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What is the Best Crosshair for Widowmaker?
If you want “one shot, one kill” then you’re going to have to get your crosshairs right. And when you’re playing Widowmaker, that means finding an aiming solution that helps you get as many headshots as you can. Crosshairs are often overlooked and undervalued in Overwatch, but they’re crucial if you want to take your game to the next level– especially with Widowmaker.
The crosshair you choose is the connection point between your mouse and (hopefully) a headshot. You could have the best mouse in the world, but without an aiming system that works for you it won’t be much help. Because this aiming mechanism is so personal, there is no single crosshair that is “best” for everyone. But, there are crosshairs that certain pros have found to be “best” for them, and you can use those as a guideline to help you find what works for you.
To be the best Widowmaker you can be, it’s all about clicking heads as fast as you can. With fast accurate headshots a widowmaker can easily turn the tide in a match, or even dominate it completely if the rest of her team works to protect her. So because of that you’re going to want an accurate and precise crosshair that is, well, the size of a head. That’s what the pros use.
But there can be a lot of slight, and important variation even within this limited criteria. Color, shape, length, opacity and more can all vary. First, lets go over all the different settings you can adjust to get the perfect crosshair for you. I’ll be referring to some of these terms as I describe what the pros use.
- Crosshair Type – This is the setting that will change what kind of reticle you are using. Your options are circle, crosshairs, circle and crosshairs, or “default”: a reticle type that Overwatch has custom designed for that hero.
- Bloom (“Show Accuracy” on consoles) – Turning this off will allow you to change the gap size of your reticle, which is crucial to creating a custom crosshair like the pros use. When this setting is on, any recoil from your weapon will cause the reticle to widen in order to show your loss of accuracy.
- Color – The color of the entire reticle. Pretty self explanatory..
- Thickness – How thick the lines on the crosshair are
- Crosshair Length – How long the lines of the crosshair are
- Center Gap – The space in the dead center between the crosshair lines
- Opacity – How “see-through” the colored-in parts of the crosshair are
- Outline Opacity how “see-through” the outline of the lines of the crosshair are
- Dot Size – How big the dot is at the center of the crosshair. If it is set to zero there is no dot
- Dot Opacity – How “see-through” any dot will be at the center of your reticle.
As you can see you have a lot of different options to tweak, however most pros keep their crosshairs fairly simple. This simplicity helps you focus on the head of your enemy, while not being too distracting, or taking up too much screen space at the same time. Here’s what 5 of the best players in the world use to absolutely own with Widowmaker.
Aimbotcalvin
While he is mainly known for his deadly McCree skills, aimbotcalvin has proved countless times both professionally and on his streams that he is no McCree one-trick. Aimbotcalvin plays for TSM (Team SoloMid) and has some of the best Widowmaker tracking ability of any Overwatch player, which is probably why he chooses to use the smallest and most “low-profile” crosshair on this list.
Aimbotcalvin uses a green crosshair that has the thickness close to zero, the length close to zero, and a very small center gap– he’s clearly not aiming for body shots. The opacity looks to be at about medium/low, and there is no dot at the center. The overall small size enables Calvin to fully survey the battlefield and then click a head when he needs too. He doesn’t need any help tracking, this crosshair serves as simply an extension of his mouse!
You can get more info on that mouse he uses, along with keyboard display and other gear on his profile page here. And you can check out that crosshair and his Widowmaker skills in action below:
Surefour
Hailing from Canada, Lane “Surefour” Roberts is a DPS main who plays professionally for the L.A. Gladiators. Roberts is one of the best DPS players in the league, and he has racked up over thousands of dollars in winnings by playing a darn good Widowmaker. Surefour uses slightly different gear than aimbotcalvin, which you can learn all about on his profile page, and his crosshairs are slightly different as well.
The crosshair Surefour uses with Widowmaker are still small (roughly the size of a head) and still green. What makes Surefour’s aiming system unique is that there is absolutely no center gap in the middle of his crosshair; all the lines connect. It ends up creating a sort of “plus-sign marks the spot” targeting style.
In addition, the length is longer than aimbotcalvin’s, and the lines are slightly thicker, and slightly less opaque. But the real difference is the lack of the center gap. Hop on Overwatch and try it out yourself in training mode. I think you’ll find that you’ll either love or hate not having that space in the middle. Watch this crosshair, and this deadly Widowmaker in action:
Kephrii
For godlike Widowmaker skills, look no further than Kephrii. Whether he’s racking up headshot after headshot, or going toe-to-toe with another sniper from across the map, Kephrii is who you want to play Widow on your team. Kephrii’s real name is Brian St. Pierre and he is primarily a Twitch streamer with no official Overwatch League affiliation. If you want to be a master sniper, you should check out the rest of his profile here. And read on to find out more about his custom Widowmaker crosshairs.
The crosshairs Kephrii uses when he plays Widow appear really similar to what Surefour uses a first glance, but there are two important differences. There is a very slight gap at the center (smaller than aimbotcalvin’s), and the length of the crosshair lines are longer. This length improves tracking of targets that are far away. While Calvin is a McCree main at heart, Kephrii is a sniper through and through. This type of crosshair allows Kephrii to deal with all the possible situations Widowmaker can find herself in; whether it’s headshotting from across the map, or headshotting a Genji blade, in a hallway, at close range. You gotta see it to believe it in the video below:
Taimou
Taimou is from Finland, and he plays for the for the Dallas Fuel in the Overwatch league, a team that has created a lot of controversy recently. But this controversy isn’t over Timo “Taimou” Kettunen’s Widowmaker ability. No, that’s always on point. Or maybe on “circle” I should say, because as you can see below, that is the unconventional custom reticle that Taimou uses when destroying with Widow.
Taimou often uses this type of reticle while playing other Heroes too, and sometimes he changes it to blue. Why a circle? Why blue? I guess he just likes how they feel. Remember that’s the number one most important thing when customizing your crosshair. It looks like the size is set at 1, the opacity is solid, and the thickness is low too. It’s like the circle version of aimbotcalvin’s crosshair. You can see it in action below, and in the same video you can also see that occasionally Taimou will switch it up with a different crosshair that’s closer to Kephrii’s style above. The pros, just like you, have to find what works best for them!
Dafran and Sinatraa
I chose two pros this time because while they’re both hitscan focused players, they both primarily play other heroes besides Widowmaker, and they both have custom Widowmaker crosshairs that are really similar– just different colors! Dafran plays for NRG, while Sinatraa is on the SF Shock. Follow the links in their names to see their full player profiles.
Both of these pros have crosshairs that are short in length, have medium thickness, are solidly opaque, and have a small, tight square gap in the middle. This fairly generic, headshot-focused crosshair will work well as you switch between other hit-can heroes like McCree, Soldier: 76, and Tracer. Choose a crosshair like this if you want to do the same, and get creative with the colors like Dafran and Sinatraa do.
See Dafran in action here:
And Sinatraa tearing it up here:
Conclusion
So head to the practice range and try out what you’ve learned from the pros. Take these crosshairs and tweak them so they’re just right for you, and then get ready to click some heads in a real match. Think of your strengths and weaknesses as a Widowmaker player (and as a player in general), and how your crosshair can help support that. And if you’re wondering why the pros primarily use green as their crosshair color of choice… it’s because it contrasts with the enemies red outline and makes the reticle really stand out!
