Blizzard has rolled out the new Overwatch bans for Week 4 of the new Hero Pool system, and it’s bad news for hitscan DPS players and D.Va mains.
Following a week that saw multiple tanks and only one DPS hero banned, it seems developers have flipped the script by banning four of the most popular hitscan heroes: Widow, McCree, Soldier, and Sombra.
Baptiste is also considered a hitscan, even though he’s a support hero, so he got the ban hammer, as well. D.Va doesn’t really seem to fit in with the other bans, so developers may have just felt like picking on her this week.
For players who prefer to click heads, the loss of McCree and Widow from Competitive in the same week will come as a heavy blow.
Dallas Fuel DPS Dylan ‘aKm’ Bignet obviously wasn’t thrilled about his preferred heroes being removed, and simply told fans on Twitter, “I’ll see you guys next week.”
I'll see you guys next week
— Dylan BIGNET (@DF_aKm) March 26, 2020
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The news was welcomed by players who prefer non-hitscan DPS heroes, though, like Pharah, who we will definitely be seeing more of this week, since most of her counter heroes are unavailable.
Torbjorn’s turret does a decent job of taking down the Rocket Queen, so we could see more of the Swedish engineer as we head into the new week, too.
However, there is one hitscan hero remaining this week, and that’s Ashe. As the only remaining long-range hitscan hero left, it will be up to those brave Ashe mains to protect their team from all the justice that’s going to be raining down.
Hitscan players might want to stick to QP for a little while… pic.twitter.com/VIJv7TDWW2
— San Francisco Shock (@SFShock) March 26, 2020
Losing Baptiste is also a significant blow because that takes away his Immortality Field ability, which has become a mainstay of team fights since he was added to the game.
It also seems like D.Va was just kind of thrown in as the token Tank hero to be banned this week, since she isn’t a hitscan – but her Defense Matrix is also a great Pharah neutralizer, so maybe that’s what developers are going for.
Hero Pools seem to developing a distinct theme as we go along. Last week, heroes with some sort of crowd-control abilities that were banned, and this time, it looks like it’s the hitscans turn.