I know that in light of the Experimental Card having Ashe changes, quite a few forum-goers are upset that Ashe is being buffed to better perform on her own.
I for one welcome her changes as they make her far more consistent and reliable as a hero – something Widowmaker and McCree have going for them.
For those unfamiliar, here are the patch notes:
Ashe
The Viper
- Aim-down-sights damage reduced from 80 to 75
- Aim-down-sights recovery time reduced from 0.7 to 0.65 seconds
Now for those who actually play Ashe (I myself have begun learning her, which is primarily training my muscle memory for aim) – they know that Ashe has a combo to quickly kill an opponent in using one scoped shot and then hipfiring to finish them off.
The reason this was done is because her ADS fire rate was too slow to reliably kill someone before they got healed unless you were aided by a damage boost, or landed two headshots.
I’m quite fond of this rebalance, since it’s only a damage loss of 5 on a damage boosted headshot anyway. 195 health? Most people take 5 damage throughout a fight. It just means she won’t be able to instantly kill someone at full health who is likely out of active combat, like Widowmaker and Hanzo can.
Increasing her difficulty makes the hero more skillful, at least in my eyes.
Overwatch having less easy one-shots makes it a better game, in my opinion – and I’m glad to see the devs trying to take that route.