Blizzard appears to finally be using their Public Test Realm (PTR) servers for their initially intended purpose. Listen to fan feedback, test our the changes on the PTR and then make appropriate balance adjustments before the update goes live. It has taken a while but it’s nice to see they finally care about us enough to actually listen to our voice rather than just follow what the pros tell them to do.

The latest PTR Patch Notes that focus on Junkrat and Reaper can be read below:

HERO UPDATES:

Junkrat

Frag Launcher:

Reaper

Shadow Step:

Symmetra

Teleporter:

  • Railings and other breakable objects no longer block teleporter placement and teleporting

These changes made are likely both an attempt to make these three niche DPS heroes a little more viable as well as to give the currently dominant GOATs comp another blow. It’s no secret that on paper Reaper and Junkrat should have been two of the strongest forces behind stopping GOATs yet neither were practically ever ran in these situations. Reaper’s problem was engaging in fights without being crowd controlled and killed as soon as he got close enough to do anything. Junkrat’s issue is that his damage whilst technically incredibly high is very unreliable at the same time.

By increasing the projectile speed of Junkrat’s primary fire and decreasing the explosion time it should make his kit both more skill based to get value out of. Also, I’d anticipate that his overall damage output will be more reliable now as its substantially easier to aim and land faster projectiles than slower ones.

Reaper’s tweaks are probably the riskier of the two. Reaper is a character who, if overtuned, will almost certainly become a must pick. Blizzard has known for a while that his lack of engagement tool is a real problem for someone whose damage output requires you to be close up to the enemy. By making his previously useless teleport ability more versatile and quicker, it might allow him to finally have an ability to close the gap to his enemies. It’ll still require timing and skill to use though as a sloppy teleport, even when invisible, is still going to get you deleted pretty quickly.

There are plenty of bug fixes and tweaks in the latest patch notes too. If you want to see the smaller stuff then you can check all that out here.