The NEW Hazard META! - Winners & Losers

Hazard adds a new finesse controling style tank to the lineup adding for options to manipulate the fight from the front line with a deployable wall, cc and deadly combos. With the giga-tank role filled with options that take varying degrees of mastery it seems unlikely that he is releasing in a ubiqutious all-rank meta pick state, however with the insane skill expression may prove to be such at the highest ranks. Sustainable low mobility brawler tanks look to lose the most, as he emulates their durabilty with more control and options mid fight, whereas high upside disables will surely shut him down if he is played too flagrantly. If you enjoyed the video please be sure to leave it with a like and don't forget to subscribe and click the bell icon to actually get notified when our videos go live!

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:50 Support Winners
03:40 Damage Winners & Losers
06:35 Tank Winners & Losers
09:00 More DPS & Hazard Overview
12:05 The State of Tank & 5v5

YOUR OVERWATCH:

[Flyway]

Just a quick tip if you don’t know yet, you can shield upwards as brig to block hazard ult!

[dangerbeans]

I thought the block was too strong at first. But then I played a few games where Sombra would hack him every time he blocked. It makes him super squishy.

[AkilTheAwesome]

Hazard slash will get over health on hit.
2 seconds will be taken off of his wall.
Mark my words

[wusaint]

I like that Hazard is like Juno in that it feels like an honest hero design. Nothing cheap or shady. Not overtuned. Not underwhelming.

[RudeXII]

Hazard is the first tank where I feel like you'll get bullied on dps, but if you're on support you dont fear the tank at ALL

[Spannondorf]

Your talk about how adding hero limits affected OW Classic has me VERY interested in the format tests they're planning for quick play hacked. While we obviously won't get the flexibility of being able to outright switch to a character a teammate is doing bad on, adding some flexibility to 5v5 with the kingmaker system could be a fun way to bring some of that flexibility back into the format.
Same with the min 1, max 3 6v6 test planned for S14. With newer heroes like Hazard coming out that are kind of like different flavors of old heroes, I wonder if having a more open format will still feel as restrictive as only having one Reinhardt or Winston. Maybe these new formats will be able to push back into the fun people have with no limits, without the raw insanity of no limits.

[_korbo_]

Couple things I noticed on my few games as hazard, in the lower tiers he's very good against slippery characters. Normally for us mediocre players in plat and under (or at least for me) things like genji and juno can be a headache to pin down, but hazard's leap slash deals quite a bit of damage and has a super short cooldown (which I hope they don't change), so it's easy to stay in your ground and look at the genji saying "if you overstep even a little bit I'm chunking away half your health". Same for juno, mercy, tracer, any of those characters that often survive a lot by just moving around a lot and having small hitboxes, the wall to trap them in if they move forward, and the slash to catch them off guard were great to keep them at bay.

Of course this was all quickplay so whether you can actually execute the same on ranked is to be seen. I'll certainly be trying him out again when he launches, he didn't feel as powerful as I thought he might (except his ult, I had a game where I got 3 pentakills with his ult at different parts of the game) but he was certainly fun and versatile enough that I don't think he'll feel super frustrating on most matchups. Ironically enough to me, orisa felt quite frustrating because she can bully you around with javelin throw and spin when you're blocking and it breaks up the rhythm of your cooldowns.

[PandaitoLee]

Freedo hooked on that Premium Hope™. Good to see

[MajorMokoto]

I only played Hazard this past weekend( likely 40 matches). Sombra and Brig were the hardest counters I personally came up against. Sig and Dva would usually be the tanks I had to outplay the most. I found him pretty fun. Crazy matches going 60-3 and terrible matches 4-12. I'd say I went 60/40 on the wins. The biggest thing I noticed was if the team can not play around me and a more defensive waiting game, it was usually going to be a loss. Hazards skill set really shines when the team is with you. But when you're 1v4 the enemy team because the rest of your team is losing a 4v1 themselves to the carry on the other team in the backline. It's game over. He's likely well "balanced". My biggest issue was same as yours, where are you blocking? It wasn't clear, and I agree explosives seem to not be blocked at all. It only felt like I could block projectiles directly in front of me. Anything from even a 45 degree offset of my center was hitting me. And it seems you still take damage if they have high ground on you head on. Which felt really bad against Widow.

