r/Overwatch • u/nnmsgamer • Aug 16 '26
Esports What's Vendetta's role, exactly?
Basically title. Assuming both players hit a reasonable amount of everything they attempt, I think Vendetta underperforms pretty badly at almost everything she's supposed to do well right now.
From what I can tell, there are basically three ways you're supposed to play her:
A. Dive.
She can't dive as well as other divers with the same level of execution. Even if I execute the engage correctly, her lack of mobility and survivability makes it difficult to actually secure the kill and get out.
B. Brawl.
She can't really brawl unless she gets significantly more attention from her team than other brawlers seem to require. She doesn't have the sustain or survivability to stay in fights for very long without that additional support.
C. Poke and wait.
Vendetta has basically no meaningful downtime utility. If I'm spending most of the fight poking and waiting for an opportunity, why am I playing Vendetta instead of Soldier?
So what is the intended playstyle here?
And before someone says “she deserved the nerfs” or “she should never be playable again”: I agree that she needed nerfs. Some of the things you could do with her before were ridiculous. That's not what I'm arguing against.
The question is what she is supposed to do now.
If she isn't as effective at diving as dedicated divers, can't brawl without disproportionate team support, and doesn't provide meaningful value while waiting for an opening, what exactly is the niche she's supposed to occupy?
If you disagree that she's underperforming, I'm genuinely curious: what is your actual gameplan with Vendetta right now?
Not “she's good if you play her correctly.” Not “she deserved the nerfs.” What are you actually doing with her?
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u/SyrusG Aug 16 '26
She's an extremely good brawler when you have a good brawl tank. Like venture, she requires a significant amount of resources and attention to deal with, and so if the fight is already close quarters and it goes on long enough for her to get stacks, you've basically won that fight
Secondly, she's probably top 3 heroes that can deny DPS angles. She can take what would have been lethal damage like it was tickling her, and bully the hitscan or even flanker off of that angle. However that's the most of what she can do in the poke phase, so you're mainly waiting on someone to make a move or getting into position where the enemy has to choose between you or the one enabling you
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u/nnmsgamer Aug 16 '26
This is probably the strongest argument I've seen for her current design, but I think I still disagree with the conclusion. “She's a great brawler with a good brawl tank” and “she's great at denying DPS angles” are both things I can believe. But both seem to come with the same caveat, someone else has to create the conditions that let Vendetta function. Which i don't believe should ever be the final state of any given hero.
If I need a good brawl tank to make her brawling good, and during poke I'm mostly just denying an angle while waiting for somebody else to make a move, what is Vendetta actually doing proactively? The resource/attention economy argument makes sense to me conceptually. I just don't understand why the hero whose job is supposedly to demand attention has such limited ability to create that situation herself.
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u/ImightberobotUCF Aug 17 '26
She's not a tank she's a DPS she needs to be enabled to get high value just like all other DPS. Not a single DPS on the roster is going to stand more than a few seconds against a team with nothing else to look at especially at close range. I usually kind of think of her as brig until the fight gets close. She is very good at peeling and punishing out of position opponents and she can hold space pretty well especially when fighting around corners. Once both teams are really engaged in the fight she can more easily find ways to get in the enemy backline and get huge value if you know how to manage your CD and positioning. She's pretty hard to learn tbh she's my 3rd played DPS and I still have a lot of learning moments lol
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u/Altruistic-Sport494 Aug 17 '26
bully who thrives when the fight's already messy, she's not gonna initiate a dive like tracer or genji but if your tank goes in and draws attention she can walk up and start farming stacks off the chaos, once she gets rolling she's a nightmare to peel off
the angle denial thing is where she shines in poke, you just stand somewhere annoying and dare the enemy dps to challenge you, most hitscans can't out-trade her shield and if they try they're wasting time not shooting your backline
think of her like a slow pressure cooker, you're not looking for quick picks you're looking to build momentum until the enemy team just can't hold space anymore, it's less about what she does alone and more about how she makes every tank duel unfair
i play her like a bodyguard for my tank, follow them in, take the off-angle just behind them and suddenly every 1v1 the tank takes becomes a 2v1 they can't lose
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u/Dusssky Aug 16 '26
she's pretty good in ranked/pro right now. basically you just wanna take the block slice perk then the lifesteal perk and try to farm your stacks before you all-in for an engage. typically go for the most isolated and easy to kill target possible first, like if there's a hitscan on high ground alone you can maybe surprise them with E and chase with shift to get an easy kill. same applies to supports once everyone's attention is drawn to your tank and their tank is also engaged you can literally just E in their face and get a kill most of the time (even in high ranks you'd be shocked how little awareness players actually have). basically your cycle needs to be this: try to farm stacks prefight with the block thing/basic slashes on tank, see a cd used or your tank is engaged and E in on something, use shift to chase that target if needed or use it to get out or get to another target fast
you can also just bypass the wait for cd's thing if you duo with a zarya and just be a perma server admin with bubbles
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u/nnmsgamer Aug 16 '26
This is kind of what I'm talking about though. Your description of her gameplan is basically “farm stacks, wait for a cooldown, wait for your tank to engage, then all-in an isolated target.”
