I have some changes for widowmaker as I don’t like my head getting blown off all the time.
List of changes.
Scope Charge Decay: Widow’s scope charge gradually decays over time.
Scope Glare: Fully charged shots show a glare to enemies as a warning.
Cooldown Delay: After firing a fully charged shot, Widow cannot charge to full immediately.
Grapple Cooldown: A final blow reduces Grapple cooldown by some amount.
More in depth.
I know adding all of these changes at once might be to big of a nerf and i just want these to be out there as some ideas.
For the charge decay it would be nice if the widowmaker couldn’t just charge her scope to full, hold one angle, click a button when someone walks by, then deletes them. I think having the charge decay when you hold the scope for too long would reduce ratty plays from widowmaker and make it so she needs to actually play the game like other people.
For the scope glare this might be to big of a nerf but has been talked about by other people so just wanted to put it out there. Making it so the glare only activates when she is at 100% charge would be nice and only being able to see the glare as the enemy if you are looking at her would make it so it’s more as a warning that she is gonna blow your head off than something that would reveal her position as the person has to be looking at them so probably already knows they are there.
Now the charge shot cooldown. This one does feel kinda of weird and is more of a what if than the others. Having it so after she shoots at 100% charge she can only charge to like 85% for around a second would mean she can’t just, charge, shoot, miss, charge, shoot, kill. It would mean they have to actually hit there first shot or the enemy would now just know where she is and the widow can’t just get a quick second shot in to get someone before they can hide. I think having it charge upto some percentage where she can still 1 shot 225 hp targets and not 250hp and above would be more balanced.
Finally the grapple cooldown. I think this should only be added as a compensation buff if the other nerfs are added. As the nerd mentioned would change her playstyle and force her to constantly reposition or take angles that have more risk, making it so her grapple colldown is reduced after a final blow would tie that playstyle together and in my opinion promote a more fun way to play the character maybe having it completely reset after a kill like genji dash is a bit to good but who knows until it is in the actual game. I think having it not trigger after an elimination but only after a final blow would be good and having it reduce the cooldown by like 6 seconds would be fairly balanced.
But who knows. If anyone else wants to add something that they think would be a good change or if my suggestions could be alterd to be more balanced let me know.
I would rather:
250 hp
100 on body
300 crit
Laser when fully charged
charge rate lowered to 1.2s for 100%
Ultimate now refunds CD’s, and speeds up charge rate to live.
Well, I got a couple ideas, but here’s the one I like most right now.
Saw this video, and AbbyOW pointed out that there’s no real way to force Widow to use the Grapple cooldown, except Diving them. But that means you need to Dive them, then Dive them again. Where as, it doesn’t need to be like that.
They should put Grapple on cooldown whenever Widow uses a Snipe shot.
She doesn’t have enough Risk, to justify infinite Range/Killspeed/ProjectileSpeed. While also having a strong selfpeel ability, that fully counters most her counters.
WIDOWMAKER
Grappling Hook
Cooldown reduced to 4 seconds, down from 12.
Widow’s Kiss (Secondary Attack)
Firing a scoped shot, puts Grappling Hook on a 4 second cooldown.
Comments:Any time an opponent see’s that red line and a loud bullet noise. They know it’s Dive time. Like ringing a dinner bell. Make sure to mind your positioning with Widow, use teamwork, and coordination to stay alive.
It’s not physically possible to immediately counteract the Play of a ranged instakill. (i.e. The actual meaning of “Counterplay”)
If the Counterplay isn’t following all 3 of these points, and it’s not compensated for elsewhere in an emotionally fulfilling way for the opponent, then there’s a major design problem. (i.e. Comparable to getting your turn skipped in Chess)
#1 The opponent can technically defeat the opponent with this Choice.
#2 The opponent has the time and awareness to Choose how to counteract the attacker’s play.
#3 The opponent has options to counteract the attacker’s play, that have enjoyable variety to them.
So give Widow some “Synthetic Counterplay”, where it’s obvious to her opponent when she is vulnerable. And she’s forced to forfeit her “Get out of Jail Free Card” if she wants to Snipe.
This is more of a Wind-down with a tell.
Literally a big red line saying “Go here, now. You got 4 seconds”.
I have a couple of changes too.
When Wrecking Ball slams he puts his “ball form” on 4 seconds cooldown. When enemies hear him slamming they know “We can actually kill him now”.
TBH, the issue there Hog can be countered quite easily by a lot of heroes.
But the easier approach is to just lower high Tierlist position to the bottom.
But yeah, it is a frustrating thing.
For instance, let’s imagine instead Hog pulled the enemy in, and it cocooned them in chains. Where they can’t take damage, but they also can’t move. For like 3sec.
Which would give your team more time to mount a rescue mission.
But their team could be lining up a firing squad.
If you meant that using trap, plus a primary to the head, and also a melee in addition to the hook is NEARLY instant from the point in time you land said hook, you would be correct. I just have no idea what your point is.
What would they change?
1 and 2 are nerfs to bad widows, which are easy to deal with.
3. is already the case in some way since it takes 0,5 sec for widow to recover from a shot and then start charging again. so a followup 100% shot takes 1,4 sec.
4. Grapple is already on 12 sec, which is the longest CD of any movement ability in the game.
It quite interesting that widow is suddenly a problem while she has not changed since 21.Feb.2024. The only thing is that Sombra got nerfed (and she is still good against widow, just not braindead easy anymore). its like Sombra was so easy that everyone has forgot how to deal with Widow.
Also, what if Sombra turned many Widow players away and they just return now (+the mythic).
A nerf I would be ok with is to revert the S9 Hitboxchange completely
I Don’t think widow has magically become a problem. I just feel like since the bullet size buffs in season 9 it’s too easy to hit a shot. The changes i think would not just be for bad widow players but also for certain playstyles that i don’t think are very fun to play into. The nerfs + the buffs would mainly change how you play the character and increase the skill ceiling in a way that isn’t just hit your shots and force the player to have better game sense and such. Of course i have no clue if changes like these would actually force peolple to play her completely differently but it would be nice if blizard looked at her and did some changes. Reducing the bullet size back too how it was like they did with hanzo would be a step in the right direction.
Otherwise it would be based on total damage over the last 0.5s. If she gets tickled by D. Va spam from 40m then the aimpunch threshold wouldn’t be crossed, but if she eats a headshot from Ashe then her aim should go wild.
WIDOWMAKER
Grappling Hook