Hanzo Nerfs (January 2020)

General Discussion
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In my opinion is the Hanzo nerf going into the wrong direction. He sometimes struggles to hit shots reliably (and i see that that was the point of the nerf to weaken him), but his inconsistency is the thing that makes him in my opinion so looked down apon (if you dont hit your shots, what can happen very often if you for example have a bad day, or simply dont put the time in to master him which is how he requires to be treated). What that all means is that we are going back to the days where Hanzo was a character that was hated by so many people (his randomness, unreliability and his lucky oneshots). My suggestion is, that you make his projectiles pretty fast (the way they were before or preferably faster), and then take away his oneshot potential, what would mean that you lower his very good dmg output (to the point where it still hurts tanks), and then set his max headshot dmg to i would say 170 or so (you are welcomed to tell me your own suggestions, since im not quite sure how much dmg it should be, but i think its good if he is able to finish with a melee, so you get the full 200 on heroes with such healthpools (if not armored by brig of course), while needing a headshot and a nearly full charged body to confirm the kill on heroes like doom, who have 250 health. Thats what i think about the arrow speed of his, now moving on to other potential nerfs like increasing the cooldown on his lunge (that is a strong ability in dual situations) or nerfing his storm arrow more (the dmg he puts out is very devistating against shields), or doing something about his sonar arrow (cooldown up, smaller radius, shorter duration etc.). All these things beside the arrow travel speed are a way to leave his arrow speed and dmg as before the nerf, even though i would even think that if these new arrows that i suggested are too strong with the old abilities, and the possibility is still there to introduce these other nerfs (lunge, storm and sonar arrow)

to sum things up: I would like Hanzo to be a character that feels more like a hitscan (avoid randomness and inconsistencys) while being perfectly fine if we swap his slow projectiles with the one i suggested and maybe even more nerfs to the other things that are on his kit. If he proves to be too strong or abnoxious, there can still be finetuning made, so he is not too strong. I also want to clarify that even though im a Hanzo main, i DONT WANT my character to be superior or too strong or something, i want to balance him to be more fair and less hated from other characters (no more random oneshots and more outplay potential), i just want him to be fun, fair and balanced, while having his primary fire as a strength.
And a kit that doesnt make him have no weaknesses (if you want take his storm arrows).

I would be happy to recieve constructive feedback on my opinions and feel free to tell my whether or not my ideas are ones that could be taken into consideration for future patches.

Thank you for your time!

Edit: What would also be someting you could adjust is his fire rate, so he has to take more time for his shots

2 Likes
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Bowmen, like hitscan snipers and, indeed, most other ‘normal’ classes come with accepted pros and cons that have bedded into the FPS genre over 30-odd years. You can’t have a hitscan bowman because that’s just not how they work–and it’s not how people expect them to work.

The problem with Hanzo (and a handful of other heroes) is that the guy(or girl) in charge of designing him has acquired a crippling allergy of balance and common sense. Time and again we hear of how Jeff and Friends have identified a weakness with a particular hero and have taken the BOLD… BRAVE… NOBLE and STUPID steps remove those weaknesses, as if Overwatch was a single player game where the hero had to do everything (and kill everyone) themselves.

I can’t remember the specifics, but there was a time when Sonic Arrow was adjusted. They decided that it wasn’t up often enough (A WALL HACK, NOT UP OFTEN ENOUGH, LOL) so they reduced the CD… BUT to compensate, they either reduced the UPTIME or NERFED the radius. But then, a few months later, they decided that Hanzo’s WALL HACK ARROW didn’t highlight enough of the battlefield so they BUFFED the Duration/Radius but KEPT the reduced CD from a patch or two before.

I mean… GOD FORBID that an ability that shows you where the enemy is (within a certain distance) that CANNOT BE DESTROYED, and that ALSO does FULL PRIMARY DAMAGE feels even SLIGHTLY situational. God forbid that HANZO players have to be thoughtful about where and when to use it in a fight. God forbid that they should have to choose between DAMAGE and UTILITY for A SINGLE ARROW!

Sorry, but Hanzo has been OP for too long because the wimps on the OW Team are too scared to limit him to a certain sub-role. These are the same developers, bear in mind, that decided that him one-shotting a tank by shooting ‘somewhere around their feet’ should be a viable tactic for ALMOST TWO YEARS.

I know OW was dragged kicking and screaming from the lifeless embryo of Titan, but all it takes to understand that a team game should require seperate and limited roles to feel fair is A SLIVER of common sense.

Hanzo has unlimted range, high burst, OP utility, a fast-charging and powerful ult, great vertical and horizontal mobility, a janky hitbox, broken shot-charging mechanics when jumping at a wall, and one-shotability versus the vast majority of heroes–the fact that it’s taken Blizzard this long to apply a smidgen of common sense to his design (which is still silly) is insane.

Arrow speed, regardless of whatever changes they make to his utlity and ability numbers, must remain slow enough to fit within the accepted character archetype. :slight_smile:

Yikes, rant over! :smile: