Overwatch is filled with abilities that many consider unfun to play with or against. With the developers hard at work on Overwatch 2, there’s plenty of room for some tweaking of these obnoxious moves to make the sequel much better.
The two aspects to consider why an ability should be reworked are simple: either they get far too much value or are simply underpowered.
Abilities that get too much value often have very little counterplay and/or have a high success rate, such as a team fight winning percentage.
However, on the underpowered front, the opposite is normally the case, which leads us to the first entry on the list.
Soldier 76’s Tactical Visor
While an auto aim ultimate may sound good on paper, the unfortunate reality with Soldier 76 is that it simply doesn’t do enough damage quickly enough, gets shut down by barriers and doesn’t even headshot.
Players with good aiming can get more value without Tactical Visor simply because they can land headshots and deal double damage. These aspects render the ultimate rather useless, especially in higher ELOs.
One solution to this problem could be if Tactical Visor did more damage against barriers ,or even granted him three additional Helix Rockets during its duration for a bit more firepower. Even something with Helix Rockets locking onto enemies could keep the whole spirit of the ultimate alive while morphing it into something better.
Sombra’s EMP
EMP is probably the single most obnoxious ultimate in the game. While efforts have been made to make it easier to counter by increasing its cast time, its power is still through the roof.
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With the ability to remove barriers, strip heroes of shield health, shut down abilities mid-animation and keep anyone caught in it from being able to do anything, there’s a reason it has a high fight win rate. Even San Francisco Shock coach Dae-hee ‘Crusty’ Park told Dexerto he thinks EMP is too strong.
In order to keep EMP strong while making it less oppressive, perhaps EMP’s effects should be limited to a certain area. If players exit its range, they should regain their shield health and be able to use abilities again. With this change, EMP’s duration could even increase slightly.
Widowmaker’s Scoped Shots
There is nothing more frustrating than being killed in one shot from across the map. It’s oppressive, hardly balanced and makes it so the best way to counter Widow another Widow.
The hard thing about changing this is being a sniper is the hero’s complete identity, so if she’s unable to land big headshots, her value drops in a big way.
Solving this problem is quite difficult. A way to make Widowmaker less oppressive could be requiring her to first hit a body shot on an enemy before her headshots can deal their maximum damage. To compensate, a fully charged body shot could reveal an enemy’s location on the map – similar to how Hanzo’s Sonic Arrow works when he hits a foe with it.
Hopefully, at least one of these abilities gets looked at by Blizzard ahead of Overwatch 2‘s release – whenever that is.