After the short trial we got to experience, it seemed like there was almost unanimous praise for the newest hero, Juno. Most comments were about how she was impactful without being overpowered, and most importantly, that she was fun to play with and against.
That last piece is critical, as so many of the roster is hated due to kits that are full of anti-fun abilities. Think about what people commonly complain about:
- Sombra: invisibility, hack
- Doomfist: literally all CC
- Venture: a bunch of CC (on a DPS no less)
- Kiriko: immortality (a.k.a. free ultimate counter on a 15 second cooldown)
- Roadhog: CC, ridiculous sustain
- Mei: CC, wall
- Pharah: flight, high damage
- Echo: flight, high damage
- Illari: basically just a DPS in support clothing
There are more, but every hero complaint centers around at least one ability that, put simply, feels terrible to play against.
Juno has none of that. Her escape ability is counterable, her vertical movement isn’t oppressive, she doesn’t deal high damage or heal a ridiculous amount, she has no CC, and she has no immortality. She’s a well-rounded character with nothing that feels anti-fun.
For so many years (since Doomfist really), it feels like Blizzard has been creating heroes specifically tailored to frustrate people. Juno is one of the rare exceptions, and I think the fact that so much of the playerbase is reacting positively to her shows just how badly we want characters that aren’t built around bs mechanics.