Edit 12/31/19, streamlined the point-by-point discussion a bit, added a second viable way to fix Hanzo’s issues
Okay so I know the can of worms this already is. I do frequent the forums too, after all. But instead of just opining on the balance state of the character, I’ll also expound upon my perspective and how I came to this conclusion. It felt topical to get around to posting this now, since a certain dev decided to mention Hanzo in a cryptic way, so the forums are quite abuzz with what it could be.
There’s a part of me that is skeptical that whatever changes they have in mind will hit the mark (no pun intended). I certainly hope they do. But regardless of whether or not they manage to get it right, it is worth looking into a more detailed summary of how the character works so we may better articulate our discussions revolving around him.
Generally speaking, what are the three attack types?
Understand that not everything is always so clean-cut. So the following explanations will be broad, noting that there are gray areas where one type ends and another begins, and some individual heroes blur the lines and create a bit of overlap.-
First and foremost there’s high-alpha. These are sniper-type attacks, where the rate of fire is typically very slow and does a lot of damage. These sorts often (but not always) have the ability to either amp or crit to enable one-shot kills on a regular and reliable basis. These are very strong for poking out briefly from cover and delivering maximum damage, thus make them the safest, most reliable, and most coveted form of damage there is. The balance here is that these damage types are unreliable for fending off attacks at close range, since skill and precision is typically needed for bringing out the full potential. They are powerful at mid to long range, which honestly covers most typical engagements in any game.
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Second is burst. Burst fire typically does a lot of damage in a very short amount of time (usually out-DPSing high-Alpha in anything more than one second), but needs more than one shot and/or a few seconds to exceed Alpha damage or secure a kill. These are most easily represented by shotgun-type weapons. They are typically balanced by either being projectiles with flight time to dodge, or being short-range (otherwise the power to cut people down reliably at any range would be broken).
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Third is sustain damage. Most typically embodied by Soldier 76. These sorts of weapons have a long uptime between reloads (if they reload at all) and do middling damage over a time. Typically good for suppressing fire, they are the most disadvantaged damage type since any obstacle provides a poking advantage to both other damage types. If for a single second of poke, you can fire off a missile for 100 damage, a sniper rifle for 300, or a pulse rifle for 30…which do you think has the biggest advantage in general matchups? Right. Typically sustain damage attacks need a burst component or other utility to be competitive with the other two, more effective damage types.
So what is Hanzo's primary fire?
Hanzo is a high-alpha character. That means, relative to the cast (as all things are relative), that his primary fire rate is slow and very high-damaging, and can reliably one-shot a sizable portion of the cast. This is the part that often gets him cited as a sniper. Although the term “sniper” is subjective, the understanding is what’s important - he only need fire once to eliminate or critically injure most enemies. And most importantly, Hanzo can reliably do this at mid/long ranges.
How does damage class play out in the game?
The easiest way to summarize this is by having you visualize what a hero must do to secure a kill on an average opponent using his primary fire.
(before leaving angry comments, this scenario is given for very basic illustration purposes of damage class. It won’t factor in the respective hero’s other abilities, at least not quite yet. That comes in the next section)
High-alpha heroes have an immense advantage over everyone else for the simple reason that they need only expose themselves to incoming fire for naught but a few tenths of a second to secure a kill. Think about a Hanzo poking out from behind an obstacle on a map while a Soldier 76 charges in to kill him. Hanzo can poke out for a half-second and fling an arrow that could potentially kill S76. And he can probably do it twice or three times before S76 reaches that obstacle and forces Hanzo into close-quarters combat. Meanwhile, given that same window of vulnerability, S76 can only do middling damage to the Hanzo, if at all.
This is the advantage of high-alpha. It allows you to maximize the danger you impose upon the enemy, while absolutely minimizing the danger you must be in for it to work. This is a game-changing advantage.
The beauty of high-alpha is that reversing that scenario does not radically increase the Soldier’s chances for victory. Each time he pokes to shoot at an approaching Hanzo, he risks catching a high-damage arrow. Even if it doesn’t land as a headshot, it would do such immense damage that his death would be very likely during the next exchange, or even if Hanzo forced a close-quarter finale to this matchup (since the damage has already been done).
How does damage class effect overall game balance?
Generally speaking, with the advantages that come intrinsically with high-alpha, any supplementary fire you add onto a character you need to be careful with. Let’s go back to that Hanzo S76 matchup (as I’m sure some of you really wanted to say something about Soldier 76’s helix rockets). In S76’s case, the helix rockets represent burst damage. Because his primary damage is sustain, that burst helps him gain an edge over poking battles and finishing off enemies that are critically injured already.
Compare that to Widow. Widow is the premiere high-alpha hero in Overwatch’s lineup. Her secondary fire is a fairly weak sustain.
That’s important, because when you already have high-alpha, giving the hero burst on top of it gives them a more radical advantage in a broad range of situations that should, for balance purposes, leave them vulnerable. You’d think something was awry if you dove on Widow, only for her to pull out a bazooka and explode your face. You may not be able to readily articulate why that would seem wrong, but this guide is here to help you understand that feeling in the back of your mind that tells you that the balancing went wrong somewhere.
Generally speaking, high-alpha classes should only have that damage by itself. If any additional damage is added, it’s usually sustain (and very low sustain at that). Because the immense advantages of poke damage need to come with drawbacks, like not being able to fight well when cornered.
