Hanzo has a really low skill floor, but if you are good at aiming then Widowmaker is simply a much better option as it gives you a clear advantage to killing the enemy Hanzo. Genji and Tracer still have the mobility to do very well in the sniper meta.
I agree, Hanzo shouldn’t be a tank buster for crying out loud.
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Hanzo whinepost #93455
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Genji, Tracer and Doom can be countered relatively easy and they take a lot of skill … Hanzo has no real counter and depends more on luck than on skill.
The counter to Hanzo is Widowmaker.
Was gonna +1 but then he says just kidding s m h
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Sorry, is this the part where I say “blind hanzo supporter #102,032” or politely ask why you think Hanzo is currently okay in comparison with all the other dps heroes? I haven’t done this in a while so I’m a little confused
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i am thebiggaypost #942092.3
He has a pickrate less than Doomfist and the “ever so niche” Brigitte, as well as Genji, Tracer and Widow, while having a consistent 49% winrate in all ranks, dropping to bottom 5 in higher tiers.
He’s annoying to play into but not imba - there’s a difference. And I’ve seen a LOT of Hanzo’s who think the hero is just spamming into chokes - they usually lose the game for their team. He was legitimately broken when his pickrate was up there with Mercy and Rein but through nerfs to him and his synergies in grav dragon he doesn’t inordinately impact games anymore.
Also, I’m a hitscan main. All things considered Hanzo is not even in my top 10. I’m just objective.
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An objective Hanzo supporter! Now that’s something I haven’t seen in a while!
Well, then, you sir deserve a rationaI response.
For one, I’d point out Overbuff isn’t exactly a reliable source anymore, which is honestly inconvenient for everyone. But even if we do account for Overbuff stats, Hanzo isn’t exactly in a horrible spot either. Like you said, at GM, he only has a pickrate smaller than Genji, Tracer, Widow and Doomfist in comparison with other dps. In other words, he is outpicking 10 other dps while his winrate at 52% isn’t poor either.
Second, Hanzo has received what, 2 nerfs? One to his jump and one to Storm arrows. Neither were particularly heavy–a 1s nerf to lunge and 10 damage off storm arrows (80 to 70) didn’t exactly kill his entire character. He still dominates at range considering his projectile speed as well as damage output is still very consistent. Even currently, at 70 damage, he dishes out the same damage as a bodyshotting point blank Reaper, except he is free to do it at any range.
Never mind the duration nerf to Storm arrow, that didn’t change anything.
The reason why Hanzo is no longer meta is because of the changes to OTHER heroes, such as grav size nerf and inability to damage boost dragonstrike, which I honestly find baffling–it took 2 nerfs to other heroes to make sure Hanzo doesn’t teamwipe everyone every 2 minutes.
In short, Hanzo himself is still as broken as ever–his meta is just outshined by GOATS meta right now. He himself as a character still contests some of the top dps
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Storm Arrow just needs a Mobility nerf seo there is some counter play to it.
If they could only remove his storm arrow headshots…
Just got off the phone with the Chief. He said that this ain’t it.
Yeah the only reason I feel the need to qualify statements like that is because anything other than “Hanzo is OP and needs gutted” is immediately met with claims of bias. Hanzo overshadows my main, however that’s because McCree is bad and has been for quite some time, and even so I still find excuses to play him.
My argument wasn’t that he’s UP because that would be ridiculous. I just think he isn’t a balance issue. He feels overbearing to play into if the player is good, but this is true of most DPS, and he doesn’t dominate pickrates nor is he a must counter if you want to win.
There have been some threads analyzing the state of Overbuff post private profiles, not particularly as it pertains to Hanzo but the logic is consistent from hero to hero.
It will never be a perfect source of data to judge general viability from, but not only is it the best we have (when compared to anecdotes with a sample size of 1 and a community who has always been way off the mark about a specific hero’s viability’s opinion on what that hero should do), it has always historically been very close to the dev’s reportings when they do share, and in addition you can view the trends and how much they (didn’t) change when private profiles were added to the game mid-Season 10. This is because Overbuff is and always has been opt-in, and so the people who care enough to look themselves up will by definition have no scruples about leaving their profile public.
They didn’t, but they did address the most broken parts of his kit. Initially after the rework, the most broken part of his new kit was how he could chain a bodyshot into a storm bodyshot for an ersatz instakill. Since bodyshotting with Hanzo isn’t exactly difficult, this made it very easy to get value out of him. Right now the same combo takes a headshot or a damage boost to take advantage of, which is way more situational (and in the former if you can land headshots on demand you don’t even need Storm).
