Last week on Kotaku Splitscreen, Jason and I talked about my new favourite Overwatch hero D.Va and whether or not she got buffed a bit too much.
Short version of my take: Nah, not really. For the longer version, watch the excerpt in the video below.
(We’re experimenting with pulling out highlights from the podcast and making them into standalone videos.) Find the full episode here.
Comments
24 responses to “Is Overwatch’s D.Va Overpowered After The Buff?”
I loved D.VA before the update – she’s a godly now – if played correctly. Using her to push onto oibjectives and stay there is easier than ever. Until the other team wisen up and counter you. Many don’t.
I don’t think she is. Her ult is still super easy to dodge.
The changes to her defense matrix and previously self damaging ult have made her a viable tank now.
Perhaps we should talk about Genji?
genji goes splat easily. He’s only a problem if your team is too stupid to stop shooting him when he reflects
Watch a stream with any one rank 65+… he is not an easy kill in a team shooter.
Since the nerfs to Widow and Mcree; Genji has become just about unstoppable at high tier due to his ability to shake being targeted and break line of sight the second he is losing a trade.
The current meta goes as follows;
-Enemy/Ally chooses Genji
-Genji spends early game building ult on either squishy back liners or farming damage on tanks
-Enemy/Ally have team mates that compliment Genji ult (Ana/Lucio/Zarya/Mercy) and allow Genji to clean sweep the entire enemy team while on attack
At this point one of two things happen (once again in ranked above 65)
A)Defending team quickly swaps to play characters that can counter Genji (people that don’t understand meta will likely grab hog and get laughed at); thus giving the attacking team the numbers advantage due to their team no longer being able to counter other members of the attacking team.
B)Defending team changes a couple of picks and hope that they can stave off Genji’s supports while waits to revive the entire team from the safety of the next room.
There is no other meta on attack at high tier, Genji with the correct supports is beyond broken. He exemplifies all the issues that people had with Rein & Bastion in the beta without any of the counter play (support cds are nearly always lower than cc).
That is without considering the age old “one side picked a hero so we will counter with the same hero” circle jerk argument.
I agree, climbing the ranks from 48-67, genji play increased considerably and the play you mentioned is the only one that appears every game. If the enemy genji is good, you have NO counters. Pick Mccree, and genji moves to another soft target, pick Winston and he just runs away to punish the back line when Winston is not there.
Genji’s basic play is, soften with ninja stars, wait till below 50 hp, sword dash, instant reset of sword dash, exit with sword dash before anyone can do anything. Two things need to happen, slower ult charge and removal of the instant reset on kill for the sword dash.
Pretty much my thoughts on dash cd, cd reduction on kill rather than a free escape would probably level the playing field, but even then with his janky hit box he could probably use a minor health nerf.
The changes to her ult only made the slight different that when everybody scatters, 1 or 2 might get clipped by it.
The real change was to her defense matrix, which I think should get a usage nerf. She can pull it out any time and reduce most offense attacks to nothing.
But she’s supposed to be a tank – Reinhardt can also pull his shield out and reduce most attacks to nothing. Winston has a bubble shield that can take decent damage too. Roadhog can outheal most attacks as well.
To definitively say she needs a nerf is far too early. People need to adjust and learn how to counter her. Her defense matrix was pretty rubbish before. And her massive head means she takes some big damage quickly without it.
If there’s anything to nerf, I’d say her pistol damage when she’s out of the mech. It does a fair bit of damage with very little(?) drop off. Reducing the damage it does will make it a bit harder for her to call another mech in quick succession. But even still, I don’t think that’s necessary.
The ability to switch heroes during the game is a massive thing, and a lot of people fail to utilize this. A lot of people stick to 1 hero not only the entire game, but across games as well – whether it be defense/offense, payload or control point.
But she doesn’t absorb or take damage, she negates it. Every other tank can die to something like Pharahs ult while she makes it nothing. Reinhardt’s shield will eventually break and needs time to regenerate. Winstons bubble shield can easily break and requires something like 12 seconds before it can be used again. 4 seconds that negates almost everything is a long time, it then recovers 1/4 every 2.5 seconds, so tapping it is still a viable choice that will negate a lot of attacks.
Another problem is that the arc for the matrix is too wide. I’ve shot at D.Vas side while she had it up and she still absorbed it.
She’s a Reinhardt now without as useful as a shield, but gets a slightly ranged attack instead of Melee. DM toggling does seem a little silly though, but considering the rest of the character is still kinda weak, and she doesn’t get a heal like Roadhog or Zara, I’m not ready to throw her to the lions.
I play mainly Mei and Winston so D.VA’s super is easily counter by a wall or putting a bubble on it. Mei in particular destroys D.VA because she’s a big, slow moving target that gets frozen in seconds and her defence matrix doesn’t reflect Mei’s frost gun.
So yeah, she’s like every hero in Overwatch, extremely easily countered.
Yeah, but I only ever play my waifu main and I keep getting killed! She needs to be nerfed so that I don’t have to switch to the appropriate hero or to help improve my teams composition!
Urgh, this is almost as annoying as people asking me to get on the point!
Winston is your waifu, right?
Then she just jumps out of the mech and just jump around for 5 seconds shooting with the bs pistol of hers and call her mech back
nah.. not really..
i dont know why people find her defence matrix overpowered either.. it doesnt absorb as many hits as reindhart’s shield..
just keep shooting at it.. it goes down quick.
Shooting it doesn’t do anything.
D.Va’s defence matrix is purely time based. It can absorb any amount of projectile/hitscan damage for as long as it lasts (max 4 seconds at a time).
Doesnt it clear the cooldown .. So it takes a full 10 secs to charge before it can be reused?
Maybe i am wrong with the defence matrix cooldown thing.. You have put doubt in my mind.. I will test tonight.
Yeah, a full bar will give you 4s of DM but it takes 10s to recharge the bar from empty.
What are you smoking? It doesn’t have a life meter, works on a recharging toggle system.
You could have six players mag dump into her E and won’t mean a single thing.
But it lasts 4 seconds.. You only need 1 player to max the cooldown.. Chill..
Yeah, but you are the tank so getting fired on by one person is unlikely until people realise you are baiting and move to switch targets; at which point you have like already played your role.
I don’t think she needs a nerf really. Perhaps one or two other heroes could do with a little buff, now that she’s been made significantly easier to play.
Buff Rein.
Not for any other reason, other than I play him a lot.
D.Va is in a good place now as a tank. The defense hero’s need a serious buff, as they are just out performed by the attack hero’s now (other than Junkrat). It is sad, but it is better to have reaper, soldier, genji, mccree and even tracer on defense than it is to have bastion, widow, hanzo or torb.