Defining Skill (Why Widow Isn't As Hard As You Think)

General Discussion
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What is skill?
There’s a lot of debate about skill, but nobody is clearly saying what skill is.

Obviously there are physical skills, like aim or movement.
There are mental skills like positioning, ability tracking or enemy awareness.

How do we define difficulty?

  • Having to be accurate is hard.
  • Having to use multiple skills at once is hard
  • Having to do lots of things in rapid sequence is hard.

Widow has to do 1 of these 3. Tracer has all 3.

[edit]: The amount of effort (mental and physical) required to achieve a goal also determines difficulty. Goal can be influence by game mode.
[edit2]: The difficulty of a skill is subjective.
[edit3]: As you get better at something over time, its difficulty can go down.

I want to test this theory and i want you to tell me why its wrong or what i’ve missed out.

(Note: intentionally picked on Widow to get the discussion going. I dont play Tracer)

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As someone who has terrible aim, yes Widow is as hard as I think :pensive:

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Mechanical skill is still a form of skill.

Personally, I value it less than game sense, as game sense naturally makes mechanics good (and good aim doesn’t mean anything when you die because you suck at everything else).

Widow is still one of the more difficult DPS. She’s the hardest hitscan, at least.

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I would use these to define pressure more than difficulty. Some players handle pressing circumstances better than others, but that’s not the same as, say, untying a knot, which is difficult and time-consuming but not pressing.

Genji’s kit deals with high pressure because it deals with all three of those factors on top of a very small health gauge, but picking and prioritizing targets makes that work and timing difficult because it adds pressure to a non-pressure task.

Even then, most of what you’re talking about is still mechanical skill.

Difficulty can also be defined by one’s output potential per character. For instance, some people consider moira an obnoxiously easy character, but I struggle horribly as her. She’s just such a gentle and subtle factor, it’s like nothing I ever do is enough of what I had in mind, whereas Bastion is truly a simple character to play: just look where your tank’s looking and start mowing.

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Ah nice, good point.

Skills you’re already good at aren’t harder, so high accuracy geta easier over time :slight_smile:

I’d say mechanical skill is another word for physical skill.

I’d break that down further into:
Precision (stuff like aiming)
Measurement (guessing distances)
Muscle memory (pulling off a combo instictively)
Dexterity (complex button presses)

I’m trying to see it like “if your brain was a computer, the number of programs running takes up more ram”, which is harder work.

I’d say tactics, memory, observation, strategy, pattern recognition, cleverness and even communication are valid non-phyisical skills.

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But it also varies within those categories and every hero has other categories. Widow needs to be far more accurate than Tracer. Widow is way farther away so her targets a way smaller. Tracer is literally in the face of her target.
You also have different Aim types, who vary in difficulty.
Widow uses flicking and preaiming while Tracer utilises tracking. Tracking generally is more easy and forgiving than flicking and preaiming.
For Widow every shot counts while Tracer can miss 50% of her clip and still get the kill with ease.

Tracer does not have to think like Widow for positioning, Tracer needs to know where the HP packs are and how to disengage back to her team. Widow on the other hand needs to be aware where enemies can flank her and what LOS the best option is. Widow also needs to manage her Grapple, Can I try a Jump shot or reposition but than maybe are an easy target for the next 12 sec.

Tracer might require more overall skill than Widow, but Widow herself is in the top 3 of most difficult heros.

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Mechanical skill is not a “physical skill”, it needs a lot of decision making. Saying “All aim, no brain” is more about reliance of player on his mechanics, while being loose with other factors. It can be called “unnecessary risky plays”. At the same time “mental skills” are about understanding some concepts, and applying them in the game, it’s not much of a brainpower needed, after you get used to them.

But skill in general would be defined by making less mistakes as possible, recognizing win and loose conditions and execute all the actions that are needed to achieve win. While being consistent with mechanics, because they open more opportunities.

The hardness is a whole different story, and you can’t really compare two heroes without more information on exact case of a combat. You should be familiar of “hero-counter” concept. OW designed in a way that often requires help of a teammate to overcome some difficulties. Counterplay to a counterplay. Power of oneshots is obvious, you can negate supports actions by not giving any chances to react, this means less chances of a counterplay. But still there will be situation where one here will be easier to play then another and vice versa.

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This definition seems to be overly simplistic…

You also used a synonym for “difficult” in your definition of the word - how do you define “hard”?

How do you measure it?

Do you have evidence that each of these factors is weighted evenly?

