Overwatch devs respond to bug that nerfs Reaper’s shotguns

Michael Gwilliam
Reaper attacks on Hanamura in Overwatch

Overwatch fans may have noticed that Reaper’s shotguns have been a bit less consistent despite new Experimental Changes going through that were supposed to decrease the randomness of the spread. Now, the devs have responded to complaints from Reaper mains.

Reaper’s shotguns have some of the highest damage potential in the game when barrel-stuffed into an enemy hero’s face at point-blank range.

In total, the hero can do 140 damage with a single body shot if all 20 pellets connect. When taking headshots into account, that number skyrockets to 280 damage with a single shot – enough to delete any DPS or support hero in the game.

While these numbers are good on paper, the spread can have some inaccuracies and be random at times which hurts the weapons’ consistency.

Reaper shrugs his shoulders
Reaper mains have noticed their shotgun spread is still a bit random.

This was supposed to be changed in a recent patch that buffed every shotgun in the game by making them less random. However, it seems like Reaper didn’t have his shotguns adjusted.

In a post on the official Overwatch forums, user Silver accused Blizzard of ‘doing Reaper dirty.’

“The shotgun spread change was nice.” the user wrote. “As a Reaper main, I felt like I could finally do consistent damage and secure kills without praying to RNGesus for good random spread. Then Blizzard covertly took away the set spread from Reaper ONLY and hoped nobody would notice. Nothing in the patch notes, no notification whatsoever.”

Overwatch forum post by Josh Noh
Overwatch devs plan on fixing the bug.

This eventually led to Overwatch Developer Josh Noh to comment and confirm that Reaper’s shotguns are indeed bugged: “The spread changes not going through for Reaper is indeed a bug. We’ll get it fixed, thanks for the report!”

For everyone who dislikes playing against Reaper, it seems like he’s going to be even more of a threat in your backline whenever the next patch goes live and this bug is finally fixed. You’ve been warned.

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About The Author

Michael Gwilliam is a senior writer at Dexerto based in Ontario, Canada. He specializes in Overwatch, Smash, influencers, and Twitch culture. Gwilliam has written for sites across Canada including the Toronto Sun. You can contact him at michael.gwilliam@dexerto.com or on Twitter @TheGwilliam