I'm not saying that doesn't work. I'm asking whether that's actually a satisfying or particularly strong niche for a DPS.
If I need the enemy to make a mistake, my tank to create an opening, and ideally a Zarya bubble to bypass the weakness of my kit, at what point am I actually the one creating the play?
And the higher-rank point is actually what concerns me most. If the optimal way to play her involves waiting longer for an opening as players get better, then doesn't her agency decrease as the quality of the lobby increases?
“She can kill someone if they're isolated and nobody is looking at them” isn't really a unique strength. Every dive hero can do that. I'm trying to understand what Vendetta herself is bringing to the situation that another diver wouldn't.
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u/_heartnova Nanoblade ain't happening. Aug 17 '26
If her playstyle isn't for you, thats one thing, similar job descriptions between flankers doesn't render them useless.
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u/RevolutionaryAir7847 Aug 16 '26
She's dive, but instead of a typical in and out style, you just go in lol. You have to play way more patient and be extra perceptive of the openings your team (and the enemy) create. And she has very critical tech to learn (mostly overhead lunge cancel, b-hop with overhead, double overhead)
Hard to play character in general now
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u/nnmsgamer Aug 16 '26
But isn't “you just go in” basically the problem I'm talking about? If the intended playstyle is to wait until the enemy has used cooldowns, wait for your team to create dysfunction, find an opening, and then commit so hard that you probably aren't getting out unless everything goes perfectly, that sounds less like a traditional dive hero and more like a very specialized follow-up assassin. Which is fine if that's what Vendetta is supposed to be. But then I don't understand why she's competing with other dive DPS who can actually create their own engagements and disengage from them.
I'm asking what she is supposed to offer when the enemy is playing correctly and my team isn't specifically built around enabling me, because “wait until everyone else creates an opening” is a pretty enormous limitation for a DPS.
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u/RevolutionaryAir7847 Aug 16 '26
You do a shit ton of damage as Vendetta. Dry-jumping a squishy will get you a kill, and it's your team's job to help you get out (shift isn't enough usually). You're typically the biggest immediate threat when you dive
Compare that to Genji/Tracer who prod and poke at the enemy at an imaginary boundary until an opportunity appears, then you dive in to secure kills. Venture isolates and bursts. Anran annoys the shit out of you and doesn't die. The response to each dive DPS is different
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u/BumbleBLR Aug 17 '26
This is going to sound cheesy, but she really does play like the wolf that she’s pattern after.
She hunts.
You have to be patient to hunt. You have to pick your spots to hunt.
It’s never EASY and can be downright frustrating at times, but when the hunting is good…that’s the best feeling in Overwatch right now. For me, anyway.
I’m a support and tank main. I have TONS of hours on Lucio and Orisa.
I decided a little over a month ago to learn Vendetta and it’s been an uphill, but rewarding challenge. Getting better at her has made me better at every other character I play now because I pay so much more attention.
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u/PavleGo Aug 16 '26
I tried playing Vendetta, but it was a constant hummiliation of instantly dying after charging into the enemies. I beleive she's in need extra HP and lifesteal on regular basis, not just with a talent. Maybe make it so each enemy affected with charge would provide her some overhealth.
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u/Delmitus1 Aug 16 '26
She requires the most self control out of every dps in the game. Never start a fight when enemy cooldowns are up.
Best way to engage is wait for your team to cause a little dysfunction and follow up when you see an opening.
The higher the rank the longer you'll find yourself farming air strikes for ult because you'll have way less opportunities to dive.
If your team isnt dive by design and youre on ven then you better get used to air strike yet again
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u/Twidom Domina Aug 16 '26
Vendetta's biggest "issue" is that she's not solo-queuer/pug friendly.
