There’s a lot I’d like to talk about but I’ll try to keep it short. If you could relay it the dev’s I’d be really appreciative. This is purely about the junkrat changes.
From a character design point of view. He’s becoming a close range specialists which is fine but he doesn’t have the HP, sustain, defensive abilities or safe mobility like the other close range heroes to get him into that range. I’m unsure if the trade off for massive damage up close is worth it. Sym is an example of this but she has 225hp and can teleport to flanks and enclosed areas to avoid hitscan. I feel like junkrat needs something to mitigate hitscan dominance if I’m being forced to cover distance.
The distance traveled is tracked by how far the grenade travels. Because an arc is longer than a straight line it makes his 15m fall off feel more like 13-14m. So ricochets around corners or something underneath/above you will add distance and increase falloff damage. The easiest way to see this is if you shoot straight up, you’ll do minimum damage when it comes back down. It also punishes slow rollers where you deliberately put a grenade on the ground, bounces have arcs which easily add to the distance traveled.
Oddly enough this makes taking high ground as him extremely disadvantageous which he is known for currently. High ground on kings row almost guarantees minimal damage. This clearest example of this is eichenwalde point 2. If you defend on top of the castle all damage will be 78 per shot if they’re on the low ground.
The biggest issue is that 15-25m fall off his break even point is 18.1m. Nearly every defensive point in OW is farther than this. Most maps have a control point that is longer/wider than 18m which is a net loss for him. I’m not sure if 78 damage was on purpose but you cannot land a combo outside 25m now. DPS heroes survive with 2hp and doesn’t kill if they’re trapped more than 18m away.
Overall this change lowers his options and creativity. I’m no longer rewarded for high ground or good ricochets. The change is so extreme it feels more like a rework than anything else. I have to play close range or I do laughable damage on difficult shots. Not to mention any airshots are heavily mitigated as they are all usually farther away than 18m. In the end I’m being forced to flank or face tank and hope my suppose save me. I can’t deal with damage or hitscan with ricochets because it adds too much distance to his shots.
I think most of this would be fixed if the falloff damage started at 25/30m instead of 15.
I’ve streamed and one tricked junkrat since season one, I’ve been through it thick and thin with him. I think this would be the most difficult change he’s faced since launch.
