Overwatch's Junkrat doesn't get much love these days. His grenades and mines can be powerful when they land, but their imprecise nature—combined with Junkrat's limited means of mobility—means the hero sees little play in higher-skill and professional tiers.
Overwatch principal designer Geoff Goodman took to the game's official forums today to share a bit of info about an impending rework to the Australian demolitions expert. Replying to a post saying Junkrat's Concussion Mine damage should be reduced in exchange for a lower cooldown, Goodman said the suggestion was "pretty close to what we're trying with him, and what will likely be on the PTR when it comes back up."
"Currently on our internal builds, Junkrat has 2 charges of his Concussion Mine," Goodman said. "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."
It was already possible to double-jump with Junkrat's Concussion Mine, but it required placing a Mine and then waiting for the eight-second cooldown before launching into the air. "That is still possible, which allows for a triple jump now if you want/need that, but now it is a lot more reliable to do with 2" Goodman said, "It has been a ton of fun to play with so far."
Goodman also said the team is looking at making Junkrat's ultimate ability a bit better, possibly with either a movement speed or health increase on the tire. "We wouldn't do both things," he said, "but in either case it should be more reliable to use in more situations."
There's no timeline yet on when the next Overwatch PTR will activate, but with the most recent test server drawing to a close (in preparation for Doomfist's arrival on the live servers tomorrow), it's possible we could see it as early as next week.
