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Overwatch 2 (2023)

Duration: 4:09

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Overwatch: Does Genji Need A Nerf?

People have been complaining that Genji is dominating the Overwatch meta-- that he is too strong and needs to be nerfed. Here's my take on this issue, along with some analysis of how a character who hasn't been buffed came to become central to a team composition in competitive play.

Partial Transcript:

Genji's quite popular and quite strong. Often you'll see a team composition with Zarya, Zenyatta, and Genji all working together. Genji plays it safe like a good little boy until he gets his ultimate. Then he turns into a dragon ninja murdering everything in his path, while Zarya shields him, and Zenyatta heals. It's a tale as old as time itself, but it seems to be happening with worrying frequency.

I think there are a few factors at play here. First of all, let's consider the change that really triggered Genji's dominance. I attribute this almost entirely to Zenyatta's return to form after his buff. Increased HP, an improved ultimate, and much faster orb speeds turned Zenyatta from a frail old omnic into a tank slaying monster who's sitting at a 100% pickrate in pro games. Because of his prevalence, Mercy was pushed out of the meta. Lucio's group heals, and Zenyatta's DPS combined with single target heals were too much for her to compete with. And even after killing one part of the Parah Mercy combo, that crusty old robot not satisfied. Instead, he set his Discord Orb against the skies with blinding speed and took away Pharah's wings faster than you can say "Justice rains from ab-Augh!". McCree's buffed long range, and new and improved D.Va's ability to contest Pharah in the skies and block her rockets probably played a big part as well, but that kind of ruins the narrative, so shush. Now back to the story. Zenyatta had slain the eagle, but no sooner has she fallen than a dragon rose to take her place. And that dragon was named-- certainly not Hanzo because that guy was unfortunate enough to be born a Defense hero, and we all know how much Blizzard hates those. Instead it was his brother Genji, an Offense hero, and the only real projectile DPS option most teams have anymore.

But here's the real crazy thing about Genji. No one actually cares about his projectile DPS. Everyone's all up in arms over one thing, and one thing only. The dragon blade. I mean, think about it, you just do some poke damage to build your ult, press Q, get Play of the Match, make a big push with the team! It's almost too easy. So how do you nerf this guy? Well, it's obviously not by taking away his health or his dash cooldown reset. You maybe just take his ultimate down a notch. Have it charge slower or reduce the range a little. It's pretty obvious where to focus the nerf.

To be honest with you though, I don't think that Genji needs that big of a nerf. The babysist Genji strat is what needs to be made less useful. Certainly, killing Genji's usefulness as a character will do it, but that's hardly the best option. Genji has counters, of course. McCree's already popular, but Mei and Roadhog don't see much play. And Winston is used a lot by pros, but weirdly little by normal players. In Mei's case, she's just a little on the weak side and no one really wants her to be buffed because she's annoying. But hey-- you should have thought before you decided to be a Defense hero in Overwatch. What about the tanks, though? Heroes that actually matter. Well, Roadhog's hook can stop a rampaging Genji real nice but when you're a big fat target with no barrier and a discord orb on you, you're just feeding the enemy team ult. As for Winston, I'm not too sure. It probably has something to do with high skill plays like landing right on top of the enemy to maximize the damage, or team coordination that lets people make use of his strength while mitigating his weaknesses. Whatever it is, it's not present among the average players.

What I want for Overwatch is not to have patches every couple of weeks that lead to a new flavour of the month party comp. I mean, last month it was Pharmercy an now, it's Babysit Genji. What I'd like to see really, is a more dynamic meta where heroes are a little more situational in usefulness, and which lets a greater variety of characters take the limelight. Seeing Genji, Zarya, Zenyatta, Lucio, D.Va, and McCree for the twelfth time in one night is not all that fun. But seeing Reaper, Zarya, Zenyatta, Lucio, D.Va, and McCree for the twelfth time in one night is no better. What we need is variety.

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