Hi Guys, the first character that I am going to cover is Junkrat who is one of the defensive characters and the reason that he is the first in my list is that his skills and sense of humor. What I mean by sense of humor? You will understand it better when you actually play him. His main focus is grenades and explosion. This guy loves blowing stuff up. If shooting is not your best ability in such games, Junkrat is probably going to be your favorite to play with because the arch of his grenades are so high and they bounce around, On the other hand, I believe that Junkrat is the only defensive hero who should be played aggressively, for example other defensive heroes, such as Widowmaker or Hanzo, you generally wait at the back and shoot from far behind. Junkrat, should be played aggressively because generally players think that defensive heroes should be shooting from the front side but, believe me on this, if I would see a creepy character running towards me while he is throwing grenades around and laughing, I would rather find a place to protect myself than going towards him.

His skills include: Total-Mayhem, Frag Launcher, Concussion Mine, Steel Trap, and, the ultimate ability, RIP-Tire.

Total-Mayhem is passive skill which activates itself when Junkrat is dead; meaning that if Junkrat gets eliminated by someone, it leaves a total five grenades on the ground and they explode in a second and if any enemy team player walks through them, each grenade hit deals 60 damage each which makes total of 300 damage where most of the characters in the game has total 150-300 health (except tank heroes), what makes it that these grenades can take so much life if it is used carefully. What I mean by that, Junkrat is probably the only defense hero whom you should play aggressive. Players usually do not expect defensive heroes to come to forward and shoot from there but by playing Junkrat aggressively can mix up your enemy’s focus and confuse them. Because of this confusion, even if you die, they will not have enough time to realize that you have left your grenades behind and they will walk through them and will reward you with at least one kill after death. This is because Junkrat is the only character in the game who has skill for after death.

Frag Launcher is your basic attack. Your main weapon has a capacity of five ammos and the reload time of your whole weapon is 1.5 seconds. Each grenade has 120 damage, meaning that since most of the characters, especially offensive heroes, have approximately 200 health and, as a defensive hero, you mainly aim enemy’s offensive heroes and you can kill them just by two hits. Also, as I mentioned in the first paragraph, grenades bounce. Yes, you have to aim but you do not have to be perfect with aiming. When grenades explode, they damage everything around them with a maximum of two meters away. Basically, you can throw grenade rains to other team and have fun watching them running around to protect themselves while your teammates do their parts of the job when the enemy team is confused. But be careful though, if grenades explode close to you it will damage you up to 40 health.

Concussion Mine has the damage of 120. Like your normal grenades, and has cooldown of eight seconds. The beautiful part is that you can place this mine to wherever you would like to or you can even make it explode while it is in the air. The main part of this skill, which usually not all the players are aware of is that this mine, is to hurl you and the enemy player away from each other if it explodes between you and the enemy. It will harm the enemy, but not you. With the quick cooldown of Concussion Mine and its side effects, it will be your best friend while you enjoy playing with Junkrat. For example, if any Roadhog uses hook on you and catch you, as soon as you get close to him, you can throw your mine between you and enemy Roadhog and put you apart from the harmful basic combo of Roadhog which would basically kill you in the first try. Other than that, when Genji comes close to you while he is using Dragonblade (his ultimate attack), you can again put some distance between you and him. Although, we will see the effect of Mei’s Endothermic Blaster, you can again protect yourself from her before you get frozen and hit by her sharp ice from the head.

Steel Trap is basically a trap you place on anywhere of the map you want and wait for someone to step on it. It has 80 damage and it immobilize the person it holds for three seconds. You will be aware if someone steps in it or destroys your beautiful trap. One of the most useful aspects of this trap is generally when you use it with the concussion mine at the same time. If you put these two together in the same place and someone steps on the trap, because you will be aware of it, you can easily explode the mine and 120+80. You directly deal 200 damage to whoever stepped on it. If the person who stepped on it is not a tank hero, you can almost kill everyone else because they typically will not have more than 200 health in general. If you place it in narrow places, there always be someone who will step on it.

RIP-tire (or rest in peace tire) is Junkrat’s ultimate ability and its damage is 600 which is enough to kill basically anyone in the game whether it is a low healthy Tracer or high healthy Reinhardt. It will kill anyone near when explodes. Junkrat can control it up to ten seconds and the tire can climb the walls as well. The only advice I can give you about RIP-tire is that do not explode it in front of Reinhardt’s shield because shield has enough power to protect the players behind it but as soon as you pass the shield, you can make it explode and also. Be careful though, the tire has just 100 health meaning that if someone hits the tire before you explode it, it will disappear without damaging anyone.

When you play Junkrat, you should be careful if there is any Pharah on the other team because Pharah has more mobility than Junkrat, she can be used to counter Junkrat since she is offensive character and Junkrat is defensive. A good player, however, is able to defeat Pharah or anyone else by using Junkrat’s skills carefully enough.

At the same time, Junkrat’s mobility is higher that all the tank heroes, so you can crush their tank forces quickly since your basic attack is so strong and tank heroes’ body is totally big enough to aim easily. So, with Junkrat, you can target the tank heroes and eliminate them so easily.

I hope you enjoyed the Junkrat and will discover a lot more with him. Next week I will discuss another defensive character, Mei.