The long awaited changes have finally arrived. Sitting on the PTR right now are several changes to Hanzo, one of the most looked down upon heroes in the Overwatch Community. Possibly the most hated ability in the game, Scatter Arrow, has been replaced with an entirely new ability designed to be less frustrating to players caught on the wrong side. But these aren’t the only changes to Hanzo’s kit, with a couple of tweaks and additions here and there as well.

To start with, Hanzo’s base attack has been given a speed increase, from 85 to 100. Secondly, his Sonic Arrow has had a cooldown reduction from 20 seconds to 12 seconds, a duration decrease from 10 seconds to 6 seconds, and a radius decrease from 10 metres to 7 metres. The changes to Sonic Arrow seem designed to promote the gameplay that many Hanzo’s had already adopted, setting up a choke point or doorway and watching for enemies on the other side. However as reddit user tenyuukun points out on this Competitive Overwatch subreddit thread, “Also it looks like you're gonna need to tag an enemy with the sonic arrow for it to be fully effective, I'm still on the fence about the sonic arrow change.” Which is a fair point for the new change.

Another new ability granted to Hanzo is the Lunge, where he can activate jump again while in the air to quickly make a horizontal leap. This new ability is perhaps summed up best by user cepirablo, in the most upvoted comment of the thread, which simply says “Lunge feels so good to use.” Added mobility will certainly help out Hanzo with the prevalence of Dive Compositions right now.

So, the meat of the issue, the removal of Scatter Arrow. This was one of the more requested changes for a very long time, and it seems that its removal has pleased a fair portion of the player base. For starters, we have the second most upvoted comment thread from the above Competitive Overwatch thread, with user tke1078 stating “Jesus thank you. Not only was scatter arrow absurdly broken but I actually really like the changes. This doesn't feel like a "nerf" but more of a retooling.” He’s not the only one sharing that sentiment, with user Kharaaz adding “It makes the hero more like what it's supposed to be I feel like. No more aiming at the ground or shooting scatter arrows at random places, just normal, honest projectile aim. I like it.”

Let us know what you think of the changes in the comments below, and if you’re looking for more information on all the changes on the PTR right now, check out our breakdown post, here.