Overwatch: Thread of the Game

[The_Jackal]

Unlike Roadhog though, Hammond is significantly more mobile, and has a ranged attack. I think a better comparison would be D.va or Winston.

He lacks Winston and D.va's vertical mobility, which presumably he trades off for more survivability. What he doesn't bring, however, is a barrier, which is why I liken him to Roadhog. He's there's to occupy your attention by virtue of just being a big damage sponge. His only shock power move is Piledriver, which has 100 damage and a knock-up effect, but I'm not sure how easy that will be to bring off, in practice. I imagine he's going to synergize well with the new Symmetra, as she can give him easy access to ledges to bring off big piledrivers more readily.

[Geno9999]

He lacks Winston and D.va's vertical mobility, which presumably he trades off for more survivability. What he doesn't bring, however, is a barrier, which is why I liken him to Roadhog. He's there's to occupy your attention by virtue of just being a big damage sponge. His only shock power move is Piledriver, which has 100 damage and a knock-up effect, but I'm not sure how easy that will be to bring off, in practice. I imagine he's going to synergize well with the new Symmetra, as she can give him easy access to ledges to bring off big piledrivers more readily.

I would argue the opposite in that he trades survivability for even more mobility and unexpected angles for diving. The Grappling Claw takes some getting use to, but people are already finding flank routes that you'd usually see from Pharah or creative Doomfist and Lucio players. His passive however relies on line of sight upon activation (which probably isn't too much of a downside if the enemy team sticks together,) and gains 100 shields per player. While this can mean doubling your health, I think with the relatively short duration (about 2-3 seconds iirc nvm, it's 7 seconds.) I think this ability will be more useful as a get out of jail free card like Roadhog's self-heal.

I like that his primary is hitscan, but I'm surprised that it doesn't seem to have any recoil to it. He does burn through ammo fast though.

Overall, I can see him being an alternative to D.va in a Dive Comp with his mobility, or as a battery charger for a friendly Zarya.

[Rising Phoenix]

So how is everyone finding comp now with the changes? I was surprised that I did my 10 placement matches yesterday and...was surprised that I was enjoying myself....

No trolls, had a few games with bad players in it, but the toxicity levels have drained tremendously... Granted it's fake nice, with loads of frienemies...but it's better than the troll and thrower fest of seasons before.

[NeoVid]

No trolls, had a few games with bad players in it, but the toxicity levels have drained tremendously... Granted it's fake nice, with loads of frienemies...but it's better than the troll and thrower fest of seasons before.

LFG+endorsements has changed everything. As someone on my friendlist said, "I'll take fake nice over genuine ****head any day."

It also makes me think... They said they would never add a deathmatch mode to Overwatch, then they did and it's what I play most. They also said they would never have an LFG system in OW, and now that they have one it's fixed some of the game's worst issues. Now I want to know what else they said they would never have in this game, because they should probably add all those things right away.

[Winthur]

Now I want to know what else they said they would never have in this game, because they should probably add all those things right away.

Remove autoaim heroes. F*** someone's disabled friend and some mouthbreathing casuals, I wanna be more pro MLG.

/s

[The_Jackal]

Remove autoaim heroes. F*** someone's disabled friend and some mouthbreathing casuals, I wanna be more pro MLG.

/s

I am fine with there being heroes with a high skill floor in the game. What I am not fine with is Blizzard making those heroes competitive with skill-intensive Heroes at the median level of play. Otherwise, what's the point in playing heroes with a more challenging mechanic? They should have the tools to reward skilled play, and right now, they decidedly do not. I don't want to be Pro MLG, I want to not have to be Pro MLG to have a prayer against Brig and Moira.

[gomipile]

So, Hammond/Wrecking Ball is scheduled to be released on the 24th, not this week. Sigh.

I've been enjoying having a tank that can run(roll and swing) back to the objective so fast after respawning. It's like playing a Lúcio/tank hybrid for a few seconds.

[Velaryon]

Aim is but one of many components of skill in a game like Overwatch, and yet many people speak as though aim and skill are synonyms. They're not.

[Sariel Vailo]

https://www.gamespot.com/amp-article.../1100-6460522/
Theyre nerfing mercy again.

[Resileaf]

What has Mercy done to Blizz to cause such a constant stream of nerfs? It's like she's Overwatch's Irelia.

