Hanzo is Strong Right Now

It’s really not.

HotTake: Snipers are strangling Playerbase Growth

Other FPS games have way more enjoyable counterplay design against their Snipers.

  • COD/Battlefield have severe damage reduction at range, with extremely bright “Scope Glint”. BattleField even has Reverse damage dropoff at closer ranges.
  • Apex, bullet drop, but also you can’t oneshot with the Kraber unless it’s damage boosted with a large stationary deployable. And the Kraber is an extremely rare lategame pickup with limited ammo.
  • TF2, the Sniper is extremely squishy with basically no escape when rushed at close range. And a Spy with a Deadringer, Spycicle, and either Enforcer, Diamondback, Ambassador just gets free kills on them.
  • Halo, just shooting even 1 point of damage descopes a Sniper, and they get 8 total bullets, with generally shorter ranged maps. Not to mention extremely bright “Scope Glint”. And otherwise just avoid maps you don’t like.
  • CS/Valorant, it’s extremely risky to buy sniper rifles for Econ reasons, and otherwise there’s just a ton of smokes/flashes, and the vast majority of the level design is shorter ranges. And otherwise 2 bullets from an Assault Rifle or even 1 Deagle shot is enough to counter right back.

By comparison, with Overwatch:

  1. Hiding behind a wall/barrier 90% of the game is frustrating/boring.
  2. Trying to dive Widow/Hanzo when they can either easily run away, or drop 450-900 damage in 1.2sec. Is frustrating and unreliable.
  3. Sniping Snipers with more Snipers, just makes the issue worse for everybody else.