Overwatch's Widowmaker

There is a rather interesting phenomena happening in Overwatch right now. As a player's skill in the game increases their undying hatred shifts from one hero to another, and without a fault, its always the same few candidates. The beginners hate Bastion and Torbjorn, slightly better players shift their ire towards Mei and her devilish grin, those even better than that focus their glare towards McCree and his infuriating Fan the Hammer kills, and finally, once you get past the McCree tier its universally Widowmaker as the prime antagonist, every single time.

Since Blizzard has already announced changes to both McCree and D.VA (a nerf and a buff respectively), that only leaves one troublemaker in need of fixing - Widowmaker. If you've reached the final, balance-forsaken tier of hatred you will be immensely glad to hear that Blizzard is currently looking into Widowmaker, as noted on the official forums:

"Widowmaker is on our radar. We are discussing her. We have some internal experiments going to see if we can keep her viable while lowering the frustration threshold a little bit. Right now, this is just exploration. If something more comes of it, we'll let you know."

While they haven't given any specifics on what exactly they plan to change, one can easily deduce a couple of things when comparing Widowmaker to Team Fortress 2's Sniper. First of all, her rifle either needs to be bolt-action or require a far longer charge time, because watching your entire get team wiped out within 5 seconds is neither fun, nor interactive. The second thing that needs to be toned down is her close quarters proficiency. As she is a sniper, and as such a glass cannon by definition, her health either needs to be reduced or her assault rifle moved to a separate slot in order to actually force her to make some sacrifices to her defense.

These nerfs might sound harsh, and I'll fully admit I'm slightly annoyed with her antics at this point, but after a week of having non-stop Widow-dominated games it all starts to get on one's nerves. The very best example of her oppression is the current competitive scene, which while relatively young has become a nearly constant Widowmaker vs Widowmaker duel for supremacy on certain maps and points. For everyone's sake I hope the nerfs come soon, and most importantly, that they are fair to all sides.

Roadhog from Overwatch hooking the support Zenyatta

For now, however, lets leave anorexic French people aside, and focus on everyone's favorite obese Australian - Roadhog. If you've played any number of hours with Roadhog you've most likely experienced the same thing I did: people getting hooked above you, below you, towards your sides, and sometimes even inside you! While I can see Roadhog as a cannibal, its still an issue that makes playing the fatso a tedious experience, as hooking Genji right above your head is one of those "mistakes" that will quickly end up costing you your life.

The good news is, all of this is going to be fixed in a future patch, as Blizzard themselves recently stated:

"The intent is that Roadhog always gets the first 'action' against a target he has hooked. The window isn't huge, so I recommend making sure you are holding the button of the action you want to do (typically left click). Even if the target is holding their first action key (things like Wraith Form, etc), you should *still* get your damage off first.

As far as consistency in where the hooked target lands, this is something I want to do a pass on soon. It can be really annoying to hook someone and have them end up behind you or to the side. Hopefully we'll have this stuff smoothed out soon! Sorry."

Its not a massive change, but it might be enough to get Roadhog a bit of competitive recognition. After all, the ability to pick one player off in an instant is exactly why everyone and their canine companion is playing Widowmaker.

If you've come this far you no doubt think I hate Overwatch, but the truth is far from it. I absolutely love Overwatch and I've spent nearly 100 hours playing it so far, hence why I wish for it to be the most balanced experience it can be, rather than a mess where one hero dominates all others. If you're interested in a more detailed opinion I welcome you to check out my review, I've done it after around 50 hours of play and all of it still stands.