And I am a Hanzo main. Yup, I said it, and I meant it. I will admit I wasn’t at first, the aim of the bow and the arc of the arrow just frustrated me, so I started out with Reaper. However, after watching YouTube videos of some impressive Hanzo players, I was like “I can do that shit”.
In short, I can, sort of. I feel I am an “alright” Hanzo player. I went from a 10% accuracy to 20%, over the course of 140-ish hours; my average damage output is 5-6K (not the best by any means). Now, I am not a competitive player, so I don’t torture comps by playing Hanzo, but I can only imagine my Quick Play group gets really tired of me playing him (damn near) all the time. Even I admit its a bit ridiculous. But I am trying to get better, get the muscle memory of the aiming and the awareness of the arrows arcs. Given that my time-to-learn has increased over the years, it’ll take me longer than some.
Word is Blizzard is looking to get rid of Scatter Shot (Scatter Arrow). No doubt some are up in arms, some are rejoicing; I can see both sides. As a Hanzo player, with his lack of real mobility, the ability to target (inaccurately) around corners is a pretty big deal to me. And, given that he is noted as a defensive hero, the fact that the Scatter can (if aimed appropriately) take out a chunk of a tanks health is also a big advantage. On the other hand, having been on the recieving end of both of those scenarios it is incredibly frustrating. The “one-shot” ability of Scatter is a bit ridiculous, and to take out a tank (reliably) within two shots (Scatter+head-shot) is equally bullshit.
So with that it looks like Hanzo will be getting two abilities with the loss of Scatter. A Withdraw power which will let him quickly “double-jump” out of a close-quarter fight (similar to tracers ‘Blink’). And a rapid-fire shot, which will allow him to fire up to 6 arrows (at full draw) within a 6-second window. I really like the Withdraw ability, desperately needed to (maybe) make Hanzo a viable in meta. And I think the Rapid-shot will bring some skill to his alternate shot (versus the some-skill/mostly luck involved with Scatter).