Hanzo - "With every death comes honor. With honor, redemption."- Name: Hanzo Shimada
- Age: 38
- Occupation: Mercenary/Assassin
- Base of Operations: Hanamura, Japan (formerly)
- Role: Defense
- Class: Medium-range Sniper
Hanzo is the only other hero of Overwatch in the sniper class alongside Widowmaker, and with that fact comes a similar playstyle with several distinct differences. For one, Hanzo is the only character sporting a bow, and while Widowmaker is best at long-range with her scoped rifle, Hanzo performs at his best at a medium range. Below we will look at Hanzo's strengths and weaknesses, as well as when it is best to play him and his abilities.
Strengths- Hanzo has the potential for high single-shot damage at medium and close range.
- In good hands Dragonstrike can either zone enemies away for Hanzo's team to flank, or get several kills all its own.
- Scatter Arrow has a "flanking without flanking" potential of hitting enemies behind cover like Reinhardt's barrier, objects, or hiding around corners.
- Sonic Arrow is like a mini, localized Widowmaker ultimate that can be used frequently, providing valuable information to yourself and your team
- Unlike Widowmaker, Hanzo is truly viable on both attack and defense.
Weaknesses- Hanzo is not as effective at the longer-ranged sniping distances. Without the capability of zooming in and the fact that arrows start to drop off at a certain distance makes landing shots at long range that much more difficult.
- Landing shots reliably requires practice. Knowing how far your arrows fly at each charge level, knowing the time it will take for your arrow to fly to its destination, and other factors are things that a player needs to train himself in or suffer from unreliably damage output.
- Also unlike Widowmaker, Hanzo has no mine to warn of incoming enemies, or grapple to quickly get away. It is a lot easier to get caught with no escape as Hanzo, and learning to position yourself in a consistently safe way can prove to be difficult.
When to Play Hanzo
The benefit to Hanzo is that he, overall, provides much more of a presence to his team than a Widowmaker would, especially on the attack side. That is counterbalanced by the fact that Hanzo has, as generally regarded by the community, a higher than average skill cap. Don't let that dissuade you from taking the time to make yourself comfortable with his playstyle if you aren't naturally adept at landing shots with his bow. (However, I do recommend that if you can not reliably land your shots, that you should spend time practicing before making him a regular part of your hero rotation. Though he is viable on the attack side, the front lines is still not the place for our other hero in the sniper role.
He is an excellent pick on the attacking side especially when there are stationary foes like Bastion and Torbjorns turrets to deal with. Your ultimate is also an effective tool for zoning enemies away from the desired objective, or for killing the defenders outright. You should not play Hanzo on the attack side if you have too many heroes unable to stay on the front line as is, as waiting behind to snipe defenders does not help push forward effectively enough. He is great on the defending side also, as
Sonic Arrow provides a great defensive utility, and Hanzo's ultimate is an excellent defensive attack as on many maps attackers need to go through narrow chokepoints, and these spots are vulnerable to your ultimate ability.
On the best of three point capture maps Hanzo is still viable (at least, more viable than Widowmaker is on these maps). As
Hanzo's strength does not decay too much at closer ranges, so he is more able to stand on a point and contest or defend it.
Abilities
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Wall Climb: Wall climb is a fairly useful passive movement ability, and it only requires the player to jump at the wall where climbing is desired, and Hanzo will dart his way up. This is not nearly as much mobility as Widowmaker and does next to nothing in ways of escape, but you can find many a shortcut, ways to flank the enemy, and other sniping nests.
Wall Climb does not really have an impact in the heat of battle, but it is a useful tool to make sure you have a grasp on to use Hanzo to his full effectiveness.
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Storm Bow: This is everything that Hanzo is made of. Him and his bow make their way around the battlefield, piercing his enemies gracefully as he goes. At least that's the whole idea of the thing. In practice, there is a lot to master when it comes to this bow. Having in your muscle memory how far arrows travel at different charge times, how long it takes for the arrow to fly from point A to point B at different charge times, when exactly the arrow would start to drop off, and so on. I could make charts with all the numbers, talk about exactly how many yards away you should be, but in reality, all it takes is practice for your coordination and memory, and you'll find yourself landing shots without thinking about them.
It is worth noting that Hanzo can hold his charge indefinitely, and has movement capability while holding a charge. His movement speed is significantly reduced, so do not rely on holding the charge if you need to get away quickly. The alternate fire (default RMB) will cancel your charged shot without firing it. To give you some numbers, just clicking the fire (LMB) without holding it at all for any charge will do 29 damage if striking its target, while a fully charged shot does 125 damage. (With the usual double damage for critical hits). Other than that, using the bow is fairly straightforward. Wait for your target, and fire. It is definitely not easy to maintain landed shots without practice with his bow, but Hanzo is well worth the time invested in learning him. He is a great addition to a team.
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Sonic Arrow (LSHIFT): This ability is an important one to use as often as possible. All of Hanzo's abilities replace the next arrow he is going to fire, and this one fires an AoE reveal of enemies through walls, and those obstructed from view. It is essentially a mini-Widowmaker-ultimate over a localized area. It does do damage also, if you happen to hit a hero with it, but that does not ever need to be the goal of firing off a
Sonic Arrow.
There are a few ways that
Sonic Arrow excels. One is in choke points near your team. It allows precious seconds of preparedness, the ability to prefire, send arrows, rockets, grenades, etc. down the unsuspecting team's way. And any other path that can be used for flanking, or if you have seen a sniper on the other team, you can shoot it up by their last known sniper nest to see if they are still there, and if they are, you will be aware of when they are popping out to make their next shot, giving you the advantage. Hiding nooks and crannies that house healthpacks, or just provide the enemy cover while planning an attack is good to fire on so you are aware.
