Overwatch 2’s newest tank hero, Junker Queen, has players worried that she is helping revive GOATS – a controversial meta that plagued the first game in both ranked and professional play.
The honeymoon period for Overwatch 2’s newest hero is over. With the second beta finished and players waiting for the third to come out alongside a new support, fans have had to get their OW2 fix elsewhere.
While the Overwatch League is currently on a brief break following the Midseason Madness tournament, players have been checking out Contenders and getting their first look at how Junker Queen performs at a high level and the results have been concerning for some.
Despite Overwatch 2 consisting of 5v5 gameplay with one less tank on each team, some have noticed how Junker Queen’s sustain abilities have given birth to a GOATS-like meta.
Junker Queen brings GOATS back to Overwatch 2… kinda
GOATS was an infamous meta that pre-dates Overwatch’s implementation of role-queue. The composition’s heroes differed at times, but it often consisted of three tanks and three supports or in some cases, a single DPS.
The composition was so successful due to its sustainability. In addition to high HP tanks, support heroes such as Brigitte provided extra health to teammates with Rally and her Repair Packs.
Now, players have found that Junker Queen’s Commanding Shout ability provides sustain that can bring back some of that GOATS-era gameplay by giving teammates 100 extra HP.
OWL host Jonathan ‘Reinforce’ Larsson voiced some concern on Twitter having watched Contenders gameplay.
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So what's the deal with the Contenders meta?Is it genuinely just Junkerqueen GOATS with Lucio/Brig because Commanding Shout is OP and Ana/Zen can't keep up + JQ anti-heal vs. trans?Are we doing a concern?
— Jonathan Snowden (@Reinforce) July 25, 2022
“Is it genuinely just Junker Queen GOATS with Lucio/Brig because Commanding Shout is OP?” he asked.
“Shout just counters any other comp,” replied Darkmode tank Infekted.
Others compared Junker Queen’s Commanding Shout to a Brigitte Rally “on cooldown,” further stressing how the ability could benefit from some nerfs from the developers.
Shout just counters any other comp + the lucio and brig aoe healing is just too powerful
— Infekted (@InfektedOW) July 25, 2022
OW2 players call for ability changes
On Reddit, fans took issue with how area of effect healing stacks in Overwatch 2 with Lucio, Brigitte and Junker Queen combining to create a highly sustainable team.
“Pros will always try to force a high sustain meta whenever it’s possible because of how strong it has proven to be,” commented user ‘AvianOW’ who suggested some changes. “They should stop AoE heals from stacking. Back when we had no limits they stopped multiple Lucio heal auras from stacking. This should have been done when GOATS was meta as well disallowing multiple healing auras from working at the same time.”
Others pointed out how the developers have already nerfed Commanding Shout once and felt a change to AoE healing would just hurt Lucio and Brigitte more.
Depending on if or how the Contenders meta infiltrates the Overwatch League, we might be seeing some additional changes to Junker Queen for the third beta, especially with the ongoing GOATS comparisons.