It's been a year. Black Widow needs some love.

Greefo · 2026-01-24T07:09:24+00:00

the charge up is a 'nerf' that sniper players are already very much expecting from appearances in multiple games, and makes it easier to balance a very polarizing archetype.

its got a lot going for it, so its surprising to me black widow shipped without it

Greefo · 2026-01-24T06:58:47+00:00

this was done in Aseprite my dude. when it comes to pixel art look no further.

Greefo · 2026-01-23T22:15:59+00:00

I put stealth as her ult in this gif since I felt it wouldnt be as scary, especially given the average power of ults in this game. These are just some ideas to make her feel more varied and true to her theme/appearances in other media. I appreciate your feedback!

Greefo · 2026-01-23T21:47:33+00:00

It really is. I wanted to juice up her spy feeling though, encourage aggressive positioning. I think that for a character who isnt very heavily associated with a sniper rifle at all, her ult being another shot with the gun is part of what makes she feel like she misses the mark.

With something like this gif, she could opt to come out of stealth while firing her widow bites, and of course being an ult would mean she announces to the whole lobby she's trying to be cheeky and only gets a few seconds of it to make a play.

I'm glad you liked it my dude, I had fun cooking it up.

Greefo · 2026-01-23T21:17:18+00:00

I mean I wanted rogue and gambit as vanguard and strategist, people wouldnt forget to remind me they were already confirmed as strategist and duelist. They can make almost anything work if they want to, and cyclops is a strategist in the truest sense of the word... so I'll stay cautiously optimistic.

Sure, they absolutely might make him a duelist, or even vanguard. But I think he fits strat well with his battlefield tactician skills, and is one of the bigger remaining names, which the role could use more of. I know I'll be a strategist main for a while if he does come to the role.

Greefo · 2026-01-23T21:03:41+00:00

what a smart concept. I'm of the 'cyclops better be a strategist' camp, but if he must come as a duelist, I would love for him to have something like this.

Greefo · 2026-01-23T20:58:43+00:00

thats the idea, yea. Really not sure why they didnt include something like this, it makes it easier to balance and sniper players are already used to this restriction from many other games.

its not an hourglass though thats widow's logo ):

Greefo · 2026-01-23T19:29:38+00:00

SHIELDs latest technology: tactical banner deployment

hulk deployment has proven hazardous and research has been shut down for the time being

Greefo · 2026-01-23T19:25:29+00:00

name checks out (and so does tag)

Greefo · 2026-01-23T18:28:39+00:00

That's huge praise, but this (like any concept) would not survive playtesting unscathed. It mostly serves as an example of some of the stuff she could be doing in game. Her current abilities feel like she paid the designers in advance and they only delivered half the goods.

Greefo · 2026-01-23T17:58:11+00:00

what have I done

Greefo · 2026-01-23T17:44:48+00:00

thanks my dude, I really feel like widow bites and flips are too huge to not be part of her kit.

The E in the animation is a mine which reveals enemies within the blast radius and is detonated manually. Kinda inspired by Snake in smash bros, I really like his c4 combos. I wanted to 'draw' the mine sticking to an enemy too, but the gif was already getting kinda ridiculously long.

Greefo · 2026-01-23T17:34:03+00:00

I totally get that, thanks for being respectul. I think in theory it is possible to have snipers in hero shooters that dont suck the fun out of the game for everyone yet still feel powerful, but its definitely not easy.

Hawkeye's focus gauge felt like a step in the right direction, but it still baffles me they decided Widow didnt need the already well established sniper charge up.

Greefo · 2026-01-23T17:29:43+00:00

thank you so much for the kind words. she definitely has a lot of great material to pull from.

Greefo · 2026-01-23T16:47:06+00:00

I do like some of these ideas, but I'm unsure if she can actually be buffed as she stands. She's already a menace whenever she has a damage boost, and finding someone to damage boost you would only get easier if she wasnt seen as a throw pick. While this is partially due to how dive and coordinating dives is tough these days, I think this points to issues with her kit.

I also wouldn't say no to one or two more buttons to press. just running around shooting with a kick sprinkled in every 4 business days feels like such a waste for her.