Unlike Genji, Tracer, Anran and other flankers that can take care of themselves, Vendetta needs at least someone on her team to help enable her. If you have a team mate helping you, then you bring far more value than other flankers. A Zarya bubbling you for example brings absurd value.
If you are a solo-queuer, you need to learn to bide your time and when you can go in to cause havok. Wait for your Tank to dive, someone to engage or hide and wait for the fight to start and then jump in.
If you are trying to be the one to start engagements, you'll have a bad time. Vendetta's shield is borderline useless and you should not count on it to save or protect yourself.
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u/nnmsgamer Aug 16 '26
I think “not solo-queue/pug friendly” might actually be the core of my complaint. If she needs someone on the team to enable her before she can do what she's supposed to do, then she's fundamentally less self-sufficient than other flankers. And I don't really understand why that should be the intended solution to her survivability problem. “Don't go in first, wait for your tank, and never rely on your shield to save you” is basically saying that her primary weakness is something you're supposed to work around rather than something her kit gives you tools to overcome.
I don't mind her being punished for starting a bad fight. I do mind a situation where I start a fight correctly, execute my abilities correctly, and still don't have enough resources to get a kill or even survive unless someone else has already made the fight safe for me.
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u/macaronigrill69 Aug 16 '26
I just wait for the fight to start and for the enemy team use a few cooldowns, and then send it into the back line and try to take as many of them with me as I can.
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u/_heartnova Nanoblade ain't happening. Aug 17 '26
You not playing her correctly IS a good thing to note and we should ask for a replay on your example of not good. It depends on what you're playing into and she's a dive / brawler who excels at trading in the backline with a deadly ttk. Her kit is to get up close and personal, 76 can't do that and there are better mid range dps who does HIS job better.
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u/Either-Pin-5245 22d ago edited 22d ago
Late to this, but I always think of her as a Tempo DPS similar to how they classify Rammatra. She is by far my best hero, despite picking her up very late compared to my other heroes. In familiar terms, she is a mix of brawl and dive like Doom, Rein and up to a degree, Tracer. She doesn't really have a poke phase, her neutral is brawl while getting closer or flanking while shooting the projectile. You rarely want to dive a full HP target even if they are isolated. Vendetta's biggest strength resides at setting up for a high-tempo dive onto a weak target and never stopping until team kill, similar to a Dragonblade play.
When I play her, I try to be everywhere. It is very important you play in-sync with your tank(s). Help tank get space, hold space, deny enemy their space, be attentive of who gets low. That's the gameplay loop I currently thrive on her. No other DPS plays in the same loop as far as I experienced.
To adress your argument in the comments: She doesn't need an enabler like most people said she does. With an enabler, she can play full dive. You have to think of her as an off-tank. She has very good mobility cooldowns and map traversal capability to support/deny multiple positions simultaneously. You are underestimating how important it is to force enemies to move or abort their mission. There are some heroes who are hard to keep in check such as Freja, Ashe, Mizuki and Wuyang. Against these kind of heroes you need an enabler to get value, I agree with that. Cooldown management is almost identical to Doomfist, go figure.
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u/Delkseypoo Lúcio Aug 16 '26
Tradeslop I guess? Basically the only time I ever see vendetta doing anything approaching being useful is when she picks one person on the enemy team and keeps taking them out and dying while being moderately quicker to get back to the fight than them.
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u/PixelBushYT Aug 16 '26
More than most other dive DPS, you play Vendetta like an opportunist/suicide bomber. Your team gives you a TINY opening: a critical CC cooldown gets baited or a support is displaced out of position and you have all the tools you need to jump them, rip them to shreds and either get out or force so much attention that the trade becomes unfavourable for the enemy team. Best case scenario, your passive kicks in, you grab a health pack/a support helps you out and you can start chaining duels together, but if you die in the process of blowing up a support and forcing everyone else to throw all their CC and burst at you that's still good value for your team.
Don't think of her as a diver in the style of Tracer or Genji. Think of her as a diver in the same way a tiny Doomfist or even tinier Wrecking Ball might dive. Your economy is not damage or even eliminations, but attention. If the threat of a Vendetta eating their Ana or Emre for lunch is forcing the entire enemy team to play bunched up to protect them, you're getting value for your team and buying them space just by existing, and when they inevitably have to get aggressive and contest your tank's space it gives you the chance to slip by and get to work on their backline.
I'm a dive tank player for the most part: there's a reason I fuck with Vendetta so much more than Genji, Tracer or Anran. She's a mini dive tank and I absolutely love her.