dash of a disadvantage. For his ult, I use it on crazy pushes where we want to go deep, or to clear out an objective. Also great for nullifying Riptire, Rocket Barrage, Blizzard, Sentry Doom Rooms, Quakes, Aimhacks, HighNoons, etc. etc. Any Ult that sucks the big one. Just don't stand still...
like this guy.
Symetra! To be quite honest, I've played her the least, but she's honestly been the most fun for me to play. I've found that she's best when she's never seen. Rarely will you be in the middle of combat. You'll be ALWAYS spamming out shields to your ally heroes. You'll be setting up mini sentries, (NO LESS THAN 3) in clusters behind walls and doorways. Hiding things away. You'll be putting up your teleporter in places it can't be found... or if it can be found, it'll be surrounded by you + 6 sentries. Her weapon is crazy powerful, but really only works in melee range. The longer you stay hitting someone, the more damage you do. She's really situational, and I've only ever seen her be a good defensive support, not an offensive support (like say, Zenyatta). She takes some time to get used to, but can be hella powerful. Also something to note: her teleporter has a limited number of uses before you have to recharge your ulti bar.
RECAP:
Mercy/Lucio > All round Supporters. I'd consider them primary supporters.
Zenyatta > Offensive supporter, great for if your team is lacking DPS, or if you're a roaming supporter since you have the best 1v1 capabilities.
Symetra > Defensive supporter, great for laying traps and helping with team mobility. Mini sentries are great for laying traps, and her weapon is the highest potential damage output of all supporter weapons.
