Junkrat is currently obsolete in Overwatch 2. - an analysis

Before I begin, I’m a 4.5 peak Junkrat player with over 1500 hours on the character and have consistently ended above 4.3 for years.

I wanted to bring up how I feel about this problem because Junkrat has been in a rough spot for a long time and leading up to ow2 made me worried on how a niche character like Junkrat would fit in.

To summarize, a list of things ow2 does that indirectly hurts Junkrat includes:

-Transition from 6v6 to 5v5 [removing a tank] (with 1 tank removed, this eliminated the possibility of compositions that can have multiple shields, and Junkrat is considered one of the best shield break heroes in the game. Additionally, games in ow2 rely a lot less on a shield at all, which makes Junkrat even more situational).

-Armor buffs (reduces damage by 30% when any instance of armor is above the hp. (Orisa could have 299 hp and 1 armor and a widow’s 300 dmg headshot would still be reduced by thirty, meaning Orisa only takes 210 damage) I will go more into detail on how this affects Junkrat later).

-A change in map design (maps are exponentially larger and more open, already making Junkrat weak since he’s a close range dps).

-The new push maps (Colloseo and Queen Street for example) are the most open maps in the game and completely take over KOTH as probably Junkrat’s worst map type.

-2CP maps removed (I honestly think this game mode wasn’t that bad for OW but going offtopic. The removal of maps like Temple of Anubis, which is where Junkrat gets the most playtime due to its favor of close range heroes, plummets Junkrat’s pick rate).

-DPS passives (A new passive ability where all dps have a slight speed increase, which does not sound bad until you try to duel any dps as Junkrat and find they can walk past your primary nades at mid /close range, which is usually where GM Junkrat’s take duels).

On another note, I seriously believe the developers aren’t exactly sure what Junkrat’s role is supposed to be in Overwatch 2:

If Junkrat Is a tank buster, why can he do virtually no damage to armored tanks?

-Going back on this; In Overwatch 1, if Junkrat did any damage to armor it would only reduce his damage by 5, so a 120 damage primary only did 115 to armor, and a 600 damage tire only did 595. In Overwatch 2, Junkrat’s primary does 84 damage to any instance of armor, which is embarrassingly low, and his riptire only does 420 damage to any instance of armor, meaning there is virtually no way a tire can kill most tanks, even a damage increase like Zenyatta discord (~30% damage increase?) Cannot help to kill most tanks since most of the tanks have had their health increased over the 600 mark, which is the max damage Junkrat’s tire can do.

If Junkrat is a close range duelist, why does he lose virtually all dps matchups?

-I already addressed this previously but without going too much into it again, while it’s healthy for a hero like Junkrat to have his counters, the speed increase passive for all dps makes it almost impossible to take a traditional duel that skilled Junkrat players would have no problem with in Overwatch 1, even against other close range duelists that Junkrat has a more positive advantage in.

If Junkrat is a dive/aggression punisher, then why nerf his Steel Trap and punish players for using their utility into it?

-I have a whole spiel about the trap changes further along this post, and it’s what inspired me to write this. If you want context on the trap changes, theres a thread on the r/Overwatch Reddit about the changes, but long story short, the changes to trap are already one of the worst nerfs the character has seen yet.

The following quote was taken directly from a Reddit post I made a while ago when I was talking about the trap changes:

“I don’t consider Junkrat’s trap to be in the same category as Cassidy flash and Ana sleep dart, since these can be activated at any time with value that is way more instantaneous and can be way more utilized in any game they are played. On the other hand, Junkrat’s trap requires lots of forethought and prediction to get value from, and actively relies on an enemy not being spatially aware and stepping on it. It’s also one of the two “cc” in the game that can be destroyed (the other being symmetra turret and she can have 3 of them active at once)

The problem, in my eyes, with how trap works in ow2 is that it actively punishes the player for using it correctly. For example, you predict where a Wrecking Ball rolls into your team from and you place your trap in your team to bait and catch him. If it works, you actively have to avoid using your only damage utility (concussive mine) or else the ball will be booped up into the air, the trap will break, the ball gets a piledriver off and your team dies. If you don’t use your damage utility, the ball will run away even more unscathed and try again until it eventually succeeds.

Another instance I could equate this to would be if Ana’s sleep dart no longer slept enemies and applied a “drowsy” effect or something like that and the affected enemies were slowed for an inconsistent duration. Sounds dumb right? and this is an imaginary effect for the same sleep dart that could be used consistently”.

At this time, I have no clue what I would change about Junkrat in his current state since I’m not a developer. But if I’m not completely reworking the hero, I would:

-Revert the trap changes (including the damage increase) and get rid of the chain to stop the random trap breaks (this occasionally happens in ow1 ironically enough).

