I’m always seeing people on here saying Ashe isn’t a sniper. That sounds silly since she’s a sniper by the literal definition of the word, and a sniper as described by Overwatch.
Like, even Hanzo’s a sniper because he snipes, while Mcree isn’t because he doesn’t.
What do I mean? Simple:
A sniper shoots at their target from a hiding spot or vantage points, with their benefits coming from being ranged and able to hide or otherwise escape. Ashe, Ana, Hanzo, Widowmaker all do this while Mcree (a character similar to snipers) has to close the gap with his target to get value.
All of their kits reflect this as the snipers all have skills to get them away from the fight and excel, while Mcree’s skills reinforce him getting closer.
Actually, they all have extremely similar skills. A move to get away from the fight. A radial move to provide their team utility. A spam fire attack to defend yourself from dive, and an Ult that covers a wide area.
I think Ana might be the only one without the spam fire attack, but that might be because of the inherent strength that would give Ana as she could then spam heal really fast. Plus sleep dart is a great CC ability.
That said, I get why Mcree isn’t considered a sniper. As his “escape” move (roll) is better to reload while moving TOWARDS the fight, and his radial utility move might as well be single target anyway due to its low radius.
I’m confused when people say Ashe isn’t a sniper since, again, she is both by definition and according to Overwatch’s game logic.
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probably because she doesn’t one shot
ultimately it doesnt matter what we call her
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I don’t know why exactly, but some people seem to think in order to be a sniper, you have to one-shot. I don’t know when that view took hold. The Scout in mod CS didn’t one-shot like the AWP, but no-one ever tried to argue that it wasn’t a sniper rifle. There was also that expensive sniper rifle that had rapid fire, no-one claimed that wasn’t a sniper rifle either. 
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She can always get away, which is pretty annoying for a sniper too.
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So you can be sniping by definition, but it not count if you don’t one shot people? That’s silly, isn’t it?
And it really does matter what we call her since she has to be described. If I say pick a sniper and shoot them, and someone picks Ashe, it’ll just be a time waster to say “nu-uh, she’s not a sniper because she doesn’t one shot people!”
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It doesn’t really matter one way or the other but I would consider her a sniper. But I wouldn’t argue with someone who has a different opinion because I don’t care that much haha
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its a pointless argument to have with people imo
she is a sniper but im not going to waste time with people saying otherwise
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I guess you’re right. My main point of making this thread was to see if there were any valid reasons for saying she isn’t one.
Looks like the answer is a hard no.
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People have taken to calling her one, but the game doesn’t treat her or Hanzo like one, nor is her presence alone as threatening as Widow’s.
Each character calls Widow out as a sniper to warn teammates. That doesn’t happen with Ashe or any other hero.
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I’ve repeatedly referred to Ashe as a sniper on this forum and haven’t had a terrible amount of pushback on the idea. She’s as much of a sniper as Hanzo, possibly even moreso.
Maybe some people are just really vocal about it?
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Snipers typically excel at long range, something hanzo nor ashe actually do. Hanzo is best in close to mid range, and ashe is best at mid range. In the end it doesnt matter what people call them, it doesnt change anything.
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It’s a little more complicated than that. In Overwatch where objectives are frequently on low-ground surrounded by high platforms, a ‘sniper’ is anyone that can effectively use the high ground to their advantage to do precision burst damage.
Vertical distance is way more important than horiztontal distance - and far less of it is required in order to be effective.
So then cree and soldier are snipers? Bap and zen also snipers? Tons of heroes can effectively use high ground.
Actually nvm, I dont care to get further into this discussion.
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McCree and Zen don’t have a reliable way to get to high ground. Baptiste and Soldier don’t deal burst damage.
Ashe is not considered a Sniper for two reasons 1) she cannot normally unless firing on a wounded target or boosted, one-shot. 2) more importantly, her best damage potential is in the near to mid-range, spamming hip fire and TNT.
Bap uses a nice semi-auto weapon; he is not therefore a DPS. Same princple to having a scope but not qualifying as a “sniper”.
hanzo used to come up if you picked him and widow on the hero select screen as “too many snipers”
I think the scout does one shot if headshot.
Historically, “sniper” in games has usually been used to describe characters/weapons that are especially effective at long range. I wouldn’t consider one-hit-kill potential to necessarily be part of it, as plenty of games have featured fast-firing or even fully automatic sniper rifles.
In any case, since Ashe is inherently weaker at long range than at short/medium range, she wouldn’t fit that description. Really the only characters that universally gain advantage at long distance in this game are Widowmaker and Ana, since everyone else is limited by some combination of damage falloff, projectile travel time, and/or spread.
That said, technically all it means to “snipe” is to fire from a concealed or advantageous position, so in that sense, Reaper can “snipe” Widowmaker at point-blank range as she walks around a corner.
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Ashe is what I consider a hybrid, shes a sniper because her weapon can go far and shoots one bullet per trigger. At the same time her weapon does not one shot and the gun can shoot fast While firing from the hip. While boosted by mercy, ashe Can go around getting free one shot kills so yeah shes a sniper but at the same time shes not unless she gets boosted. Since shes a bit of both, I like to call her a hybrid
Comparatively she still outranges a lot of people and can work on long-mid ranges way better that most non-Widow hitscans.
If the discussion wasnt about excusing her bloated hit for a long range hero that grants her too much damage and too much safety with a ‘‘well she isnt an sniper!’’ then I couldnt have any issue with her not being technically one.