Genji is arguably one of the easiest characters to get value out of due to his ridiculous kit. Let’s take a look at his high value low skill requirement kit.
-
Double jump
Spamming SPACE does not take skill period. Not only is it an unlimited spam ability that takes no skill to use, it also make him more difficult to kill. By obscuring his headshot hitbox and changing the size of his regular hitbox, he instantly becomes harder to kill than other characters of similar hitboxes. You now require better aim to effectively deal with Genji and all he does is spam SPACE. -
Deflect
This ability allows Genji to always have the advantage in a 1v1 against hit scan and projectile characters, there is no build up to it activating, it is instant. It requires reaction time and prediction skills to avoid shooting Deflect, but not so much skill to simply activate deflect. Getting shot at? Press Deflect. There is no aim requirement to get value out of this ability, there is even a very low requirement for prediction skills. This ability is pretty much “activate for instant value”. The main problem with this ability is that it can kill, no other ability is like this. Take Recall for example, it lacks counter play but at least it doesn’t damage you while active. -
Swift Strike
This ability is a guaranteed 50 damage and can be used to kill low health targets, even if they are being covered by their team since it just goes through everything. It is also a “get out of jail free card”, just simply press it and you are no longer out of position. It can also be used to instantly close the distance on any character that is keep their distance to keep from dying to Genji. This is mainly seen by supports who have the least amount of counter play against Genji. -
Shuriken
This is Genji’s M1 and M2, these projectiles have oversized hitboxes and no damage drop off. So not only is the aim requirement low, it is a spam ability with infinite range. I don’t understand why a close range flanker needs infinite range. This form of damage is used almost exclusively as a form of poke spam damage from far away to build his ult. -
Wall Climb
Pretty obvious as to why this doesn’t have a high skill requirement, it doesn’t take skill to press SPACE on a wall. What it does do though is allow Genji to get to areas “counters” such as McCree can’t get to. Even allowing for Genji to get away from stronger “counters” such as Winston. -
Dragonblade
This is without a doubt one of the strongest Ultimate’s currently in the game. What makes the Ultimate so strong is not only the oversized hitbox, but the fact he can use all of his abilities while ulting, which includes his ability reset with Swift Strike. The biggest thing that makes it one of the strongest ultimate’s in the game is the lack of counter play. Transcendence is the only thing that can consistently counter Dragonblade. Genji, of course though, counters Zenyatta.
I could go on for days as to why Genji is low skill high value that requires more skill to kill than to play, but I think this is long enough. So let’s recap why Genji is too strong.
- Low aim requirement
- Low positioning skill requirement
- Counters his counters
- Lack of counter play
- Ability resets
- Animation cancels that combo with abilities
- Requires more skill to kill than to play
In ladder comp play there is not that much GOATS outside of the highest ranks, so when a team isn’t running GOATS they run Dragonblade. At lower ranks this Ultimate decides games. Even without Nano it lacks counter play, and with Nano it has NO counter play. The only true counter to Dragonblade is to be just plain better than Genji, but if the matchmaker puts you against people of equal skill how can you ever do that?