I don’t know a ton about Vonn. I’m going mostly off this, although I know some adjustments have been made to what you see there. I believe there’s a range mod on primary, and extra duration on shield is 3 points, not 1, and Climate Engineer is 3 points. But the basic concept is there, and that’s what I’m going to discuss. Bear in mind that I have not played him at all. I haven’t been on PTS. I have seen 1 game on the official Trion stream of Vonn on PTS vs. AI. So a lot of this is speculation. And theorycraft. And brilliance. (You mean nonsense, right Tiggerus? That’s right.)
Vonn’s Kit
Vonn has a standard 7-range primary that inflicts Cryo Core. His second ability is a free action that deals minor damage and inflicts a Cryo Core. His third ability is an cone damage and slow. His fourth ability is a full action self-shield that slows nearby enemies. His ultimate is an AoE storm that damages and slows and can be moved for free for an additional turn.
What Vonn notably lacks is a DASH. For people like Tiggerus who never dash, that’s no obstacle. But it means Vonn will be easy to focus, much like a Juno, only without the hit points. However, Vonn has fairly good damage and CC.
Vonn’s Playstyle
I expect Vonn to play kind of like a Grey or a Kaigin. What’s that mean, Tigg? Well, you kind of skirt around the edge of a fight doing what you can, and go in when you have something to do. You try to keep consistency with your attacks. Vonn has relatively good range and I expect to utilize that to great effect. Additionally, he has an AoE slow on his 3 and another AoE slow on his ult. Very valuable. He doesn’t have a dash, but view him more like a support — he has a shield for himself, a small defensive tool for allies, and a lot of CC. Almost like what’s that lancer I play oh right Helio. When your shield is up, you can play aggressive. When it’s down, you better get the hell out.
Vonn’s Balance
Ultimately, I think it will be very easy to punish Vonn and I expect his SoloQ numbers to be fairly unremarkable. However, I think with proper support Vonn can be very strong. He has more ability to tank damage than the average firepower, and with coordinated play his teammates can pop his Cryo Cores and take advantage of his powerful slows. So, I think I will play Vonn and it will be kind of cool. No pun intended. Who am I kidding, it’s Atlas Reactor. Pun fully intended. 😀
Looking at the numbers, it seems like you can reliably do 37 damage per turn if you’re sustaining damage on a target, which is pretty good for that kind of range. And technically you can do a bit more with your 2nd ability. You have decent self-shielding and pretty reasonable ult numbers given that it has CC and is spread over 2 turns. Overall, I think Vonn is in a good spot! Hopefully good players can really shine on him, while average or bad players won’t have an overly easy time of it.
SoloQ: 5.5/10
PPL: 7/10
Tiggarius: 8.5/10
P.S. Trion, “icy” does not have an “e” in it. (It’s not “icey.”) <3