~ Mrrr

welcome to the jeff guide, i've ordered the sections as i felt made the most sense, but there's no chronological order so feel free to jump around as you please.

disclaimer
#1.
this guide comes *as is*. i ran out of energy to work on it and life moved on. it's mostly done but lacks a few pictures and some QoL edits. i'd rather it be 97% finished in your hands than that it never sees the light of day. the meat of the guide is more than present.
#2.
I did my best not to make this content as evergreen as possible. but this was written before the recent rework. the guide looks through a generalized lens and tries to make statements that can be applied widely and to a variety of situations, things are bound to change(and did), and so even my best attempts will eventually become outdated. hopefully my effort will increase the lifetime of this guide so that you can get the most out of whatever it might provide you.

Bubbles are really at the center of everything Jeff does. Spending bubbles is what exudes your strength, having a reserve provides a safety net. Learning when to take risks and when to be cautious is part of mastering the balance between spending and preserving. Grow your stockpile of bubbles if another part of your kit could achieve the task reasonably well, and spend them when you recognize your bubbles would push or gain an advantage, or prevent losing an edge. Always opting to save bubbles is like not having bubbles at all, spending carelessly leaves you vulnerable.

Allways On Cooldown
Every second a bubble is not being generated by a cooldown is a portion of a bubble wasted, this compounds over the duration of a match. it adds up. Theoretically always use the sixth bubble.
Your stockpile of bubbles is pretty proportional to your remaining staying power. it dictates how much you can burst heal your teammates, if you can speed boost them out of a game changing ultimate, or how long you yourself can stay to take a fight.

Healing!
Bubbles increase all healing the target receives by anyone for the next duration This is a great way to buff your own healing output when trying to keep key players alive. The healing boost also includes self-regeneration i.e. your own dive. It also buffs the healing from consecutive bubbles.

You can see who has the buff based on the green outline on their health bars. The buff's duration is identical to the cooldown of a bubble so you can have a 100% uptime on it.
~mrrr

Speed Boost!
Most important use of the speed boost is to leave bubbles for yourself so you can get to cliffs quickly when you ult. Another common use of the speed boost is for bubble dives (more on this in the hide and seek section). A big game changer your speed boost can bring, if your reaction time is good, is helping people escape big ultimates like Moonknight, Psylock, Storm, Namor, etc. You can also buff and pocket your friendly Punisher (or whomever) when he ults to make him powerwalk with his miniguns out, this makes him a real menace.

Bubbles are AoE
You can hit multiple people with one bubble. A BOGO if you will (bubble one get one). If you need to bubble yourself try to do it next to a teammate who also could use a little bubble love.

Spread Them Around
Laying out bubbles lets people go pick them up if they need them. I put them slightly out of the way so that the unconscious mass of players don't autopilot walk through them while full hp. Leaving bubbles is a great way of keeping them on cooldown and staying efficient when nothing is needed of you.

Create little Hansel and Gretel breadcrumb trail off of cliffs to give yourself a speed boost towards any abyss you'd likely want to puke people into. This also helps you soak up so much more damage on your way there making it much more likely to have a successful landing.

Knockback!
A single bubble boops most melee heroes out of range while giving your teammate a small health boost and a speed boost. What a deal! It also disorients people a little in a close quarters fight making it harder to hit you. You can also get really cute and boop people off the map in certain spots, it's a fun time.

Jeff's 150/s heal isn't as bad as DPS players and meta lickers try to make it out to be but you got to know what you're working with.


unlimited range
Your healing has great range with no drop-off. You have a large potential for healing angles. You can be very creative with positioning. Use this to stay back and remain moisturized and unbothered while consistently healing your team, staying out of harms way. This forces enemies to work harder to take you out This is especially useful against higher level opponents who will gladly risk their lives targeting healers. Staying back is the default strategy for healing Jeff. Consistency is the name of the game.

line em up!
Your joyful splash pierces and occasionally lets you output 300/s or even 450/s healing. The closer you stay to your target the quicker you'll be able to adjust around them like a pivot point to align the beam with multiple other teammates. It is a great way of gaining ult charge fast but don't die doing it.

staying alive
The longer you live while constantly healing the more likely you are going to surpass the healing numbers of other characters. They might be able to heal more than you while they are alive but you're able to stay alive in situations they are not. This is where Jeff really outshines the competition.

while flanking
Being a flanker doesn't mean you can't heal. You can often position yourself above and behind the enemy while still having line of sight with your team. It is not always the case, but keep it in mind!

