The most recent Overwatch PTR update refines and tweaks six of our heroes, but it’s changes to McCree that stand as arguably the most significant.
Originally seen as somewhat of a mini-buff, McCree’s fire rate has seen a boost, with recovery reduced from 0.5 seconds to 0.4 seconds. That may seem fairly insignificant, but what it means is that a full clip can be unloaded almost a second faster, boosting his damage output mildly.
“On average, McCree’s damage output wasn’t quite making up for the relatively low mobility or utility in his kit,” Blizzard said in the most recent patch notes.
“Reducing his weapon’s recovery time improves the potential damage output without affecting the number of successful shots to kill an enemy.”
If you want to get an idea of just how significant a change it is, check out the gif below, which first shows McCree’s fire rate as it is on the live servers, versus what it’s now like on the PTR.
Over on Reddit, they’ve crunched the numbers, and the outcome is actually quite staggering: one has to wonder if Blizzard did actually anticipate such a significant boost to McCree’s DPS output.
Currently, McCree’s primary fire without headshots or reloads is locked at 140 DPS. After the update and as it is on the PTR currently, it’s boosted to an impressive 175 DPS. That’s as huge a buff as we may have seen ever applied on the Overwatch PTR.
It’s a fairly impressive buff, and one we can’t wait to test out and see how it impacts the public services and competitive ranks.