Why'd Junkrat get nerfed?

General Discussion
21

Sojourn is more effort than a trap, yes, but the amount of value you get to the amount of effort you put in is wildly disproportionate. It’s not that hard to grasp.

And chucking a trap onto an objective is not the kind of counter we need. It’s fine that it exists, but having it be a bit weaker is good. Because that’s the thing here, it’s a bit weaker, they didn’t crush the ability.

As for intended use, the way I see it is that the trap is supposed to be used to cover flank routes or coners and be used generally in a sneaky way. It’s also meant to be used in combination with a mine next to it since they do exactly enough damage together to kill a squishy. It’s not meant to be used by throwing it in plain sight in the middle of the enemy team, though the fact of the matter is that it can be used that way even after the nerf.

The thing about the nerf is that it makes that crazy way to use it weaker while not effecting the strength of the sneaky way to use it. It’s a good change.

22

they nerfed trap cus it’s gay. not that hard to understand

edit: they obviously should have nerfed sj as well, but that’s another story

23

Its simple:

Junkrat is a Gigachad and Blizzard cant handle a Junkrats chadness

2 Likes
24

Called it! Junkrat confirmed at least B tier for the general playerbase, needed a nerf :wink:
/s

Even I’m surprised he got nerfed. But, maybe their data showed Doom was dying to an abnormal amount of Junkrat traps :thinking:

25

I have no idea, OP. Someone in my thread just claimed that Junkrat is the best hero in the game, with someone else co-signing them. :joy:

1 Like
26

I will give you the answer. I promise this is the truth, don’t worry about any other post.

They got caught.

You see, they tried stealth nerfs to “noobstomp” or “heroes perceived to be noobstomp” characters. This includes the trap changes, and the stealth nerfs to Sym turret damage. The thing is, the junk trap change was noticed and given a lot of attention on twitter so they threw it in the patch notes to try and save face, or something. They don’t really have logic.

2 Likes
27

Sorry that would require people to even play Junk. Not a thing :man_shrugging:

3 Likes
28

Compare that to characters like Tracer, Reaper, Echo, and such who can use their mobility without sacrificing a core damaging ability from them. Junk’s mobility is objectively worse.

It’d be like if Reinhardt could leap in the air with his hammer, but it costs him a charge of fire strike. Even Hanzo’s leap is better mobility that that.

OH yes it is. Its tough to aim, you have to LOOK AWAY from targets to aim at range, and you nades can bounce wrong and miss the enemy. Compare that to Soldier who can just look at you and shoot you! You’ll see why I think its a poor weapon.

I’d appreciate an example. I can only think of one where, on one of them push maps, Junk can shoot over a window since its exposed at the top. But situational advantages like that doesn’t mean a weapon is good.

And you know how? Buffing Damage characters and nerfing tanks kept them in “line” and no one liked it. I like the idea of having some Damage heroes be “tank busters”, so that there’s high damage options to counter tanks, but tanks can still be tanky.

The counterplay is looking down. The counterplay is saying “There’s a junk on their team, so I should check for traps”.

I’m going to break down your comment sense its a false equivalence.

Firstly, Echo had free-flight, grenades, and a laser to quickly kill targets. Junkrat has mines, a trap, and an M1 to quickly kill targets. The issue? Junk can’t comfortably fly at you to quick kill you since he’d be sacrificing a mine. It takes more thought for him.

He’s also directly designed to make traversal difficult. You have to play into his hand to fight him, but that’s also how you beat him. Echo can fly as she pleases, and LITERALLY fly away when in danger.

Comparing Junk and Echo is simply bad faith. I don’t take it seriously.

Comments like this is funny. I have no idea how or why he’s in 90% of your games, but he’s not in 90% of my games, so I will indeed go off.

My solution to that is more CD skills that counters ults. I think ults are only a problem because you can just press Q to win, but recently heroes like Bap, Kiriko and the like are launching with skills that counter this nicely.

Also, this is an issue of peels. I don’t think heroes should be made worse because the players willfully refuse to help their supports. Also

You’re right, I forgot, and now I’m sad again. You know, I still play Bastion thinking I can self heal? Sad.

1 Like
29

It’s a nerf that was added to the game when they switched back from the slow version of trap. It just didn’t show up but it was with the global nerf to cc.

30

He doesn’t fit what they envision for OWL. They want hitscan and other easy to understand hIGh SkILl heroes.

1 Like
31

If I didnt play junkrat, it would be easy to forget he even exists.

32

It’s fine I guess, rather than letting the enemies escape the trap.

33

He’s low skill and practically untouched for what seemed like decades.

34

just be happy they havent removed him yet due to game breaking bug with his steel trap can appear invisible

35

The trap is supposed to be hard to spot, the enemy team can only see the teeth and center piece.

1 Like
36

And it’s not even difficult to see in the first place.

37

Yes, as we can see in the below statistics, he’s been EXTREMELY problematic in OWL.

[Album] OWL stats
38

It was a joke, he isn’t OP in any way. If they think they need to nerf Junk over nerfing or buffing some other heroes they need their heads checking.

You can counter a junk by playing almost any hitscan. If a junk beats you I always see it as being outplayed.

JQ needs a buff badly, she gets no playtime what so ever. That is just one example.

2 Likes
39

Riiiiight, because no one plays Junk. Not a single person

40

Yeah it’s tragic :pensive:

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