Clever Overwatch rework would make Hanzo the ultimate tank-buster

Bill Cooney

One Overwatch player has come up with an idea to rework Hanzo’s Storm Arrows ability to make it more like a better balanced version of his old Scatter Arrow.

Veteran Overwatch players that have been around for a few years still remember Hanzo’s infamous Scatter Arrow ability before it was removed in 2018 and replaced with the current move: Storm Arrow.

Instead of firing one shot that breaks apart capable of taking down tanks, Storm Arrow fires a sequence of full-power shots without having to draw the bow back. But one player has created an idea for a rework that attempts to bring the OG ability back 

Storm Arrows were a welcome change for non-Hanzo players when they replaced Scatter Arrow.

Reddit user ‘TerraFabius’ came up with what they call “Lighting Arrow,” and said they wanted to bring Scatter arrow back in a more “balanced way” by trying to combine it with Storm Arrows.

You still fire six arrows in quick succession, but they now bounce similar to Sigma’s orbs, with each change in direction reducing the amount of damage they inflict on whatever target they finally hit.

They even came up with some more detailed stats, which can be found below:

  • Damage: 70 > 50 (-5 after each bounce)
  • Spread angle: Pinpoint
  • Headshot: No
  • Projectile Speed: 110 mps.
  • Rate of fire: 1 per 0.30 secs
  • Ammo: 6
  • Cooldown: 10 secs.
Is the world ready for another ability like Scatter Arrow, though?

You’d have to play it to make sure, but on paper, it does look like Lightning Arrow would make Overwatch’s resident archer more dangerous against tanks.

Adding a bounce would give shots more versatility, being able to go around shields just like Scatter was. This would happen without headshots or the obscene amount of DPS created out of nowhere by the old ability — something that still gives some of us flashbacks to this day.

There is one glaring issue here though, TerraFabius admits they weren’t even around when Scatter Arrow was still a thing, which means they never experienced what it was like to have Hanzo one-shot you while playing a tank.

Most people, except Hanzo mains, were probably glad to see the overpowered ability removed. But there’s nothing stopping Blizzard from bringing it back in some form for Overwatch 2’s PvE mode. Whether or not that happens, we’ll just patiently wait until someone inevitably puts Lighting Arrow in-game using the Workshop so we can try this idea out for ourselves.

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About The Author

Bill is a former writer at Dexerto based in Iowa, who covered esports, gaming and online entertainment for more than two years. With the US team, Bill covered Overwatch, CSGO, Influencer culture, and everything in between.