[Keltest]

What has Mercy done to Blizz to cause such a constant stream of nerfs? It's like she's Overwatch's Irelia.

Since she's the most straightforward healer, with not much other utility, shes always in a delicate balance between overshadowing the other healers and still being strong in her niche. It doesn't take too much to push her out of either of those things. Im not surprised theyre having trouble with keeping her relevant without making her the go to pick for healer.

[Sariel Vailo]

Bbbut i like mercy, why do they keep hurting her.

[Keltest]

Bbbut i like mercy, why do they keep hurting her.

Moira is just terribly insecure. She cant stand having Mercy be more popular.

[Sariel Vailo]

https://pin.it/zqtjg6sbtftsmi
And this is the issue of moira. No bedside manner

[The_Jackal]

Aim is but one of many components of skill in a game like Overwatch, and yet many people speak as though aim and skill are synonyms. They're not.

Other than aim and movement control, the other 'skills' are merely good sense. You can learn them in an afternoon. Use high ground, stay with your teammates (unless you have the mobility to flank with impunity), know the capabilities of opposing heroes, watch the kill feed, and track your team and your enemy's ultimate usage.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

The skill of correct decision-making is a far bigger and harder to develop skill field than learning to skillfully click on heads. If learning to click on heads was the bulk of Overwatch skill, pro play would be boring because they've already mastered the head-clicking skill, leaving only the strategic decision-making elements.

[The_Jackal]

The skill of correct decision-making is a far bigger and harder to develop skill field than learning to skillfully click on heads. If learning to click on heads was the bulk of Overwatch skill, pro play would be boring because they've already mastered the head-clicking skill, leaving only the strategic decision-making elements.

You could not be more wrong. The average Widow has a 16.7% crit rate, and 44% scoped accuracy, and the 99th percentile of Widow Players have ~53% accuracy and up to 24% crit rate. People say that hitting a fastball is the hardest thing to do in sports, yet hitting the head is, statistically, even harder. So no, knowing how to stick with your team, watch the kill feed, and time ultimates is not even close to hard, by comparison.

But there's another reason that decision making isn't really that important in Overwatch: The maps rarely present you with interesting decisions. Flank routes are highly predictable, players glow bright red, making visibility almost a non-issue, and abundance of barriers and healing make high impact plays very, very hard to bring off. The most clever play I've seen in Overwatch was a 5 man flank through Hotel, past the pub, and then back around to high ground above the first point, whereupon the Widow hiding in spawn was able to get a flank shot out of the high balcony. It was really clever, and well executed, but you know what? If their Widow misses her shots, it's all for nothing, because a 5-man deathball can't beat 6 in this game.

The one thing that makes decision making more important than mechanical skill in Overwatch is when your teammates are too dirt-stupid to follow even a basic strategy, just poking at the choke while the tank waddles into a firing squad and is blown to shreds. But just because your team is challenged doesn't mean the test they're failing is challenging.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I get that it feels satisfying to have a skill that lets you showcase the hours of grinding you put into the game, but ultimately, choosing to click on someone isn't even a choice. It's boring and shallow.

The most interesting part of the game is the decision space afforded by target prioritization, space control, LOS management, and cooldown usage. Without that, the game is just an uninteresting shooting gallery.

[The_Jackal]

I get that it feels satisfying to have a skill that lets you showcase the hours of grinding you put into the game, but ultimately, choosing to click on someone isn't even a choice. It's boring and shallow.

The most interesting part of the game is the decision space afforded by target prioritization, space control, LOS management, and cooldown usage. Without that, the game is just an uninteresting shooting gallery.

What's interesting is orthogonal to what's difficult, though I'd definitely take issue that space control, LOS management, and cooldown usage are very interesting. Sure, they can get pretty interesting playing at tournament level, but you're not playing at that level, and neither am I. For 85% of the player base, good positioning is 'use high ground and don't go in alone'. And even when you are playing an arranged team six-stack, the map, objectives and situation govern your decisions far more than any personal decision making. On a non-flanker Hero, your decision matrix is, "How do I not throw?": Stay with your team, watch your flanks, and peel for each other. Granted, if you're playing a flanker like Genji, Tracer, or Sombra, your mobility affords you some more choices, but those choices are often governed by situation and objectives. If your team is poking ineffectually at the choke, you can't get too aggressive, because the enemy can just turn and burn you. If they're doing their job, your job is to attack from a flank and burn a critical pick (or hack).