Reload Animation Canceling
Splash has a really good up-time that is made slightly better with an animation cancel at the right time. Here's an example. there are multiple ways to animation cancel but generally for splash you'd want to use a bubble to do it. there's different things you could pay attention to to get the timing right. The ammo numbers, Jeff's face, the reload reticle, or even sound queue. My recommendation is using sound.

additional tip: From looking at high level replays I've noticed that instead of running to heal someone who walks behind cover its better to snap to healing someone else.

Burst does a lot of damage. Being able to four shot most DPS and support characters (250hp) at any range.

Direct hit!
The AOE of Jeff's burst only deals half damage of a direct hit. No matter how close your shot is you lose half the damage as long as it is not a direct hit. Best case scenario you can kill someone in eight shots with the AOE of aqua burst. When if you hit them with the outer edge you need thirteen shots. A stark difference from four direct hits. Still it is generally smart to position yourself above enemies so that if you do miss it is likely to still do OK damage. Three direct hits and two indirect hits still kills. That is only one more shot compared to the ideal four direct hits.

weave them in
Since you do such good damage it is still worth taking shots every now and then. From spectating i noticed that top level jeff players would be willing to spend a surprising amount of time to dish out damage even if they were the main healer on the team. Though i also noticed that high level teams are generally better at not taking damage too so your mileage may vary.

Animation Cancel
Jeff can save significant time by animation canceling aqua burst. You can cancel the reload animation with dive and you can animation cancel dive with aqua burst. So it does require two buttons but it is simple enough after a minute of practice. I will assume you're on PC with default controls.

• to animation cancel the reload press shift > rmb.
  
• you can also hold rmb while reloading and then do a timed shift press.

flanker
I'll use this section to talk about the flanking play style. As a flanker you mainly want to go up and behind their supports and bombard them til' they are unable to keep their team up. Killing them is definitely great but even just stopping them from doing their job is good. Jeff is the one-on-one king so most of the time you see someone alone you have an opportunity to kill and stagger them. Just make sure you have enough bubbles to take on the fight. Lastly if you're dying while going for flanks in a certain match, it is viable to play Jeff with your team as a death ball. Since time is so important in rivals its important to recognize quickly that flanking isn't working and change up your style.

This ability is so much fun. here's some things it does. it:

• makes your hitbox really small
  
• it hides your fat head, no more crits!
  
• it's fun
  
• gives you damage reduction
  
• gives you a big movement speed buff
  
• gives you solid health regeneration
  
• it's really fun
  
• it even lets you climb walls
  
• and it has no cooldown
  
• and it's like a lot of fun?!

How is this fair!? Well you cant do much else while you're in it. It is a highly mobile stasis. A defensive double edged sword. The trick is to never be doing nothing without being in dive. You want to use dive as often as possible when not doing something else.

instantly cancel
One of the greatest things about dive is how quickly you can get out of it again. This lets you use it all the time without risking not being able to do what is needed. Aqua burst even lets you cancel the dive animation prematurely. The three best ways to get out of hide and seek is

1. with a bubble
   
2. joyful splash
   
3. or aqua burst

You can also press dive again to deactivate it, but you should almost never do this, because if you aren't doing any of the three things above you probably want stay in hide and seek anyway.

Jump-Dive
You can shorten the dive animation by jumping right before diving. Jump-diving not only minimizes your hitbox, it also gives you the damage reduction from hide and seek quicker. The animation becomes even shorter if you jump-dive up an incline.

(left: normal dive. right: jump-dive)

Bubble Dive
Throwing a bubble in front of you before jump-diving into it is a great way to move around. It buffs your already buffed movement speed and further buffs your self-regeneration. Very few characters are able to kill you or even keep up with your move speed.

