Overwatch sniper Hanzo got a quiet buff in the game’s latest patch, which confused a whole bunch of Overwatch players—especially since Hanzo is scheduled to receive a rework this month.
The minor buff decreased Hanzo’s Scatter Arrow ability’s cooldown from 10 seconds to eight seconds. The buff felt weird considering Blizzard’s reasoning for the adjustment; people just don’t like Scatter Arrow. They find it unfair. Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan once said it feels unfair to get one-shot by a Scatter Arrow pointed at a player’s feet.
Related: Blizzard reveals Hanzo’s new ability, Rapid Shot
Overwatch developer Geoff Goodman confirmed that the Hanzo buff was, indeed, accidental. “This is unintended,” Goodman wrote in a forum post. “As some people have guessed, this is an accidental change that came from his big changes coming next update.”
The Overwatch team is considering reverting it, but it could leave the change “as-is,” Goodman said. Blizzard doesn’t expect it to be up there for much longer, regardless. “We’re planning on releasing the next update fairly quickly anyway,” he added.
Scatter Arrow is expected to be removed entirely from Overwatch, replaced with an ability called Rapid Shot internally. The exact details of the rework remain unclear, but Blizzard is expected to unveil more about the ability soon.
Hanzo’s rework is scheduled for a PTR release in April, though an exact date is unknown. The team has been through a ton of iterations on Hanzo’s Scatter Shot ability, and Rapid Shot is what it’s landed on. So enjoy the boosted Scatter Arrow cooldown while you can—it’s not going to last long.