[Keltest]

What's interesting is orthogonal to what's difficult, though I'd definitely take issue that space control, LOS management, and cooldown usage are very interesting. Sure, they can get pretty interesting playing at tournament level, but you're not playing at that level, and neither am I. For 85% of the player base, good positioning is 'use high ground and don't go in alone'. And even when you are playing an arranged team six-stack, the map, objectives and situation govern your decisions far more than any personal decision making. On a non-flanker Hero, your decision matrix is, "How do I not throw?": Stay with your team, watch your flanks, and peel for each other. Granted, if you're playing a flanker like Genji, Tracer, or Sombra, your mobility affords you some more choices, but those choices are often governed by situation and objectives. If your team is poking ineffectually at the choke, you can't get too aggressive, because the enemy can just turn and burn you. If they're doing their job, your job is to attack from a flank and burn a critical pick (or hack).

Given the number of people I have played with who do not seem to understand how to do anything more than point themselves at the nearest visible enemy and left click on them, im going to say that game awareness is definitely the harder skill.

[Winthur]

Given the number of people I have played with who do not seem to understand how to do anything more than point themselves at the nearest visible enemy and left click on them, im going to say that game awareness is definitely the harder skill.

You are implying that there's a binary where a Reinhardt player has to channel his inner Machiavelli where he gets to be an impeccable master of positioning making those constant micropercentage improvements and maximizing the use of his shield at all times and uses his cooldowns in the most efficient way (which is how I imagine GM Reinhardt play) and then extrapolate it against the background of "hurrdurr me Widow player me like hot blue butt and me click hed me muv forward and clik hed xD Im rhhhheddy to killlllll xD free eLo from clik hed xD".

This is the same kind of thought that people bad at Starcraft propagate to make themselves feel better. This is a STRATEGY game, right? And I'm an impeccable master strategist and understand every single nuance of this game extremely well, I am S-M-R-T smart, but the only reason I can't climb is because 14 year old kids high on Red Bull just mash the keyboard according to a schematic some Korean told them and now this game is ruined.

The thing about it is that at a high level of play, you will have those hitscan players not only show great prowess in managing themselves, but also at shooting. Without decision making, DPS players just fold like a chair the moment a Winston decides to sit his big fat ass on them. Without mechanics, DPS players are simply ineffectual - they don't score the picks in time, they don't charge up their ultimates as fast, and they're overall not nearly as effective as they could be. However, the bare minimum of decision making you need to Generally Be Pretty Good is a much easier skill to learn than to actually be able to score consistent headshots against good Lucios, Genjis or Tracers. I'm willing to bet that the people who absolutely don't understand the basics of positioning are also not aim savants who consistently reach great results by just point'n'clicking.

It's only when we get to high ranks and roles that rely entirely on game sense and positioning that you may say that having a game sense edge is more important than a mechanical edge. But no matter how good you are at it as DPS, you are not going to get *anything* done if your mouse flails wildly when you get a circle-strafing Genji, Tracer or Reaper in your face, or if you pick Widow into Pharah and then fail to consistently predict the trajectory of her freefall.

And no, I don't think that a game made around high-speed gameplay and focusing on these mechanics is somehow a boring shooting gallery. You guys are dismissing learning aim as some kinda "skill you learn to show off how many hours you've ground out", but the thing is, even when dealing with DPS mechanics there's a whole bunch of mindgames going on under the hood. If you've played stuff like InstaGib in UT or 1v1 AWP arenas in any Counter-Strike game, you'd realize that even when the only objective of the game is to hit someone in any body part with an overpowered cannon that instakills you, there's a whole bunch of instinct and metagame you have to grind out along with your aim in order to be successful.

Even mental mechanics are not something you just "learn" from reading about the game and watching pro tanks on YouTube, you grind them out as well. A National Geographic study of e-sports from 10 years ago has shown that the main difference between a decent Starcraft amateur and a full-time pro is that the latter's mental decisions are based on instinct and having gone through hundreds of thousands of similar situations and merely recognizing patterns. They found out that different areas of the brain were highlighted in both players - the amateur player might have known what to do and how to respond to things, but his reaction time was still tied to his conscious thought rather than to what has been ingrained into his psyche.

tl;dr: Don't delude yourself thinking that focus on the mechanical side of the game is inherently boring, or that simple, low-skill cap heroes instantly gratify the sensibilities of a more refined, "thinking" player. At best, they might be a fantastic role to fulfill for anyone who doesn't fashion themselves good at FPS games, but you are not inherently learning a smarter skillset just because you use an auto-aim weapon or a hammer that swings at an arc.

