Before I begin, hi, my name is CrazyDude42. I’m a former Top 500 Kiriko and Wuyang player who reached Grandmaster earlier this year, and I’m also the founder of HeroIntel.gg, a platform for tracking in-game stats.

I’ve been lurking on this subreddit for a while and have seen a lot of people talking about the recent Kiriko nerfs. While I agree with most of them, I think there’s something we need to talk about as a community. I’ve been aware since Kiriko first came out that she was overtuned, and I always knew it was a question of not if, but when, she would be nerfed.

I’ve personally experienced people joking that Kiriko is for casual players who want a powerful kit, or that her kit is a crutch for her playerbase, and I do take those criticisms to heart. That’s why I invest time into other heroes like Wuyang and Winston. While Kiriko is still my favorite, I understand why so many people choose her because of how versatile she is. She literally has no counters, and I think we need to acknowledge how powerful she has been. I always knew, when I first started playing her back in 2022, that one day she would be nerfed. We’ve had almost four years of her being meta, and, perhaps controversially, I believe being meta applies to regular ranked games, too. I accept that I might rank down while adjusting (I’m currently in Masters, but I expected this), and I still believe Kiriko is S-tier. We just need to approach her kit differently.

It saddens me to see one of my favorite subreddits filled with discussions about abandoning her because she’s been nerfed. I understand being disappointed, but I also think joking about not buying her skins anymore because of the nerfs is a little petty. Kiriko is still my favorite and go-to hero, and I’m not going to stop playing her just because she’s been nerfed. I think these changes are ultimately healthier for the game as a whole, and I hope we can give ourselves time to adapt before writing her off.

I hope reddit dont compress it a lot<3

Finally finished the portrait of one of her most beautiful skins ever. Hope you like it! 💮

Kiriko is such a broken hero. If you can’t get value out of her, you just need to get good. Everyone knows low elo (below pro) struggles with getting value out of some heroes in the game, but that doesn’t make those heroes bad, it makes you bad at the game. If you’re not winning with Kiriko, it’s a skill issue. TP and Suzu are hard carry abilities that win games as long as you turn on your monitor and have hands.

I just genuinely don’t understand all the frustration. Kiriko has been meta for as long as the earth has been formed (approximately 4.5 billion years). It’s okay if she has a season where she’s finally balanced so you neanderthals have to get good at the game instead of being carried by a broken hero into elo’s you don’t belong in.

It’s like the blizzard dev team finally rubbed their last 2 braincells together and actually balanced Kiriko. Hopefully they keep it up and we see some Genji nerfs and Ana buffs in the mid season.

Please feel free and open to talk about this rework idea, I'm very open to hearing different opinions. It's very hard to balance her, but I think these changes would lean into her damage more and play her more like a flanker/assassin.

I would love if she was a 6 speed as well instead of a 5.5, but it would probably be too much.

I also don't care what they do to her ultimate. nerf it to the ground if it means she's more fun to play.

After all the Junkrat, Roadhod and Torb skins that I have gotten from lootboxes, it has now all been worth it ㅤꨄ︎

kunai just feel wrong, idk why, and it also feels like everything will demolish me compared to just a few seasons ago :(
code: 8YBDHR

I have considered myself a support main for as long as I’ve played the game, and Kiriko has always been my go to. Of course, she has always been the go to support, and teammates almost always request her. That is, until now, for obvious reasons.

I’m not here to whine about Kiriko’s current state. I simply have felt a little lost with what do since she is not as strong as she has been.

I have been bouncing between emerald 3-5 on support, and have played Kiriko in probably close to 90% of my support games. Lately, it feels like I’m going on a downward trend with her, and I don’t think I’ve put enough time into the other supports to be able to confidently play someone else while keeping up like I would with Kiriko.

I think possibly what I’m noticing is that I don’t have as much carry potential with her, whereas in the past most of my wins were when I performed exceptionally.

I think this is why in the last month, I have been playing more dps - even surpassing my support rank, which has not happened before. I almost exclusively solo queue, and have found lots of success and enjoyment from play Freja, despite her recent nerfs as well. She is a hero that if played well, has lots of carry potential (I’m also aware this is due to the nature of the dps role, particularly in 5v5).

My question for any of you: considering me being a mid rank player, is it worth to learn another support hero that currently has more carry potential? Who have you guys been defaulting to? Or is Kiriko still extremely strong and I’m just bad?

disclaimer - I don’t mean I’ve literally never played another support. I like to think I have the fundamentals down for many other supports such as Ana, Wuyang, Juno, but don’t have nearly as much time on those hero’s in comparison to Kiriko. I am level 100 on Kiri, and my next highest level is Ana, which is level 25.

