Mccree the forgotten dps (TLDR; Buff required) (Warning long Post)

There have been few posts about Mccree and possible buffs to him and i thought that i should just make a threat, just for giving my two cents on why he’s in a bad spot.

Before i get to Mccree, i have seen a lot of people saying that “Mccree will be fine when Hanzo is nerfed” and to that i say, too late. There is no real way to make Mccree really viable anymore, without completely killing off Hanzo, sense even nerfs to storm arrow, will not remove the biggest buff Hanzo got, consistency. Mccree’s ability to deliver consistent dmg was really the only reason to play him over Hanzo and now, that advantage is gone.

Breaking down why Mccree has become redundant to play.

Mccree has always been a low mobility hero and should (IMO) stay that way, but to compensate for the lack of mobility, most other heroes have something to help them survive, for example selfsustain (Soldier, Mei, Reaper) or a larger healthpool (Reaper, Mei, Brigitta), Mccree has neither, all he has is pure dmg. The problem is that in the current day Overwatch, he’s dmg is not good enough to justify the fact he needs to be babysat by his team.

Now lets get the best thing about his kit out of the way, his gun. The Piecekeeper is one of the best weapons in the game, it delivers solid, reliable dps and is truly the thing, why Mccree’s pickrate has not dropped to Sombra levels of bad.

Fan the hammer is really only used to break shields and to be spammed in spawn, waiting the game to start. Using it in a fight, usually leaves you helpless and getting a kill with it is rarer, than seeing a good Widowmaker in bronze. Verdict: tighten the spread, so that it can be used without a 100% chance to get destroyed.

The flashbang, oh the flashbang. The one thing, that works half of the time, to save you a quarter of the time, in a close range duel. Let’s be honest, it’s not worth 10 second cd, it just isn’t, especially when compared to abilities with lower cooldowns (Hook 8s, Strom 8s, Deflect 8s, Shieldbash 6s, etc.), it just does not make any sense why it’s 10 second any longer. Verdict: Reduce the cooldown to 8s.

We all know that the roll is one step above useless, it’s basically a faster reload on a 8 second cooldown. The mobility it gives is well nonexistent, the reload is cool but 8 seconds way too long for that alone. Verdict: Lower the cooldown to 6 or make the cooldown reset, when Mccree kills someone with a headshot.

The last and definitely the least, Suicide, i mean highnoon. You masterfully pick Pharas of the sky, you combo down Tracers, you’re on the top of your game, you get your ult, you press q harder that you have ever pressed, It’s highnoon, and one of three things happen. 1. You die, 2. they hide 3. you die. Worst ultimate in the game by far. Usually you get yourself killed, sometimes you miraculously survive the button press and getting one kill with it, is actually really good. it’s actually so bad i use it as a reload now days. Verdict: Honestly it might be too late to do anything, it’s just that bad.

Overall, at this moment Mccree is really in a bad spot and partially gets by because of what he used to be and that top 100 players might still be able to play him somewhat successfully. Verdict: up bliz pls buff.

1 Like

Mccree is balanced, the other dps are broken. But you’re wasting time making posts on forum because they won’t even bother to listen anyone’s opinion. The game is getting worse and worse, the balancing is the worst. Because they can’t balance anything they just add more heroes that are supposed to be used to counter something that is broken, but instead tthey just ruin the game.
Mccree feels weak because compared to season 1-2 there are now 543534534 shields and you can’t even ult. Beside that too many heroes with cc and gap close or escape mechanics make his flashbang useless.
His roll is kinda meh. For mccree to be viable again they should rework his ult and lower reload time. But it won’t happen because it would cut off their profits

I suggest you go to Overbuff and compare the pick rates for both Solider and McCree. You don’t even have to check GM, look at a lower rank like diamond. Currently McCree is picked 2 times more than Soldier. He has a place because his flashbang can seriously disturb the shield wall and even fight Brigitte. Somewhat.

You are thinking in passive terms where heroes who never get buffs or nerfs remain a constant. They don’t. Winston for example was nerfed to the ground without ever being touched.

The DPS who got nerfed? Or the ones who got severely weakened because of the meta change?

Hanzo is an exception though, he is better than everybody else.