My mates, the forums, and the wiki all generally say something different.
My mates say that Hammond ain’t hitscan, nor is Ashe or Mauga.
The forums say that Mauga and Ashe are undisputably hitscan.
The wiki says that Ashe, Bastion, Queenie, Sombra, Baptiste, and Reaper (not a full list of what it says is hitscan) are hitscan.
So what is and isn’t hitscan? I understand that in theory it is a weapon that does not have a projectile travel time, but The Viper (Ashe’s Lever-Action rifle) seems to have a travel time when ADS. Ball and Mauga I can see what looks like bullets or flashes moving out of the muzzles of their guns. Am I crazy?
Also, thank you to anyone who reads this and responds for answering my query. I know this sounds stupid and asinine.
Its really simple, anything you basically point and click and has no projectile or travel time. Thats what a hitscan is, so ashe, cassidy, widow, hammond, mauga etc.
When someone says “we need a hitscan” they’re referring to mid/long range instant hit heroes like Cassidy, Soldier, Ashe, Widow, Baptiste, Mauga. They’re not referring to Reaper/JQ or similar heroes who technically have instant travel time on their weapons but are only effective within short range. If someone argues that Reaper is hitscan, they might be technically right, but they’re just saying it for the sake of argument and can be ignored.
Oh I know what hitscan is in theory, it’s just that my mates have different things they think aren’t hitscan compared to the forum and the wiki, which confuses me. I don’t know who isn’t or is hitscan aside from Soldier and McRree, widow…
That’s just a visual effect. Yes, Ball, Mauga, Ashe, D.Va, Sombra, Queen, Bastion (Soldier, Tracer, Baptiste, Ana’s scoped shot) are all hitscan.
Projectile heroes tend to be obviously projectiles - Zen, Junk, Pharah, Hanzo, Kiriko.
Worth noting - apparently part of the change over to OW2 actually made all hitscan heroes technically projectile, with pixel-sized hurtboxes, that travel so quickly there’s (almost) no difference between the travel time and instantaneous impact.
Oh, thank you! My mates say that this is why they aren’t hitscan, but this might’ve cleared it up. So they’re hitscan, but technically projectile because of how the game works- giving them millisecond travel time. Thank you very much!
Hitscan is by definition a projectile with no travel time. The moment you press the trigger is the same moment it hits the target. So heroes like Wreckingball, Ashe, S76, McCree, etc. are hitscan, and heroes like Junkrat, Hanzo, Pharah, Doomfist, etc. are projectiles. And some cases (Ana for example) have both. Her unscoped fire is projectile and her scoped is hitscan.
Technically there are beam heroes (Sym and Zarya), but you can chalk it up to “Short range hitscan/hitscan with a limit” of a sorts. Not really worth covering tbh.
Put your cursor on a target and shoot. If it hits the target instantly, regardless of range, it’s hitscan. Some heroes, like Ana, may have weapons that can be either hitscan or projectile.
If someone says “We need a hitscan for the Pharah.”
then they’re still talking about hitscans, but just the ones with enough range and damage to realistically threaten the Pharah. Hammond isn’t exactly known for being a threat to Pharah, but Ashe can be.
I’m actually really curious to hear the reasoning behind the claim that Ashe isn’t a hitscan.
Tbh I don’t even know if it’s true, just something I heard - and it explained how things felt a little off during the switch over to OW2 so I believed it.
They say it’s because there’s travel time to her bullet. I’m rather new - in comparison, I only ever played one match of OW1 on my little brother’s Switch, and officially started playing OW2 in season four - so I simply aren’t as good at the game. I’m also a console player, which while it doesn’t have anything to do with hitscan vs projectile, means that we (me and my two mates) get stomped a lot because one of em is a PC player. Playing in PC lobbies with a controller is hard.