Before I begin, let me be abundantly clear:
Yes, Junkrat needed a nerf. The purpose of this post is to argue that he simply got the wrong nerf. My primary argument is:
The nerf to Junkrat’s primary fire destroyed his intended playstyle and forced players into a less exciting, less consistent one—all without raising his skill ceiling.
I need to establish Junkrat’s intended role before I get into how it was harmed.
Junkrat’s intended playstyle.
Despite the offense/defense categories being removed, Junkrat’s role remains defense-focused, perfectly summarized by the defense hero description:
The main objective of the defense role is to guard locations, create choke points, and establish a front. They may have long range weapons or the ability to create turrets, and excel at area denial.
The purpose of Junkrat’s existence is area denial–to lock off one small area of the map at a time. He can accomplish this by spamming his primary weapon and shutting down high traffic lanes, forcing the enemy to go another way. He can also lock down flanking routes with his Trap/Mine combo.
Without further ado, let’s get into my arguments. They are as follows:
A. Junkrat is most effective at mid-range.
B. Junkrat’s primary fire nerf forces him to play at close range.
A. Junkrat is most effective at mid-range.
Some of you may say that Junkrat is designed as a close range hero. My answer is that he is both a mid-range area denier AND a close range hero, but he gets the most value from playing at mid-range.
Every character has to balance playing safe vs. playing greedy—trying to get kills at a great risk to themselves. Junkrat is most effective at mid-range because that is where he gets the best value while still playing safe. Yes, he’s technically stronger at close range. Also yes, he is going to die 10x more if he’s constantly in the enemy’s face. Not ideal. That’s why all the top Junkrats in the world (Chro, PVPTwitch) play him mostly as a mid-to-long range area denier—NOT a close range brawler.
Playing at close range is extremely risky and wastes Junkrat’s ability to shoot around corners from safety. Junkrat is squishy and easy to punish at close range, especially at high levels of play. D.VA will eat up your escape mine. Widow will pick you off for getting too greedy. Orisa will pull you into a choke and kill you. There are a million reasons not to play Junkrat primarily as a close range brawler.
I get where people are coming from when they say he’s a close range hero, because close range is technically where he’s strongest. But again, it’s risky. When Junkrat moves into close range, he’s committing. He is either going in, destroying the enemy, and winning the fight, or…he’s going to die. It’s best if he plays at mid-range, picks up a few kills, and then commits after his team has the advantage to finish the fight. Junkrat’s potential is maximized when he is played primarily at mid-range.
B. Junkrat’s primary fire nerf forces him to play at close range.
This is because the current nerf makes Junkrat’s weapon so inconsistent that it is only reliable at close range. His projectile size was reduced by 33%. I’m sure some of you think this change was marginal. However, note that Junkrat had the second largest projectile weapon in the game (second only to Mei’s icicles). When you take a large projectile and shrink it by 33%, the difference is extreme. The bigger they are, the harder they fall when it comes to projectile percentages. People who don’t play Junkrat don’t understand how brutal the change was. It makes hitting direct shots extremely unreliable at any distance except melee range.
Note that Junkrat has the slowest projectile weapon in the game. When you mix the slowest projectile with a small projectile size and a 5-shot clip, you’re left with a very inconsistent, bad weapon.
Some say the nerf just required Junkrat to aim more. They’re wrong. Making a weapon harder to use–especially when you’re dealing with projectile size and speed–cannot be written off as simply “higher skill.” I’ll prove it. There comes a point when a gun’s projectile is so slow and small that nerfing it just makes the gun inconsistent, not skillful.
Think of it like a scale. On one side of the scale we have hitscan weapons with no prediction. On the other end of the scale is Symmetra 1.0’s incredibly slow alt-fire. At one end the aim requirement is high, and at the other end people don’t even bother aiming. Why would you bother aiming OG Symmetra’s alt- fire? You just pick a spot and spam, because you understand at some point a weapon is so slow and small that enemies can react faster than your projectile can travel.
This is the point Junkrat is at. His shots are so slow and small that it becomes random whether or not you hit. The nerf just requires you to spam more. This change makes Junkrat SPAM MORE, because he can’t hit what he’s aiming at. Not because he’s bad, but because what he’s aiming at can just step out of the way of a perfectly aimed shot.
The only reason Junkrat could hit skill-shots before, despite his abysmal projectile speed, was that he had large enough projectiles to connect with. If you take away the large projectile without increasing projectile speed, you now have a gun that can’t consistently hit anything outside melee range regardless of how good your aim is. DPS heroes live and die by their consistency. The main part of Junkrat’s gameplay loop MUST be consistent or he will never be viable. The primary weapon is the worst thing you could possibly nerf for a DPS hero.
This is a big deal because most of the game doesn’t take place in chokes. Most of the game is fights on an open point. Spam doesn’t fit the bill in teamfights and duels in the open. You have to hit skill-shots on highly mobile targets with arguably the hardest weapon to hit with in the game. Because of the nerf, Junkrat is unable to do so consistently (outside of melee range), regardless of mechanical skill and prediction. That’s why this change needs to be reverted and he needs to be nerfed elsewhere.
In summary, Junkrat has always been strong at close range, but that’s not where he’s supposed to “live.” His gimmick is area denial, not close range brawling. Junkrat shouldn’t always be on the frontlines, simply existing for his 2-shot combo. He should be laying down predictive spam from a distance to zone enemies. This change destroyed Junkrat’s role as a mid-range area denier and turned him into a close-range scrapper, which goes against his character design.
So where does that leave us?
I hope my post conveys why this is change was wrong for Junkrat. There are ways to bring him into balance without destroying his identity as a mid-range area denial hero. My suggested replacement nerf for Junkrat would be the following:
Junkrat
Frag launcher
• Projectile size returns to 0.3
RIP-Tire
• Ultimate charge requirement increased from 1562 to 2000
• Movement speed stays nerfed at 12 m/s
• Ultimate duration reduced from 10s to 8s
Thank you all for reading. Here’s to off-meta mains getting their heroes out of F-tier!