But I really enjoyed his kit. Getting that leap/slash/melee/block on a support/DPS that wasn't ready for it felt great. I have to wonder if the high skill players can really go crazy with this, or if as the community gets used to him, he's going to fall off hard. I kinda feel like that's what's going to happen he's going to become niche. He will eventually need a self heal.

[xristobalramirezromero]

Great uplad, as someone who is away from the game for the holidays, this really felt like a good insight into what i could return to

[ragadrop]

I think Haz is quite balanced and actually new heroes are coming out well cooked. Not too strong not weak.

[youngphilly]

Where can i find the YourMarvelRivals channel

[daj]

One thing that really helped me with Hazard was changing his controls because good lord he felt difficult to play until I swapped his leap ability to r1 because Winston leap is r1 so this made it easier to remember

[thecaptain]

I hope they don't nerf him any. He's tons of fun, but very counterable. You mentioned the healers, but ranged dps can be very difficult for him, especially with a mercy pocket. He will be weak on sigmas good maps (e.g. circuit) and worse on dive maps (e.g. Gibraltar) than winston/dva. He really needs someone to dive with him if you want to hard engage, but I think he's one of the best options for catching a dive since he can block off los for heals, boop in deeper, and do good damage all at the same time.

[alexanderpalchick]

To the "if we had more hero options" portion: this. Absolutely this. I've since converted from a 5v5er to a 6v6er but it's crazy ridiculous that 8 years in we only now have doubled the starting roster.. I know at this point it's a budgetary issue and previously it was a corpa issue. But the fact we never had a 3-5 year time of CONSTANT hero releases like League did has absolutely held back OW as a whole. The options are giga-limited and 1 hero every 4-5 months makes it REALLY easy for us to solve the game.

[gidkid]

5:25 I think that something that got overlooked in the Sombra vs Hazard matchup is that his block is on a resource instead of a cool down as well.

[MonochromeYTMusic]

I feel like he's *slightly* underpowered due to HOW team dependent he is. Most of the other tanks can make some solo plays and get value, but Hazard basically does nothing for the majority of the game if his team isn't backing him up.

A list of buffs I'd personally think would help him a bit but not make him super over tuned:

- The wall could be *ever so slightly* wider? I feel like it's not big enough to cover most escapes, so much so that it feels worth it to play Hazard x Mei specifically so the Mei can do the trapping.
- As you noted in the video, the block doesn't block well enough. If it was a wider cone of reduction I think that would feel better to play.
- His ult is....weird. Because it has two delays (The activation, and then the wave then happens after) it feels like you can't consistently hit people with it, especially not heroes that have escapes/movement abilities. Maybe a slight speed increase on the wave would be nice.
- His wall-climb is clunkier than the other wall-climbers, it feels like half the time you won't vault the top of the ledge you are trying to climb up. I'd fix that somehow.

As for counters for him, I think a major one that you missed is Lifeweaver. He's basically unkillable for a Hazard because of petal + dash, and he's one of the best supports for helping teammates when they are isolated 1v1 vs Hazard, or trapped behind his wall. Any combination of Brig, Ana and Weaver is BRUTAL for a Hazard player.

Overall I feel like he's got the potential to be a really rewarding, skill-based hero. He just needs some small QoL changes to make him *FEEL* nicer to play.

[dogs-game-too]

Main tank is actually my favorite when your team is firing on all cylinders working together, but that happens so infrequently that it's hard argue against his point

[flcon]

I think hazard is going to be a metal climb hero.

I played in SVB's metal cup during COVID and we got like rank 4 or so. I was solid bronze as main tank but held hard gold on an account that I only played with my team.

Now I'm solid silver. Decent game knowledge, but I play infrequently, and usually drunk.

My first two games with Hazard were hardcore stomps. I can play him like brawl, I can play him like dive. I can work with basically any team comp.

I ate Winston. I ate Mauga. I ate Orisa.

This fit perfectly in my skillset. Most tanks struggle with weird support combos. I feel like I can work around literally anything on hazard. Whether it's tempering or going ham, I'm game!

I feel like I'm playing all my favorite heroes at the same time.

[ryanager]

Honestly, the 2 year cycle of 3 supports 2 tanks and 1 dps has been pretty good imho, at least until the roles with less heroes catch up to dps.

And 2024, all the heroes have been bangers. Venture is a healthier version of dps doom, Juno is an interesting, fun addition to the support lineup (minus the OP nature), and Hazard is just really cool and fun.