Hanzo’s hero rework is now live (update)

Update: A new update for Overwatch that includes Hanzo’s reworked kit is now available on live servers for PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. More details are available in Blizzard’s version 1.23 patch notes.

Original story: Hanzo has traditionally been a tricky—and controversial—character in Overwatch. As a sniper, he’s already filling a niche role on the team and fighting for space alongside Widowmaker. His scatter arrow has long been one of the main reasons to run him, as it can one-shot an enemy. The end result is that Hanzo is a little too strong in some situations, and struggles in others. The Overwatch development team has gone ahead and tweaked Hanzo to make him more consistently relevant, with less opportunities to instantly remove an opponent from play.

Storm Bow

Projectile speed increased from 85 to 100

Sonic Arrow

Cooldown decreased from 20 seconds to 12 seconds

Duration decreased from 10 seconds to 6 seconds

Radius decreased from 10 meters to 7 meters

New Abilities

Lunge

Press jump while in the air to leap horizontally

Storm Arrows

Replaces his existing Scatter Arrow ability

Hanzo can now rapidly fire up to 6 arrows that deal reduced damage but are always fired at full power

Developer Comments: The goal of these Hanzo changes is to allow him to have new options and maintain his high damage output, while removing the frustration of fighting against the old Scatter Arrow. Hanzo is now much more mobile with his new Lunge ability, and with the combination of the bow projectile speed increase and the new Storm Arrows ability he can now deal his high damage more consistently than ever before.

With Scatter Arrow gone, Hanzo can no longer take a tank from 400-0 with one shot, but his Storm Arrows still give him strong (and safe) damage potential. Add in Lunge and Hanzo has eked out a pretty different identity from Widowmaker: the sustained damage sniper who has tools to consistently stay safe while pumping out steady damage, as opposed to a constant but slower stream of one hit kills on squishies.

The PTR is a test realm, so this kit isn’t set in stone. While the broad strokes of Hanzo’s kit seem to be determined, there may be balance tweaks and other small changes before the new, improved Hanzo hits live servers.