-Increase his primary damage to 130/140 BUT change the ratio between his impact/splash damage, and favor giving more damage to the impact since this would reward Junkrat players who can aim and not rely on splash damage and spamming to get kills (which is NOT how to play Junkrat by the way).

-Idk what I would do about Concussion Mine.

-Increase his primary projectile speed and concussion mine speed to keep up with the increased speed of the game.

I have faith that whatever the Overwatch devs do to Junkrat, it ends up being beneficial and he get’s the treatment he’s deserved for a very long time.

Thanks for reading.

EDIT: Apparently Junkrat wasn’t given the increased trap damage (80 ->100) like it was stated in the patch notes. Even after today’s recent patch the trap still does 80. There’s been no other notable compensation.

118 Likes

Aqua posting on the forums?!?!? The hero really is dead :frowning:
Baffling to me how they can give the hero 5ish indirect and or direct nerfs (trap) and think the hero is “fine” meanwhile soldier is running around beaming people.
Gone from niche/bad in ow1 to complete trash in ow2 arguably being the worst hero in the game thanks to terrible balance changes and new maps being absolutely awful for him.
I’d like trap changes to be reverted, a faster primary fire projectile speed (or increase the size) and no fall off on mine or faster deployment.
Sadly none of these changes will happen, at this point I’ll take anything.

26 Likes

“You got a loicence for being in this tournament?” ~Blizzard, threatening non-hitscans with a nightstick.

7 Likes

The trap changes are unnecessary and his CC with trap wasn’t even annoying.

32 Likes

Yeah It’s genuinely ridiculous how bad he is currently and the fact they nerfed him when he was already gonna enter a new environment where he’d be at a significant disadvantage is baffling

15 Likes

When Aquamarine makes a forum post about how bad Junk is. You know Junk is bad.

37 Likes

I’m waiting on the usual junk haters to come in and tell him he’s wrong :eyes:

19 Likes

Good. Let’s leave him obsolete.

8 Likes

That will be something for sure.

10 Likes

What a clown thing to say

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Yeah after playing beta extensively it’s clear he needs some serious help. He’s outdated and often just painful to play.

This I can get behind. Those who have practiced enough to be consistently hitting those directs should get rewarded for it.

It may just be a case of increasing the minimum damage or increasing the throw speed, as you said.

Another direction, albeit more controversial, is to give him more health just like every other non flanker close-mid range hero has.

Trap needs to either be replaced or reverted too. It’s barely worth using anymore.

At this point I’ll take anything though. Fingers crossed Blizzard actually address the problems.

10 Likes

What if you just gave him a passive that ignores the damage reduction of armor?

1 Like

Wouldn’t be enough my guy.
The hero is too far gone in ow2.

2 Likes

That would defeat the whole purpose of armor.

I sometimes wished junk would be like demoman with this stickbomb & nade launcher. Dredge from Paladins is also way better than junk.

4 Likes

I am not naysaying or attempting to discredit aqua. This is my own personal experience, but the aiming for me wasn’t that hard to adjust to.
Junkrat WAS nerfed, that is a fact.
I have tried some 4k-4.4k scrim lobbies, and the dilemma he mentions of “Should I or Should I not damage the guy I trapped?” came up. It is completely counter intuitive to try to trap mine anyone with more than 240hp because they live

Since they live, you can AND WILL, directly end up helping them escape when trying to kill them. Worst it is, is on tanks. I find that using it as followup is more useless than using it as base now. If anything I get more value flanking and using it as a distraction tool on peeling enemy teammates.

It’s basically an even worse damage ability that relies entirely on reading your enemy. But even if you read them, with no actual root, they can live most trap mines. So your cunning/planning isn’t rewarded.


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2 Likes

One out of 32 heroes ignoring armor would defeat the whole purpose of armor?

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Change his trap to slow 90% for the first sec. and gradually decrease to 65% within 3 sec. will do…

A unique mechanic or idea? Must nerf. It ruins the game. Everyone must be straight forward damage dealers.

Quoting to bump the thread from one Junkrat player to another. Gotta agree that swiss cheese mega-maps really hinder Rats ability to be useful in the beta as well as the other points made.

Just wanna say that you actually inspired me to play Junkrat and ‘get gud’ with him. Your Junkrat play is absolutely nuts.

It’s really unfortunate that he’s been so negatively affected by the shift to OW2 and the unnecessary nerfs he received. I played him for one match in OW2 and haven’t touched him since, he feels THAT bad to play.

Really hoping they can right their wrongs, because he genuinely is in a terrible state.

9 Likes