The one problem that Blizzard has never solved with Overwatch is balancing. When it comes to changing heroes, the developers just can’t seem to manage to find the perfect mix between usability and being overpowered.
Genji got a major buff in an Overwatch update last month. Since then, players have been seeing one-half of the Shimada brother more frequently in matches. Not surprisingly, there’s a good chance that Genji might be changed again, but this time, the tweaks will serve as a nerf.
Nerf coming soon?
Out of all the DPS heroes in the game, Genji’s pick rate is at an all-time high of 8.05%. When it comes to all heroes, he ranks third just behind Ana and Sigma. Moreover, the data reveal that Genji’s win rate is at 57.76%. The big takeaway from this is that Blizzard might’ve done a bit too much to make Genji return to the meta.
Genji was one of the fan favorites when the game launched. As more DPS heroes are added, and more heroes are reworked, Genji slowly fell behind in the meta. To bring him back up from the ranks, Blizzard decided to make a few changes.
For starters, they upped Genji’s primary damage by 10. Perhaps the biggest change was that now, Genji can manually control when his Deflect ability stops.
The changes made to Genji in Overwatch rewarded skilled players as now they can control deflect better. However, the changes might’ve been too much as Genji is being abused in the current meta, so a nerf is very possible at this point in time.
What could be done?
Players currently love what Blizzard has done with Genji’s Deflect as it gave the hero more flexibility when it comes to using this skill. Furthermore, they believe that this isn’t overpowered as it’s entirely up to the players on whether they can utilize the skill properly.
Players think that it might be time to decrease Genji’s damage once again. This might balance out the hero as currently, he can deal a lot of damage once all of his shurikens hit.
Blizzard is always listening to the sentiments of the community so there’s a good chance that more changes to Genji will be due out soon, and it might come to the experimental card first. For now, it seems like Overwatch has a ninja problem that players want to sort out as soon as possible.
Images used courtesy of Overwatch / Blizzard Entertainment