My Thoughts on… D.Va’s Changes [Updated]
[Update: 01/09/17]
The regeneration rate of Defence Matrix looks like it will be getting a 25% increase; I believe this will reduced regeneration time to 7.5 seconds, meaning a 28.6% nerf to the original DM. The changes will be on the PTR “soon”.
[Update: 29/08/17]
Since writing, Micro Missiles’ damage has been reduced by 25% on the PTR. The maximum damage Micro Missiles can now deal is 160.
[Original Article]
In the year since Overwatch’s release D.Va has undergone numerous changes: health buffs, nerfs and multiple modifications to Defence Matrix. Now she’s facing another big alteration — this time it includes a significant nerf to Defence Matrix — along with some other abilities. It will change the way she’s played completely.
Geoff Goodman, Overwatch’s Principal Designer, talked about D.Va’s upcoming changes in a forum post on the 22 August. [They are now live on the PTR.] They include:
- The ability to shoot while boosting;
- A new ability “micro missiles”: a salvo of small missiles, which explode on impact and deal splash damage; and
- Defence Matrix power usage increased by 50%.
Don’t Mess With Me
Changing D.Va’s main tank ability, Defence Matrix, completely alters her play-style. Again. DM has been altered so many times since release, first its size was reduced by 50% (in the Beta), timings messed about with and its effective area modified. The most significant change to DM came two months after release, when it was entirely reworked.
DM moved from being an ‘E’ ability, usable every 10 seconds, to ‘RMB’ with a 1 second cool-down. A resource bar was added too, giving a 4 second charge before depleting. The patch notes described the reason for the change:
“D.Va isn’t being selected as often as our other tanks, and we feel a lot of that stems from the underperformance of her damage absorption abilities. So, we’ve reconfigured her Defensive Matrix, making it more flexible and giving players the ability to use it more often…”
This change put D.Va on par with some of the other tanks, changing the way she was played; as frustrating as this was at the time. It was for the better. Before DM’s first change, the ability was under-utilised. The 10-second wait between activation’s was so long she couldn’t effectively defend her teammates. After her recent tweeks, the new D.Va feels like she’s underperforming in damage absorption, once again.
Nerf This!
The increased power drain means DM now only lasts for 2 seconds before needing to recharge, which remains unchanged at 10 seconds (technically it’s 11 as there’s a 1 second delay after the Matrix drops, before charging starts).
In a minute, the old D.Va could fully use DM 4 times, with 4 complete recharges. Post changes, this increases to 5, 2-second uses, with 4 full and one partial recharge (65 seconds is needed for the last to complete).
However, this translates to an effective new DM up-time of 9.23 seconds per minute (accounting for the partial charge), down from 16. This means D.Va has a whopping 42.3% reduction to DM availability — a significant decrease. And it shows.
While the patched change doesn’t stop her ability to eat ultimate’s like Pulse Bomb and Graviton Surge etc., it can no longer completely consume longer ones such as Rocket Barrage, Tactical Visor and Whole Hog. Trying to stop Whole Hog is now a pretty much guaranteed death sentence for D.Va’s MEKA, unless you can kill Roadhog before this happens.
Many players in the Overwatch Forums said that D.Va’s DM was over powered — yes, it can be annoying when she deletes ultimate’s — but it’s just as annoying when other characters do it too. Take Genji for example. Deflect can turn virtually turn all ultimate’s back on the player, and their team. A well timed Sleep Dart by Ana can cancel out a number too, such as Rocket Barrage and Tactical Visor. McCree’s flash bang. The same. There are others too
Players know that Reinhardt’s shield needs to go before Zarya fires Graviton Surge for instance. Granted the ultimate still happens, but the shield still being there will most likely mess a combo up. Unlike other tanks’ barriers that take damage, DM is easily countered; Winston, Zarya and Mei all have weapons that pass though DM.
Much like Reinhardt’s shield players should know that if they de-mech D.Va she can’t swallow any ultimate’s. So why is this drastic nerf needed to D.Va? Maybe it has something to do with the low skill level required to use DM.
