Overwatch 2has many Damage Heroes for you to use - 16 of them, in fact. One of those Heroes includes Cassidy, an outlaw, vigilante, and former Blackwatch member.
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We have sometips on Damage Heroesif you’d like to check that out. However, if you’d like to learn how to efficiently use the controversial cowboy, stick around.
Cassidy: Playstyle And Physical Attributes
Cassidy is a Damage Hero with 225 HP. While it’s slightly above the average total of 200 HP for Heroes of his class, it’s still pretty low. That being said, he’s a very simple character (so there isn’t a lot to be said about his capabilities). His tools, particularly his main weapon, give him ways of dealing damage effectively at close and mid ranges. However, he’s not the best close-range option, which isn’t helped by his average means of movement. If you have trouble with accuracy, you’re going to struggle with Cassidy.
Peacekeeper - Use The Alternate Fire At Close Range
Cassidy’s main weapon is his Peacekeeper. It’s a revolver that holds six rounds of ammunition. The bullets are very powerful, dealing nearly 75 damage. The headshots with this gun are very lethal, with the ability to put lower HP Heroes near death with one shot. It’s great for scaring off opponents and wonderful when catching them off-guard. For the brave enemies that get really close, the Peacekeeper can empty all remaining rounds with the alternate firing button. This gives the bullets less accuracy, but they’re likely to hit opponents that are directly in his face.
Cassidy’s first Ability is Combat Roll. He quickly rolls in whichever direction you choose. In the middle of the roll, he will fully reload his weapon. He also receives some damage reduction throughout the duration of the roll. The roll distance isn’t very far, and the cooldown is six seconds.
Despite being a movement option, this Ability’s best purpose is the near-instant reloading of your ammunition. This makes it a better alternative than waiting for the normal reloading animation. If you’re in a fight with someone, the movement does have some utility there as well since it’s a damage-reducing dodge. In that case, save it for when your ammo is empty, then roll into an optimal position to continue firing away. Perhaps you can roll closer and empty out your rounds with the alternative firing option? It’s a risky tactic, but it can get the job done.
For the sole purpose of movement, the Ability isn’t that great because of the short distance. This doesn’t make it suitable for getting out of battle unless your opponents are far enough and being kept busy by your teammates. It can give you a bit of a head start when it comes to moving in on objectives, though, so try using it when you need to contest or capture.
Magnetic Grenade - Throw, Shoot, Kill
Magnetic Grenade is his next Ability. He throws a grenade directly in front of him that soon explodes. As the “Magnetic” in the name implies, the grenade homes in on enemies that are near it during the initial period of the throw, sticking onto them. The grenade’s damage depends on the enemy’s distance from the explosion, but it deals much more damage when it’s stuck to them. However, whether the grenade’s stuck to an enemy or not, Cassidy can also get hurt if he’s too close to the explosion. The cooldown lasts for 10 seconds.
Magnetic Grenade is best used on Heroes with lower HP. The grenade leading or following a shot from the Peacemaker is a great combo that usually results in death. Because you need to be rather close for the grenade to stick to opponents, you can try using Combat Roll to close the distance before using it. If the opponent is already close to you, throw it and use Combat Roll backward to get away. That being said, the grenade can be avoided by opponents with movement options similar to teleportation, even if it sticks to them (which we’ll get into later). This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use it on them anyway, but just be mindful of that.
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Deadeye - Less Is More
Deadeye is Cassidy’s Ultimate. He sheathes his gun and locks on to any opponents in sight, preparing for a face-off. He then draws his gun and instantly shoots away at any locked-on opponents. Any opponents he locks on to for an extended period of time can be killed instantly. The time it takes for this depends on the enemy’s remaining HP. The Ultimate can also be canceled, and it lasts for seven seconds.
Deadeye can’t damage anyone that’s being covered by a wall or a building. The audio cue for the Ultimate (as well as the visual cue in the picture above) makes it pretty obvious that he’s about to use it, giving opponents plenty of time to hide unless their HP is low. While this is definitely a downside of the move, it can be used to your advantage. Forcing everyone to hide gives you control over an area, or more specifically, a payload or objective. If you cause the enemy formation to scatter, your teammates can go where they’re hiding and take them out one by one.
Despite not being able to damage enemies when they’re in hiding, you retain the level of lock-on you have on them before they’ve taken cover. If you have enough lock-on to kill an opponent and a teammate forces them out of hiding, that can make for a quick kill. This is especially helpful since locking on to opponents reveals their location to you, even after they’ve hidden. Whether you go for this strategy or not, make sure to relay the whereabouts of enemies to your teammates if you have communication.
Now, as for actually killing enemies, if you try to go for all five of them, you’re wasting the Ultimate. There are too many things going against Cassidy to make that an optimal strategy, especially if you do it head-on. What you should do instead is use Deadeye to pick off one or two opponents. Putting the enemy team at a numbers disadvantage allows your own team to kill the rest of them easily, especially if those Deadeye shots kill any healers.
If you are dead set on killing all five teammates, though, you’ll have better luck when Cassidy is flanking enemy lines in open spaces. This makes it so their options of evading are usually limited to killing Cassidy before he can use it (which is a bit harder, thanks to the damage reduction he gets). Since objectives tend to be open spaces, try to get behind enemy lines and kill them off with it before they know what’s happening.
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Matchup Advantages/Disadvantages
Cassidy performs best at mid-range and doesn’t have the best movement options, so there are quite a lot of Heroes that can give him a hard time. He gets countered by opponents with great movement options, like Tracer and Genji. Opponents with weapons that don’t require accuracy to be effective, like Mei and Winston, are also a threat. He also flat-out loses against far-ranged characters, such as Widowmaker or Ashe.
He has a better time against opponents with lower HP that can’t move around as much or have means of staying alive, like Ana, Mercy, and Zenyatta. As for those teleporting opponents, watch out for Tracer, Sombra, Moira, and Kiriko; all of these characters aren’t hard counters for him, but their Abilities can make the Magnetic Grenade drop off of them.
While Cassidy definitely has some unique aspects, he’s a clear-cut character all around. His main weapon and Magnetic Grenade make him dangerous up close and with a bit of distance. His Deadeye Ultimate is also quite fun to use in wide areas. But to use him well, you need to be able to properly hit your shots. He’s effective at close range, but don’t let the battle up close last for too long.
