Widowmaker

Widowmaker is a Damage hero in Overwatch.

Overview
Widowmaker equips herself with whatever it takes to eliminate her targets, including mines that dispense poisonous gas, a visor that grants her squad infra-sight, and a powerful sniper rifle that can fire in fully-automatic mode.

Strategy
Strength

Widowmaker is the archetypical sniper of Overwatch. Equipped with a powerful scoped rifle, she is capable of taking down the majority of the game's heroes with a single fully-charged headshot, and is still able to deal serious damage with bodyshots. Her Infra-Sight and Venom Mine give her and her team considerable information on enemy movements, allowing them to easily counter ambushes and coordinated pushes.

Weakness

Widowmaker is, however, relatively weak in close-range combat, and her immobility while scoped makes her an easy target; Widowmaker's biggest threat is often another, better Widowmaker on the enemy team. She's often forced to play away from the objective where she's safer, as her only real mobility is Grappling Hook which can have a long cast time and leaves Widowmaker fairly defenseless to another attack.

Weapons & Abilities

 * Widow's Kiss: Widowmaker's primary weapon. Widow's Kiss has two firing modes, which are switched between with the secondary fire button. The standard firing mode is a submachine gun, similar to Soldier: 76's Heavy Pulse Rifle, though with less accuracy and a larger magazine. The secondary firing mode is a sniper rifle that zooms in Widowmaker's vision and reduces the firing rate to single shots. A charge meter is visible while scoped that fills over time, with the damage of the shot increasing the more the meter is filled.
 * The secondary firing mode is Widowmaker's main source of damage. It allows her to deal impressive damage at long range.
 * Critical hits with Widowmaker's secondary fire deal 2.5x critical damage as opposed to the normal 2x. As a result, a fully charged critical hit deals 300 damage.
 * An uncharged shot from the sniper rifle deals miniscule damage. Aim to have your shot at least 60-70% charged before firing.
 * Though not especially accurate, the submachine gun is usually a better option than the sniper rifle when fighting at short range. Aim for your opponent's head to deal increased damage.


 * Grappling Hook: When activated, Widowmaker shoots out a wrist-mounted grappling hook. If the hook impacts a solid surface, Widowmaker will pull herself to the hook. She maintains some of the pull momentum after arriving at the hook's location. If the hook does not impact a solid surface, it will return to Widowmaker and not be put on cooldown.
 * Grappling Hook allows Widowmaker to get to almost any vertical area that she can see. Use this mobility to get to places your enemies least expect, such as on catwalks or high walls.
 * Grappling Hook can be used to escape from enemies who get too close to Widowmaker. Fire it at a distant wall to gain some distance from flankers like Genji.
 * Since Widowmaker still maintains some momentum after arriving at the hook's location, she can use it as a sort of "high jump" to use her sniper rifle on targets normally out of her line of fire while midair. This is very challenging to do, however, and is not normally recommended.
 * Grappling Hook can be interrupted at any time during the pull by jumping. Use this to gain control over Widowmaker faster after grappling.


 * Venom Mine: When activated, Widowmaker fires out a small mine that attaches to the first solid surface it impacts, arming itself after it lands. If an enemy walks near to the mine while it's armed, it will detonate, poisoning them and any nearby enemies with a toxic gas that deals damage over time. The mine has a Health pool, and will be destroyed if it takes enough damage, preventing the detonation.
 * Use Venom Mine to protect yourself from flankers. Place it around a corner leading to your sniping spot so that you're alerted if an enemy tries to make their way through there. You will see a small alert on your HUD if it is either destroyed or triggered.
 * Since Venom Mine travels a fair distance when activated, Widowmaker can use it somewhat like a grenade by shooting it into a group of enemies that she's flanking. This will help to soften up weaker enemies for the kill with her sniper rifle.
 * Venom Mine can be placed on the edge of a corner to block an enemy shot while you safely peek from behind it.