If DM has to be nerfed, I’d much prefer a reduced DM recharge time to accompany its reduced up-time, instead of her new offensive abilities. This would help her retain some of her tank status. Even lowering the recharge time to 7seconds would reduce its maximum availability fractionally (to 12 seconds per minute), this would still remove her ability to fully absorb all ultimate’s. The change would still add more skill, but be less punishing. Adding a colour fade to red, or making DM fluctuate (to simulate it losing power) would also make DM seem less ‘impenetrable’.
Changing the way DM works, again, and giving her more offensive abilities will essentially make D.Va a DPS hero, just with more hit points. In practice though she can’t go alone, without some aid. As her hitbox is still so large her MEKA can melt, like ice-cream on a summer’s day.
Making D.Va more offensive is the opposite of Roadhog, who was nerfed in June (reducing his scrap gun by 33% damage) to stop him being like a DPS character — It seems a bit… hypercritical.
Weapon Systems Overloaded
Until now firing when boosting caused D.Va to fall out of the sky. Now she can do both, firing and boosting, together. This makes D.Va’s potential to damage even higher. The typical combo has been to melee while boosting into a target, which deals 55 damage (30 from melee and 25 from impact). As DM’s nerfs mean it’s less viable to use itto protect your approach, the more effective approach seems to be: fly in all guns blazing; a tactic which is more reckless. Especially for a tank.
While shooting and booting may not increase D.Va’s damage much, Micro Missiles can. Her new ability is available every 8 seconds and launches a barrage of 18 missiles which deal 4 damage on impact and 8 explosive (in a 1.5m radius). If all the missiles hit, the attack deals 216 damage, in 1.63 seconds — along with any damage taken from her Fusion Cannons, which can fire at the same time.
For comparison: Helix rockets, does 120 damage, with 80 points of splash damage (in a 2m radius); around the same punch as one of Phara’s rockets, or Junkrat’s bombs. Phara’s Rocket Barrage launches 90 rockets (each dealing 40 damage), over 3 seconds, for a total of around 3600 damage — assuming all of the rockets hit.
Some may argue that a good defence is a strong offence, but if D.Va can no longer protect the squishy DPS characters, then she’s no good at being a tank. For her to protect now a player needs to have better tracking and skill in surviving, which could turn Overwatch’s casual crowd off.
I Still Love You
With these changes, D.Va’s skill level will certainly increase. Yes, they also make D.Va more fun to play (when she isn’t being thrown out of her MEKA). I’m worried though that due to her lack of damage absorption it could completely remove her as a choice for a tank placing her back into the under-utilised category.
On the other hand, her changes may very well make D.Va a must pick, higher skill hero, reducing more casual players choices; however, by making her more offensive, Overwatch will potentially be gaining another DPS character and losing a viable secondary damage absorbing tank. Something the game doesn’t need right now — especially after Doomfist’s addition to the DPS roster.
D.Va’s nerf may also be a tactical move by Blizzard, who seem to made changes to heroes before releasing a new one. One’s due soon too, if Blizzard keep to their current event > map > hero methodology. That, or they’re just trying to kill off the current dive comp meta. Maybe the new D.Va will just feed this though. For better, or worse the reworked D.Va is currently live on the PTR. Try her yourself, and let me know what you think.
As Micro Missiles are live now, I decided to play about with them, and I’ve found a couple of combo’s — how useful they’ll be in a game is another question though!
Micro Missiles to boosted Self -Destruct:
You can combo MM with boost and Self-Destruct to create a flying rocket barrage that explodes; although if you hit ‘Q’ too quickly the Micro Missiles won’t fire. I’m not entirely sure this combo will work very well in most situations as it’s so easy to avoid, but it’ll probably work in narrow spaces. Holding off on activating Self-Destruct until the last minute to flick the MEKA up in the air seemed to work well too.
Micro Missiles and Defence Matrix:
A more interesting one is using DM to protect D.Va as she fires Micro Missiles. While she will still take splash damage from them, DM stays up just long enough for the barrage to fire. This is certainly one of the more effective uses I’ve found for DM. Notice how this is an offensive manoeuvre and not defensive.
