PLEASE HELP: How to play against widow

General Discussion
1

Last night I played 3 games in a row where my team just got absolutely destroyed by widowmaker. These were all different widow players and one of the games lasted less than 2 minutes cuz we got crushed so quickly. I was just so frustrated after those games that I had to turn the game off and take a break.

I’ve struggled against widow for a long time. I’m a largely casual player and quick play is infested with (usually good) widow players, and sometimes it feels like I can’t escape her lmao. I literally play mystery heroes a lot (even though it’s super frustrating) just so I know that no one can pick widow and I can roam around the map in peace.

I could make this post about how much I hate widow and think she’s a broken hero who ruins the game. But I realize this problem seems fairly unique to me. Most players don’t hate widow that much and don’t seem to struggle that much against her. I think after playing against so many widows, when I see an enemy widow popping off, it kinda gets in my head. I’m scared to turn a corner, but also frustrated cuz I feel like I can’t even play the game and just have to literally stand behind cover and do nothing. The frustration and anxiety I get when playing against a good widow definitely makes me play worse, make bad decisions, and just overall makes me scared to confront her or walk anywhere, but also annoyed cuz I feel like I can’t play the game.

I think the problem for me is that either I don’t know where widow is or I do know where she is from her shots, but then I only know the general direction she’s at, that doesn’t mean I know exactly where to put my reticle. The only way to know exactly where she is is to see her and put her in my line of sight. But this is essentially suicide. If I want to know exactly where she is (enough to shoot her), I have to peak a corner which means getting my head blown off. Also, if I’m playing heroes with falloff damage, shooting at widow from behind cover seems like a lost cause cuz I barely do any damage. Especially the sniper perch on the third point on havana, if I’m playing soldier or baptiste and shoot her head, that perch is just so far away it does almost no damage.

I understand I probably have to switch heroes to deal with widow, but I don’t really want to just have to play another sniper to counter her, but that kinda seems like it’s required. The whole anxiety thing plays into this. Why would I pick a sniper and try to counter this widow who’s destroying our team? They’re clearly a lot better than me and trying to outsnipe them just seems laughably humiliating. I suck at widow but I’m decent at ashe and hanzo, but still I never get the balls to switch to them when playing against a good widow, and that’s probably part of the reason why I struggle against widow so much lol. Keep in mind I’m a support main.

Further, if I want to have any chance at killing her, surely that requires having her in my line of sight. I guess my problem is that I just genuinely don’t know how to engage widow without being stupid and basically guaranteeing my own death. If I want to challenge her, I have to see her, but if I can see her she can see me which means I’m putting myself at risk of being one shotted. Years ago I used to try to play sombra to counter her, but even when I would get right up in her face to try to take her out, sometimes the widow is good enough to one shot me immediately even at extremely close range. This happens semi frequently with almost every hero I’ve tried to use to counter her lol. The other thing that will happen is if I get up close to her she’ll just grapple away to her team, and if I chase her I’ll definitely die, but I usually die anyway as she grapples away and then headshots me from afar. I know shields exist but in my experience they’re not super reliable, especially since the shield nerfs.

I see a lot of people saying that people don’t know how to play against widow and use cover. I’m definitely one of those people. So how do you play against widow and use cover? Whenever I use cover I can’t get a chance to kill widow, and the only way to get a chance seems to be to come out of cover, but then that’s basically throwing cuz then widow can just kill you.

I hate widow, but I’m just trying to enjoy this game again, so I’m trying to change my mindset from hating widow to improving against widow. I’m looking for any and all tips I can get. I know I’m not the best player and the way I wrote this post kinda makes it seem like all widows have aimbot, but what I’ve described is genuinely the experience I’ve had. SO many games have good widows and the kill feed for the whole game is just widow widow widow widow. And instead of getting angry and considering quitting the game, I wanna try to improve and learn from you guys how to properly engage widow.

tldr: I don’t understand how to play against widow properly and I’m looking for advice. How do you engage widow without getting your head blown off?

2

hmm… as a support main, I can tell you at least what to do as a support.

normally Brigitte is pretty good because you can shield yourself for 1-2 shots from her.

If you are pretty good, going Reddit Lucio and jumping on her is very effective, because Lucio’s mobility is deadly for her.

You should avoid playing heros like Zen or Mercy.

3

As tank Winston and maybe Dva are relatively good against Widow, as DPS Genji, Doom and maybe Sombra and for healers Lucio. Best thing you can do is not be in terrible positions where she can pick you with no problem.

