"Overwatch is the only FPS game where the longest-range sniper class is also one of the most mobile. It’s absurd, and the fact that Hanzo got a low-CD mobility skill as well indicates that Blizzard is oblivious to this design flaw.
Combine that with the fact that Widow is only OP at the highest level of play, meaning that sub-Master players will never complain enough about her to result in nerfs, indicates that we’re in for 5+ seasons of Widow dominance, just like Tracer.
Any suggestion of Widow nerfs will immediately be met by the Plat brigade using the same logic as former Tracer apologists: “She’s not OP for 99% of the playerbase, therefore she’s balanced”, “She’s a high skill hero, therefore being OP in the hands of high skilled players is fine”, etc.
And this is without delving into the issue of garbage map design like Junkertown and Blizzard World, where every point besides the last is so open that there is no positional counterplay to Widow. If you’re playing a 200hp hero, you just have to deal with the fact that you have to play in Widow sightlines for most of the game, and there’s a certain % chance that you get deleted every time she fires a shot. Really fun and interactive stuff."
A caveat is the meta prediction error, where we have GOATS instead. Otherwise this is a perfectly summed up comment about why Widowmaker is absolutely busted.
Only thing they have an arguing point with is her mobility, besides the hypermobiles like Tracer, Doomfist and Genji her counters can’t really keep up with her.
The rest sounds like frustrations about a misplay or a simply better Widow player. Though I will add in that a better Widow being the best counter to Widow is just poor game balance. The same could be said about Tracer but I’d cop way too much flak for that.
Everyone talks about the advantages widow has as a sniper (Which are usually exaggerated, her only form of mobility is a buggy hook which is on a pretty long cooldown) but never her disadvantages, like barriers, flankers like Tracer or Genji, Winston and even supports such as Zen
Blizzard don’t seem to care about balancing for the top 1%, though. They still haven’t nerfed Tracer very hard and Lucio is still… Lucio.
If Blizzard do want to cater to true competitive then sure, Widow should be on their balance list. But most evidence I’ve seen makes me think this is not their goal.
It wasn’t a prediction error. GOATS was a response to Widowmaker and Hanzo. It’s a team filled with heroes that the snipers cannot one-shot, but still bring respectable damage.
If you want to get rid of GOATS, you need to nerf Widowmaker and Hanzo.
Right because your entire 6man team should be huddled right behind a lone Reinhardt barrier and the enemy Widow can’t easily reposition and you’re not grav bait etc etc etc
That’s what the OP originally mentioned though, assuming you’re far down the ladder than sure widowmakers aren’t very good. But the second you start getting up in rank than the widowmakers become the embodiment of cancer/bad game design. All the skill requirement in the world doesn’t fix this, it creates it.
You’re absolutely correct. I didn’t want to go that deep into the rabbit hole in this post though.
Naturally if the best DPS are snipers who are only truly vulnerable to a mirror match, you’ll pick characters who can survive them / ignore them instead of fighting a losing battle.
Widow is powerful only in the right hands coz slot of widows ether have to get the head shot or low power like 5-15% charge which doesn’t do a lot it takes a 30% minimum to headshot kill tracer and other 150 targets and above 50% headshot to kill 200hp targets. This can get problematic if you don’t headshot that dam mercy that gets away coz she’s a f#cking jet fighter and regen (sorry had a mercy do this earlier yesterday and I’m still p#ssed about it) . But even ONE full charged body shot cannot kill 200ph targets I’ve tried to.
Grapple has a 10 sec cooldown, while Hanzo has Lunge with four sec cooldown AND wallclimb.
If you’re going to be on a map where widows are known to frequent, then bring a barrier hero. A full charged shot from her can’t deal headshots to a barrier. It’s a simple solution, but wait no one wants to switch do they.
