Key Takeaways
- As a long-range sniper, Widowmaker’s best maps feature long sightlines, such as Havana Point A and Junkertown Point A. On these maps, the game can often be decided by who has the more skilled Widowmaker on their team.
- Widowmaker’s worst maps are those which have shorter sightlines, allowing enemy players to pressure her more easily. She simply doesn’t have the tools to deal with or reliably escape enemy heroes at short range.
- Widowmaker counters almost every hero, but only on maps with long sightlines. For example, she counters Soldier 76 on maps with long sightlines, but Soldier 76 has the upper hand on maps with medium-range sightlines that are more favorable to his medium-range primary fire.
- Widowmaker is countered by heroes that can easily close the gap and target her in a short-range engagement, such as Sombra, Genji, and Winston.
Widowmaker Quick Tips
- Widowmaker has 175 total health, with no armor or shields, making her one of the easiest heroes to kill in the game.
- Widowmaker players need game sense to know where to position, but most of the value from Widowmaker’s kit comes from being able to land headshots with her primary fire.
- Widowmaker is a feast or famine type of character—if you aren’t able to hit headshots due to shaky aim, smart enemy positioning, or an unfavorable map, it may be time to swap to a more forgiving character like Ashe.
- Skilled Widowmaker player should download the Z League app to find teammates who will enable her to sit back and find easy headshots.
Widowmaker Abilities Explained
Img via Blizzard Entertainment
Widow’s Kiss (Primary and Secondary Fire)
Widowmaker’s primary fire is a single shot hitscan weapon that charges up while scoped in. The weapon can do up to 120 damage while fully charged, and as little as three damage when not charged at all. To get maximum value from her primary fire, Widowmaker players should look to shoot when the weapon is fully charged. Uncharged shots can be useful in finishing off low health opponents, but won’t contribute significant overall damage, even if spammed.
Widow’s secondary fire is a hitscan machine gun, similar to Soldier 76. It can do up to 13 damage per shot, assuming enemies are within its 20 meter falloff range, but the weapon has significant spread at range, making it difficult to land every shot. Widowmaker’s secondary fire is generally used to provide short-range spam damage when enemy players manage to close the gap and target her at short range.
Grappling Hook
Grappling Hook has a 12 second cooldown and can be used to propel Widowmaker across the map within a 20 meter range. The ability has two primary uses—either to reposition, especially onto high ground, or as an escape tool. Very skilled Widowmaker players can use Grappling Hook to launch themselves high up into the air, scope in, charge a shot, and ideally hit a headshot on an opposing player from an angle which wouldn’t be possible without the increased vertical mobility from Grappling Hook.
Venom Mine
Venom Mine deploys a small mine which deals 15 damage per second for five seconds if tripped by an enemy player. While being damaged by Venom Mine, the enemy player is visible to the allied team, similar to if under the influence of Sombra’s Hack. Venom Mine can be tucked into tight spaces to make it easy to trigger, allowing it to serve as an alert of sorts for Widowmaker to know flankers are in the area. If an enemy is damaged by Venom Mine, Widowmaker has a better chance of killing them or causing them to retreat with her secondary fire, which isn’t as much of a threat to full health enemies.
Infra-Sight (Ultimate)
Infra-Sight is a simple ultimate ability which causes all enemies to become visible through walls for a 15 second duration. The ability is strong on offense, as all enemy positions are immediately known and the allied team can position as favorably as possible. Widowmaker can become far more aggressive with her positioning when her ultimate is active because it shows her all pertinent threats and allows her to take angles which neutralize threats.
