Recently came back to the game and decided to try Junker Queen. I’m not the best player, but I played a lot of Overwatch 1.
That being said, I tried to play Junker Queen and just couldn’t feel out what her bag of tricks does. I didnt feel much like a tank at all, really.
How is one supposed to play her with that kit? She has 425 health, no shields or armor, nothing to mitigate damage like a barrier, bubble, matrix, etc.
I know the shout, but it didn’t seem super great.
She seems to be someone who needs to get in close, but even doing that it seemed I got packed up far faster than I do on Rein, Zarya, etc.
Does she only work with specific comps or is she just a weak link?
i play her for team deathmatch and play Aggressively Most fun iv ever had Occasionally ill do Role queue with her but ill usually switch for sigma or orisa, Junker queen is just very fun And satisfying for some reason i cant offer any tips sadly hahaha
She heals herself with her bleeds. So you have to hit the jagged knife and her cleave. Use shotgun to finish off squishies. Commanding shout is amazing to get to safety or finish a team fight. You obviously are not a bullet sponge like Orisa or Rein, so you have to be careful and have your dps keep them off you and your supports enable you - Brig and Lucio is what OWL used when JQ was all the rage.
Her mitigation is her bleed.
She heals herself from every bleed damage so you want as many people bleeding as possible (all attacks except the shotgun do bleeding, including her punch when she has the knife).
So the way she works is she is very in your face mashing squishies. The bleed will undermine their healing like Ashe’s dynamite fire. So you can take quite a bit of damage and be pretty high priority to kill or she’s tear through the team.
She was overtuned in the beta, unkillable and her shout was too good, so now she’s currently too toned down, so she’s not great right now.
She is awesome and I love her but honestly…she’s outclassed pretty hard. Your best bet if you’re trying to maximize your results is to pick zarya, dva or orisa
Make sure you have a lucio if you are gonna play junker queen. She specializes in close range so if you have a brig or even a zen to help you get those kills faster then you are good to go. What makes junker queen so hard to play is that shes only good if your team is rushing with you and dealing a ton of damage. So this is the bread and butter, make sure your lucio speed boost into the enemy team, use your battle cry to give everyone a bit more health, hard rush their supports and profit.
If you and your team failed to do that then forget playing her lol. Seriously, junker queen is a dps and tank hybrid and her specialty is mega rush. If you cant effectively rush targets and everyone moving in unison then just don’t bother playing her. Everyone says shes bad because its hard to get value playing with random people. Shes really strong in the right hands, just maybe not gonna happen in lower ranks.
Let me also remind you that zarya exist and she plays out the same way as junker queen and does the job way better. Being able to rush a team while charged and using the bubble on your dps is way better because you mitigate more damage that way. Unfortunately junker queen is kind of in a meh category, shes viable but zarya exist. Sort of like how there is no point in ever playing widow and hanzo when sojourn exist.
Like someone else above me said, her main form of mitigation is her bleed. So if you can hit your knife throws and your axe swings, and cycle through those two abilities, then you can get that bleed proccing and get some self healing. As for the shout, I actually lean more on a support kind of mindset. It can help to use it to encourage your team to push with you, sure, but I’ve also gotten a ton of value using that overhealth (the green HP) to save a teammate. So in that sense, I sort of play Junker Queen as a support tank.
In general, though, Junker Queen isn’t in the best spot right now. Her and Doom are the weakest tanks in the game right now. People have already said to just pick Zarya, but pretty much every other tank that isn’t Doom is better than her. D.Va, Sigma, Rein, Winston, Ball, you’re probably going to get more value with them. You’d probably play JQ in a deathball or rush comp. So Lucio, frontline DPS, etc. but in that case, Rein, Sigma, Zarya, and Hog can do her job better.
So, she’s not in the best spot, but from my limited playtime on her, the best advice I can give until she gets buffed is to get consistent with her knife and axe, make sure that you’re landing those abilities and cycling through them, and use shout more as a supporting tool.
