“Overwatch” Hero D.Va is one of the most complex characters in the game in terms of balance changes as she’s seen both the highs and lows in the meta. She once reigned supreme and led her fellow tanks together during the triple tank meta back during Season 3. However, she soon lost her footing after Blizzard interchanged her HP and armor value which made her drop out of the meta completely. In spite of this, Season 5 brought in some new hope for the hero as she could keep up the pace with her fellow dive comp teammates. Now, Blizzard has a few other changes for this Korean tank hero.
Trading off abilities
Taking to the game’s official forums, principal designer Geoff Goodman explained that they’ve been working on some D.Va changes recently. It seems like they’re finally ready to bring it to the PTR as he revealed what they have planned for her. To begin with, her Defense Matrix now has a 2x energy drain meaning the effective uptime has been cut by half. You won’t be able to go around eating projectiles anymore as the ability should only be used during emergency situations.
In exchange for this heavy nerf, “Overwatch” D.Va can now use her Fusion Cannons while flying. This presents some cool new aerial opportunities as she can now stand toe-to-toe with heroes like Pharah. Finally, the biggest change to her kit is the addition of a new ability called Micro Missiles.
Here, the tank hero will fire off a salvo of small missiles that explode upon impact and deals damage in a small radius. What’s great about this is that she can use Micro Missiles with her other abilities or while using the Fusion Cannons.
Why the change?
Blizzard wanted to give the “Overwatch” hero a more aggressive playstyle while making sure she relies less on her Defense Matrix.
Keep in mind that her defensive ability is still extremely powerful, except that players must now time their usage. With that being said, D.Va can now fight more freely in the front lines or dash in the battlefield guns blazing.
Goodman explained that they wanted to nerf her Defense Matrix but not D.Va herself. Another blow to the hero would probably remove her again in the upcoming meta, so these changes will be pretty interesting.
If the dive comp manages to stay in Season 6, there’s no doubt that D.Va will have a heavy influence along with “Overwatch” hero Winston. It’s still unsure when these changes will hit the PTR, but it’s likely that it'll be included in the next patch.
