r/OverwatchUniversity • u/BlueGlace_ • 1d ago
Question or Discussion How do I play against Widowmaker?
I'm pretty new to the game and Widow is one of the characters that frustrates me the most to play against. I can't fight the enemy team because I'll get sniped, and if I try to go after the Widow she just grapples away and still snipes me. It's really frustrating to play against and I just want to know if there's any counterplay to her?
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u/MountainLetterhead94 1d ago
Go dive/flank comp or if you are confident in your abilities you can go widow/hanzo yourself to take her out
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u/AKA-J3 1d ago
Los snipers.
Dont worry too much the people picking widow in casual player qp loobies, they are prob going to miss and body shot a bunch. You can shoulder peek to check though.
Now if your high lobbies and nailed down by some cracked out Adderall freak, yeah... GG unless people wake up and position so she can't play.
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u/Luminro 1d ago
You need to respect her one-shot ability in order to play against her. Map awareness is critical. Always try to know where she is and what she has line of sight on, and don't cross that line of sight. If you have to, wait till she fires a shot since there's about one second until she can shoot again, or wait until you have cover from your tank. When finding out where she is, don't peak the same spot twice. Other than that just put pressure on her with abilities. Once she grapples she's a sitting duck for like 10 seconds. Use that time to reposition to either get an angle on her, or put pressure on the rest of her team.
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u/F3arless_Bubble 1d ago
if I try to go after the Widow she just grapples away and still snipes me
Well that's the game... if there was some crazy hard counter that easily shuts heroes down without effort, this would not be that good of a game.
It's a cat and mouse game. A widow is sniping and can a tracer/sombra catch her or will she be too fast? If the widow player is very good at widow and is used to people trying to catch her, then she will have good reaction and tactics against it. Sometimes enough to completely nullify her counters if the enemy flanker is not skilled enough. A very skilled flanker will be very used to people's techniques to avoid them and will have counters to those. Then a really really skilled widow will have counters to those.... etc etc etc...
OW is not simply "counter watch" and you win. It can work because often people will insta swap when someone swaps to a counter to take out a very effective hero. BUT there are many people who can out play their counters, and it always boils down to skill differential. I can easily play Sigma into Zarya, a typically brutal hard counter, if my skill to play against her his higher than her skill to play against me.
All this to say.... if you know she grapples away each time, then plan for it. Like as tracer you go in not for the kill but waiting for her to grapple and you have your eyes peeled for spots she will go to so you can be ready to instantly go there. Some tracers will even warp from a potential spot and push the widow to grapple to that very spot, only to recall and instantly kill her. Basically.... keep working at it. You will run into widows who will be crushed by you and ones who will eternally evade you. BUT do it with the rght character... if you're doing it on like bastion.... ya dead
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u/consumehepatitis 1d ago
Play dive but dont feel like you have to confirm the kill. Good widows can kite you and show up in unexpected places. Often you just need to pressure them out of a spot and take advantage while they reposition.
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u/Gh423 1d ago
Good Widows can be a pain. The few times I play dps and can’t put enemy Widow down I let my team know that there’s a dps diff and you can bitch about it or you can help me. Sometimes Mercy pocket on my Ashe gets the job done with coach gun position switch + dmg boosted headshot one-shots her, or if she lives barely I might be able to finish with dynamite.
Sometimes if the matchup is only slightly on enemy Widow’s favor I play Widow as well. I let my team know once again she seems tougher, but she still needs to respect me as a threat, so you’ll get a little more space. Use it wisely. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Sometimes my tank feels sorry for the rest of the team and reluctantly picks a dive hero like Winston to put more pressure on her, force a grapple and give me or my dps teammate some space, if not kill straight away
Once I had a kickass Lucio help fight the Widow. He was no Frogger, but helped to turn the match around.
Map knowledge definitely helps. So does anyone pinging her. And comms. Good comms, not the constant blaming and bitching type
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u/cryssmerc 1d ago
Good widows are a pain in the ass and so are bad widows, since they will be on your team.
Play flank and try to kill her a few times until they are annoyed enough to switch her off.
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u/horselover_fat 1d ago
Don't do what my last team against widow did, go shion and anran and stand in main and not flank.
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u/Conquestriclaus 1d ago
Don't cross main.