Hanzo’s getting a new ability to replace his Scatter Arrow.
Tentatively called ‘Rapid Shot’, it’s a self-buff that will make Hanzo draw and fire his arrows much faster. Kaplan said in a dev update, “Right now we’re experimenting with five arrows at a very high fire rate.” The rate of fire hasn’t been confirmed yet, but I’m already wondering. Are we talking ‘Fan the Hammer’ fast or ‘Oh shit, the Matrix’ fast?
There will obviously be some sort of visual sign to tell teammates and enemies when it’s active, although it hasn’t been hammered down yet. I imagine we’ll find out this month what it’ll look like. There is some concept art, though:
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It seems that, unlike channeling his Spirit Dragon into his arrow like with his ult, Hanzo will channel it into his bow. It makes sense in regards to the lore, but I do wonder if he’s going to have an auditory cue to go with it.
Because we don’t already have enough terror from him shouting angrily in Japanese. Obviously.
In other news, Kaplan also said in the update, “… we’ve also given Hanzo a horizontal leap that allows him to leap in whatever direction he’s facing to either forward, back, left, or right. This is more meant as a disengage for Hanzo, of course you can sometimes use it to get into cool interesting places, that’s pretty fun also.”
Hanzo has always been able to climb up walls, just like Genji, but he hasn’t had a movement ability like the double jump or sword slash. This will no doubt open the map up to him, but time will tell if it’ll open up too much. He’s got less range than Widowmaker, but depending on the power of this new leap, he might match her in positioning.
The leap will introduce some hard decisions for Hanzo players. He’ll be able to engage people easier, and he’ll also be able to get out easier, but only once. If he jumps into a fight he can’t jump out again until the cooldown is finished, and vice versa. Either way, a disengage ability for Hanzo is a longtime need for many players.
On a final related note, Hanzo’s also getting a nerf for his Sonic Arrow. Once it hits, the area will be smaller, allowing for enemies to move around it easier. Looks like the dragon needs glasses.
We’ll see these changes introduced to the PTR sometime this month. There isn’t a timeline for their release into the game, though.
