The Overwatch Team Plans to Look Into Lowering Widowmaker's "Frustration Threshold"

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The Overwatch Team Plans to Look Into Lowering Widowmaker's "Frustration Threshold"

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1328/1328123.jpgBlizzard says they're looking at rebalancing Widowmaker, Overwatch's sniper, to make her less frustrating to opponents.

If you're playing post [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167646-] on the game's official forums, Game Director Jeff Kaplan said that "Widowmaker is on our radar" for changes as well.

While Kaplan doesn't go into specifics about what changes might be under consideration for Widowmaker, he does say that the team is discussing how to proceed with her, and that they "have some internal experiments going to see if we can keep her viable while lowering the frustration threshold a little bit."

The ensuing thread is full of perspectives, from people who think that Widowmaker is fine and doesn't need any adjustment to those praising the idea of a nerf. While we'll have to wait and see what Blizzard decides to do, we'd love to hear what you think of Widowmaker so far. Let us know in the forums!



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[Metalrocks]

i wonder what they can change with her. i know some complained about her rifle charging too fast, which i think is bollocks. she is in the background since she is not suitable for close combat. if they want to nerf her, then maybe make her assault rifle a bit stronger.

 

[Aeshi]

I'm not exactly in the high levels yet so maybe this will change, but I've never really had a problem with Widowmaker. Sure I die occasionally to her, but I can name plenty of characters I fear more.

That said, I'm not sure I like that she can basically swap from her Sniper rifle to her Assault rifle instantly. It's only mildly weaker than S76's

 

[Synigma]

The ensuing thread is full of perspectives, from people who think that Widowmaker is fine and doesn't need any adjustment to those praising the idea of a nerf. While we'll have to wait and see what Blizzard decides to do, we'd love to hear what you think of Widowmaker so far. Let us know in the forums!

Damn right she doesn't need a nerf! lol.

Actually I've been playing a lot of her and I have been wondering how they released her with so much up-front damage. Realistically she's not actually that broken, in a fast paced game where people can get in your face quick it can be hard to fully use her sniping glory. Oh but what a glory it is when you're in that beautiful sniping perch.

That's the problem; if they nerf her sniping damage then she's going to be woefully underpowered. She's kind of a one trick pony and so she gets easily countered. Her ult is awesome, but it's no Hanzo ult.

 

[Rednog]

i wonder what they can change with her. i know some complained about her rifle charging too fast, which i think is bollocks. she is in the background since she is not suitable for close combat. if they want to nerf her, then maybe make her assault rifle a bit stronger.

I can't speak for the console crowd, but on PC Widowmaker and Hanzo are incredibly overpowered. Their hitboxes are way too forgiving because they share the same ones as the console, yet the mouse is vastly more precise. They both need penalties for rapid firing or changes to the hitboxes. Any of the 200hp or lower characters are dead or nearly death with a chest shot. I'm fine with a fully charged chest/head shot taking out the squishy characters, but there is barely any penalty for rapid fire. Oh hey you only hit them in the arm or leg, just limp wrist another arrow out or quickly squeeze the trigger again and that guy is dead.

The fact that Widow and Hanzo can literally shut out an entire team should speak wonders, plus they're both highly mobile.

 

[ThatOtherGirl]

Widowmaker is too powerful. Best ult in the game that charges very fast, very mobile, extremely high damage on a very short recharge. She takes skill to play well but she is too good. She needs a bit of a nerf.

 

[Cowabungaa]

All we really need is make her, and possibly Hanzo's, shot charge slower. Snipers are slow, hard-hitters, taking out smaller targets in one well-aimed shot. As it is spamming is too rewarding. Maybe make her SMG damage a wee bit lower. But her main damage is fine. It's just her speed.

 

[Paragon Fury]

The problem is that Widowmaker (and Hanzo) are balanced for consoles, not PC. On console the inability to snap aim as quickly holds them in check.

On PC Hanzo and Widowmaker can snap-annihilate entire teams in the blink of an eye.