:thinking:

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This sounds like you haven’t played Tracer at all. Tracer tracking is not easier than Widow shots. Oneclip is much harder to execute than a Widow headshot. I am not even saying about blink melees and pulse bomb sticks. Same for positioning. Tracer have to make positioning decisions many times in short time span, but she can fix her miscalculations fast, while Widow not. That’s the difference.

In current meta where nothing dies Tracer requires a lot of situation awareness and teamplay to provide value, to a point where she can’t really do anything without collaboration with the teammates.

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If players didnt had tiny hitboxes / different size / movement abilities/ shields / deflects / invicibility/ ways of diving you instantly etc…

Yeah widow only requiering aim wouldnt be that “skilled”

But actually…aiming in this game is kinda hard because of how unpredictable movement can be.

(And also overall, blizzards seems to hate aiming mechanics and prefer projectiles/auto locking for healing etc…)

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These support and projectile mains really are drinking all that copium, huh?

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Blizz in general has been trying to force PVE abilities and mechanics into a game they are trying to make competitive for years. Honestly this whole divide in the community is something they caused themselves.

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It’s all relative
I’ll give tank examples
Orisa requires much more aiming than rein or winton, but these 2 are miles away more harder to make good plays than she; at the same time Rein is mechanically easier to execute but requieres other skills to compensate
Btw I play both tracer and widow lol I find harder / easier depending of the team or the map

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The needs for healing and the needs for damage are two different things.

If applying healing was as mechanically precise as applying damage, no DPS character would ever play aggressive because it would be just as difficult for their own supports to heal them as it would be for the enemy team to damage them. If you’ve ever played with a very bad Ana, you know what this is like. Every burst of fire would be immediately followed by both DPS standing as still as possible behind cover so that their supports can hit them.

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Then please, offer more detail as to how I can improve the definition - what needs more detail? :slight_smile:

I’m saying difficulty as in game difficulty, in the traditional “easy medium hard” sense.

You cant be precise numerically - its more of a “this is harder than that” kinda thing. Given that a hero is a complex system with interlocking parts relying on each player’s unique brain, you cant be accurate.

I didnt say they were weighted equally.

So you think projectiles are easier than hitscan?

I would think the opposite - hitscan removes the mental skill of prediction and target tracking. If projectile size and hitscan radius is the same, hitscan would be easier.

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like some posters have said it probably depends on the player. of all the heroes i play i do well on widow if im left alone (lol…people if you want to beat widow have your whole team dive her).

of all the heroes i play with a lot of hours i think tracer for sure is the hardest and most stress inducing. i use to like the challenge and i would play her but i do notice that if i havnt played her in a while its like back to the beginning and you have to start over. shes one of the heroes you have to one-trick to be decent with

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Coming from Mobas, and RTS games. Where the skill in those games is way different the the ones in FPS, im a bit biased.

Personally I find more mental skills, like positioning/awareness/Multitasking as harder then Mechanically skills.

Example: In SC2, ive had many games where my team mate or opponent has terrible situational awarness. They might have the correct build, they might be good at micro. But so often I see them “tunnel vision” They are good at one thing, but the moment multiple areas are getting attacked from they struggle hard.

Or like in supreme commander, some of my friends are amzing in 1v1, they are good agaist 1 opponent, but throw them in a 2v2 or a FFA, and the make so many mistakes.

However Im not saying mechanical skills are easy either, just easier then the mental ones. Having constant aim, or pulling of tecks is not easy. But its easier to train.

Want to get better at aiming, there are aim labs, training ranges, ect. Its easy to see improvement as there is a noticable increase in skill as you train it.

But mental skills are alot harder to train, the really only good way to train them is in actuall games, and unlike aiming/tecks, improvements are alot harder to notice.

Im doing a terrible job expressing my self, but I hope it makes sence what im trying to convey.

Neither are easy, I just find mechanical skills easier to do/learn then mental ones.

IMO

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Comparing the accuracy required to click a tiny moving head at a distance with tracer spraying her target point blank is all the information you need to realize what a horrible take this is.

If Widow isn’t hard, please post your widow stats and montage/rank.

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No need to get defensive - i didn’t say widow was easy, i just compared her skill requirements to tracer.

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Tracer is more about positioning/decision making than pure mechanics. Tracking a large target at her engagement range is really easy - The hard part is knowing when to get in and out before you get melted by someone looking at you for more than half a second.

I’m tired of people saying widow’s easy mode. ‘Just click headz lul’. Especially when other characters that provide so much more value exist in this game (ones that require absolutely 0 mechanical skill).

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