 * Infra-Sight (Ultimate): Widowmaker's Ultimate ability. When activated, Widowmaker and her team temporarily gain infravision, showing them the location of all enemies by highlighting their silhouettes with a red glow when they are behind walls or other solid surfaces. Widowmaker can see the remaining duration of Infra-Sight on her UI.
 * While Infra-Sight has little direct combat power in comparison to something like Bastion's Configuration: Tank, it provides a massive amount of information to Widowmaker's entire team. Use this information to set up ambushes, avoid flankers, and counter other Widowmakers attempting to snipe you.
 * Use Infra-Vision to set up headshots more easily by waiting for enemies to come around corners. The knowledge of their position makes it much easier to get a headshot successfully.
 * Infra-Sight is incredibly valuable against an enemy Sombra. If you suspect Sombra is about to attack or has her ultimate ready, use Infra-Sight to expose her.

General Strategies

 * Widowmaker has the potential to be an absolute menace to the enemy team when played well. She is best used on maps with lots of long corridors and open areas with little cover that she can shoot down on, picking off her opponents one by one. She works less well on maps with lots of small rooms and side routes that her enemies can travel through to avoid her. She also has a lot of trouble dealing with tanks like Reinhardt, whose powerful barrier can stop her shots dead.


 * Widowmaker should never stay in one place for very long. Your sniper rifle shots, whether they hit or miss, have long, visible tracers that tell the enemy team where you're firing from. As soon as your enemies know where you are, they'll start to take steps to either avoid you (by traveling a different way) or counter you (such as with a mobile tank like Winston). Constantly remain on the move to keep your enemies guessing and to get better angles on vulnerable targets like Mercy or Zenyatta.


 * Avoid using your sniper scope when standing in a wide open area, especially if the rest of your team is not surrounding you. A lone Widowmaker standing without cover is an easy target for Pharah or another Widowmaker.


 * Avoid the temptation of only aiming for headshots. While headshots are preferable, they are hard to get on moving targets who are aware of your location, especially if you don't have a good angle of fire. Go for a headshot if you can catch an enemy unaware, or if they are moving in a predictable way. Otherwise, go for bodyshots.


 * When fighting enemies up close, use Venom Mine and switch to your submachine gun to fight them. Venom Mine does a surprising amount of damage, as does Widowmaker's submachine gun. While most skilled flankers will be able to kill you if they get that close to you, you can sometimes do enough damage to drive them away, especially if you aren't caught off-guard by them.


 * In general, you want to maintain distance from your opponents, as you're vulnerable in close combat. If you're presented the opportunity to safely flank your opponents at closer ranges, do so, as it makes lining up sniper rifle shots and dealing damage with Venom Mine much easier. Be ready to quickly escape with Grappling Hook once the enemy team turns their attention to you.


 * Use Infra-Sight strategically. If your team is making a push onto an objective (or the enemy team is making a push onto your objective), use it to give your team significant information about enemy positions and their movement. Knowing where critical enemy heroes like Mercy are can make it a lot easier for allied heroes like Roadhog or Tracer to pick them off, giving your team a big advantage.
 * Widowmaker's primary targets should be low-health support like Zenyatta and Mercy, followed by stationary defenses like Bastion and Torbjorn's turrets. Other targets should be picked according to threat and team composition, such as rival snipers like another Widowmaker, Hanzo or Mei, or McCree in the midst of using Deadeye.  She should only target Tanks like Winston, Roadhog, Zarya or Reinhardt if it is to her advantage, such as weakening them enough for teammates to pick off, or gaining Ultimate level for another Infra-Sight use.  D.Va is a decent target in either form, as her MEKA's Critical spot is easy to strike and D.Va herself has very low health, but the aforementioned priority targets should come first.

Story
"One shot, one kill."

Widowmaker is the perfect assassin: a patient, ruthlessly efficient killer who shows neither emotion nor remorse. She is unaffected by low temperatures.

Background
Amélie Guillard grew up in her family's ancestral home of Chateau Guillard. For much of her life, she was known as an accomplished ballet dancer in Paris. She married Gérard Lacroix, an Overwatch agent spearheading operations against the Talon terrorist organization. After several unsuccessful attempts to eliminate Gérard, Talon decided to change its focus to his wife. Talon operatives kidnapped her and subjected her to an intense program of neural reconditioning. They broke her will, suppressed her personality, and reprogrammed her as a sleeper agent. She was eventually found by Overwatch agents, apparently none the worse for wear, and returned to her normal life.