 

[Newage]

I'm not exactly in the high levels yet so maybe this will change, but I've never really had a problem with Widowmaker. Sure I die occasionally to her, but I can name plenty of characters I fear more.

That said, I'm not sure I like that she can basically swap from her Sniper rifle to her Assault rifle instantly. It's only mildly weaker than S76's

Problem is she can just spam fully charged shots (which deal 150 damage, 300 on headshots). At lower levels (like you and me) it doesn't really matter all that much since most Widows don't have the accuracy or the positionning. But when you talk about competitive, she denies quite a few picks. You can't really play Zenyatta since she'll just bodyshot him (there are other reasons for why he's not played a lot, but this is an important one). There's no reason to play Hanzo either, since his arrows deal less damage, and are projectile and not hitscan. If you run Hanzo against Widowmaker at high level, Hanzo is gonna lose most of the time. I'm sure there are other picks that she counters, and thus are not really considered for competitive, but I don't have the knowledge to be able to tell you.

She can keep a lot of characters in check, like McCree and Tracer, but I think it's a bit too easy for her to do so. And her close range fighting is also very good (which is not common for sniper classes in video games). I think she needs a slight reduction in damage for her assault rifle, and a longer charge time for her sniper. And maybe, as a tradeoff, reduce the cooldown on her grapple, to give her more mobility.

 

[Harlemura]

Someone jokingly said a fully charged shot's damage should be reduced by 1 so it only does 149, and as someone that plays a lot of poor little 150 health Zenyatta, that's a change I could get behind. Like, instantly dropping someone from full health to dead is fine if it's rewarding a headshot, but not being allowed to even poke a knee out of cover, thus not being allowed to make use of Zenyatta's line-of-sight mechanics, just because the enemy team has a Widowmaker is pretty darn annoying.
And on that note, why is Widowmaker allowed 200 health? She's not supposed to be in a direct fight in the first place, and even if someone does get the jump on her, she's got her grapple as an escape. Surely those are all qualifications for her to be in the 150 health club.

I think either increasing the charge time or increasing time between scoped shots would be fair. A lot of the time I die to Widowmakers that botch a headshot and just rapid-fire minimally charged shots to finished me off. "One shot, one kill" my ass.

 

[Synigma]

I'd just like to remind people this is why Overwatch lets you change heroes mid game. Reinhardt > Widowmaker

Seriously, if you're having problems with a good Widowmaker just field a Reinhardt or Tracer/Genji up to her perch from the side. As someone who plays her a lot I can see why she needs some kind of nerf... but I also know how easy it can be to screw her up. And god damnit I hate Torbjorn's turrets... searching for a good perch you pop out in front of one of those things and you're dead before you can get back around the corner.

 

[cynicalsaint1]

Mostly I'd like to see her lose the ability to one-shot anyone with a body-shot.
Picking her makes Zenyatta utterly useless, even against average level players.

Maybe up her charge time a little bit, and nerf uncharged damage a little bit, but I don't know, I feel a little less strongly about that bit.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

She IS a little strong, but I'm not sure what to do about it. I don't like how she makes Zenyatta a terribad pick against her, though. :s I think an extra 25 regular HP on Zen might be called for (so he can just barely survive one snipe, but not two unless he's healed in between)

Also, Winston can counter her pretty decently. And I don't even LIKE winston! You use cover to get within jumping range, pounce on her, if she tries to fight you, pop a shield. If she hooks out, your jump will recharge faster than her hook allowing you to chase her and swat her like a spider.

DVA is much the same, only a little harder on the "swat" phase, and she's got the bigger headshot box, but she CAN cover her "dash into the widow's face" approach with her Matrix, so it evens out.

 

[suzaku4489]

I feel like a short delay added after charged shots would be a fair balance for her. As others have said, snipers are meant to be hard hitters, so nerfing her damage-per-shot would cripple her style, but reducing how often she can fire will bring her potential dps down to reasonable levels. Reducing her ultimate charge rate could be fair, too, seeing as it's basically the second-fastest charging ult in the game, and one of the safer ones to charge since you're so far back.

