Here's how to Nerf Widowmaker

The goal is to add counterplays to Widowmaker.

1. Make the charging time LoS-dependent:
When Widowmaker is scoping, every target on her screen has its own separate charging time based on how long they stayed within the line of sight.
The charge resets every time the LoS is broken.
If an enemy is revealed through her ultimate or any other wall-hack ability, all revealed targets take full charge damage until the wall-hack is over.

2. Make it obvious when Widowmaker is scoping:
Some games add some sort of flashlight on top of the scoping sniper silhouette, to help the enemy be aware of the existence of a threat.
Currently, Widowmaker can sometimes blend in perfectly with the background, based on the map/skin contrast and the map lighting.

I think these nerfs are quite sizable, so to compensate, they can remove the damage falloff and maybe bring her back to standard HP (currently 250).

I loathe Widow and this would kill her, imo.

Other games have glint, sway, flinch, reverse falloff, and other sniper pitfalls. OW has sadly never added any of these.

Here’s my idea:
Instead of a One-Shot, give her a One-DoT like they did in some silly mode a while ago.

Key is, you get the crit/kill sound on the initial Headshot, AND the same sound(s) and screen feedback when the enemy dies, but there’s a lag delay, so that you can have the kill shot healed off or cleansed. Ideally, you could then buff Widow’s close-range options or Mine more.

This does a few things. It makes the 1-shot less abrasive, it gives Widow players the feedback they crave/play the game for, and it gives counterplay time where you can actually do something about it to save a teammate/yourself. Up to the devs or community as to how long the poison takes to kill, my gut told me 2-3s after the shot.

2 Likes

What? 3s is way too long. That’s how long it takes for Ana to 4 tap you. Why should a widow 1 shot take the same amount of time

2 Likes

if they just fixed her maps itd be fine, she doesnt rly need a nerf outside of like 3 or 4 maps, and tbf some of them have already been fixed.

she just needs a falloff nerf and sniper glint

genuinely. if she is to maintain the impossible to balance hitscan one shot

she should only have 40-60m falloff range

1 Like

It’s a 1-DoT now, not 1-shot. Because neither what Ana nor Widow gets is deserved in a game like this with the current sightlines. 2-3s is a fine reaction time for supports to help you. You also have to think about getting to a health pack and 3s is nothing if that’s what you need. It could easily be 6s and still be fair compared to how I feel about what Widow has singlehandedly done to this game.

“I feel” is a key phase here. 0 balance

4 Likes

And those games have far greater ranges, do not have outlines, do have Camouflage etc. The Problem with Overwatch is, that is is extremely cluttered.

Sway and Flinch would apply to every weapon. Snipers have often far greater ranges and can body oneshot.

Reverse Falloff is rarely used and is only fair if the Snipers are able to Quick scope, which Widow is not able to do. And she is already very weak upclose

We tryed it and it was horrible. Either the DPS is to low and healer can easly outheal it and can react to it, or its to fast and it makes not difference.
Additionally, it takes away the fun of getting a kill as it feels like you are playing with high ping.

While giving her 250HP, a grapple CD reduction, and buffs to SMG and VM. Deal?

2 Likes

If her bullets become projectile with a drop then yeah

Hitscan one shot is too powerful.

250 health is an idiotic suggestion. Name one other hero with a 50m range one hitscan shot

I love how you admit that the first change will kill widow while also failing to acknowledge that this has literally already been proven to kill widow in the past

1 Like

Tbh it’s good to kill off heroes like her. Other heroes get “killed” for much lesser crimes

Widowmaker and Tracer have warped the entire game around their existence

1 Like

No. Bad. No hero should ever get killed off because of some crybaby losers who have a permanent skill issue.

Crybabies do not and will never have human rights.

1 Like

I actually really like this idea.

It only takes her 1 second to charge her shot to full, and you can do ridiculous airshots with her thanks to that.
It usually takes closer to a second to react and aim to a person she sees anyway, so not much would change.
Apart from enabling some peek shots to pressure her as she wouldn’t be able to kill you just by seeing the first sliver of your hitbox.

Least brain damaged Widow player rebuttal

I’m a pharah player. The only one allowed to complain about hitscan is me.

1 Like

Great, Widow has been unbalanced for most of the lifespan of any OW. That’s objective.

1 Like

I’d argue there’s a single hero that gets to interact with all of the cast while she completely outranges them. Hanzo can no longer 1-shot, Widow should be looked at.

Give it to Ashe, too, IDC.

Which doesn’t matter if you are fully lethal to everything but a tank every 1.4s. It’s worse in high PC lobbies, but sadly I’ve been subjected to them and those Widows so I have little sympathy for most Widow players. Sombra is now the only thing that can interact with her in the DPS class and the Widow can still win that duel (or trade) if she knows what she’s doing or her aim is good enough.

No we didn’t. It wasn’t in the main game, and horrible for who? All I saw was Widow players complain the feedback loop was messed up which is why I said give them the dopamine noises/feedback for hitting the shot and getting the kill. From a non-Widow player perspective it was much better (but still too fast). If you play a decent Widow right now you know you get value for comparatively nothing and you can easily run lobbies if you’re having a good day.

Ashe is what Widow always should’ve been. Widow frankly has no place in OW2. If Ashe was released on launch, Widow as she is probably wouldn’t exist.

1 Like

They kinda did this when overwatch first released but patched it soon after. When Widowmaker used sights, her butt would get bigger as she activated her goggles. who said learning isn’t fun!

So why does she need a nerf though? She doesn’t seem to over performing and she’s outright crap plat and down.

1 Like

imagine if they would create characters that would hard counter widowmaker! i think i could make one. i would call it sombra, my idea is that she could go invisible and kill widowmaker within a second. it would be soo cool if overwatch 2 would have a character like that

2 Likes