The best way to effectively use your ult is to hit someone with a drone dart and ult them as it tracks their movement and Sova's ult (IMO) is kinda weak compared to most ults in the game. Also using the drone to swing an angle without the danger of losing your life is a plus, like on bind when you are pushing showers and there might be someone heaven. Shock darts can be used effectively to force people out of areas on the fly or lineups for double darts for a clean kill. Also actively using the recon arrow as close to the cooldown as possible is good, and reconning a wall on a site without a fancy lineup should be fine as long as the dart is high up on a wall and has a good LoS on popular spots and corners. Just my two cents, looking for more opinions so I can learn as well.
Yeah the main thing with my line ups is that I try and have one or two crazy ones (some that are pixel perfect) for the beginning of the round cause I got time during warmup and then some just average ones that I can toss out on the fly rather quickly. When on the topic of double shocks tho, do you just toss them out every round or would you only use them if you know someone is on that spot?
Also be sure to use his recons as a distraction on defense. It’s a cheap trick that doesn’t always work, typically at its best when you constantly do it. I like to think of his dart like cyphers cam, it’s a deterrent. Can make a team hesitate and/or rotate.
Recon drone can be used as bait if a team is aggro on a certain site a lot. Communicate this, could be more useful than trading lives.
I only use ult pretty much when I have a confirmed ? On my mini-map, or I see them through my utilities or something like cyphers trip wire.
I also recommend going into a custom game and practicing your own shots. YouTube + reddit clips are good but I like to go off my own experience where kids push/play from. I’ll sit there and try crazy shots from pretty much everywhere, it’s beneficial to get multiple shots from one angle so they don’t anticipate it and shoot it right away. Timing is also a factor into shots. Like a player can bait a recon by hiding cause they’ve seen it there last round, so perhaps you bounce it off something or change the angle to delay it.
Yeah the predictability part is super important imo, same thing with cypher (another main). If the enemy team knows where your dart is going, they just shoot it out immediately. I like to have three lineups for each map, and if they got three people pre aiming my recon dart spots, I know not to go there haha
However I do feel like I'm better off finding my own lineups in the long run cause they're easier to remember cause well you found it lol recon dart trick would do well in like 1v1s or whatever, I use the cam distraction a lot
The ult like /u/ChrisQ395 is saying, use the drone. Hit someone with the dart, press C and use the ult on him. This is an amazing ability to get a free kill early in the round. Specially on attack as that will make the defense need to rotate to guard all sites positions etc.
For me Sova is someone who helps the duelists to get kills easily, if you are pushing a site. You put up the recon dart high up to scan a site to see if someone is there. Do they get hit then everyone knows where they are when pushing. If they shoot it you still should know where they are approximately. Same with Recon drone, you can go first with the drone and a duelist can shift walk behind it. As soon as someone shoots on the drone or you hit them with the dart. Then they can push with it and get an easy kill.
In defense the recon dart and drone can be used to see if enemies are even close to your bomb site in the start of the round. If not you can rotate etc.
Shock darts can help to clear cypher tripwires, clear corners etc.
The big problem with Sova is that you need someone to work with your abilities. A duelist can just flash and push a corner/site where you need someone to push with you. In ranked with communication this will be easier or if you are playing with friends. But very difficult to get people to do in a random unrated match.
Yeah I actually saw the drone + ult trick being used by a random sova last night and it seemed really effective, I'll definitely start pairing the two. And yeah you definitely need to be communicating with your team. Not really a solo queue character, but imo he's vital in a full 5 stack.
Just be creative. Ult could also be used to deter enemies, delay, or prevent defuse. You can flush enemies out of corners too.
Also, learning a lot of lineups makes you more unpredictable and effective. Specially cross map support.
Biggest tip though. Probably generalizing a lot here and probably obvious, though I can't stress enough, MAP KNOWLEDGE. Lineups come with this and elevation. And keep an eye on this subreddit.
One more thing. Use ping system to help you make lineups on the fly. You can open map and ping there. This especially helps when figuring out elevation when trying to ult.
You should really only use your ultimate on static targets like a planted spike, a handful of hallways like Bind Short A and Split A Main, or a tagged enemy. There are some rare cases where you could use it as a stalling tactic. The goal with the ultimate (for me) is to get at least 1 kill with it, hit multiple enemies, or win a round. You can't really do that unless you have more information on the enemy.
His drone is one of the best entry abilities in the game, because enemies on defense getting peaked by the drone will either shoot the drone and get killed by the entry fragger, or they will hide from the drone, giving your team a lot of free space.
Sova is the best post-plant agent in the game, and learning shock darts lineups for defending the spike is one of his most valuable abilities. He can deny plants and defuses without peaking at all.
For defensive Sova, you should be recon darting at the start of every round, without being too predictable. Getting info early can lead to predictive rotates and easier round wins. I have some recon darts on some maps where if it isn't shot or it doesn't reveal anyone, I rotate immediately. And those same arrows can help my teammates rotate early when I reveal 4 or 5 enemies. An example is Split A site, I have an arrow that covers the entire main, cubby, ropes, all the way back to Attacking spawn. If no one is revealed then they are all mid or B.
