Cassidy has long been the Overwatch 2 hero players use to roleplay a powerful outlaw straight out of an old-timey Western movie. But with the transition to Overwatch 2 last fall, a new ability of his, Magnetic Grenade, has caused frustration among players.
While Blizzard Entertainment nerfed the ability’s damage in the recent season four balance tuning patch, lead hero designer Alec Dawson said on a Twitch stream over the weekend the team is “actively looking at it still” despite making changes just a week and a half prior.
Magnetic Grenade is an explosive that has a delayed detonation after sticking to an enemy or terrain. It does both direct and splash damage, and it was added to the game to replace Flashbang, which was removed in an attempt to replace most crowd control effects that DPS heroes had.
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Because Cassidy is significantly less mobile than most other hitscan DPS, Flashbang was an ability that enabled Cassidy to protect himself from enemies since he didn’t have any form of escape. Magnetic Grenade was meant to be a similar dive deterrent, but it has quickly become known as a powerful offense tool that feels oppressive to some players.
This led to Blizzard nerfing of its damage at the beginning of season four earlier this month, and while one might think devs will let the gunslinger rest for a while before making more tweaks, Dawson made it clear they’re not afraid to adjust his kit and stats again.
“We’re still playing around how these changes affect Cassidy and how Magnetic Grenade can fit within a little bit more of how his identity has possibly shifted a little bit,” Dawson said.
The changes to Cassidy’s close-range lethality came following a buff to his primary fire’s range during balance changes in February. Blizzard’s nerf to Magnetic Grenade was paired with a slight nerf to Cassidy’s health as well.
In the past three months Cassidy has been the most-selected DPS hero in competitive game modes among PC players, according to Overbuff. While his winrate is right around the 50-percent mark, he has been picked 5.57-percent of the time, a full point higher than the second most-picked hero, Soldier: 76 (4.5 percent). No other DPS hero was picked more than 3.2 percent of the time.
