Top500 Junkrat main explains in extreme detail why he needs buffs

General Discussion
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JUNKRAT NEEDED NERFS, IM JUST HERE TO SAY HE GOT THE WRONG NERFS!!!

IF YOU DONT PLAN ON READING THE WHOLE THREAD, PLEASE READ THE PRIMARY FIRE SECTION

section 1- intro

section 2 - CC mine

section 3 - CC mine inconsistencies

section 4 - CC mine solutions

section 5 - trap and total mayhem (his passive)

section 6 - primary fire (the worst thing about him)

section 7 - primary fire solutions

section 8 - RIP-Tire

section 9 - RIP-Tire solutions

section 10 - bugs

section 11 - TL;DR

section 12 - random things that aren’t very important like voice lines and skin improvements

section 13 - junkrats winrate in the current meta (it should be higher)

section 14 - junkrats average stats

section 15 - what im trying do fix with junkrat

section 16 - prolikechro’s opinion on junkrat (popular junkrat streamer)

section 17 - any major edits ive made

section 1

INTRODUCTION

before i start, junkrat needed nerfs, he just got the wrong nerfs

junkrat himself needs to be more consistent at the cost of rip tire being nerfed

Junkrat went from being one of the worst heroes in the game (season 1-5) to an op mess (seasons 6-9) back to where he started but a bit better (season 10 - present), partly due to hanzo being a better version of junkrat, the other part due to his very poorly designed nerfs. I’m gonna cover ways to change some parts of his kit to make him more consistent and balanced

junkrat is a very hard hero to balance, like bastion, if you buff him too much he will be broken at the lower ranks and balanced at the high ranks but if you nerf him too much he will be trash at the high ranks and meh at lower ranks, like he is now, im here to try and change that

currently junkrat is only viable in lower ranks (bronze-plat and maybe not even plat), hes been a joke in higher ranks ever since his nade size got nerfed. he was nerfed poorly so lets give him the right nerfs

overall, junkrat has a 2% pickrate and is barely maintaining a 50% winrate, according to Overbuff. (see section 14) If a hero is being picked that infrequently and still has a horrible winrate, something is horribly wrong

section 2:

CONCUSSION MINES

Let’s go back to August of last year, junkrat received a very needed buff of 2 concussion mines. This allowed him to use one mine for mobility and the 2nd mine for the killer so the junkrat player wouldn’t have to choose to use his mine for mobility or for damage.

On paper, this sounds perfect, but the problem is the devs did not reduce the damage in which the mines can do. Junkrat players could just throw 2 mines at someone and they would probably die if they were 200 hp or below, that was problem number one.

Problem 2 is the path that the devs took to nerf junkrat. They added fall off damage to his mines, this did nothing but add more inconsistency to junkrats mines.

section 3:

CC MINE INCONSISTENCIES

Imagine this, your fighting a mccree as junkrat and you hit one of his primary fire nades, doing 120 damage assuming it is a direct hit, he is at full hp and never gets healed or damaged by anyone else.

You now have 2 options, try and hit another primary fire nade OR throw one of your mines and kill him, however, since mine fall off you now have to hope it does 80 damage, AKA within 1.8M of mccree’s hitbox it could do 79 or it could do 60, you just don’t know.

section 4:

CC MINE SOLUTIONS

Mine needs to have a set damage, NO FALLOFF
Set damage in the air needs to be 85
Set damage when planted on the ground needs to be 120

section 5:

TRAP AND TOTAL MAYHEM

Junkrats trap and “total mayhem” (his passive) are 100% fine as it is.

section 6:

PRIMARY FIRE
Oh boy, here we go. Junkrats primary fire is, by far, the most inconsistent one in the game. His primary fire size reduction nerf was by far one of the worst things they could have done to him.

Back in April a ptr patch went live reducing his size from 0.3 to 0.2

Tom Powers said this, “Decreasing the Frag Launcher’s projectile size means he will have to aim a bit more carefully to land powerful direct hits.” this was a horrible idea.

how are you supposed to aim projectiles that are very small, that don’t travel in a straight line, that are very slow, and occasionally ghosts through peoples hitboxes because they are so small?

there becomes a point where you nerf a weapon so much its just completely inconsistent and useless.

the current nerf makes Junkrat’s weapon so inconsistent that it is only reliable at close range. His projectile size is reduced by 33.3%.

I’m sure some of you think this change is marginal.

However, note that before the nerf 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.

People who don’t play Junkrat or haven’t tried the nerf don’t understand how brutal the change is. It makes hitting direct shots extremely unreliable.

Note that Junkrat now has slowest AND 2nd smallest projectile weapon in the game.(first is tied between genji and hanzo)

When you mix the slowest projectile with a small projectile size and a 5-shot clip, you’re left with a very inconsistent weapon.

Some say this change just requires 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 making it “higher skill.”