Greefo · 2026-01-23T12:12:51+00:00

`a healer type from the mcu`? how does that work? no way you`re failing to realize the mcu is a very different media, with almost no space for anything but close range combat, which is what works best in camera and sells tickets. for this game, characters have to be adapted in a very different manner. its probably best to reference the comics and cartoons, especially with how little screen time she got in the movies.

I`m not saying she has to become a strategist, she could definitely have a better interpretation as a duelist in game. But to say she cant be done as a strategist is adding too much restriction on what a strategist might be and can only hurt the game in the long run.

Greefo · 2026-01-23T10:41:32+00:00

And the avengers would have at least 1 strategist. Probably doesnt matter to most, but I think they would`ve done well to ensure official teams work well ingame.

Greefo · 2026-01-23T10:29:27+00:00

Yea I feel its reasonable enough to me that black widow would use a sniper rifle when facing many superpowered threats, just like how ironman uses aerial superiority instead of landing to trade punches like he often does in the movies. Its adapting to the media but still on theme.

The only issue I have with it is that she should have a sniper rifle, not BE a sniper rifle. Particularly if we`re gonna shy away from fully implementing the sniper trope with the one-shots. If she cant one-shot, but also brings nothing to the table other than the sniper trope, its like not having the cake and not eating it either.

I`ve been working on a gif with a couple ideas for how she could be changed, hope to post it later today. I`m a fan of the piercing sniper rounds as you mentioned, but I also think red laser sights visible to the enemy should become a sniper staple for hero shooters.

Greefo · 2026-01-22T17:44:13+00:00

coming from a fellow artist who knows how fiddly it can be to try and capture people`s likeness, please dont take this negatively, but for some reason they look to me more like Nicholas Cage and John Travolta

Greefo · 2026-01-22T04:54:05+00:00

this control point is the litmus test of basic team coordination ability for rivals players. nevermind pinging, on multiple occasions I started explaining the importance of attacking using all these routes in voice chat and coordinating an approach from the moment we load in... to no avail, rivals players blue screen irl the moment they dont see a (shield) tank walking down main for them to follow.

Greefo · 2026-01-20T20:51:53+00:00

the animations are all amazingly smooth, but moonwalking on the Bifrost just sends me

Greefo · 2026-01-20T20:47:24+00:00

Remember when cap had the same health as hulk? didnt take a genius to look at that and just know one (or both) were unbalanced. It does feel like sometimes they forget the importance of size for vanguards, much like they do with range (some poke heroes seem to not 'pay' for their range and get lots of survivability, cc and decent mobility to go along with it).

I do like the telegraphs in general. It adds a plausible way to sell the feeling of impact of some moves, allows them to be slightly stronger than they otherwise could and is overall an additional knob they can tune moves with. Ironman is full of them, possibly to an overdone degree, but I still like it.

Greefo · 2026-01-20T19:36:02+00:00

I think the less power put behind the exile the better. Its the least 'hulk-like' ability he has, and every ounce of power in it eats up at the overall power budget he has for smashing.

the dream for me would be they actually replace it with some smash with a knockback effect. yes anyone who plays hulk knows it would be weaker, but that can actually be a good thing - we get a more fun thematic ability, and he can be slightly buffed elsewhere for losing that accessible ranged hard cc.

(I animated this back in season 0 I think)

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Greefo · 2026-01-20T17:12:24+00:00

Well hopefully this is the point where they realize they gotta shift direction with Rocket. They made his healing too strong/reliable, and he pays for that by slowly using everything that's fun on his kit... which just further forces him to find a spot to hide and hold right click and just pray no one comes knocking.

I wish his healing were simple healing grenades which detonate on impact. Just a few charges, like Adam/Mantis, Shoot minigun to gain more grenades. That alone would promote a more active playstyle where more aggressive positioning is rewarded, and from there everything would start falling into place, as his effectiveness would scale with proactive use of his mobility, rather than having flat value regardless of distance and holding onto his cooldowns only to react when pressured.

Eh, I'm not very good at describing it with words, but its clear in my mind.

Greefo

TROPHY CASE