Juno is the best-designed hero Overwatch 2 has seen since launch

Overwatch 2’s newest addition, Juno, is one of the most well-balanced heroes the game has seen since Blizzard transitioned from the original hero shooter to the sequel.

Ever since Overwatch 2 was released in late 2022, Blizzard has been consistent with the regularity of its heroes, adding one to the roster every other season. But the question of whether the heroes have been great to play as or against has often been questionable.

Even before launch, Junker Queen was such a menace to the Overwatch League (as pros were playing OW2 before it released in full) that she spawned her own meta, JOATS. OWL also showed off how meta-defining Sojourn and Kiriko were by having that year’s Playoffs meta built around both heroes.

After the trio, Ramattra came out and essentially took over the brawl meta, considering he does everything Reinhardt can do and more. Lifeweaver was up next, and although he has an interesting design to passively help out teammates to reposition, he’s just not very good when you have the likes of Sojourn, Winston, and Lucio who come with fantastic mobility.

Illari came in Season 6, and she was relatively lukewarm. Next was Mauga, and the less said about his chokehold on Overwatch 2’s meta so far, the better. Up till Venture in Season 10, many heroes released were either borderline useless or meta-defining, with no real in-between.

Perhaps it was all this frustration surrounding questionable hero designs that built up to the release of Juno. Now in focus, it’s clear she is without a doubt one of the best-designed heroes Overwatch 2 has seen in a very long time.

A Support that does everything fairly in Overwatch 2

If there is one thing that makes certain Support heroes almost unbearable to play against, it’s bailout buttons. Such as Kiriko with her Swift Step and Suzu or Baptiste with his Immortality Field. What this means is many characters aren’t punished for things like bad positioning and misplays.

Juno luckily, can be punished for bad positioning but still has enough options to get out of a tricky position. Her ability to double jump and hover in the air gives her just enough options to get away from a dive, but doesn’t make her so overpowered that it feels like you can never kill her.

Another problem Juno sidesteps is the lack of damage output. Mercy and Lifeweaver share the glaring issue of not doing enough damage, but since Juno’s primary and secondary fire heal and deal damage, it’s quite easy to dish out both consistently.

Utility-wise, she too is fantastic. Heroes like Moira and Illari lack useful utility for the team, only ever providing healing and dealing damage. In contrast, Juno can help speed boost your team into team fights or peel for them, and her ultimate increases any allies’ damage in its radius.

All in all, the greatest part of Juno’s design is that she does everything fairly.

She has fantastic verticality, but her movement is quite slow and can be punished with a good coordinated dive from your team. She does do a lot of damage, but the fact you can’t deal critical headshots and that there is a falloff means her lethality is always kept in check.

Her utility is great for shifting the tempo of a team fight in your side’s favor, however, is never so strong that it feels like it could instantly win a game.

Juno’s design is sublime. None of her abilities are so overpowered it changes the way we play the game, her skill ceiling is quite high which rewards good decision-making, and all her numbers are already tuned to the point where it feels just right.

And we aren’t the only ones who love Juno. Streamers and players alike have all been praising how balanced her design is, hailing it as one of the best since Ana, with only minor suggestions on some fine-tuning.

The only problem I can see in her kit is her ultimate, as sometimes you don’t feel like it’s doing anything. It is increasing your damage and healing you, but there are no visual or auditory cues to make it feel like it is, the way Kiriko’s Rush or Baptiste’s Amp Matrix does. However, that’s a simple fix in the lead-up to her full release on August 20, 2024.

Despite the flack Blizzard has been receiving in Season 11, it’s quite clear we have something exciting to look forward to in Season 12.