Bubble Walk
By placing bubbles at the ground in front of you while you are already in the ground and then immediately pressing dive again, you can burst heal, retain move speed buff and remain close to unkillable. It is very useful but it does spend a lot of bubbles.

Everything jeff provides so far has really good consistency, really consistent healing at any range, really consistent survivability, and really consistent damage. Now juxtapose this to the least consistent ultimate in the entire game. It is a can opener of an ability. While it is able to kick open the door on pushes through tightly held chokes like nothing else in the game, it is also capable of doing absolutely nothing at all. It's very boolean.

1. did you save your team from THE EYE OF AGAMOTTO: yes or no
   
2. did you throw five people off a cliff: yes or no
   
3. were they your teammates: yes or no

Not always straightforwards
Although generally 'catch enemy and throw them off a cliff' is a great strategy and is your bread and butter - this ability has more to offer, and learning the nuances of when and where is going to open up this ability to a world of possibilities.

Quick snack!
Characters that don't have a counter to your ultimate is the exception to the rule. So giving people the least amount of time to react is vital. A common mistake is to activate the ult and then start moving the target area to where you want it. This give them a lot of time to react. What you want to do is use a bubble to move in quickly with dive and get all the way up before then activating your ultimate and immediately triggering it. This leaves them very little time to adjust.

Sneaky Snack
It's important to try to move around the back edges and through side doors outside of their point of view to avoid being spotted before getting close. Cut sharp corners to give them less time to react. The middle of a fight when everyone has committed their abilities is often your best time to strike. They have other things on their mind right now and crucial spells might have been spent already.

watch for their cooldowns
This is something that raises the skill ceiling on this ability significantly. Since there's so many ways of avoiding getting eaten by Jeff you really got to look out for your opportunity. You only get one shot. For example, pay attention to which transformation cloak and dagger are in and notice if they've spent their phase ability not. If they have a hulk, notice when he uses his shield. Try to create mental timers for as many defensive abilities as possible. The skill ceiling here is massive.

moving target area
It's easy to get stuck on terrain when moving the target area but holding rmb lets you go into a secondary targeting mode that ignores elevation. This will help you not get stuck on environments or the cart in chokes. (i'm looking at you Yggsgard) It lets you easily climb up elevations to catch unsuspecting people. It also lets you climb back up if you targeting area went off the side of a cliff.

assess your catch
Different characters have options for cliff recovery. Look through who you got and consider if its worth jumping off with them to secure the kill. It could even benefit you if one person is able to survive getting thrown off the cliff because if they get killed afterwards they will have a staggered spawn and their team will have to wait or take a disadvantaged fight that you can take part of because you didn't jump did you? you lil cutie! If you want to be really mean vs a character with a single cooldown recovery spell like thor, hawkeye, or winter soldier you could use a bubble to boop them out again as they attempt to recover. I also always recommend spiting down as you jump off a cliff because as you die you drop people with no momentum giving some characters with instant recover abilities like rocket raccoon the chance to get back up before they start falling. Spitting down is free and it puts them into a downwards momentum that is more likely to end them.

cliff distance!
I will mention it again. Leave bubbles specifically for your ultimate! The power of Jeff's ultimate often hinges completely on if you can make it to a cliff in time or not. Bubbles extend your reach by giving you move speed and making sure you survive your trip there. *shakes you violently* It is incredibly vital that you place bubbles for yourself. It is make-or-break. OK with that out of the way, consider your cliff options based on where they are. There are many less obvious options that might be closer than you think. Explore the maps to find your opportunities.

two examples.
This guide could quickly turn into a full map guide, which this is not, so i'll leave that for someone else to make. If there's someone who has already made a comprehensive guide on maps feel free to link it below. I will consider adding a link to it here with the authors consent.
(Left: there's a hidden cliff on the back side of Hell's Heaven: Eldritch Monument. this cliff is mostly accessible when the capture point is in its lower configuration.)
(Right: You can insta kill enemies by dropping them off at any your own spawn.)
‎ ~

death plane
The distance to the death plane differs from map to map. Sometimes it is very far up and close and other times it is quite a ways down. Some characters have slight delays on their recovery abilities that makes it impossible for them to recover if the death plane is very close.

