Overwatch 2's Quirky, New Hero Is a Blast - Juno Breakdown
July 19, 2024
The Martian has landed - Juno is now available to play in Overwatch 2. You'll be able to try her out free-of-charge until 2PM ET on Monday, July 22, 2024 thanks to an ongoing hero trial event. You might need every single one of those hours given how long the queue times are so far!
Juno is a support character who specializes in a little bit of everything. She does damage, she heals, she's very mobile, and she can buff her allies' movement speed. She can absolutely be a viable asset to a team while also being a fun character to play. She definitely isn't at the level of Overwatch's top heroes based off of people's first impressions of her, but she'll probably find a niche when she releases for real. Let's take a deeper look into her kit to see where she stands out.
Unique Mobility And A Wide Spread
Here are some immediate thoughts about every single one of Juno's abilities:
- Mediblaster: Could potentially be a potent damage dealer in the hands of a DPS main (definitely shouldn't be focusing solely on damage, though). An ammo capacity of 180 rounds means you can also just spray and pray to hit what's in front of you. Limited by its inability to headshot characters.
- Pulsar Torpedoes: It's hard to complain about low-skill auto-targeting. Given that Juno will be moving around a lot, being able to lock-on to a character by just roughly looking their way is very helpful.
- Martian Overboots: Not a super impactful passive, but it adds some charm to her kit. The ability to double jump and hover allows her to vaguely get an aerial advantage depending on the map.
- Glide Boost: It provides fast horizontal movement which is great for chasing a kill or getting out of danger's way. You keep the same vertical level as the peak of your jump so if you jump off a ledge, you'll maintain that height advantage as you glide around.
- Hyper Ring: Very easy to just throw out and its effect is solid enough. Not particularly great in a vacuum given that it is mostly unimpactful in fights, but some team setups might use it to better effect.
- Orbital Ray: You can't place her ult, for some reason. Really odd design choice. That little quirk aside, it's very powerful. It doesn't necessarily suit her role on the field, but it can provide lots of different types of advantage to your team which is what rational people would prefer.
Overall, Juno is very interestingly designed. She's not broken right out of the gate and that's probably comforting for most high-level Overwatch players. She's also not bad, though. Juno's actually a very rewarding character to play. She's fairly honest and that puts a greater emphasis on actual game skill rather than broken abilities. Juno's a great fit for anyone, honestly.
Juno's Hidden Character Nuances
As with just about every Overwatch hero, Juno has some fun, hidden nuances to her character. One of them is actually in your face all of the time as you play as her. That said, there's really no way you would notice it unless you stand idly with her in the practice range. Yes, I'm talking about her blaster. In case you haven't noticed it, her blaster has an interface on it that's normally turned off. But when you point the gun at an ally, a green smiley face appears on the interface. And when you point it at an enemy, a red angry face appears. This is such a minor detail, but it's really cute when you notice it.
One of Juno's most interesting interactions with other characters happens with Mei. She calls her "auntie"...which is a bit jarring to hear at first. Most likely, there's no blood relation at all. It may just be a term of endearment for a slightly older woman which is not so uncommon in various different cultures around the world. Still, this might actually be hinting at the fact that Juno is, in fact, the daughter of Jiayi, one of Mei's old friends. There's nothing confirmed, but...the evidence is pretty strong.
And just to mention it because it's pretty funny, Juno will say "Winston, we have a problem" whenever she eliminates Winston. I mean, c'mon, that's just awesome. She has a lot of space-themed puns actually; you could spend all day going through her voice lines.
That's basically all I have to offer. This space ranger is pretty cool and I think most Overwatch 2 players will have a blast trying her out. Get your hands on her before the trial time runs out. Alternatively, she'll officially join the roster in Season 12 so you can also just wait until then if you want to use her exclusively without being pressured by time.