Two weeks later she killed Gérard in his sleep.

Her mission complete, Amélie returned to Talon, and they completed the process of turning her into a living weapon. She was given extensive training in the covert arts, and then her physiology was altered, drastically slowing her heart, which turned her skin cold and blue and numbed her ability to experience human emotion. The slowing of her heart rate allowed her to become an exceptional sniper. Thanks to Talon's experiments Amélie was gone, replaced by "Widowmaker," Talon's most effective assassin, and feeling little save the satisfaction of a job well done. As far as Overwatch knew, she had been kidnapped.

Legacy
Widowmaker was present in an anti-Talon operation conducted by Overwatch, as a force led by Jack Morrison rescued a number of scientists that Talon had taken hostage. While Overwatch was successful in this regard, Widowmaker was able to take out a number of agents. The operation led to a sniper duel between her and Agent Amari, as they made their way throughout the urban terrain. Ana was able to temporarily incapacitate Widowmaker, hitting her in her helmet. But upon seeing Widowmaker's face, she froze, recognizing Amélie. It was all the time Widowmaker needed to take her own shot, shooting Ana through the scope of her rifle and into her cybernetic eye.

Alive
"When I was a girl, I had a fear of spiders. I was told they felt no emotion, that their hearts never beat. But I know the truth. At the moment of the kill, they are never more alive."

- Widowmaker

Widowmaker was sent to King's Row to assassinate Tekhartha Mondatta, the Shambali leader, as he made a speech. As she made her way to her vantage point, she reflected upon how she had been frightened of spiders as a child, drawing an implicit comparison to Widowmaker herself -- neither one felt emotion or had a beating heart. She lowered herself, upside-down, off the side of a building using her grappling hook and began to line up her shot. However, unbeknownst to her, Tracer was also at the speech. Just before she could press the trigger, she was distracted by Tracer blinking through the air towards her, pistols firing. The two engaged in a rooftop chase as Mondatta was ushered away, having been warned by Tracer. In the end, Tracer's pulsebomb backfired and blew both of them into the air. As she fell, Widowmaker took careful aim, and fired a single bullet at the center of Tracer's chronal accelerator. Tracer blinked forward, and the bullet sped on&mdash;straight into Mondatta, killing him moments before he entered his limousine. Tracer tackled her to the rooftop, demanding to know why she would do such a thing, but as a Talon aircraft arrived to retrieve her, Widowmaker just chuckled, whispered, "Adieu, chérie," ("Farewell, darling,") and flipping the pair over the edge of the roof, slammed Tracer into the building's wall below them. Leaving incapacitated Tracer behind, as Widowmaker was spirited away from London she reflected that spiders did indeed feel&mdash;when they kill.

She later reflected that her assassination of Mondatta was one of her finest kills.

Day at the Museum
"There you are."

- Widowmaker, after seeing Doomfist's gauntlet

Widowmaker teamed up with Reaper as part of an attempt to recover Doomfist's gauntlet. She was hindered in this by Winston and Tracer however. The mission was further complicated by a child stealing the gauntlet, and using it against her. After Tracer disarmed her, she made an escape with Reaper using her grapple, though both agents engaged in pursuit.

Infiltration
"I am in position."

- Widowmaker

Alongside Reaper and Sombra, Widowmaker was assigned to assassinate Katya Volskaya, the CEO of Volskaya Industries. Sombra was able to take down the facility's security system, allowing Widowmaker and Reaper access to the site. Widowmaker lined up her sights from a vantage point, and waited for Katya to enter her field of fire. She almost did, but an alarm sounded, sending the base into high alert and Katya to her fortified office. Widowmaker tried to salvage the shot anyway but narrowly missed the CEO, instead shattering the lower half of her hanging right earring. Reaper ordered her to stay put while he took her out, but he was waylaid by a mech. Sombra engaged in pursuit, but reported that Katya had escaped. Reaper ordered that the operatives return to their ship.

Reflections
During Christmas, Widowmaker took a visit to Gérard's resting place. She left a rose on her husband's grave.

