By all accounts, Hanzo's recent rework has been a massive success. He went from being a hero that most people considered completely useless at best and absolutely infuriating at worst, to one that many now believe to be both meta-defining and highly enjoyable. The only problem is that Hanzo's power level is currently a bit too high, which is why I'm glad to say that Blizzard is now looking to nerf his Storm Arrows ability.

"We’re reducing the damage per arrow from 80 to 70, which not only drops them out of one-shot territory for 200 hp heroes (w/ dmg boost), but also drops them out of one-shot range of 150 heroes such as Tracer and D.Va pilot," reads the brief announcement. "The ability will still be very strong overall, but this change should help mitigate the most frustrating element of fighting against it. We’re looking at getting this change up onto the PTR soon."

Given the recent outcry against Hanzo and the current meta I was expecting some rather extreme changes, but I'm quite pleased to see that this this newly announced tweak is actually perfectly reasonable. Not only will Storm Arrows no longer one-shot 200HP heroes while boosted by Mercy, but it will also ensure that Hanzo can't combine them with a normal arrow bodyshot in order to secure a quick kill. Naturally, the potential is still there given Hanzo's impressive headshot damage, but what these changes ensure is that Hanzo will need just a bit more aiming skill in order to reach that potential.

Whether this will make Hanzo perfectly balanced, I'm not exactly sure, but it's always good to see Blizzard take the slow and steady approach. After all, it's much easier to see how changes affect a hero when they're done in isolation and not alongside ten other major nerfs/buffs like they've sometimes done in the past.

If you would like to give Blizzard some of your feedback, or check out these changes in-game once they go live, you should head on over to the PTR forums.