We caught up with David Warner, senior game designer on the Heroes of the Storm team and one of the talented individuals spearheading D.Va’s rework, to hear more about everyone’s favorite MEKA pilot and what it’s like to rework heroes.
10 Likes
Now, with her rework complete, D.Va emerges from her Dorito-dusted chrysalis
D.Mothra skin required, with Dorito-chrysalis and spraying Dorito-dust everywhere.
7 Likes
As one of the least played Heroes in the roster, Warner hopes that her rework will change players’ perceptions of her being a “wasted” pick.
I haven’t done much with the ptr rework for d.va to check this, but I think that that is going to be an uphill battle in any event due to perceptions of the character and not so much their kit.
waifu? more like why-[Removed] you picking her -,-
I dunno. Since I frequently fill as a healer, in my play experience just about any healing point gone to d.va is a waste and gives her a lot of opportunity to mess things up (turbo boost chomping up all the floor potions, her larger hitbox suddenly covering an ally that needed that ancestral/palm/bind/cleanse, she spreads out the enemy just before an aoe wombo would connect, etc etc )
Hmm yes, fascinating. puffs pipe
This designer in charge of her rework did an amazing job and judging by the article above it seems he understand how important is the perception players have for a hero (memes) and I hope he starts working on Whitemane at some point.
Liquid Cooling is the best talent ever, fite me!
I think die-hard D.va fans are going to enjoy finally having multiple builds to choose from as well as new tools that increase her skill ceiling.
Weird. Except for Crash Course, Suppressing Fire, Diverting Power and Concussive Pulse, I never saw any problem in her build diversification.
It’s great that she gets sustain now through multiple talents in the early game and with Big Shot baseline. I’m sad that they killed Stop and Pop. That’s a major skill ceiling going down and decreased value.
6 Likes
The rework is great, tested her on PTR for a few games.
Pros:
She has good sustain now and not in the form of farming nuke and then using it to get a new health bar.
Her tickle cannons hurt more, which was needed.
Defense Matrix can now be re-positioned, which was a fantastic change.
Pilot Mode still feels great and gets a huge power spike at (13?) with all of her abilities being unlocked with 1 talent.
Cons:
Changing the Defensive Matrix angle looks…not good lol. Like, there’s no animation, it’s just a magic instant turn and it looks odd.
Micro Missiles kind of suck for 2 reasons. 1 being an ulti that hits multiple times with small damage is subjected to armor values multiple times. 2 being that the collision for the missiles is so small that side stepping makes the ulti really, really crappy.
I think Dva needs to be able to change the angle that missiles fire, kind of like Liming’s Archon mode but you’re able to move still unlike Liming.
Looks like a solid rework and Dva is probably going to make a great 2nd “tank”.
Bunny Hop is better because it’s easier to use, grants unstoppable and at 20, is basically a guaranteed objective cap/team fight win.
No, the level 20 version of Bunny Hop is definitely a huge nerf.
Stop and Pop made a devastating damage in a big area around her. This Ult could change Teamfights singlehandedly.
I totally agree with the rest of the rework. D.VA feels way more complete now without the issue of lacking sustain. Big Shot as basic ability is great.
2 Likes
Yeah, I always found her talent tree pretty ok and balanced, these were only problematic but that is an element of a talent tree where there’s 4 options on each tier.
1 Like
yeah I loved stop and pop, too bad
The damage may have been nerfed but now, infinite hop mean infinite unstoppable so long as the mech doesn’t die or move.
Can’t stun Dva out of it, can’t knock her out of it, can’t root her, etc.
That’s where the value of new bunny hop comes into play in addition with micro missiles being way too easy to side step, making them a PvE ulti, basically.