The 12 Februari patch increased widow’s charge time by 20%.
Notes:
Widowmaker
Widow’s Kiss
- Full charge time for scoped shots increased from 0.75 sec to 0.9 sec
Developer Comment: Widowmaker has become stronger over time following changes to other heroes, such as power reductions to barriers. This change is intended to slow down her shots, reducing her overall DPS.
In other words, it seems the nerf was intended as an offset for other hero nerfs.
Now this seems like a very odd reason to me, because widow is generally not even picked to break through barriers, there are other much more effective heroes for that. Also, I did not notice other heroes getting a similar DPS nerf like this for the same reason in the dev comment, so my questions are:
How many other heroes got their DPS lowered by a similar amount to justify this nerf?
Who uses widowmaker to break through barriers…?
Did typical “barrier breakers” like junkrat, pharah, soldier 76, bastion also get such a DPS nerf? If not, then why only widowmaker?
2 Likes
That nerf is totally justified given how OP widow was in double shield, double sniper meta. When they nerfed barriers, they needed to nerf most dps, especially the ones that they buffed during goats meta, but they still haven’t. The widow one was sticking out the most though, because barriers could easily be broken after the nerfs to barriers and widow would be very dominant.
Nobody uses widow to break barriers, but when there are less barriers in the game overall, it’s like widow got a huge buff. This nerf was to balance that.
6 Likes
And what if they’re never going to nerf the dps of other heroes? In that case it would only prove my point that the barrier reduction seems more like an nonsensical excuse to nerf only widow. So until other heroes also get 20% lower dps my point stands.
Also, if they’re just going to nerf all DPS, then the end result will be the same as before the barrier reductions, so if you think about this then of what use would the whole balance change be?
Speed and balance are two words blizzard are entirely incapable of comprehending within the same sentence…
they are also almost entirely incapable of comprehending the two words separately in of themselves
I’ve always believed certain devs have a notion to dislike widowmaker more than any other character, Her lack of beneficial changes compared to other characters who have been clearly favoured for years has only added to my suspicions but that’s just my own personal feelings.
spare a thought for bastion mains… how long had it been before he got even the tinyest sniff of a possible buff? and that buff still being knowhere near enough
1 Like
At least he’s getting one -_-
aye, but at least widow is “useful” x-D
Ouch that roast , damn lol
lol. no one cares about the dps. It’s about the time she needs to get a oneshot on a squishy. If you nerf barriers that means you will have less barrier uptime, so more possibilities for widow to oneshot someone. It’s not about her barrier damage, it’s about her being broken at that point
And how would you buff the only hero capable of one-shotting any non-tank character with a non-ultimate ability in the game regardless of distance? Venom Mine is purely a utility tool and used for scouting mostly instead of damage, and Grappling Hook doesn’t have to have less cooldown because that would make her too mobile.
Some health would be nice, To look through my scope long enough before some never need try easy-spam fakeaims me and i’m dead, because thats the majority of the roster now, Fakeaim easyspams with zero skill requirement, I don’t think you know how difficult widow is to play now dude, Unlike the rest her aim has to pixel perfect or she misses, and since i don’t like using characters that the game does the work for me I still use widow, so yeah that’s the reason for a buff and that’s why she needs one, as for the venom mine watch the trailer i think you’ll find it was to stagger not whatever this lame excuse for an ult is.
1 Like
I don’t think it’s about barriers. First they increased venom’s cooldown. Ok. Second they increased hook’s cooldown. Ok. They want to reduce her mobility. Ok. Last one they increased charge time and reduced her damage now. So she can not run, she have to shoot more than one time. They can’t understand, if we can kill once, we are training ourselves so much for this. We are not prefiring like hanzo. So just play another hero. I recommend ashe.
Yeah it’s called skill. A oneshot hero needs skill who would have thought.
It is a bad way to reduce her DPS because it inflicts with the mechanics. Another great way to reduce her DPS without hindering any aspect of her kit is by consuming more ammo per shot. So instead of consuming 3 bullets, it would maybe consume 5 or 6. That way the charge rate wouldn’t be affected and players can still not miss shooting at 100% charge. My muscle memory got ruined when they did this nerf in this way.
Or another way is to give her an invisible hidden timer before the next shot, in the case they want to lower how many shots are coming out of her gun. That way she shoots far less than she would without ruining any charging rates.
Also they didn’t do that because she broke barriers, it’s because barriers don’t last as long, she can output more hero damage because of that. Not that SHE breaks the barriers, it’s just that she gets more LOS because of it.
Unlike the easyspams that don’t? good argument. 
Ik that its a good argument. There is no random oneshot ability in the game. Oneshot abilities take aim. No aim-> you lose
Your missing my point entirely lol
Nah dude you just don’t understand that Overwatch isn’t a normal fps shooter AND you can’t aim.
Look at my stats buddy My aim is fine, I just cant easyspam fake aim like the rest of the roster that climb gold with zero effort. 