Even though McCree is one of Overwatch’s original heroes, players are still finding new tricks with him, such as an animation cancel that makes the cowboy even deadlier.
McCree can be a massive threat in the hands of skilled Overwatch players who have the aim necessary to make use of his Peacekeeper six-shooter to inflict massive damage.
Throughout the years, there have been some tricks discovered that make use of other tools in McCree’s arsenal to ensure that his ammo count remains high. These include basic tips such as rolling to automatically reload or activating his Deadeye ultimate and then canceling it to have his Peacekeeper’s capacity refresh.
Now, players have found a new use with the ultimate that lets McCree cancel its animation with his Flashbang and do even more damage by shooting instantly.
In a post on the Competitive Overwatch subreddit, user iStormBlaze posted a video from a stream featuring high-level player John ‘Wanted’ Lin playing on Rialto.
In the clip, Wanted activates Deadeye, which lets McCree lock on to nearby enemy heroes, doing more damage the longer he charges up, and then fires. However, as McCree shoots, Wanted uses the Flashbang on an enemy Doomfist, canceling the ultimate before finishing off the stunned Doomfist with a regular shot.
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Normally, McCree throws the Flashbang with his left hand and shoots with his right, but here, the animation is so fast, we never even see the left hand on the screen. This also means that McCree can start shooting immediately, saving time.
This trick can be especially useful if you’re ever under threat by flankers or certain tanks while you’re in the middle of using the ultimate.
Deadeye is hardly considered to be the best ability in Overwatch, but the fact that it reloads your weapon gives it some nice secondary uses. By using the Flashbang like this, a lot of enemies will never see the stun coming, leaving them extremely vulnerable.
It will be interesting to see if Blizzard decides to keep this animation cancel tech in the game or if the developers patch it out. Nonetheless, it’s a nice trick that you can take advantage of, at least for the time being.