Just to add to the hitting your knife throws- hitting them is best, but also it causes bleed if you pull it back through them, so if you miss, just put someone between you and your knife, then pull it back. It won’t give you the full damage or effect, but it will cause bleed.
Primary fire, most accurate shotgun in the game. Does 80 damage on a full hit, great for headshotting even at midrange.
Jagged Edge
Alternative, great for finishing off targets, and pulling them into range for Carnage.
Like other Tanks, she has a strong one-shot/kill combo; use Jagged Edge to stick it into an enemy, then call it back and immediately use Carnage, this will kill any 200 health ally or put them in severe health for a quick melee. You can also earn the Cute Spray achievement.
Place it on the ground, Rampage, then call it back to stack up wounds, on the row of targets you just Rampaged through.
Carnage
Queen’s axe, does a lot of damage and puts a serious bleed effect on the target.
Area effect in front of her, has the same range as Rein’s hammer and Genji’s dragonblade.
Useful for melee combos or when targets are close. Similar strategies that Rein uses (ie corner swings) can also work well here.
Command Shout
No reason not to use this when its off cooldown, 200 extra health and a speed boost for getting into melee range and swiping with Carnage.
Use in the opening of engagements, when you need to run, and/or when you’re in critical health and need a boost.
Use to save nearby allies that may take a killing blow.
Rampage
Mainly used as a finisher, but can be use to open up engagements.
Dives through the enemy team, puts them in a severe 100 damage bleed and anti-healing debuff.
Though not lethal, it can be difficult for damaged players to clear or survive through it, though keep in mind all the techniques to clear anti-healing and burn effects still apply here, so best to use when those enemy abilities are not available or have been used.
Wounds
Main survival mechanic along with Command Shout.
Queen has three bleeds or Wounds. Jagged Edge, Carnage, and Rampage. Jagged Edge and Carnage bleeds for 3 seconds, Rampage for 5 seconds.
Jagged Edge is the weakest at 15, Carnage is 40 damage bleed, Rampage is 100 damage bleed.
Junker Queen recovers 100% of the damage from bleeds, so stacking a bunch of bleeds on multiple targets allows Queen a lot of staying power. These bleeds will not heal any overhealth from Command Shout, however.
Strategy:
Queen plays similar to Reinhardt in CQC, and flexible short-ranged (15 to 20 meters).
Queen can play further out with Scatter Gun or Jagged Edge pokes (25+ meters). But is less effective.
Use natural cover and corners to ambush for Carnage damage.
Use Jagged Edge to pull targets off of high ground and into Carnage, or into your Scatter gun or melee.
Quick melee strikes also bleed targets for 15 damage over time, use them as needed, but don’t go running in for a quick melee.
Carnage is great for finishing off targets or applying a heavy bleed. Try to get as many targets in range for Carnage.
Don’t go into melee range too often unless Carnage and Command Shout are available; too risky and too easy to take too much damage to kill you.
You gotta play a bit smart with Queen here, though she may have some berserker-tendencies and abilities, you want to avoid rushing in too much and try bringing them to you or luring them in. With Command Shout, it is possible to dive in, but the long cooldown prevents repeated usage.
Using similar tactics used for Reinhardt also works well here. Jagged Edge may only hit one target, but it is on the same cooldown as Firestrike, and if you miss, you can always call it back to inflict some bleeds on a line of targets for some health regeneration.
Her best match ups are against D.va, Doomfist, Winston, and Wrecking Ball. She’s even with Zarya and Sigma. Her worst match-ups are Reinhardt, Orisa, and Roadhog, and possibly Sigma.
I can confirm Just playing team deathmatch (Though im improving slowly and better getting used to her more) Sigma and reinhardts are the Few that i wont actively fight agaisnt without the team to much can go wrong quickly, Sombra…thats…thats just evil right there imo