[The_Jackal]

[/B] A National Geographic study of e-sports from 10 years ago has shown that the main difference between a decent Starcraft amateur and a full-time pro is that the latter's mental decisions are based on instinct and having gone through hundreds of thousands of similar situations and merely recognizing patterns.

This game isn't Starcraft. Starcraft: Brood War (the game that the Koreans still play in Tournaments) U a strategy game. Players have to make decisions based on the enemy's tech advancement, the capabilities of their own units, and the terrain of the map.

Overwatch is really, really not. There is no 'macro' strategy to Overwatch: you're always going to have 6 players to their 6 players. There's no 'rush' strategy in Overwatch: There's no enemy economy to raid, you can only try deprive them of ultimate charge by making good use of your team's barrier tank (if you're fortunate enough to have one).

But even Brood War is much more of a twitch game than a strategy game. The level of insane mouse control & speed required to compete at the professional level makes RSI injuries incredibly common. That's why Starcraft players are generally past their peak by age 23. Players of true strategy games (like Chess) tend to peak in their 30s and 40s. Know any 30 year old Overwatch Pros? So tell me again how Overwatch's most difficult skills are positioning & decision making.

Given the number of people I have played with who do not seem to understand how to do anything more than point themselves at the nearest visible enemy and left click on them, im going to say that game awareness is definitely the harder skill.

Don't conflate refusal to learn something with lack of ability to learn something. The fundamentals of positioning in Overwatch can be taught in an afternoon. The hardest non-mechanical skill of Overwatch is memorizing the sp0h's map callouts, so you can communicate with the tiny fraction of other players who've bothered to learn the names themselves, and it's telling that there are even top 500 players who never bothered.

[Winthur]

Know any 30 year old Overwatch Pros? So tell me again how Overwatch's most difficult skills are positioning & decision making.

I'm agreeing with you, silly goose. I'm merely saying that by extrapolating experiences from different games you can come to a conclusion that pretty much every single thing you can learn and improve about this game comes down to grinding, because even the finer aspects of positioning (those microdecisions that separate GM tanks from Diamond tanks and so on) are something that will only come to you through hours upon hours of experience. I was going against the seemingly forming opinion that the only interesting part of the game is about positioning and ultimate management because they're purely "mental" and not merely a byproduct of being a kid with infinite amount of time in the world to hone your twitch reflexes like aim supposedly is. I have nothing against the inclusion of low-mechanics heroes into the game per se, but I definitely am not a fan of the idea that playing a tank or support gives you the free coupon to be an armchair strategist.

The guy who put hundreds of hours into Reinhardt is going to be much better at the character than a hypothetical genius who only had a single crash course of the hero. He will get in more hammer swings, get in better charges, get off better ultimates, gather his ultimate faster, have faster twitch reaction to certain events. Many of those things are going to be ingrained in their subconscious based off of hundreds of similar situations, and not a product of some anime villain diabolical plan that the 160 IQ player managed to figure out while holding his shield up for 5 minutes.

I even agree with you that Brood War definitely emphasizes the real time aspect more than the strategy aspect! I'm merely of the opinion that it's really, really silly to think that the game mechanics are somehow much less interesting than the "strategic" decisionmaking, but a lot of people think that positioning, game sense, strategizing, on-the-fly tactics, adaptability, etc. are somehow more nobilitated, that you're a thinking kinda player if your playstyle somehow emphasizes those, or if you simply don't have time or inclination to get good at mechanics.

I merely think that CarpeGuitarrem claiming that "making the choice to click on heads or not is not a choice, it's boring and shallow" is a very, very superficial understanding of what it takes to be good at these games - and I'm the person whose biggest point of contention with you, Jackal, is that I don't think that playing tank is "making the choice to flash a shield or not, which is boring and shallow". But really, right now, we're basically on the same side.

