In the ever-changing landscape that is Overwatch‘s meta state, it’s to be expected that certain characters will always fall by the wayside – largely forgotten about until Blizzard sees fit to bring them back into the realms of relevance. We’ve seen it countless times before with the likes of Sombra and Symmetra, who both received substantial changes in order to jack up their pick rates, but now it looks as if Junkrat’s next in line to receive similar treatment.
The Australian explosives expert has, in the past, been a popular pick to fill the defense role, thanks largely to the versatility of his Concussion Mine and the oppressive nature of his Frag Launcher. However, nothing is ever set in stone for Blizzard’s popular shooter, the advent of frequent balance updates and tweaks making sure that no one character ever reigns supreme for too long. Junkrat, however, has remained largely untouched for a while now, with the only real buff he’s received dealing with removing the Aussie’s propensity for self-harm.
Judging by a recent response from Overwatch principle designer Geoff Goodman on the game’s forums, however, it appears as if Blizzard has finally heard the combined calls for a buff from frustrated Junkrat mains, some of which will be ready to go as soon as the next PTR phase.
“Currently on our internal builds Junkrat has 2 charges of his Concussion Mine. This allows you to do all kinds of cool stuff like launch yourself into a fight and still have a charge to escape with, or launch yourself up into a Pharah and still have a charge to try and kill her with,” says Goodman, in regards to the upcoming adjustments, adding that the dev team is also looking at making the character’s ultimate attack more worthwhile, either by increasing its speed or health, but not both.
In regards to when you can expect to see all of the above come to fruition, Blizzard’s yet to provide a specific date, although, with Doomfist due to make the jump from PTR to live game any moment now, we can’t imagine you’ll have to wait too long, Junkrat fans. Hang in there!