2 Likes
4

Movement is the biggest thing that counters Widow most of the time, as Mercy, do NOT:

  • Walk in a straight line if it’s possible the Widow can have a sightline on you
  • Stand still for a single second (no matter what)
  • Rez if it’s possible the Widow can have a sightline on you
  • Super jump in the sightline of a Widow

Do:

  • Strafe constantly no matter what
  • Maybe watch a video on how the best Mercies move
5

I can only give you advice from a tank perspective. Go D.Va. D.Va is one of the best Widow counters in the game. Winston is also a good Widow counter, but he tends to be less relevant.

Sigma can block her LOS. Orisa can halt her out of position to make her easier to kill. And Rein can also be pretty effective at LOSing her. But I still think D.Va is the best approach.

Just don’t go Zarya or Hog. They feed into Widow, particularly Zarya.

1 Like
6

I do try to do all those things but it doesn’t seem to help that much. Last night I was strafing and crouching like button mashing like crazy trying to move as much as possible on moira (who I switched to at last second cuz our rein wouldn’t stop charging in lol) trying to kill the widow but she still headshotted me. But I’m on console so movement is a lot slower, that’s probably why. But generally when there is a good widow if I’m playing mercy I’ll try to stay completely out of her LOS since I’m not a damage dealer (unless I have valk then sometimes I’ll sneak up on widow get in her face and kill her and that usually works but not always and it has consequences). But then my team can’t kill her, that’s usually when I try to switch

7

So it really depends on what role you’re playing and how you want to deal with her.

If you’re playing Tank and want to outright kill her, you should go D.Va, Winston, or Wrecking Ball, with the Goal of getting up to her and killing her. If she’s on a perch, don’t drop down if she drops down unless your Movement is ready to go. I find Wrecking Ball the best for this since he doesn’t have a critical hitbox in a Ball.

If you want to deny her value as Tank, you should pick Rein or Sigma and just use your barrier for cover. Be very careful about this, because if you drop your barrier you’re opening up your team to headshots. Use Sigma’s barrier to chase Widow, but this only works well if you have another main tank.

If you’re playing Support, you can briefly deny value with Brig’s armor and Baptiste’s immortality, or you can use Lucio and dive the Widow. Move unpredictably. Mercy isn’t too bad if you’re in Valk, as you’re a harder target to hit. Zen can work, but only if you can dodge well.

For DPS, Genji is a good pick for rushing her. If there’s no high ground, Tracer works too.I don’t recommend Doomfist because his mobility is linear and predictable. But if you’re playing with your team, anyone with range can pressure her off a platform. Falloff damage is a thing, but just because you won’t be doing max damage doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be shooting her. Torb isn’t an awful choice either; you can run out with Overload and pepper her area with his gun.

The biggest thing anyone can do is play corners and sightlines. Stick with your tanks. You also need some map knowledge of where Widowmakers like to snipe from, so you can avoid those areas.

8

I play zen against widow though. in any case I always use the map for cover so I rarely get snipped at all. mercy I don’t like playing against widow, but it’s also durable.

9

nerf moira and ana so that her sustained DPS counters can actually do damage to her :slight_smile:

10

It’s the responsibility of your dive tank/s to pressure her.

11

I guess part of my question is what it means to play corners. Like once I’m behind the corner what am I supposed to do? People say to take cover but then also say not to peak. So I just don’t understand what to do. If I take cover it feels like I’m stuck there.

12

Zen isn’t bad if you know his tech for this match up. If you peak with a right click and crouch, it will move your hitbox so far down that what previously would have been a neck shot would now be a complete miss. You can win 1v1s like this.

13

Basically it just means to use the environment to your advantage. Use physical barriers that can’t be shot through. Every map in Overwatch is riddled with flank routes, so once you’re at a corner and WIdow knows you’re there (she’ll usually try and shoot at the corner to try and catch you peaking), you can move away from the corner and go around everything safely.

14

Thank you, that’s actually really helpful! So you kinda try to throw her off on where you are to catch her off guard?

15

Your movements might be predictable, or being done too quickly. Spamming crouch too fast doesn’t move your head hit box enough to matter.

And now I’m going to shill for Surefour’s movement guide, cause it actually helped me a lot. There are other movement guides out there. I suggest looking into them; you might find a better one for you!

16

Exactly. She won’t always be aimed at you, and she wont’ always know where you are. Take advantage of that.

1 Like
17

Convince your team to dive her? If not…just hide behind a wall all game. Sad to say but that’s how oppressive a one-shot hitscan with no fall off will always be…

18

Thanks I’ll check that out, my movement could probably use some improvement

19

Lucio, really is your only option, and even he isn’t all that good.