So the devs just announced another indirect buff for Widow. They got rid of the speed buff on DPS, which allowed them to do more evasive ADAD spam. Which acted as a soft counter to Widow/Hanzo/Sojourn.
And to be honest, that’s probably for the best, because it was getting a bit silly. And two more speed boost characters coming up, where speed boosts can stack.
You also had a recent dev interview where they basically said Junker Queen sucks on more open maps. A big part of this is ranged oneshot heroes.
So that got me to thinking they could fix that. While also making Widow justify herself being buffed back up to 200hp. (Weird buff btw)
Makes JunkerQueen’s Shout into a legit counter to ranged oneshots.
- Lower the maximum charge damage on Widow to 250 damage (I.e. 100 bodyshot damage, down from 120)
- Make it so damage boost does not affect the extra damage from headshot multipliers.
Which if I run the math in Widow:
- 100 (bodyshot damage)
- 30 (+30% damage boost body shot)
- 150 (headshot damage)
- 280 Total Damage
And for JunkerQueen, if she boosts a player up to 300hp, then 280 damage won’t be enough to oneshot headshot.
6 Likes
Honestly just remove Widow at this point, character is bad for the game and ruins every match she is in
7 Likes
Anyone have the post book marked where a gold/blue text said that they aren’t removing any heroes?
1 Like
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5 Likes
but why shouldn’t junker queen have a weakness on open field? why for that widow nerves only so that junker queen is always playable. doesn’t make any sense
1 Like
There’s a difference between weakness and not worthwhile at all on certain maps.
And Widow got indirectly gigabuffed by the lack of barriers.
And for some reason she also got her HP buffed.
Great time to bring ranged one-shots down a bit.
3 Likes
i think they might nerf widow eventually but i hope they dont do it prematurely. i want them to wait a season of competitive before they pull the trigger on that one. they will probably nerf her health back to 175. i dont think they would ever or should touch her damage since might as well never play widow unless your the top 1 percent
I’ll disagree. It shouldn’t go below 250. She should be able to oneshot any squishy (that isn’t armored).
But there’s no reason she needs 300.
2 Likes
hmm maybe i would take that nerf if i had a tighter spread on her smg, a BETTER spider mine AND a 8 second grapple
but yea lets see what happens, who knows they might nerf her damage
Widow basically got some extreme indirect buffs due to the lack of barriers. On top of HP buffs.
What makes you think her current state is “balanced”?
Because the way I see it, it’s similar to how Tracer got a ton a stronger from the removal of CC. So they nerfed her substantially.
Why wouldn’t that same logic apply to Widow?
4 Likes
well for beta 1 they buffed her hp since flankers were stronger due to speed boost. i had difficulty at first hitting things on how fast everyone was. also genji was pwning my butt most of the time when i played her. if there was a genji. i did get dived quite a bit but not on the map royale circuit. never faced sombra as widow when i played beta 1 but if im sure she can pwn widow with a well placed hack and just crap on her
now that the speed buff is gone… who knows maybe they will nerf her health back to 175
I’d say this nerf is better. Since not only does it enable Junker Queen, but there’s a ton of Tanks that aren’t going to have barriers.
And also by doing this is effectively slows down the charge speed for partial charge Widow headshots, and substantially reduces the effectiveness of damage boost pocketing and ranged oneshots.
Since Hanzo, and Sojourn are also problematic
I’d prefer it if Half the Tank Roster weren’t throw picks because of ranged oneshots. And just generally allowing for Deathball comps that aren’t only Rein or Sigma.
And yeah, yet another indirect Widow buff.
Also on this, if she was balanced in Overwatch 1, with a ton of barrier spam and 175hp.
Then just returning her back to 175hp, isn’t really recognizing the gigabuff from a lack of barriers.
I feel that Junker Queen is going to have to be crafty to work with Widowmaker and Ana around on the enemy side but I’d rather test her out first.
well i get you want to buff her body damage and nerf her crit multiplier but the thing about widow in being succesful is to get that immediate kill. other wise if she just bodyshots and doesnt kill anyone the whole game shes pretty much meh. just feeding practically, would have to up her fire rate then for a buff to bodyshot and nerf to head multiplier maybe by a little since only 50 damage taken away
maybe give her back her old (more) ammo and faster charge time.
i actually would love to play old widowmaker when she had more ammo, quickscope and a faster charge rate. maybe you can give her all that back but nerf the crit damage
No?
Reduce the bodyshot down to 100, down from 120
Keep the crit modifier at 2.5x
1202.5 = 300
1002.5 = 250
But make it so damage boosted crits don’t do additional damage for the headshot portion of the damage.
So a 30% damage boost only gives 30 extra damage.
Instead of currently giving 90 extra damage.
I’m okay with that. Widow is the epitome of a “Git Gud” character. And if your can’t aim with her, then yeah, that’s fine.
And that’s a way more reasonable alternative than half the Tank Roster being invalid choices on most the maps.
And there’s a ton of ranged heroes with ranged attacks that don’t take such precision aim.
And if anything, even if they moved her been to 175hp, she’d still need gigantic nerfs. Because that’s basically just a revert to get OW1 level. And does nothing to accommodate for the reduced barrier spam.
1 Like
thats what im saying she has to be compensated for that tiny nerf. so maybe the old charge rate would be cool imo lol… use to love charging like half a second less
(its less than half a second i think, have to dig through the old patch notes. forgot)
And I’m saying she would need large nerfs at 175hp, because of all the reduced barriers.
Similar to how Tracer needed nerfs with all the reduced CC.
And that the 200hp just rachets that up even more.
And just in general, “Compensation buffs” are only warranted on heroes that are balanced, and they just want to sidegrade their power somewhere else.
By comparison, OW2 Widow needs to lose like roughly ~30% of her total “power budget”. Not just have it shifted around.
Since hitscan ranged instant kills are extremely powerful when there isn’t barrier spam keeping them in check.
like i said i really want to wait till after the first comp season. im sure if widow becomes the new tracer (ala ow1) she will be burned at the stake. we dont know yet is what im saying
I’d rather overnerf and then buff her back up, rather than error on the side of turning half the Tank roster into joke picks.
Because for real, there are a ton of ranged attack hero options in the DPS role.
But there’s no reason we should error on the side of making only 4 or 5 Tanks be viable.
Especially since the amount of toxicity that one singular player is gonna get for picking “The wrong tank” isn’t going to be anywhere near the scale of “Our Widow isn’t getting enough kills”.
Especially when you factor in how almost any hero can supplement a lack of damage, but Supports/DPS can’t really effectively supplement “a lack of Tanking” that well.
1 Like
You do realize how reliant Widow is on Headshots, right? Even with 120 damage Body shots, you’re not going to be doing too much if that’s all you’re managing to consistently hit, since your effective fire rate after the first shot is 1.4 seconds. Compare this to someone like Hanzo who has other tools besides a oneshot, like storm arrow. Not to mention his technical fire rate is faster than Widow. Reducing it to 100 while also making her Headshots weaker will make her EVEN more reliant on Headshots, which makes her kit even more niche.