I say almost because I would rather appeal to those who say they despise her. Call me crazy, but I would like for Widow to be better thought of. Uphill battle that, I know.
So, is Widowmaker that one hero you can’t reconcile? If nothing else, maybe you can vent what it is you don’t like about her. Might make you feel better. 
Frankly, I’ve got mixed feelings about the new perks system next season. I don’t think Widow should be any stronger.
Yep, until she is as helpless up close as most of the rest of the cast is against her at her preferred ranges, then she will always be despised in my games.
That means inverse falloff with a lower minimum damage %, a nerfed smg, and an interruptible grapple.
I was pretty disappointed by the Widow Perks. I was hoping for something exotic like explosive SMG bullets or an Ult that equips her with homing smart bullets…
I was too, honestly. Faster grapple cooldown has potential, but SMG gets no love at all.
Genuinely, just give Widow 50 HP. It’s still a bandaid fix, but it pretty much guarantees that if anyone gets near her, she’s dead. Is it the most healthy change? No. But Widow is the least healthy hero, so it’s fitting.
Sorry, OP, but I simply don’t like the effect that a readily available, hitscan one-shot with extreme range has on gameplay.
I’m not against long range hitscan characters. I have no beef with Ashe, and I don’t think anyone seriously considers Ashe to be weak in any way. Ashe is actually a stronger character as a generalist down at my level of play, if stats sites are to be believed.
But people getting instantly deleted (or the threat of same) from a purple pixel over yonder turns the rules of lethality on their head. I don’t mind Junkrat’s kill combo because he has to close distance plus deal with my team. With Widow it’s the other way around - we need to close distance with her and break through her team to stop instant kills - and it’s jarring.
You’d need to rework Widowmaker to get me to tolerate her.
Appreciate away, because I’m making damn sure she’s insta banned in all my games whenever possible.
I don’t hate Widow, specifically: I hate Snipers. Always have, always will.
There’s just nothing healthy about an instant, always-available long-range oneshot, especially in games like Overwatch that are built around an open objective point. What happens is that most of the other classes have to stop playing the game and cower behind cover while they wait for their own sniper or their flanker to take out the enemy sniper. Because realistically most classes have no way to engage a sniper.
And then Blizzard thought it would be cute to go ahead and give Widowmaker a grappling hook as well, because the only thing worse than a sniper is a sniper with an easy escape mechanism and the ability to dramatically reposition in half a second.
I feel like widow has gotten away from her original glass cannon concept, especially after the S9 patch. Thanks to the hp regen passive, wounds, even grievous, are more survivable than ever before, assuming you can escape.
1 of the issues with widow in her current state is she can easily delete you at ANY range, switching instantly between sniper and SMG as needed. It’s not actually widow but the versatility of Widow’s Kiss that creates the problem.
Reaper, unlike Widow, has one fire mode to her two. He’s also in need of a rework, but where widow is strong, reaper is arguably weak. I’m not a reaper main so I can’t speak to his exact state.
So my question is, what tradeoff would make Widow more balanced, if not balanced? With her fire modes, she essentially has 2 rifles in 1. I haven’t even mentioned the fact OW2 essentially has unlimited ammo which also makes her strong.
If I may make a suggestion, maybe Widow’s Kiss should be a sniper rifle, period. No SMG. I want to keep Widow’s core gameplay intact, but that’s not saying she can’t have damage falloff at close range. Replace SMG with a pistol for close range.
This is a collaboration, of course.
The more I think about it, I do think Widow needs a rework, simply because she is too powerful as is. She would be strong even if she didn’t have the 1shot.
I think she is pretty balanced currently actually. Playing classic version widowmaker i am reminded how crazy she was lol…like MILES better than now…
I took that for granted back in the day and thought she was meh…i mean i knew she was one of the stronger heroes but only in high ranks lol
As for perks the only one im interested in the double venom mine one. Wonder how useful that will be against sombra
The SMG has never been the problem. Her being able to one-shot at any range with a quick ttk even when starting unscoped is ths issue. Nerfing/removing the SMG wouldn’t do anything outside of bronze.
What she actually needs to be healthy for for the game is something along these lines :
Widowmaker
Widow’s Kiss
Widow’s Kiss (ADS)
Infra-Sight
So One shot during ULT? so everyone knows when the ULT activates and can go hide making this ability Basically useless.
She has no way of dealing with close range targets? Last time i checked a sniper is lethal at close range regardless
Guess Quick Flicking skill is out the window there?
How about we nerf the real issue which is the things Keeping her from being undivable Aka Burst Heals/Immo Abilities/Grip?
I’ll Gladly Take the One shot Nerf as soon as Life grip/Suzu/Lamp lose there Invulnerability Add Mercy Res into that aswell
Let’s Make it so Every DPS is lethal again outside of the flavour of the season Burst DPS (Sojourn/Ashe)
And just like that, a Widow defender appears and spams a bunch of nonsense. We have immortality abilities because of heroes like Widow and Hanzo.
At the end of the day, an untouchable, one shot, pocketed by two supports, shielded by a Rein, is the easiest but most annoying comp to counter.
She needs reworking so she’s not the sole attention of both supports, and not running lobbies like she’s an admin.
I quit playing in Master, partly because of Widow, but mostly because of anti.
I like widow as a character, it’s very little spicy but still a good chunk of spice to OW lore.
I like widow as a concept, a sniper designed to pick off people who overextend their cover
I hate being oneshot
Shockingly, adding any degree of cost/counterplay to Widowmaker’s most broken aspect will not make her useless, it’ll just make her less brainlessly overpowered.
You should not be able to remove a weakness that is designed as a part of your hero by aiming well. Widow was intended to be weak at close range, but currently she can completely bypass that through mechanical skill alone, which should not be the case seeing as no other hero can completely remove their range limitation by doing the same, i.e. shotgun heroes don’t get a narrower spread by landing successive shots. Her being able to do this goes against the design ethos of Overwatch, and the entire hero shooter genre.
Those are also a problem but I’d rather focus on the root cause of all of the problems with the game since its release (Widow), then we can focus on reworking/removing those.
DPS should be lethal, but they should never be “you can never peek them or you die with 0 counterplay unless you’re a tank” lethal. Even if burst healing / immos are nerfed, her one-shot would still remain a problem, just as it has in the past.