Long story short with
Sonic Arrow is that you should always be using it. There is no such thing as useless information. Even if you shoot it and reveal no enemies, it buys your team time to know they are secure from the revealed location.
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Scatter Arrow (E): This ability replaces Hanzo's arrow with one that will, on impact, split into 5 arrows that bounce off of walls or objects up to three times before stopping, giving the opportunity for hitting multiple targets, hitting targets at an unknown location, or more easily defending a point. The 5 arrows, once scattering, will deal 75 damage each, so there is a potential for high damage output from this ability.
This ability, along with much of Hanzo's kit, requires practice to be able to predict how arrows will bounce, and what direction they will scatter once the first arrow hits. The first scatter, before the arrows bounce, travel in the direction the initial arrow was headed, so one of the highest damage ways of using
Scatter Arrow is at an enemy's feet, and the arrows will bounce up and one-shot (in most cases) your foe. This, of course, also requires practice. That is one usage of this ability, and should be your reflex to having someone charge you at close range. Switch to
Scatter Arrow and fire at their feet. Be sure not to hit the hero themself, or you will not do as much damage as you could have, and potentially give them the chance to counter and kill you.
The second usage of
Scatter Arrow is basically spamming it. Throwing it into corners, through doorways, behind Reinhardt's Barrier, hitting ceilings with it and having it rain on your enemies, and so on. The possibilities are endless, and it should basically be used as often as possible to maximize the damage you are putting out.
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Dragonstrike (Q): Hanzo's ultimate ability does some of the highest damage in the game. Any enemy that is in its path will take between 150-200 points of damage for every second they are inside. This means tanks can last about a second to two before needing a way out, but almost certain death for anyone not already out of the way. The dragons come after Hanzo fires an arrow, and will travel in the direction of that arrow before they reach the end of the map, so there is potential for big plays with this ability.
You can not really hide the fact that you are using your ultimate as Hanzo, and the delay from announcing it to actually firing it gives plenty of warning to your enemies, so timing and positioning of it is important, and (as is the theme with Hanzo), requires practice. Enemies that are not as mobile, or who did not catch the warning in time will still have little to no chance of survival however, and will help your team advance.
As most of the ultimates go in Overwatch, Hanzo's can have his effectiveness greatly increased by using it with other heroes' ultimates. Especially those of Zarya's and Mei's, rendering the enemy team immobile and unable to escape the swirling dragons headed their way.
If your enemies are otherwise incapacitated or trapped, such as in a corner, against a wall, or in a fight they can only run away from in one direction, it will be easier to secure kills with your ultimate, but understand that it is important you do not wait all game for the "perfect"
Dragonstrike, as they are rare and hard to come by. Even if you do not secure kills with it, you force action from the enemy team, and they have to respond to it, giving your team a positional advantage as your dragons pave a way for you.
Though the audio cue will give it away, sometimes if you can hide the visual cues better, you will have more success surprising the enemy team. This is another good case for
Sonic Arrow, as it allows you to time and place your ultimate with much more ease and precision.
So what does that mean by leveling up to 100 in one week? According to him, he usually plays around 13 hours a day and he's played over 92 hours since the game launches on May 24. He gets no real life as you may say, but he's earned himself some reputation on the internet by doing that. He did a 
Wall Climb: Wall climb is a fairly useful passive movement ability, and it only requires the player to jump at the wall where climbing is desired, and Hanzo will dart his way up. This is not nearly as much mobility as Widowmaker and does next to nothing in ways of escape, but you can find many a shortcut, ways to flank the enemy, and other sniping nests. Wall Climb does not really have an impact in the heat of battle, but it is a useful tool to make sure you have a grasp on to use Hanzo to his full effectiveness.
Storm Bow: This is everything that Hanzo is made of. Him and his bow make their way around the battlefield, piercing his enemies gracefully as he goes. At least that's the whole idea of the thing. In practice, there is a lot to master when it comes to this bow. Having in your muscle memory how far arrows travel at different charge times, how long it takes for the arrow to fly from point A to point B at different charge times, when exactly the arrow would start to drop off, and so on. I could make charts with all the numbers, talk about exactly how many yards away you should be, but in reality, all it takes is practice for your coordination and memory, and you'll find yourself landing shots without thinking about them.
Sonic Arrow (LSHIFT): This ability is an important one to use as often as possible. All of Hanzo's abilities replace the next arrow he is going to fire, and this one fires an AoE reveal of enemies through walls, and those obstructed from view. It is essentially a mini-Widowmaker-ultimate over a localized area. It does do damage also, if you happen to hit a hero with it, but that does not ever need to be the goal of firing off a Sonic Arrow. 
Scatter Arrow (E): This ability replaces Hanzo's arrow with one that will, on impact, split into 5 arrows that bounce off of walls or objects up to three times before stopping, giving the opportunity for hitting multiple targets, hitting targets at an unknown location, or more easily defending a point. The 5 arrows, once scattering, will deal 75 damage each, so there is a potential for high damage output from this ability.
Dragonstrike (Q): Hanzo's ultimate ability does some of the highest damage in the game. Any enemy that is in its path will take between 150-200 points of damage for every second they are inside. This means tanks can last about a second to two before needing a way out, but almost certain death for anyone not already out of the way. The dragons come after Hanzo fires an arrow, and will travel in the direction of that arrow before they reach the end of the map, so there is potential for big plays with this ability.