The nerf to Storm addressed this issue, and it also addressed the issue of it being a oneshot weapon with blue beam.
His projectile speed is often overstated. Mei has a faster and larger projectile with no gravity drop. You definitely still leave a lot up to your opponent’s poor movement at anything past McCree range if you want to get anything near consistent oneshots.
I would also say the undisputed ruler of long range is Widow, for obvious reasons. Hanzo should basically never win that duel at long range, and if he does that’s on the Widow. He is most effective at mid range, although the pool of midrange projectile heroes are very small (arguably a class of one).
As far as Reaper comparison is concerned… he has always been able to do this. Except it was all one instance of extreme burst before which is even more valuable. It didn’t help his viability as Hanzo was even worse than Reaper when he had Scatter. This ability is also gated behind a cooldown, whereas Reaper is always able to reach his 280 DPS provided he’s in range.
All that aside, Reaper frankly isn’t a very good hero, and his lack of flexibility of his ability to actually deal damage is one of the prime reasons why.
Agreed, I think taking an arrow away would have more directly addressed the issue.
Dragonstrike was only ever an effective ult in Season 10 because it was carried by Damage Boost and Grav. Without those things it’s one of the worst ults in the game and basically only good for zoning, even when you consider how fast he gets it. All nerfing Dragons would have done is further tie his viability to Zarya and Mercy without actually addressing the issue.
By contrast, Damage Boost is one of the best support abilities in the game, and Graviton was both the best ult in the game and eating up a lot of Zarya’s power budget. There is more room to tweak those two than a subpar ult, as they were all culpable in the ult combo.
Giving the combo a hard counter was the best way they could have addressed it, in retrospect. Zarya also got a bonus in the balance shift as she’s able to retain high charge easier which results in faster Gravs (which is still one of the best 3 ults in the game even if they don’t result in 6mans all the time).
Hanzo should, in a vacuum, be good against GOATS. He can both oneshot the healers (which is why Widow is a good pick vs. it) and shred the tanks for 10 second ults (which is why Junkrat and Pharah are good picks).
I think the fact that he isn’t meta right now is a testament to how his power is overblown.
I also don’t see why Hanzo “contesting the top DPS” (which isn’t really true anyway) means that he’s a bigger balance issue than the actual top DPS, unless you mean to say that he should be F tier for whatever reason.
He needs to either
- have scatter back, but make it 3 projectiles and only bounce ONCE
- have his HP lowered to 150 because he has 70% of tracer’s mobility and 200% of her damage.
Excuse me if I don’t quote your entire post. That would be too long and messy.
I am aware that Overbuff is hardly very accurate anymore, which frankly is very annoying, but I guess that remains the only semi-reliable information source we can get. How reliable, though, remains in obvious question.
I don’t think the damage nerf and the pounce nerf really addressed his issues. Even currently, Hanzo can still combo it for an easy 195 burst damage. Never mind the fact that a) Not everyone is always on full hp, b) It’s easy to catch random spam for that 5 damage, and c) it’s easy to follow up the next shot on Storm arrows considering how fast they shoot, you still get a huge value out of it.
Your point that “Hanzo always had burst damage rivalling Reaper” isn’t very fair either. We should take a step back and ask ourselves “Should Hanzo even have an arrow that bursts out damage like this?” And I truly don’t believe so.
Yes, his projectile speed isn’t even as fast as Mei. But it’s consistent enough for him to consistently dish out damage.
Yes, Hanzo isn’t in the TOP dps spot anymore. But still outclassing 10 dps in terms of pickrate shows Hanzo either needs minor nerfs, or other dps needs to be brought in line with him.
In other words, he’s still outperforming the dps roster
BTW I never thought I would have a reasonable discussion with a Hanzo player, but here we are. 
I hope to god this is a joke.
Not exactly
Reaper: Hellfire shotguns
Increase pellet damage to 75
Falloff decrease by 90%
Pellets now rebound off walls
Dev comment: We thought scatter was fun so we’re bringing it back lmao
Death Blosson:
Reaper now turns into a horizontal beyblade and whirls towards enemies, dealing 200dps to all enemies within the area. Reaper is completely in control of his movements and Mercy cannot damage boost Reaper in this state.
Dev comment: Dragonstrike 2.0 brah!
All they need to do is replace Storm Arrow with some utility. There’s no need for a mid-range assassin/sniper to have such a high, reliable damage output.
There are only 6 tanks.
But how much dps heroes we have?