Full disclosure, I do think flashbang is unreliable in general, but I’m only going to talk about the five flashbang bugs that I’ve experienced that I know the exact scenarios that cause them to happen, and that I’ve experienced tens, if not hundreds of times in my almost 200 hours of playing McCree. When these bugs happen, I do not have any packet loss or connectivity issue symbols, I have a consistent capped framerate of 170, and with regards to the hero ability related bugs, the other heroes have commented when the bug occurs, so they are seeing the same thing on their end.
The first two bugs both have to do with the environment blocking the stun effect when it shouldn’t, the other three bugs are specific to stunning heroes while they use their abilities.
BUG #1 - Stairs
The first bug is that stairs (possibly slopes as well, though I am not 100% certain of that) can block the stun effect of flashbang in a specific situation.
This bug happens when McCree is below a target on a set of stairs and the flashbang is thrown onto the stairs directly in front of the target. The reverse is not true, if McCree is above the target and throws the flashbang onto the stairs directly in front of the target, the flashbang will work as intended and the target will be stunned.
McCree can be on the ground right before the stairs with the target on the stairs, or the target can be at the very top of the stairs while McCree is on the stairs, positioning doesn’t seem to matter as long as the target is above McCree and the flashbang hits the stairs.
I believe this is a bug and not intended behavior due to the behavior of flashbang when thrown downstairs, along with the behavior of other splash based projectiles with respect to stairs like Pharah’s rockets or Junkrat’s bombs. Another slightly related, by producing a stun effect, ability is Brigitte’s shield bash which also functions properly on stairs.
BUG #2 - Light Posts
The second bug is that some environmental objects will block the stun effect of flashbang, behaving as if the target is behind a wall that the flashbang hit, instead of a small object. I’ve specifically noticed this bug happening a lot with regards to street light poles, but it could be that flashbang behaves strangely with rounded objects in general.
The bug doesn’t just happen when the target is directly behind the pole and the flashbang hits the front of the pole, that situation makes some sense at least. If the target is standing directly next to the pole, but is closer to standing behind the pole with relation to the flashbang hit than in front of the pole, the stun effect will be completely blocked.
I believe this is a bug because hitting a regular wall with flashbang where the target is moving out from behind the corner of the wall, but the target’s body is still mostly behind the wall, will still result in a stun.
BUG #3 - Roadhog Hook
For this bug, there is a very small window of opportunity where Roadhog begins the animation of winding up and throwing his hook where McCree can stun Roadhog before the hook projectile spawns.
If the stun hits, Roadhog’s hook throw animation will be completely cancelled, and Roadhog himself will be stunned, but an invisible hook will still be thrown. The invisible hook can still hit players and pull them into Roadhog.
I believe this is a bug because, even ignoring the invisibility, Roadhog’s hook can be cancelled with a stun if the hook has already spawned in front of Roadhog and is moving either towards the target or bringing the target back to Roadhog.
BUG #4 - Tracer’s Blink
This is another bug that can only happen within a very short window of time. If Tracer uses her blink, and a flashbang stun effect hits her at the exact moment the disappearing animation of the blink begins, Tracer will blink away but will be stunned when she comes out of the blink.
It seems that the time Tracer is stunned when she comes out of the blink is shorter than normal, so I suspect the stun effect timer begins before she leaves the starting location of the blink.
I believe this is a bug because logically Tracer should either suffer the full stun time when she comes out of the blink, instead of a reduced amount of time, or preferably Tracer should be stunned out of being able to blink, even if the animation began, her body didn’t move yet. Also, Sombra’s teleport is sort of similar to Tracer’s blink, but she can be stunned out of it if the stun effect hits at the perfect time.
BUG #5 - Genji’s Swift Strike
This bug can occur during the entirety of the movement caused by Genji’s Swift Strike and is a bit similar to the Tracer Blink bug. If the stun effect from McCree’s flashbang hits Genji during his dash forward from Swift Strike, the Swift Strike will still continue and do damage to targets Genji passes through.
Genji is not invincible to the stun though, as soon as Swift Strike ends Genji will be stunned, but similar to the Tracer bug, the stun effect will last a shorter period of time similar to if the stun effect timer began the moment the flashbang hit Genji.
I believe this is a bug for pretty much the same reasons I believe the Tracer Blink stun is a bug. Logically if the stun effect is registered during the ability, Genji should be completely stunned out of the ability. Otherwise (but less preferred), Genji should be completely immune to stun and not receive even a shorter version of the effect after Swift Strike ends.
Concluding Thoughts
All the hero ability related bugs are in favor of the target and decrease McCree’s effectiveness. Both the Genji and Tracer bugs give results that are not conducive at all with the description of a flanker counter some developers have described McCree as in the past.
The Roadhog Hook bug almost always results in death for McCree since the time it takes for the hook to reel McCree in is long enough for Roadhog to recover from the stun. This means that even though stunned, Roadhog’s hook then one shot combo still comes into effect and even a 200HP McCree is dead unless the Roadhog misses the close range body shot.
The Genji bug can be just as bad for McCree as the hook at lower health. McCree can hit the Swift Striking Genji while Genji is dashing towards him. If Genji was stunned in this moment McCree would take no damage, but instead Genji continues through and the damage is dealt, possibly resulting in death.
The Tracer bug isn’t as immediately deadly as the other two, but it is already very difficult to stun a experienced Tracer who is familiar with handling a McCree. It’s pretty frustrating when the stun finally lands but the Tracer still gets away.
This is complete speculation, but I think the ability bugs may all be related. Just guessing but I would think that all three abilities perform as a sort of slide movement behind the scenes. The hook slides back and forth from Roadhog, Genji slides forward through targets, and Tracer probably just goes invisible and slides through whatever heroes are in front of her. Like I said, total speculation, just giving my two cents.