There comes a point when a gun’s projectiles are so slow and small that nerfing them just makes the gun inconsistent, not “higher skill.”

This is the point Junkrat is approaching. His shots are so slow and small that it becomes random whether or not you hit. It 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.

JUNKRATS BOMBS ARE SMALLER THEN THEY APPEAR, CAUSING THEM TO GLITCH THROUGH PEOPLES HITBOXES

this describes the state of junkrats primary fire currently, its the worst part about junkrat

JUNKRAT NEEDS HIS 0.3 PROJECTILE SIZE BACK

section 7:

PRIMARY FIRE SOLUTIONS

Junkrats primary fire size needs to be reverted so that his bugs with it are fixed and you can actually somewhat aim them If not reverted they should at least be sped up so aiming your shots isnt impossible to do

section 8:

RIP-TIRE

I really think his tire should charge slower especially since we are increasing the projectile size (making him hit more nades) and making his mines do more consistent damage, even in my grandmaster games i am able to get tire in less then 10 seconds consistently on some maps, consistently.

Junkrat’s tire should explode if junkrat dies while he is in his ultimate and do half damage, this rewards the player for killing junkrat by making it less powerful

section 9:

RIP TIRE SOLUTIONS

Tire charge needs to be raised from 1575 to 2000

Tire should explode and do half damage if junkrat dies while in ult

section 10:

BUGS
(if anyone has video evidence of any of these bugs or some other bug i dont know about please show)

Primary fire nades passing through peoples hitboxes

Tire ends slower now compared to when it did in seasons 1-5 (not included in any patchnotes which leads me to believe its a bug)

Tire camera sometimes messes up if hooked by roadhog

Hammond’s interaction with junkrats trap is kinda buggy

when genji deflects junkrats primary fire, he doesnt take damage. he should because he doesnt have the total mayhem passive which protects junkrat from his own explosive damage

sometimes when junkrat, and only junkrat, gets nano boosted his frag launcher turns orange instead of blue

junkrats CC mine sticks farther away then intended and can sometimes stick onto breakable surfaces that were already destroyed such as in this clip

section 11:

TL;DR

  • NO FALLOFF DAMAGE ON JUNKRATS CC MINES
  • MINE NEEDS TO DO 85 DAMAGE IN AIR AND 120 WHEN PLANTED ON THE GROUND SO HIS MINE ISNT A GAMBLE
  • TRAP IS FINE AS IT IS, NO CHANGES
  • TIRE CHARGE RAISED FROM 1575 TO 2000, IF JUNKRAT DIES IN HIS ULTIMATE THE TIRE EXPLODES AND DOES 300 DAMAGE MINIMUM (HALF)
  • PRIMARY FIRE NEEDS TO BE INCREASED BACK TO 0.3 (33.3%) IN SIZE OR THE SPEED NEEDS TO BE INCREASED SLIGHTLY! PRIMARY FIRE WAS NEVER THE PROBLEM. THE PRIMARY NERF MAKES HIM SPAM MORE AND ITS WHATS HOLDING HIM BACK FROM BEING VIABLE!!
  • TOTAL MAYHEM IS FINE, NO CHANGES
  • JUNKRAT HAS A BARELY 2% PICKRATE AND BARELY A 50% WINRATE
  • FALL OFF DAMAGE ON MINE MAKES IT INCONSISTENT NOT MORE AIM DEPENDENT

section 12:

MISCELLANEOUS

  • junkrats beachrat skin should make a duck quack when then rip tire explodes

  • junks beachrat skin should have him say GET READY FOR A SPLASH when he uses his tire

  • junkrats bilgerat skin should have the voice line, “time to chum the waters” from his beachrat skin

  • junkrays bilgerat skin should launch mini cannonballs instead of bombs’

  • this needs to be an emote

section 13:

JUNKRAT IN THE CURRENT META

why does junkrat have such a low winrate and pickrate in a meta he is supposed to counter?

right now it is a tank heavy meta usually something like 3 tanks 3 healers or 2 tanks 1 dps (usually a doomfist) 3 healers.

junkrat should counter that, but he cant, and he obviously isn’t because his winrate is so low and he isn’t being picked alot

junkrat should counter goats, but all of his inconsistencies are stopping him from countering it

section 14:

junkrats overall stats --------> Junkrat Statistics - Overbuff - Overwatch 2 Statistics
(he has a 2% pickrate and a 50% winrate across all ranks)

section 15:

THE POINT OF THESE CHANGES

the point of these changes were to make junkrat HIMSELF more powerful while making rip tire charge a little slower and being weaker when he dies during his ult

section 16:

chro’s opinion on junkrat

for those of you who dont know, chro is a popular junkrat streamer who has 1 tricked junkrat since season 1, he has been in top500 in multiple seasons and has peaked 4500 SR

chro says junkrat needs buffs, when one of the best junkrat players in the world, maybe the best junkrat, says he needs buffs there is an issue

“@Alexis, He’s in a rough spot right now, thats for sure. I’d want some quality of life changes first, less sticky mine, instant camera back after ult, directional blast on his mine, fix hit detection on mine. As for buffs he needs something, its just hard to say what with how much everyone hates him. I think 50 armor would be the easiest way as you don’t mess with his damage at all, changes to trap could work but it seems they dont want to mess with his primary or mine anymore. I think 80 damage min on his mine would go a long way for his consistancy.”

