Joy is an assassin built around a unique string mechanic that lets her link to enemy heroes and rebound off them, creating a fluid, acrobatic movement style unlike any other hero in the roster. Rather than relying on a single gap-closing dash like most assassins, she chains movement off the enemies around her, which gives her one of the highest mechanical ceilings in the game and makes her a favorite among players who enjoy expressive, execution-heavy heroes.
Role and playstyle
Joy is played in the jungle or roam, farming early before looking for chances to dive backline targets once she has enough items and has built comfort with her movement mechanic. Her core gimmick lets her attach a string to an enemy hero and then rebound off that connection to reposition, which she can chain across multiple enemies in a fight to weave in and out of range unpredictably. This makes her damage output secondary, in a sense, to her positioning — a skilled Joy player creates openings and survives extended exchanges through movement that’s very difficult for opponents to predict or punish consistently.
Strengths
Joy’s rebound mechanic gives her an extremely high skill ceiling and a genuinely unique playstyle — in the hands of a player who’s mastered her movement, she becomes exceptionally hard to pin down, since she can chain repositions off enemies rather than relying on a single dash with a long cooldown. This lets her dive backlines and escape punishment in ways that are difficult for most heroes to replicate.
Weaknesses
That same mechanic is also her biggest barrier to entry — Joy is widely considered one of the harder heroes in the game to play well, since her value depends almost entirely on the player’s ability to chain her string mechanic effectively under pressure. In the hands of a less experienced player, she can feel clunky and risky compared to assassins with simpler, more reliable engage tools, and misusing her rebound can leave her stranded in a bad position rather than out of danger.
Build direction
Joy’s itemization follows typical assassin logic — early items that support burst damage and mobility, transitioning into a core build focused on maximizing burst potential against squishy targets. Because so much of her safety comes from her own movement mechanic rather than raw stats, some players opt into a slightly more durable build than a typical assassin to cover for the learning curve, adjusting toward pure damage as their comfort with her mechanics grows.