Burst damage heroes perform well in a broad range of scenarios and get some utility to help them in some edge cases (like junkrat’s trap). They don’t hold a universal advantage in most matchups, but they’re very workable and reliable across the board.
Sustain typically don’t perform well without a lot of extra oomph somewhere else in their kit. They can get some additional burst damage (like helix rockets) to give them the edge in some combat situations, or other utility if that isn’t enough (bionic field, fortify, halt). But in game balancing terms, sustain damage classes are at a pretty severe disadvantage because the primary way people fight (poking from behind cover, because it’s the smartest way to fight) works against them.
How does this relate to Hanzo?
Hanzo, as we’ve established, is a high-alpha class. His storm arrow ability is a burst damage class.
Oops.
You’re not supposed to give high-alpha a burst damage like that, ever. And that’s what’s causing the problem.
When you hear people talk about Hanzo being too good at too many situations with too few (or none) weaknesses, this entire thing up to now is basically what they’re saying. With his primary fire being the sort that lends him the biggest advantage in most realistic matchups (that aren’t completely contrived), and for backup he has a damage ability that removes the weaknesses intrinsic to that damage class. So, he can snipe you from afar, or burst you if you get close. That’s the balancing problem here. Storm Arrow is the problematic part of his kit, turning him from a generally good sniper with a bit less range but less disadvantages, to a Swiss-Army knife DPS character that is favorable in almost every matchup at most ranges.
But doesn't he need it?
No.
Okay, you probably want more explanation than that. Strictly speaking, Hanzo isn’t a better sniper than Widow. She does get the handy scope and is hitscan. But if you honestly compare their primary weapons, their primary damage kits are more tradeoffs and side-grades than a binary <better than/worse than>.
Widow has the disadvantage of tracer rounds showcasing her exact location very easily to anyone who sees it. Hanzo’s arrow is hard to see and even harder to track.
Widow has a scope to help her with long-range hits. Hanzo doesn’t. But what he does have, is no tunnel vision problems that could get him caught flat-footed. He can fling arrows at full power without having to zoom into a scope. And in a fast-paced game with dedicated flankers, that is an advantage that can’t be overstated.
The consequence of this means that he isn’t as helpless in close-quarters as Widow is. To do a full-power hit with her primary fire, she needs to be scoped in. She’s got tunnel vision doing that. Hanzo has no such limitation and can still keep an eye on his peripheries, and even flick to the side to catch someone diving him.
So no, he’s not helpless in close-quarters combat. Even if he was, that is the natural consequence of being high-alpha and for game balancing purposes it should NOT be circumvented. In general, without Storm Arrow, Hanzo would be very apt as a side-grade or alternate to Widow, with similar general power levels and tradeoffs.
But won't his kit be lacking or underpowered then?
Again, no. Let’s compare, in broad terms, what he can do verses a Widow.
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Widow has grapple, he has wall climb with no cooldown.
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Widow hits at maximum range with hitscan. Hanzo doesn’t have the same range, but he hits in mid/long range with a very quick projectile that has no falloff and leaves no tracer. He’s very capable of eliminating targets (or critically injuring them) at most ranges the map pool offers.
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Widow has Venom mine as a nice accessory move. Helps her cover her flank. Hanzo doesn’t have a real analog for that, but he does have lunge which further helps his mobility and get away from close-quarter combat. And again, it must be stressed, Hanzo is pretty decent in close-quarters combat because he only needs to hit you once to take you out of the game. So he doesn’t necessarily have to escape most 1 v 1 matchups either. He can choose to sit and fight, even if he doesn’t hold the immense advantage he does when he keeps his range. It may not be optimal, but it is doable and his option to do so, given his mobility options.
So his general power levels without Storm Arrow, make him about even with Widow. He’s definitely more forgiving (especially with hitboxes), and less disadvantaged in many situations, so it could be argued he’d still be more powerful than her in general. Yes, removal of an entire ability and he’d still be the more powerful character.
On the other hand...
This game already has a reliable sniper, and you can make the case that the game would benefit from going in the *other* direction with Hanzo. Remove his current primary fire, move Storm Arrow to be his main function - a burst-damage with a five-arrow reload. Some tweaking would need to be done at that point, but it's viable to have him as a burst-damage hero. For balance purposes, you'd probably have to slow down his projectile speed at that point so he doesn't infringe on that long-range territory again. But yes, it's entirely doable.In conclusion/the TL;DR
All Hanzo needs to be balanced is the removal of Storm Arrow or a removal and replacement of his current primary fire, since he’s essentially two different DPS heroes with the advantages of both and the disadvantages covered by the other.
What won’t fix this is a “reduction in arrows for storm arrow”, or a “can’t crit with it”, or a “reverse fall-off”. The ability itself is busted when kept alongside his high-alpha primary, because this ability represents a whole second DPS character within him. Without Storm Arrow, Hanzo is comparable to a Widow with some advantages and disadvantages. That’s a good and balanced kit. It’s a side-grade.
With Storm Arrow, however, Hanzo retains too much general combat ability with both high-alpha and burst damage supplementary. Even without other abilities like mobility and seeing the enemy through walls, that’s too much.
So he can keep lunge, he can keep the wall climb, he can keep the sonic arrow (though perhaps debatable whether or not this one needs to crit. Heck it’s not even a sharp arrow isn’t it, it’s got some sort of soft point on it I think?). The one thing that needs to change, that one thing that makes him perfectly balanced, is merely the removal of Storm Arrow with no compensation.