(source: Imgur: The magic of the Internet)

even though we may have different opinions, we both agree he needs help.

section 17:

EDITS

  • added a section including junkrat’s low winrate and his low pickrate
  • edited the title
  • added a section about junkrat in the current meta (one he should counter)
  • removed the speed buff to rip tire and replaced it with another nerf
  • added a section explaining the point of these changes
  • added in a section about junkrat’s total mayhem passive
  • added a quote by Meldorn in the primary fire section
  • bolded important points
  • updated my stats to show an actual image of my career profile
  • worded some sentences better so they were easier to understand
  • added a section about chros opinion on junkrat
258 Likes
2

I pretty much agree with everything here, and the Miscellaneous stuff should get added too.

As a Junkrat main on the opposite end of the spectrum rank-wise, I agree wholeheartedly about the primary fire nerf. I mean seriously, why did they nerf his primary fire size, of all things?

45 Likes
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yeah, i have no idea what they were thinking

11 Likes
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I’ve always said it was weird that they reduced junkrat’s projectile size to make you have to aim more, but they didn’t give him a projectile speed increase so the statement would actually make any sense. He’s still more reliant on predictions than aim, they just nerfed how effective his predictions are by 33% basically.

Then later in the same patch notes hanzo was given a projectile speed increase for no reason

58 Likes
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yeah i found that a little weird

8

junkrat biggest problem in my opinion is that:

when you throw mine and get stunned that mine DISAPPEAR in thin air
if i managed to throw conc mine BEFORE getting stun
 WHY it disappear?

it should not because i already managed to throw it

besides, remeber that every single buff to ranged, hitscan and projectile hero is nerf for junkrat 
 now like 80% of meta counters him

EDIT: they buffed hog and reaper
 it is even worse than before when it comes to JRat
(dont see my post as a rant, just statemant of facts)

14 Likes
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The problem was how fast he can get his ult, it wasnt even his grenade.

6 Likes
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600h junkrat main here. I Totally agree with the post above. Devs are just ignoring the fact that they overnerfed junkrat too much for community complaints even though his winrate never exceeded genji or tracer.
Have i spent 600 hours at the hero so its gets nerfed to the ground like this ?? I even have problems to maintain my own rank from that point on. In his NichĂ©, he’s very weak, people go through grenades because they are too small to hit anything in the choke anyway. Players should be punished for stepping into the choke junkrat is spamming into, he’s supposed to lock out areas. With primary fire nerf+mine falloff how da heck are u expecting us to deny an area ???
I can accept a lot of things, But i dont know what u expect us to do Blizzard.

26 Likes
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Junkrat is fine, he still has a average pick rate and average WR, perfectly balanced.

8 Likes
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You sure we playing the same game ? Junkrat is In F-tier pickrate as he started in season 1-5
Go check overbuff, he has roughly 1% pickrate

16 Likes
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7th most picked DPS out of 15 with a 50% WR? Thats as balanced as could be

6 Likes
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Projectiles disappearing may be an issue related to latency as on your screen you fired the projectile, threw the mine, etc. but from the server’s side you got stunned first.

That being said it’s definitely annoying, I don’t play Junkrat but I play Pharah and seeing your rocket disappear mid-air when you die is silly.

3 Likes
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60 minutes of junkrat in quick play, never picked him in competitive and that was 8 months ago - i see u have clear picture about whats going on with him :wink:
Go to Mccree-related topics.

15 Likes
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junk/hog dubbble main here, junkrat feels like junk at this moment in time, remember when he could 1v1 genji and tracer and come out alive most of the time, now if you get into a fight with either one you may as well just dont move because your screwed anyway, also FREKIN FIX GENJI DEFLECING MINES THAT ARE STUCK TO WALLS

6 Likes
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7/15 is terrible when the meta comp has no DPS in it, because of a comp that junk is supposed to counter.

12 Likes
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Oh plz, you decided to view my pickrates so i viewed your profile. Dont get so soft

8 Likes
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Junk counters bunker and shield bursts, the current meta is Dive with Doomfist which Fist counters Junkrat.

2 Likes
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I expect him buffed back up anyway, after this torb patch that will hit, bastion and junk will get to the top anyway which will be next wave on ptr probably with hog, if not the next one after that

1 Like
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DF dive is limited to maps where goats doesn’t work, i.e. very few of them.

1 Like
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Goats is countered by Ana play not necessarily Junkrat. Ana is a must, Junkrat is a option

2 Likes