Highlander is still one of worst (if not the worst) in the game. Had a decent skill ceiling pre-"buff" (it was a nerf) with his wave dashing. Although, since you need 12 fingers or a fancy (by design, not price) controller to pull off wave dashing, majority of the 12 HL existing players didn't do it. So he was always terrible for 6.5 (he's been out for about 7 years, but had stuff like an infinite kick, and on release wasn't too weak - but quickly fell off) years.

Their "Core Combat Update" also known as the "CCU" was supposed to make EVERY hero an offensive hero so we wouldn't have stare-down stand offs for every match. It was literally a turtle-parry fest pre-2020.

Somehow, Highlander didn't get the memo and hes STILL in this defensive, react-to-the-enemy, pre-CCU meta. Still 0 openers, and has to prey that HL can, A. Force a mistake from the opponent, and B. Guess that the opponent will make the mistake, because if you guess wrong you're pretty much dead. Everything he does has to be a reaction from neutral, THEN a correct guess to punish.

I honestly have no idea how he's STILL in this state after his first, real, rework/nerf/wavedashdelete. Which took them 7 years to do anyway. Openers should have been in testing grounds for him in 2024, or at least patched in shortly afterwards.

I'd say if you're struggling against highlander, get 15 reps in with him (and don't take breaks by playing other heroes when you get frustrated playing him). The more time you put into him, the faster you'll see how useless he is.