Genji, Overwatch‘s resident hypochondriac, is set to get a significant buff in an upcoming patch, and fans are hopeful it will bring the hero back to his former glory.
Recent updates addressed a number of issues with the hero’s ultimate, but they then opened the door to a host of other issues.
The primary concern initially related to Genji’s Dragonblade ultimate, and that it never quite seemed to function as it should. Glitches plagued the ultimate from launch, while more experienced — and crafty — players were found to be taking advantage of latency issues, pulling off gameplay exploits and tricks.
This sometimes resulted in an additional swing or dash should the player time the button input perfectly.
Blizzard has continuously worked to fix the problems with Genji’s Ultimate, and, broadly, the character is as balanced and refined as he’s ever been.
The only problem is that his Ultimate has been nerfed, so now you have Genji mains crying foul over a completely different issue.
Thankfully, Blizzard is onto the problem, with principal designer, Geoff Goodman, taking to the forums to reassure the Overwatch community.
“Before the last major patch, the amount of sword swings you could get changed depending on your latency,” Goodman explained. “Strangely, if you had higher latency you could swing more often. This bug was fixed, which caused some players to suddenly get less swings than they were used to.”
The ping threshold to get the additional katana swing was low, Goodman says, so much of the community was used to a 7-swing ultimate, even players that weren’t aware they were taking advantage of a glitch.
A recent update brought that total number of possible swings down to six, which completely changed the way people needed to play Genji.
“With that in mind,” Goodman continued, “we’re going to increase his swing speed overall so he’ll gain that 7th swing back for all players, regardless of latency. I’m not entirely sure when we can get that update into the players hands, but we’ll make sure its in the patch notes when it hits.”
What say you, Genji mains? Did you like the initial changes? What can be made to address this concern about a perceived nerf to his ultimate? Sound off in the comments below!