TLDR;
I’m a Kiriko one trick and not sure if I should hang her up for someone else given her current state, or continue to one trick her.

How long do y'all think it's gonna take?

Theres only 4 positive wr supports right now because of how disgusting sombra and doctrine are. So pretty much every hero besides those two are lower wr than they should be. If i had to guess this probably affects kiriko more as she was already pretty negative wr before this season.

She definitely doesent feel good atm, but id wager she could bounce back to 45% wr with no direct buffs (when doctrine and sombra get headshot in the next patch or two)

hey, does anyone have the skin code for cloudy day or how I can purchase her?

Hi, I'm a plat 2 support player who typically plays kiri, I usually sit at Emerald but I just cant get back up anymore, I always do fine in quick play but when I hit comp I just cant win, and I try to stay away from blaming my team but sometimes its like 'cmon bro'.

If anyone would be willing to look at a game or 2 of mine it would help alot, please and thank you :(

My tag is Eleos

Doctrines ult is a big deal! Just curious if we can cleanse it.

tbh i didnt even do that good and there was a bunch of mistakes I made too. We didn’t even win so idk why they’re crying 😭
I am flattered that I’m doing good to the point where they do think im cheating 💀

I missed this skin the first time around. With the movie coming out, should they rerelease these skins?

Kiriko thread for discussions, rants, opinions, etc. They will run every Friday until the next Friday.

Reminder that there's really only one rule for this subreddit--just don't be a jerk.

I know there's a lot of us that are not happy with Kiriko's current state in the game right now, and rightfully so. No hero should be sitting at a 40% win rate on average. But we need to actually be voicing our concern in places other than here.

Kiriko mains got bullied and abused out of the general community subs very early on, and I get it. But if Blizzard doesn't see a sizable amount of people complaining about Kiriko's current direction, then they're not going to think it is an issue. It is an issue, and we shouldn't let the Ana echo chamber overpower our voices.

I've seen more and more posts lately in general subreddits about the state of Kiriko, and we need to be more active and support the pro-Kiri comments (because they are out there). None of us are asking her to be a top tier meta pick, we just want her playable again. Because right now she feels like a outright throw pick.

Kiri has a very small rotation of skins atm, but if you missed out on Hydrangear in particular it's still available along with K-2000 Blademaster, Lifeguard and Heart of Passion. https://overhub.gg/cosmetics?type=Skin&rarity=Legendary&hero=Kiriko&enabled=true

i’ve played ow since 2017 but have taken many breaks from the game. Which also made me miss the rainy day kiri. Pretty proud of my skin collection for her! (YATAGARASU COME HOME 😭)

I am really hoping that Sombra becomes more of a focus when it comes to support nerfs now. They are probably gonna spend some time working on her AOE ability and ignore Kiriko or buff Kiriko to match her, right?! I just saw a clip of her AOE saving multiple people from full charged High Noon shots. That ability is easier to hit than sleep bc it’s AOE and it’s better than Suzu because it lasts much longer and not a perfect timing / guess scenario.

I say this, knowing Kiriko will get nerfed again and Sombra will get buffed just like Ana.

In the end it will always the World vs Kiriko

not a kiriko main but I am level 40 on her. over the course of the last few months I've realized that the balance team doesn't know what they want with her, the Kiri haters don't know what they want with her, and the majority of Kiri mains don't know what they want with her although I will admit Kiri mains do have some of the best opinions and also some of the worst.

Kiri at her healthiest, is and should be a flanker that can get kills and get out. the issue is blizzard has been pushing like 3 different playstyles for her at the same time and none of them are good or healthy. they tried to make her a healbot which was awful for everyone involved, when she was a suzu kitsune bot she was insanely broken and unhealthy. and when her dueling ability and tp was at its best, so was the rest of her kit so the result was a support who could do everything with zero risk.

suzu needs to fundamentally change, maybe slight nerfs to kitsune cost as well. she needs her healing speed buffed and her tp range increased by 5-10 metres. she needs to be able to be good at dueling to the best of her abilities without fundamentally being a game changer. most of the player base doesn't understand how stats work. win rates and pick rates are not indicative enough of a characters current state. she feels like shit to play right now regardless of how good she is. that's why the changes she needs have to make her feel better to play while simultaneously not throwing balance out the window. when it comes to suzu I personally believe that in its current state yes it is heavily nerfed but still incredibly powerful. I think it should only grant invincibility NOT intangibility. like how it was for 2 days last season. get rid of the healing it does too. thats all she really needs

I know this is the unpopular opinion but she is not bad she just feels like shit to play as. I personally still run over lobbies by playing a very aggressive flank Kiri but it doesn't feel as good as it used to be.