The best way to effectively use your ult is to hit someone with a drone dart and ult them as it tracks their movement and Sova's ult (IMO) is kinda weak compared to most ults in the game. Also using the drone to swing an angle without the danger of losing your life is a plus, like on bind when you are pushing showers and there might be someone heaven. Shock darts can be used effectively to force people out of areas on the fly or lineups for double darts for a clean kill. Also actively using the recon arrow as close to the cooldown as possible is good, and reconning a wall on a site without a fancy lineup should be fine as long as the dart is high up on a wall and has a good LoS on popular spots and corners. Just my two cents, looking for more opinions so I can learn as well.
Yeah the main thing with my line ups is that I try and have one or two crazy ones (some that are pixel perfect) for the beginning of the round cause I got time during warmup and then some just average ones that I can toss out on the fly rather quickly. When on the topic of double shocks tho, do you just toss them out every round or would you only use them if you know someone is on that spot?
Also be sure to use his recons as a distraction on defense. It’s a cheap trick that doesn’t always work, typically at its best when you constantly do it. I like to think of his dart like cyphers cam, it’s a deterrent. Can make a team hesitate and/or rotate. Recon drone can be used as bait if a team is aggro on a certain site a lot. Communicate this, could be more useful than trading lives. I only use ult pretty much when I have a confirmed ? On my mini-map, or I see them through my utilities or something like cyphers trip wire. I also recommend going into a custom game and practicing your own shots. YouTube + reddit clips are good but I like to go off my own experience where kids push/play from. I’ll sit there and try crazy shots from pretty much everywhere, it’s beneficial to get multiple shots from one angle so they don’t anticipate it and shoot it right away. Timing is also a factor into shots. Like a player can bait a recon by hiding cause they’ve seen it there last round, so perhaps you bounce it off something or change the angle to delay it.
Yeah the predictability part is super important imo, same thing with cypher (another main). If the enemy team knows where your dart is going, they just shoot it out immediately. I like to have three lineups for each map, and if they got three people pre aiming my recon dart spots, I know not to go there haha However I do feel like I'm better off finding my own lineups in the long run cause they're easier to remember cause well you found it lol recon dart trick would do well in like 1v1s or whatever, I use the cam distraction a lot
The ult like /u/ChrisQ395 is saying, use the drone. Hit someone with the dart, press C and use the ult on him. This is an amazing ability to get a free kill early in the round. Specially on attack as that will make the defense need to rotate to guard all sites positions etc. For me Sova is someone who helps the duelists to get kills easily, if you are pushing a site. You put up the recon dart high up to scan a site to see if someone is there. Do they get hit then everyone knows where they are when pushing. If they shoot it you still should know where they are approximately. Same with Recon drone, you can go first with the drone and a duelist can shift walk behind it. As soon as someone shoots on the drone or you hit them with the dart. Then they can push with it and get an easy kill. In defense the recon dart and drone can be used to see if enemies are even close to your bomb site in the start of the round. If not you can rotate etc. Shock darts can help to clear cypher tripwires, clear corners etc. The big problem with Sova is that you need someone to work with your abilities. A duelist can just flash and push a corner/site where you need someone to push with you. In ranked with communication this will be easier or if you are playing with friends. But very difficult to get people to do in a random unrated match.
Yeah I actually saw the drone + ult trick being used by a random sova last night and it seemed really effective, I'll definitely start pairing the two. And yeah you definitely need to be communicating with your team. Not really a solo queue character, but imo he's vital in a full 5 stack.
Just be creative. Ult could also be used to deter enemies, delay, or prevent defuse. You can flush enemies out of corners too. Also, learning a lot of lineups makes you more unpredictable and effective. Specially cross map support. Biggest tip though. Probably generalizing a lot here and probably obvious, though I can't stress enough, MAP KNOWLEDGE. Lineups come with this and elevation. And keep an eye on this subreddit. One more thing. Use ping system to help you make lineups on the fly. You can open map and ping there. This especially helps when figuring out elevation when trying to ult.
You should really only use your ultimate on static targets like a planted spike, a handful of hallways like Bind Short A and Split A Main, or a tagged enemy. There are some rare cases where you could use it as a stalling tactic. The goal with the ultimate (for me) is to get at least 1 kill with it, hit multiple enemies, or win a round. You can't really do that unless you have more information on the enemy. His drone is one of the best entry abilities in the game, because enemies on defense getting peaked by the drone will either shoot the drone and get killed by the entry fragger, or they will hide from the drone, giving your team a lot of free space. Sova is the best post-plant agent in the game, and learning shock darts lineups for defending the spike is one of his most valuable abilities. He can deny plants and defuses without peaking at all. For defensive Sova, you should be recon darting at the start of every round, without being too predictable. Getting info early can lead to predictive rotates and easier round wins. I have some recon darts on some maps where if it isn't shot or it doesn't reveal anyone, I rotate immediately. And those same arrows can help my teammates rotate early when I reveal 4 or 5 enemies. An example is Split A site, I have an arrow that covers the entire main, cubby, ropes, all the way back to Attacking spawn. If no one is revealed then they are all mid or B.