No, Widowmaker isn't balanced

She is an undivable killing machine who is only countered by another Widowmaker clicking her head.

She needs a grapple cooldown nerf. Right now, the entire meta is centered around her, moreso than Hanzo on a lot of larger maps like Watchpoint: Gibraltar or Illios Ruins.

Just look at what Saebyeolbe said about Widowmaker recently: " I play Widowmaker a lot these days, but even if I win by carrying with Widow it feels sad and bitter. The meta these days is so Widow-dominant, that as long as you overwhelm the other Widow player you win." (https://twitter.com/tisrobin311/status/1014858927496880129)

Overwatch is a 6v6 game. The winner shouldn’t be determined in a series of 1v1s between two players.

Widowmaker needs to be counterable, and not only by another Widowmaker.

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Obviously not. She is the antithesis of balance. At Bronze, she is the worst character in the game, hands down. There is not even a close second. At OWL, she is the best character in the game, hands down. There is no one that realistically counters her when a team plays around her. The inherent problem is that to balance her, you take away some of her impact and make it harder for the team to keep her up (McCree esque) while also making her easy to play. Nobody wants that, per se. It is annoying enough when your teammates pick Widow, as if you want to be committed to babysitting her on top of it and the “skill” crowd’s last bastion of hope is Widowmaker. In other words, no one is actively calling for change except for… Ironically, lower ranked players who want her… Nerfed. Uh, I guess that is something even if it makes literally no sense.

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I mean, the same thing applies to torb, bastion, and old sym, except in reverse, which was why it didn’t seem like as big of a deal.

Would this mean a rework? Not entirely sure.

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old symmetra is widowmaker but the opposite and people wanted her fixed

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Uhh no, that isn’t true. Most top level players are absolutely trying to get Widowmaker nerfed. No one wants to be the sole reason their team loses, and certainly no one wants to be a spectator while their friendly Widowmaker loses them the game.

What are you talking about?

Again, how?

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i mean like symmetra was godlike in lower ranks but trashcan at higher ranks, widow is trashcan at lower ranks but godlike at higher ranks. these are basically the same thing which is why she needs fixing

That isn’t a problem. You want to be a good Widowmaker? You can literally just play better. The devs shouldn’t balance around bad players who can’t aim.

Widowmaker just needs a straight nerf. She doesn’t need a rework, just a straight up nerf.

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yea i know she needs a nerf lol

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The way widows effectiveness level scales up based on how skillfully each player is is the exact same way Bastion, Torb, and old Sym’s effectiveness scaled down the more skillful players were.

And Sym has been reworked with Torbs right after. And probably Bastion soon.

The imbalance doesn’t come from the kit, its from how effective they are at different levels of play. So no, its not necessarily a nerf she needs

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Wouldn’t that mean she doesn’t need fixing if people wanted old Symmetra fixed, and Widow’s the opposite of that?

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Oh, interesting. It will probably happen if professionals are campaigning for it. Do you mind if I ask who? If most top level players are, surely there are a few vocal ones that I just missed.

He means that Torb, Bastion, Symmetra were dominant at low levels and worthless at high levels. In other words, just as imbalanced for the opposite reason which is objectively true.

Except scaling with skill is exactly how widow is supposed to work. She is a sniper balanced around hitting shots. She shouldn’t be balanced around people who can’t aim. People who can’t aim can’t play Widowmaker.

Well for example I literally put an example of SBB complaining about her in the OP.

Being bad at the lower ranks is not a justifiable reason for such a aim-heavy hero being nerfed. She was never supposed to be good at low ranks.

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Um, yes, I read the OP and saw that. You stated most top players, surely there is more than just one example that does not even call for change.

Technically speaking Widowmaker is being nerfed with WB’s inclusion. He can’t be headshot preemptively like Winston and D.Va on approach to her, and he can can up with her easier than those two as well. Provided Wrecking Ball can keep pressure on her, she’ll either be forced to swap or be Hamster fodder

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Shes balanced, its just that her counters are complete crap right now

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She’s most definitely OP and breaks the game by being basically untouchable against half of the hero cast. Widow needs to be reworked.

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I agree that the grapple nerf would probably fix the problem. It’s important for her to be able to one-shot people, so I don’t want any nerfs to her damage, but she has very little counterplay right now unless multiple people dive her together or your own Widow is better than her.

This last stage of OWL was probably the least interesting one so far because Widow was deciding every match. Whoever made the most shots won the game.

People say that, since she’s such a high-skill (has to aim) hero, she should have a huge payoff like that, but the skill ceiling can be too high. In her case, I think it is. No one player should be able to decide every match just because they’re a great shot.

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Even Symmetra can get Tracer to high-ground relatively easy now. Or, well, anyone, a Hog hook combo will take her out before she can grapple. Widowmaker is not going to be fun to play once this season comes into its own. That is for sure.

I’ve personally asked multiple on their own streams about widow nerfs. Every single person I’ve asked for far has said nerf widow.

You can yourself too. Personally I’ve asked Jayne and Aero (both top coaches), and I know Fitzy wants a widow nerf. Judging by Soon posting a highlights video without widow saying “sick of widow?” I assume he wants widow nerfs too.

Stuff like this isn’t super controversial. If people like SBB or even Soon want widow nerfs (two of the best widows in OWL) it follows that everyone else probably wants widow nerfs too.

No she isn’t, she outpicked Genji in Stage 3, which was before Brigitte and Hanzo (it was a Dive meta).

No, she just needs a grapple cd nerf so she isn’t untouchable without another widow.

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Forget OWL for a moment. It’s still the case that Winston or Dva can dive on Widow and, at the very least, force her to grapple away. A dumb Winston could be vulnerable to a great Widow, but even a bad-to-marginal Dva won’t be de-meched with DM on as she flies into her face.

1 Like