Overwatch player demonstrates a useful movement trick with Junkrat
An Overwatch player showed off how a key change to Junkrat opens up a useful movement trick.
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Originally, Junkrat’s grenade launcher could damage himself, meaning that he had to be just as wary of his own grenades as the enemy team.
Though this was changed some time ago, a side-effect that many players may not be conscious of gives Junkrat a useful trick to add to his toolkit.
The change was presumably intended as a more general quality-of-life update for Junkrat – more so than any other hero, the rebounding nature of Junkrat’s grenades made avoiding self-damage particularly awkward if he found himself in confined spaces.
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However, although the self-damage was removed from his grenades, the knock-back still effects Junkrat. As a result, he can use them for his own version of a rocket-jump.
There are a variety of jumps in the game that can only be made with the assistance of some sort of knock-back, assuming no ability is used that directly provides vertical movement. The likes of Soldier: 76 and Zarya are particularly known for being able to make use of their abilities for the necessary boost.
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Thanks to the self-damage change, Junkrat can also make use of an assisted jump by timing his jump with the explosion of a grenade, as u/Playur1 demonstrates.
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Playur1 explains that when firing the grenade at a destructible object, as in the second clip, the explosion is immediate, but when the grenade hits a non-destructible object like in the first clip it will bounce three times before blowing up.
Obviously, Junkrat has a movement option in his Concussion Mine, but considering the value of the ability both for movement and damage, and the fact that it has a cooldown after use, expending it for jumps that only need a slight boost isn’t ideal.