Overwatch

Date played: Every few days in the last week
Platform: PS4

Today's hero is Hanzo.

Role: Defense
Difficulty: ★★★
HP: 200
Armor: 0
Shields: 0
Total: 200

Favorite quote: "Sake!"

Favorite map to play on: Temple of Anubis

Appearance

Hanzo is a Japanese man who wears a sexy ponytail and sports a sick arm sleeve tattoo. He wears traditional Japanese clothing. His only accessories are a bow, a quiver, and some arrows. His legendary skins add a lot more flavor to his appearance, including a wolf skin and a younger version of him. He is Genji's brother.

Skills

• Storm Bow: Hanzo fires an arrow. The shot can be charged to increase damage and distance. Hanzo never needs to reload.
• Scatter Arrow: Fires an arrow that ricochets off walls and splits itself into multiple fragments, which can hit multiple targets, or even hit one opponent multiple times.
• Sonic Arrow: Fires an arrow that reveals enemy locations within a short radius for a few seconds. This is very similar to Widowmaker's ultimate, but on a smaller scale.
• Wall Climb: Hanzo can climb walls to reach higher ground.
• Ultimate - Dragonstrike: Hanzo summons a pair of dragons (or wolves depending on his outfit) by shooting a special arrow. These dragons pass through walls to engulf enemies and deal heavy damage.

Strengths

• Hanzo hits pretty damn hard and often goes unnoticed because his bow doesn't make a lot of noise.
• Sonic Arrow is extremely useful to the team when used correctly. It can reveal enemy positions pretty reliably.
• Dragonstrike is amazing when combined with other Ultimates, like Zarya's or Mei's. It's also very useful for zone control as there aren't many heroes who can survive it.

Weaknesses

• Very weak at close range. Winston can eat him alive. 
• It's pretty difficult to be consistent with his arrows because they are relatively slow.
• Dragonstrike is easily avoided unless combined with other Ultimates.
• Hanzo cannot move much while aiming his bow, leaving him vulnerable to faster heroes.

Comments

Hanzo is pretty cool in general. He can work wonders at mid-range and is often overlooked in battle. I haven't played him often, but I enjoyed what little time I spent with him. He's pretty versatile, working well on both offense and defense, and even being useful in some control maps.

When I played him, what I found most difficult was learning the speed, force, and distance of his arrows. Charging up an arrow to full power takes a good amount of time and leaves Hanzo vulnerable to attack. When he doesn't charge them up to full power, it's even trickier because the arrows don't travel very far and don't hit very hard, but it's better than nothing.

His ultimate is definitely tricky to use. When the game first came out, people feared Dragonstrike, but that was because they hadn't learned how to avoid it. For example, when I play Zarya and I hear Hanzo's ultimate shout, I try to time my barrier so that I dip inside the dragons long enough to build some weapon charge. While they are visually imposing, they aren't as wide as they look and can be dodged easily in most cases.

The best Hanzos use their Sonic Arrow and Scatter Arrow as soon as it's available. The Scatter Arrow is particularly deadly in the hands of a skilled player since it can technically hit one person multiple times when timed correctly. This can mean an instant kill against anyone but tanks. His basic arrow also hits real fucking hard, so you'll often see Hanzo picking off people one by one until they notice him.

Bottom line, he's not really my style of hero. He's a bit too vulnerable for my tastes, and it's difficult to be consistent with him. Besides, I'm usually better when I'm in the middle of the fight instead of on the back lines.

Worst enemy: Winston

Best teammate: Mei
Most satisfying kill: Roadhog

Rating ★★★