We’ve all been there. You round a corner, and your head is immediately taken off by a Hanzo or Widowmaker that you had no chance of competing with.
Whether it’s the Sonic Arrow that you didn’t know was there or the Widowmaker sneakily hiding almost halfway across the map, Overwatch 2’s sniper characters have long been loathed by the player base because of their one-shot potential.
But come next week, nerfs to their kits will finally make them a little bit less frustrating to go against. That’s right, game director Aaron Keller today announced that season five’s hero balance changes will include changes to two heroes that regularly ruin the OW2 experience for everyone in their lobby.
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“The community has also voiced concerns over the number of one-shots from both Widowmaker and Hanzo,” Keller said. “We’d like to reduce the frequency of these in-game, as well as shore up some of the extreme sightlines in some of our maps.”
Talking about numerous incoming balance changes during his Dev Take post today, Keller detailed nerfs to Widowmaker’s damage falloff as well as Hanzo’s Sonic Arrow and damage.
Widowmaker will still be able to one-shot 200-health targets from 50 meters away, but her damage falloff is going to be dropped to the 40-60 meter mark. That’s a significant decrease from the 70-100 meters that it currently sits. While she’ll stay lethal in the right hands, players won’t be able to sit on the opposite side of the map picking players off from practically unreachable locations.
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Meanwhile, Hanzo’s damage is getting decreased so that he can no longer one-shot 250-health targets. More importantly, Blizzard is updating his Sonic Arrow to make it “more recognizable” to enemies walking into its area of detection.
“The intent here is to reduce his kills that feel like they come out of nowhere,” Keller said. “We are constantly discussing the nature of one-shots in Overwatch 2 and whether they are healthy for the game in general.”
As one of the most formidable DPS heroes in the game, he has likely been due for a nerf for a little while. Hanzo is not only among the most selected DPS heroes on the competitive ladder, but he also boasts a high win rate for a hero played so heavily, according to stats by Overbuff.
I’m not sure how much of a tangible impact the Widowmaker change will have for casual players, but the update to Hanzo’s Sonic Arrow will certainly save a lot of us from some post-elimination killcam embarrassment.