[The_Jackal]

I'm agreeing with you, silly goose. I'm merely saying that by extrapolating experiences from different games you can come to a conclusion that pretty much every single thing you can learn and improve about this game comes down to grinding, because even the finer aspects of positioning (those microdecisions that separate GM tanks from Diamond tanks and so on) are something that will only come to you through hours upon hours of experience. I was going against the seemingly forming opinion that the only interesting part of the game is about positioning and ultimate management because they're purely "mental" and not merely a byproduct of being a kid with infinite amount of time in the world to hone your twitch reflexes like aim supposedly is. I have nothing against the inclusion of low-mechanics heroes into the game per se, but I definitely am not a fan of the idea that playing a tank or support gives you the free coupon to be an armchair strategist.

Sorry, you know me, always a bit too ruthless in my argument. I apologize. I don't wish to suggest that you can't learn new things from hours of play and experience, and yes, some of those thing will be based on empirical play experience. Like knowing where common ambush spots are, or where most of the good Widow sniping spots are, and how to approach them without being seen. I've seen good players who can anticipate how long it takes a Zenyatta to charge up their right-click, and dumpster them with zoning fire the moment they peek around the corner. I'm tempted to protest that those kinds of things aren't really 'positioning or game sense', but I don't want the argument to devolve into semantics, so I'll offer this compromise (to everyone, not just you): Positioning and game-sense are supremely important, I'll grant you, in so far as if you get it wrong, no amount of mechanical skill will rescue you. However, you can learn enough positioning and game sense in an afternoon of play to easily get you into Diamond, provided that your mechanical skills are strong, and are playing with a Hero who can carry.

The guy who put hundreds of hours into Reinhardt is going to be much better at the character than a hypothetical genius who only had a single crash course of the hero. He will get in more hammer swings, get in better charges, get off better ultimates, gather his ultimate faster, have faster twitch reaction to certain events. Many of those things are going to be ingrained in their subconscious based off of hundreds of similar situations, and not a product of some anime villain diabolical plan that the 160 IQ player managed to figure out while holding his shield up for 5 minutes.

Sure, but landing more hammer swings, and more Fire Strikes is a mechanical skill. Anticipating and reacting to enemy charges or bringing up your shield in time is also a mostly instinctive, right brain activity. Also, there's tricks you can do with your hammer to widen your area of effect, by turning your facing as you swing, and landing more damage will build ult faster, and drop enemies faster. I won't say that Rein is as mechanically demanding as Doomfist or Widow, but he's far from the most potato-friendly Hero.

I even agree with you that Brood War definitely emphasizes the real time aspect more than the strategy aspect! I'm merely of the opinion that it's really, really silly to think that the game mechanics are somehow much less interesting than the "strategic" decisionmaking, but a lot of people think that positioning, game sense, strategizing, on-the-fly tactics, adaptability, etc. are somehow more nobilitated, that you're a thinking kinda player if your playstyle somehow emphasizes those, or if you simply don't have time or inclination to get good at mechanics.

On this I couldn't agree more. I find the kind of pipe-puffing snobbery that players who haven't practiced as much as those who've put in the time and effort build their skills to be really infuriating, but no more infuriating than watching some half-witted MLG pro who tries to 1v6 the enemy team right at their spawn door. The truth is that mindfulness and practice will solve both play flaws, I'm just of the opinion that mechanics must be learned empirically, and much of good positioning and game sense can be learned by watching and thinking critically.

I merely think that CarpeGuitarrem claiming that "making the choice to click on heads or not is not a choice, it's boring and shallow" is a very, very superficial understanding of what it takes to be good at these games - and I'm the person whose biggest point of contention with you, Jackal, is that I don't think that playing tank is "making the choice to flash a shield or not, which is boring and shallow". But really, right now, we're basically on the same side.

Well said.

[Mutazoia]

So, after playing with the new Symetria changes for a while, I have to say....meh.

Sure, I like that she can throw her turrets behind the enemy now, but honestly, does that really warrant getting rid of her auto-aim leash? She was one of the only really effective Genji/Tracer counters in the game, and now she's next to useless in a head-to-head fight. And speaking of auto-aim leashes....how come Sym loses hers, but Moira gets to keep her longer range, higher damage leash? meh. Going back to 3 turrets, with a fairly slow re-spawn time, means that you only really get all 3 out at the beginning of a match, so unless you get them someplace really clever, they're going to be shot down almost instantly, and you'll be stuck waiting for them to respawn for forever.

