Long-range, short-range or mid-range, Hit-scan will always be better.
There is a reason why Hit-scan heroes have heaps of disadvantages put on them, be it spread, drop-off damage, lower damage overall or a worse kit. This is to allow projectile heroes to even compete with them.
Any projectile hero that was suddenly made hit-scan would be completely OP. The problem with Overwatch is that there is zero movement acceleration, which effects projectile heroes a lot more than hit-scan heroes.
Predicting shots in Overwatch is always partly luck, yes you can predict your enemies movements perfectly but if you are unlucky and they decide to change direction in the last moment, you will still fail to hit your shot. Other games this won’t happen, movement acceleration stops people from being able to change directions instantly, thus allowing you to hit your shot.
This is why pros prefer to use Widow over Hanzo, it doesn’t matter how strong your kit is, if there is luck involved in hitting your shots, it is not worth the risk for the inconsistency.
I’d say it depends from person to person. The same way some people are better at dps than other roles, some people are better with projectiles than hitscan, since travel time and distance is something that has to be taken into account, while hitscan is instant.
While in theory hitscan sounds better, it’s all about the mind.
That’s true if you are a plat but in terms of top rank play, it doesn’t matter, hitscan will always be better.
Let me be clear, I am not talking about how Overwatch is currently balanced with hit-scan having tons of disadvantages with spread, drop-off etc. I am stating that Hit-scan as a type of damage is straight up better than its projectile counter-part and this can only be balanced by giving hit-scan heroes tons of disadvantages.
I’d say hitscan does have a large advantage, but projectiles have their place. Mainly, you need to be able to see your target to hit it with hitscan, while all projectiles can hit enemies without requiring direct vision at the time of firing. Whether this be due to aoe damage (like pharah and junkrat) or timing it to hit a hidden foe as they pop out (like Orisa and Hanzo).
Honestly it’s not a hitscan thing. It’s just burst. In every game ever, metas are basically whatever has the least counterplay. This is why metas are usually so incredibly frustrating. If a top player can react to it, it’s generally trash, at higher ranks.
One can’t react within 50 ms to dodge a bullet, thus, they have insane skill scaling.
Honestly if Sombra had Mercy’s gun, and Mercy had Sombra’s gun, the trade would benefit them both. Sombra could get behind enemy lines and attack from a safe distance, and Mercy’s gun wouldn’t be so useless in a 1v1.
This is why projectiles have larger, well, projectiles, and usually other benefits over hitscan heroes be it mobility or utility.
There isn’t really anything you can do about long range projectiles being bad other than adding momentum to movement (so ADAD spamming slows you down in that plane, like in CS) except that will also benefit hitscan even more than projectile.
Well projectiles can aoe damage and attack around shields, hitscan cant.
Projectiles can also be fire and forget situation, like a Pharah can spam a bunch of shots at a doorway from long ways away then turn around to do something new while her previous shots all start hitting as if it’s multitasking in a way
projectiles can only aoe damage and attack around shields if you let them. and you could let a hitscan attack do the same (for example coalescence). its not an inherent quality of projectiles.