Not since Kiriko has a brand new Overwatch heroes single-handedly tanked the queue occasions in Fast Play. I solely managed to get a handful of video games in and I am sure the wait occasions are solely going to worsen because the trial for Juno, the sport’s newest assist hero, continues into the weekend. Not solely are folks clamoring to play her, she would possibly truly be one of many best-designed heroes since Overwatch 2’s launch.
Juno is a purple-haired, giggly astronaut who many individuals are evaluating to different healers like Ana, Lucio, and Baptiste. On paper, that is principally true: Her gun can heal and deal harm and she will transfer across the map fairly shortly with a double bounce and a Hyper Ring capability that slingshots her group into battle. However she would not really feel like all of these heroes in any respect if you play her.
She’s extraordinarily cell. That is largely on account of having a reasonably quick cooldown on her Glide Increase, a fast burst of horizontal pace that I relied on rather a lot to flee flanking enemies like Tracers and Echos. It would not allow you to launch into the air—she has the double bounce for that—nevertheless it does maintain her slippery sufficient to remain alive, which feels in stability together with her comparatively weak harm output. Juno is not a killer until you correctly arrange a play together with her different talents. As an alternative, she’s a lot better at sustaining her group’s momentum by orbiting round them and selecting up the slack when the enemy group has stragglers or when somebody in your aspect wants a fast help.
Lucio held the throne as the one assist within the sport who might shortly pace increase allies into and out of harmful conditions. In Overwatch 2, therapeutic alone simply would not minimize it with how deadly DPS heroes are, particularly with the anti-healing debuff that their assaults apply. Juno is the primary hero since Overwatch 1 who has a brand new method to shortly transfer her group round and it is known as Hyper Ring. She will primarily toss down a large house portal that offers everybody in your group nitrous as they race ahead into the fray.
The Hyper Ring is Juno’s signature capability and it is extraordinarily satisfying to make use of. The obvious use for it’s simply to catapult your group towards an goal, nevertheless it’s particularly highly effective when mixed together with her final Orbital Ray, which calls down a laser beam that slowly strikes ahead because it heals and damage-boosts anybody close by. A well-timed Hyper Ring and Orbital Ray combo turns the enemy group into bowling pins and your group into one large bowling ball. Overwatch has lengthy struggled with balancing the facility of ultimates and I feel Juno’s might be the trail ahead for future heroes. You’ll be able to solely get probably the most out of it by pulling off a wise mixture of talents on the proper time, reasonably than merely hitting Q like an ‘I win’ button.
The very best Overwatch heroes have what I prefer to name a ‘loop’ of priorities to cycle via in each match, and to this point I feel that is what Juno’s appears to be like like:
- Preserve allies wholesome together with her Mediblaster gun and weaken enemies when you possibly can
- Toss down a hyper ring to spice up your group right into a combat or to assist them again out in time to recuperate and take a look at once more
- As a group combat erupts, shoot off her Pulsar Torpedos to heal your group and hopefully weaken enemies who aren’t paying consideration
- Drop her Orbital Ray final to ship a slow-moving beam straight via the battlefield that enhances close by teammates’ harm as they rush towards an goal or chase after targets
It takes numerous follow to make her package coalesce as a result of most of her talents do not make a lot of an impression alone. Juno’s gun cannot headshot, so it may be virtually unattainable to get sufficient harm in for a kill earlier than your goal will get healed and none of her talents can actually save anybody in the event that they’re outnumbered. Like Moira and Mercy, the important thing to Juno is to set your self up for fulfillment earlier than a combat goes awry. She’s an excellent mix of technique and payoff that makes me miss when Overwatch was gradual sufficient to have heroes who might change the course of a match by making a sequence of good selections to set their group up for fulfillment.
Juno’s trial will final till this Sunday after which she’ll be again as a (free) hero when Overwatch 2’s season 12 begins on August 20.
