“Overwatch” hero Roadhog and Junkrat are in dire need of some buffs and Blizzard had recently responded to fans. In light of the Tank’s nerfs, he has dropped considerably in the meta with many players begging the developers to save him. Junkrat, on the other hand, hasn’t been getting a lot of picks in the higher levels of competitive play as other heroes easily counter him. Blizzard has shared the initial details about the changes, but it seems like we’ll be getting them soon.
Jeff Kaplan speaks up
Speaking on the official forums, game director Jeff Kaplan has responded about the upcoming “Overwatch” changes on the PTR.
He claimed that they are adding an Outline Opacity option for crosshair optimization. That way, players will have more options when trying to design their special crosshair for specific characters.
However, this isn’t the only thing that’s coming to the PTR as he claimed that the Roadhog and Junkrat changes are also arriving along with it. Blizzard also seems to have more changes in store as his quote reads, “This [crosshair] option will be tested when the PTR comes up (this also has Roadhog, Junkrat changes -- and more).” They’ve yet to share the details on what the other changes will be, so we’ll have to wait for further news until then. Although, this could hint to Mercy’s ultimate ability as Kaplan previously mentioned that it's a bit overpowered at the moment.
Recap on the coming changes
What we do know so far is what they’re planning for the two said heroes. Previously, Principal Designer Geoff Goodman mentioned something about a survivability buff for Roadhog. He’s the only Tank hero without shields or armor which makes him pretty easy to kill. In line with this, they were thinking of allows him free movement when he uses his self-ability.
Moreover, he’ll even have something like a 50% damage reduction while using it, similar to Bastion’s Ironclad passive ability.
As for “Overwatch” Junkrat, they’ve mentioned something about adding another charge to his Concussion Mine which will make it easier for him to fight and disengage when needing to. Blizzard is also looking into adding more damage to his steel trap and making a few changes to his ultimate ability, RIP Tire.
The ability will either have more health or increase movement speed which will make it harder for enemies to destroy. With these changes in mind, we’ll hopefully see more of them in the meta as they’ve been severely underutilized.
