As someone who’s mained him pre-rework, I’ve never liked how easy he became to use after it. I’ve been playing him a lot again recently, because you essentially have to as hes one of the most powerful DPS. I do agree hes vastly overtuned in comparison to most of the other DPS, and totally understand why most can’t stand him.
The main issue is storm arrow. Not only can it burst down high HP targets, but it’s also ridiculous on short engagements on duels with other squishies. At 125 max damage an arrow, he doesn’t need bursting capability with this.
Id still like him to be viable, hes always been a cool hero. His kit just needs to be tuned properly. Here are the suggested changes without dumpstering him.
Storm Arrow:
Replaced with a shield buster arrow. Cooldown on 10-15 seconds the arrow will knock 500HP off shields only. Sound cue and/or visual effect when the arrow hits a shield. On people, it only does his normal arrow damage-- like sonic. This will help him retain his shield breaking capabilities.
Lunge:
Completely removed. Does not need it. Wall climb was enough before. Currently needs a little more weakness to being dived. Sonic+wall climb is enough for him to be aware of his positioning and also gives him ample time to reposition.
Arrow speed:
Changed from 100 to 95. (Pre-rework was 85). Current arrow speed is way too fast. Soldiers helix rocket is only 60 I believe. If 95 is still too fast, down to 90. It’ll slightly make for a little more lead time but it won’t affect him drastically.
I’d also want him to be less spammy (nerf rate of fire). Countless times I have killed someone while spamming down chokes without seeing anyone there (and also be a victim of it).
I’d say just lower StormArrow to 3 arrows that can’t headshot.
For a maximum of 125+210 damage on a barrier in a quick burst.
No reason Hanzo needs to be even remotely good at breaking barriers.
Since the counterplay to snipers shouldn’t be limited to “Go leave your team and jump into a 6v1 probably not get the kill and die” or “Get a better sniper”.
I see your point, however he’d still need something special to his kit. 3 storm arrows would would do very little, and would also still encourage duel spam. Taking the headshot out of it additionally would make it even more useless. The shield bust would just give him an additional utility and good usage as a pick.
I think fall off is a much better solution than essentially removing storm arrows. Not even because of what that kind of nerf does to Hanzo, but because I don’t think what you’re proposing would lower his barrier break that much.
As someone who has mained Hanzo as the DPS of choice pre-rework, this is something I’ve been advocating for for a long time. I’d prefer the 90 for personal playstyle reasons, but I’ve never liked how they increased the projectile speed.
Even Geoff himself says he regrets Hanzo’s speed buff.
So a slight decrease would still help him feel consistent while also going back to how the bow felt to use
I had an idea that Storm Arrow could be replaced with an ability that makes his wall climb better for a duration of time. Like a 10-12 second cooldown (from activation) with a 4 second duration or something. Possible changes this could include:
The ability to move left or right while climbing
No limit to the height he can climb (currently there’s a limit)
Maybe even remove the “I need to touch the ground before being able to wall climb again” limitation
Yeah I’ve said it since the rework as well. It’s to the point where its almost a hitscan with the current speed. New Hanzo mains came out of the woodworks once his arrows became easier to land.
It wouldnt fix his up close burst capability /spam though. Also, lunge is just too much mobility. Lunge + storm just makes him ridiculous to dive or get the drop on-- add on top of that hes got sonic on cooldown. His weakness should be you closing the distance on him.