go get it girl
Getting your ultimate quickly lets you use it more often. The absolute quickest way to gain ultimate charge is by healing multiple people at the same time. Another great way to stay on top of gaining ultimate charge is by dealing damage anytime you can. Maybe sneak up and shoot them a couple times as they initially exit their spawn door.

stalling for time
Rivals often has a lot to do with time management. The team that is more time efficient when playing the objective probably wins. There's generally two things you can do to buy your team more time. Grab the tanks who are holding the cart from moving and use the whole duration to swim as far away as possible and spit them even further. This means your team has a time window where their tanks are not holding the objective. Something else you can do is if you get 3+ people with your ult and you're not in danger, your team does not need you. Keep them in for as long as possible and use as much of their time as you can. If they don't have a way to recover from cliffs you could even spit them higher above the abyss and use more of their time by letting them fall naturally.

wall drop
When you spit out characters Jeff takes a full stop before spitting them out. This is not great when you're on a six second timer. To minimize or even negate this pause entirely you can climb a wall a little before spitting them out. This will let you maintain your momentum from the wall as you get popped out to spit. Remember to move horizontally as you trigger this because moving vertically stalls you. Though wall dropping is mostly useful for spitting out teammates, it can also be used to give yourself a little bit of extra distance when spitting out enemies too by crawling on the wall as it expires.
‎ ~

also
For the duration you hold someone they either take a measly 25/s damage, which lands a kill from time to time or give 225/s healing which does make difference in many situations, especially if you catch a big beefy tank like groot in a bad spot. Even though you cannot see the hp of your teammates, you could listen for the healing sound and get an estimate on their hp.

There is a lot of tips and tricks in this guide but i really want to give you something beyond just quick fixes to patch up your gameplay. I want to leave you with something that can help you set your learning trajectory to go beyond the contents of this guide. I will give you what I believe are the cornerstones of a good Jeff. He is so fn good at retreating and resetting that if you just survive then you can immediately start providing value again. Jeff has insane potential for uptime, and that really is the secret sauce. The main task every support has is to stay alive and keep healing and there is no support that is as good as Jeff at surviving. This is your strength.

~

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Jeffs Do-Nots
don't get greedy ~~ aka stay alive
Don't worry about getting that final hit, death is costly. They have to waste time figuring out how to get their hp back or you already pulled their supports attention and their tank is struggling now. You are a distraction and your up-time is worth so much more than any single kill. It could take you two to five seconds to get into a better position and get all your health back while death costs you twenty plus seconds.

don't run too far ~~ aka stay active.
If one side of the continuum is to not die, the other side of the continuum is to not retreat too far because that also wastes your time. Every second used retreating further than necessary is generally wasted. The faster you reset the quicker you get can back to doing your thing. Good opponents often give up on chasing you once you round a corner. They don't want to waste their time on you. Abuse this. Once you're around a corner stop running and start spitting. Maximize your time.

not a helpless healer, not a greedy flanker.
Jeff is a very slippery cartilaginous fish with solid healing and a great damage output. Jeff's kit has two archetypes to master. Healer and flanker. Being static in one or the other makes your style brittle. Make an effort to learn the strengths of both, this enables you to flow between them effortlessly to bring what is needed most. Sometimes this will be big macro decisions like flanking down troublesome characters for your team even though you are on healing duty or falling back with your team because you are being shut down as a flanker but more often than not it will come down to small to split-second decisions like shooting their flanker three times instead of continuing to healing the tank who already has a large chunk of their hp.

This is something i saw a lot when spectating the top jeff players in the world, just because you're on healing duty doesn't mean you don't dish out damage. They do a lot of damage.

Notorious Jeff
Any moment they spend chasing you is a moment you are in control of them. This has different ways of manifesting. Generally it comes down to
they dive you because they struggle killing whomever you are pocketing
anytime they try to ignore you you're on their ass.

Since you are so so so so slippery, you can afford keeping the cross-hair on you to give others space to do what they do. Spit on that wolverine and make him run after you, force their cloak and dagger to swap to deal with you.