Masquerade
"I was impressed by your performance in London. Talon could use more operatives like you. Especially given recent lapses."

- Doomfist to Widowmaker

After Doomfist was freed from his prison by Reaper, he rendezvoused with Widowmaker at a casino in Monaco. He complimented her for her assassination of Mondatta. Sombra, who was on the same channel, told Doomfist to ask her about her failure to assassinate Volskaya, but Doomfist shut down the conversation. Doomfist met with Maximilien at a game table; Widowmaker partook in the game while they discussed matters pertaining to Talon. She won quite a few chips, but the game was interrupted by Talon agents sent by Vialli to assassinate Doomfist. The pair fought them off and departed, headed for Venice. There, Widowmaker, Reaper, and Sombra eliminated Talon agents loyal to Vialli, while Doomfist killed Vialli himself.

Homecoming
Widowmaker returned to her ancestral home at some point.

Trivia

 * Widowmaker's name and her spider themes are a reference to the black widow spider.
 * "Widowmaker" essentially describes her past, as she made herself a widow by killing her husband.


 * Widowmaker bears resemblance to the ghosts of Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft series, in terms of equipment and the use of mental conditioning.


 * One of Nova's skins in Heroes of the Storm is Widowmaker and conversely one of Widowmaker's own skins in Overwatch is Nova. Widowmaker's face can also be found on a color variant of Tychus's armor. The lead hero designer has said that it's unlikely that Widowmaker will be a hero in the game.


 * Her voiceline "let them eat cake" is a famous French saying misattributed to Queen Marie Antoinette in response to the peasant's cry in regards to the bread shortage.


 * The tattoo on her right forearm reads "araignée du soir, Cauchemar", which is the French for "spider in the evening, Nightmare". It's a play on an old French superstition that goes "Araignée du matin, chagrin; araignée du soir, espoir". Directly translated it means, "Spider in the morning, grief; spider in the evening, hope." A more literal translation is "If you see a spider in the morning, it's bad luck. If you see a spider in the evening, it's good luck."


 * By far, her assault mode is the only assault hit-scan type that doesn't suffer from damage falloff.


 * Widowmaker bears some resemblance to Valve's Team Fortress 2 character, Sniper. Both have done something to their family (Sniper abandoned his family to be an assassin, Widowmaker killed her husband), both have sniper rifles and sub-machine guns (however, Widowmaker's rifle is both a sniper rifle and a sub-machine gun, while Sniper's SMG is a separate weapon), both fire tracing shots from their rifles (however, Sniper's normal rifle doesn't fire tracing bullets; it's only when he equips The Machina or the Hitman's Heatmaker that his bullets will start to leave tracers behind), and both can charge their shots while scoped to deal more damage.

Merchandise

 * A Funko Pop Widowmaker figurine was released on July 18th, 2016.


 * A 13.5" statue of Widowmaker was announced and made available for pre-order on March 28, 2017.


 * A Widowmaker-themed hoodie is available from JINX.
 * Widowmaker's Chinese New Year skin, Black Lily, is a reference to her name in the Chinese version of the game.
 * It is possible that the voice line "One shot, one kill" is based on the book One Shot One Kill by authors Charles W. Sasser and Craig Roberts.


 * The Tracer vs. Widowmaker LEGO Overwatch set featuring the Satellite Drone XR-9 was revealed by Target in 2018.

Development
Widowmaker's design originated from a playable class in the cancelled Titan. In the original pitch for Prometheus, the class was named Longshot and wielded a sniper rifle and machine pistol, and had the Grappling Hook and Recon Visor abilities. Longshot would appear in a later pitch for the game with a new design more closely resembling Widowmaker, and was also featured prominently in the Prometheus "hero lineup" key art. The first concept for Widowmaker was to create a ranged sniper character. She was one of the easiest characters to animate in the game, and was one of the first three characters designed for Overwatch, alongside Tracer and Reaper. Her venom mine ability originally created a much larger and deadlier explosion.

Widowmaker was redesigned for Overwatch 2. Concepts included a more insectoid design and a treasure hunter appearance. The redesign shifted to a cyberpunk appearance. Her hairstyles were also experimented with.