It's been a long time since I've seen the Overwatch community as hyped about a new hero as much as Juno. Her trailer has over 2 million views on YouTube—more than the Overwatch 2 launch trailer—and my X feed is filled with posts from accounts dedicated to counting down the days until she's out. Everyone wants the space girl to come home, and she will next week when season 12 begins on Aug 20.
Although the season is titled "New Frontiers", it won't actually be themed around space or Juno's home planet Mars. Most of the new skins and cosmetics will be based around ancient Egyptian gods. Fittingly, Reaper will get a Mythic skin based on Anubis, the god of death.
But the real reason to log in is Juno, a support hero who brings a little Overwatch 1 back to Overwatch 2. She's like a puppeteer for your team, pulling them in different directions with her speed boosts and healing while she glides above. Her Mediblaster can't even headshot, which gives her the space to focus primarily on ushering her team through a match. No hero since Overwatch 2's release has been so reliant on strategy as Juno and I look forward to finding out what kind of clever team synergies players come up with.
- Overwatch 2's upcoming hero is a DPS with an explosive crossbow, a bola that pulls enemies together, and a whole bunch of annoying ways to zip around
- Overwatch 2 prepares to share 'Groundbreaking PvP gameplay changes,' and players can't decide whether this means we're getting 6v6 back or skill trees
Season 12 will also debut Clash, a fairly straightforward game mode where both teams try to take hold of a series of objectives that move further into the opposing side of the map. I played a few rounds during a playtest in season 10 and it was like a mix of king of the hill and Overwatch 1's assault, or 2CP, mode. Team fights happen quickly and are progressively harder for the winning side as they move closer and closer to the enemy spawn and away from theirs. Unlike the other modes, Clash seems to be all about running straight into each other, at least on the Hanaoka map that was available during the preview. A second one based on the Egypt-based Temple of Anubis map from Overwatch 1 will be available next week, too.
A handful of other notable updates are coming with season 12, including:
- A mid-year competitive rank reset
- An avoid as teammate list that lets you prioritize certain players over others
- Health reductions to mobile support and damage heroes
- Improvements to support hero Lifeweaver that also make it easier to counter his high-mobility
- A one-time log-in offer for Game Pass members to receive 30 Mythic prisms for buying cosmetics and several free skins
Overwatch 2 hasn't made a good argument for why it's a sequel over the last few years, especially now that it's going back to 6v6 in some experimental modes soon, but it's still one of the best hero shooters out there. The addition of Juno suggests that Blizzard is more willing now to take a few steps back and reimagine what Overwatch could be when it doesn't have to support a massive esports league. Blizzard wouldn't ever say it, but I think season 12 is the start of a shift toward updates that focus on making it a more enjoyable game for everyone, rather than its most competitive players.