I'm not really impressed with Syms new teleporter mechanic either. Maybe if it had longer range, or could still be substituted for a shield generator? But as it stands, I'm not impressed. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that, no matter how many times I set that thing up to get around a choke, or behind the enemy lines...no matter how many times I spam "group up", or even say "Hey, I'm setting up a teleporter to get behind the enemy, follow me" in chat, my team continues to ignore it and run down the middle of the field and get killed.

I'm not really a big fan of her new Ult either. A shield wall that spans the entire map is okay...until the enemy just waltzes right through it. Sure, you can set it up from the spawn if you need to, but your placement is wonky at best, and you run the risk of placing it someplace completely useless...

Her Zarya beam, as I said, is pretty useless in a head-to-head. Your best bet is to catch the enemy while they are focused on some one else, and burn them from behind as much as you can. That short range makes it pretty useless otherwise.

So her secondary shot, shoots faster. Big deal. They are still slow moving orbs that are fairly easy to dodge at range. The best tactic there, is to just spam a general area and hope some one blunders into them...they don't even go through Rein's/Orisa's shields any more, which was one of, if not their only, real appeal.

Over all, i find that Sym is really no longer any good anywhere near the front line. She can hang back, throw turrets at the enemy position, spam orbs, and set up a Teleporter than 90% of her team will ignore, but she can't really hit **** with that beam reliably enough to justify getting in close enough to use it on anything but a slow moving tank.

[Rynjin]

Over all, i find that Sym is really no longer any good anywhere near the front line. She can hang back, throw turrets at the enemy position, spam orbs, and set up a Teleporter than 90% of her team will ignore, but she can't really hit **** with that beam reliably enough to justify getting in close enough to use it on anything but a slow moving tank.

Golly, sounds like she's a Support class or something.

wait

[chainer1216]

Moira doesnt actually have a lock on, its just a fairly large invisible tube that can only target one thing at a time, it just animates like a lock on.

As as example of how thats different, while old sym could damage you through a wall if she was already locked on, moira cannot.

[Silverraptor]

Wrecking Ball is the Best! He's cute and hell of fun to play! I love the little guy!

[Winthur]

Regarding Sym, the comments made by pros seem to indicate that she's ultimately not changed much on a macro-sense - as in, she's not a viable hero in most team comps and needs to have the composition built around her. That's not much of a difference from how gimmicky she was before. Now, however, it seems like there's a much bigger mechanical and knowledge burden - knowing the good routes to efficiently set up teleports (I'd wager that issues with people ignoring teleports disappear with rank), having to actually aim with her, and I wouldn't be surprised that, if her wall is really "global", that people wouldn't figure out way to efficiently set up shields while returning from spawn - somewhat akin to optimal grenade throw spots in Counter-Strike that are a learned skill and not something you just stumble upon.

I think that Sym will be better when people get used to her presence and new utility, because she is like Sombra - still a borderline support hero whose utility is confined to team communication. Sombra also wasn't considered solo queue material for the longest time until dedicated people figured out all the tricks to making it work. I'm going to assume that until at least high Platinum you shouldn't be playing heroes like this unless you have really amazing game sense and can compensate for the teammates ignoring the teleporter by using it yourself for some dodgy shenanigans and placing perfect turrets and walls.

Also one neat thing I noticed people doing is putting the wall straight down corridors instead of perpendicular to them - this way your frontliners can dance around the wall to absorb damage while moving forward, and they can continue to utilize this feature in a resulting skirmish too.

In other news I can't even play Wrecking Ball because Blizzard keeps making the game more bloated with each new patch and turning OW on, especially with the heat outside, drops me to 10 FPS whereas I used to enjoy a fairly stable 60-70 FPS on lowest settings. I reinstalled the game, removed all the caches possible and tried to "fresh" install while setting up a Draconian regime of my available RAM, but to no avail - my CPU bottlenecks me like crazy.

[Keltest]

In other news I can't even play Wrecking Ball because Blizzard keeps making the game more bloated with each new patch and turning OW on, especially with the heat outside, drops me to 10 FPS whereas I used to enjoy a fairly stable 60-70 FPS on lowest settings. I reinstalled the game, removed all the caches possible and tried to "fresh" install while setting up a Draconian regime of my available RAM, but to no avail - my CPU bottlenecks me like crazy.

Do you have anything that can check your CPU temperature? The fact that performance is worse in the heat makes me think that maybe your fans aren't working as well as they should, or that there is some other problem with its heat dispersal.