As for poor Zenyatta, I suggested in another thread that they just turn his 50 hp into 50 armor, so he'll barely survive a single bodyshot. This would essentially buff Zen only against Widowmaker, as any other character would barely notice the difference, but that Zen slinking away with 5 hp left would be grateful for the change.

 

[Josh123914]

Mostly I'd like to see her lose the ability to one-shot anyone with a body-shot.
Picking her makes Zenyatta utterly useless, even against average level players.

....So I take it the CG trailer was accurate?

Headshots I can appreciate it being a 1HKO, but others in the thread are right that the torso shots shouldn't be fatal. Thing is about Widowmaker is that she's very reliant on having a solid team to keep distance between her and opponents from getting to close to her. You can't exactly make her weapon less powerful since then nobody will play her. I'd suggest for the time being let the meta sort her out, maybe if she continues to dominate just nerf her to the sweet spot where the squishies can survive torso shots, but headshots still kill most characters.

I hope Blizzard doesn't do what Nintendo does in Sm4sh and just totally nerf characters into oblivion so the devs never have to think about them again.
I mean I never bought the Bayonetta DLC but holy shit, the latest patch had people singing "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" over the brutality.

EDIT: Alternatively, courtesy of reddit, Blizzard could make Widowmaker pregnant. Thus, unable to pursue her career further, falling behind her male counterparts, she will then put on lots of weight and her movement speed will suffer as a result and her grapple ability won't be strong enough to lift her body.
In short, fix'd

 

[Nurb]

She's all long range damage. I don't even really play her, but I know once I get near her she's not a big problem to take down.

McRee could just have his reload taken away when he rolls and that'd be all he needs.

Many people who harp on nerfing all the time are the ones who get really good at one character and refuse to switch, thinking they have to be able to defeat everyone else easily without relying on their team and if they can't they call for nerf.

 

[Rednog]

And on that note, why is Widowmaker allowed 200 health? She's not supposed to be in a direct fight in the first place, and even if someone does get the jump on her, she's got her grapple as an escape. Surely those are all qualifications for her to be in the 150 health club.

I'll be honest, this is one aspect of a nerf I didn't even think about. I honestly think it would definitely be a reasonable change. It would make her more vulnerable to flankers as they could easily combo/half clip kill her. At 200 more often than not the flankers give her enough of a window to grapple hook out of there, and it would give a mid ranger like McCree and Soldier a fighting chance to take her down should she miss that initial shot or two. Granted I still think the most appropriate nerf would be changes to charging/rapid fire, but this really wouldn't be all that terrible change if all they did was test the waters by just dropping her HP.

 

[Fappy]

Hanzo needs a nerf before she does if you ask me. He can fire too often for the power he has.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Careful, Blizzard. Valve tried to do the same thing with the Sniper, which resulted in the Huntsman (aka "Lucksman" or "Cuntsman" depending on how often you get killed by it). I love the weapon, but even I have to admit it's rather bullshit.

Spoiler: Warning: Sweahs

Thing is, good snipers are inherently frustrating to play against in just about any shooter. There's a decided lack of player agency when you're one-shotted halfway across the map by someone you didn't even see. It sounds like there are some things they can change for balance (never played Overwatch), but there will always be at least some degree of animosity towards the play style.

 

[Newage]

Hanzo needs a nerf before she does if you ask me. He can fire too often for the power he has.

Actually, her shots do more damage and are barely slower on charge. She's really good, and can 1-shot on bodyshots the squishiest characters, Hanzo can't do that.

I'd just like to remind people this is why Overwatch lets you change heroes mid game. Reinhardt > Widowmaker

Not a great counter. She can poke the shield from a safe distance, and it has to tank other stuff as well, like rockets and grenades. You're better off having someone dedicated to get rid of her (usually a flanker or a better Widow).