so, here’s a suggestion for reworking D.va. I think she’s got alot of potential, as dropping nukes in team fights is always fun, and her kit seems designed for a guerilla style of attack not unlike muradin (Get in and deal some damage/disrupt, get out to heal up, go back in), but she is crippled by an utter lack of sustain. Additionally, while her pilot mode is a decent addition in a FPS where you can juke and move to throw off enemies aiming at you, all AA in this game is auto-hit, making her pilot mode seem less intuitive as Overwatch.
My suggestion here is to do a couple of main things: A, give her some sustain, B. open up her talents for more specialization (since a massive issue IMO is how each tier is basically the same ability focus), and make her feel like she has more impact apart from her self destruct ability.
Stat changes:
Mech Health increased from 2081 to 2289
Pilot mode damage decreased from 57 to 38
Mech deaths only award 25% kill experience. Pilot deaths experience increased to 75%.
Reasoning: this is intended to put more focus on her in her mech form apart from her pilot mode; while talents have been added/buffed to make focusing on pilot mode as an equal aspect of her character, being in pilot mode is meant to be less of a “More dps mode” out of the gate and more a “punishment for mech dying” kind of thing. At the same, experience for your mech dying has been decreased, so that the pilot getting away feels like a more meaningful thing, almost like a full escape.
Additionally, the increase in Mech health (10%) is meant to be partially “paid” for in a loss of pilot DPS.
Ability changes:
Boosters moved to Mount key.
Boosters have the following change: If D.Va neither takes nor deals damage during boosters duration, reduce the cooldown by 5 seconds (rushdown removed as a talent).
Reasoning: The ability to move and shoot should be already paid for with the lowered movement speed that D.Va’s mech suffers from- she shouldn’t have to additionally “pay” for this with the loss of mounting, since moving to objectives is such a big part of the game. As such, boosters both has been moved to her mount button (clearing the way for another ability) but a weaker version of Rushdown has been added baseline, so that boosters can be used as a stand in for the mount function to move quickly around the map (5 second reduction instead of Rushdown’s previous 7)
Self destruction: Lowered the charge from Damage taken from 30% for 100% hp loss to 25% charge for 100% hp loss.
Damage lowered from 400 to 1200 to 360 to 1080
Reasoning: The lowered charge rated gained from damage taken is due to a new ability given to D.Va for her Q, reactive armor, during which she generates more charge while its active. The decreased damage (10%) is meant to push D.Va’s focus less away from her contribution to the team being her self destruct’s zoning and put more emphasis on the rest of the kit. At this point, I feel that D.Va’s are a bit TOO focused on self destruct for their impact in team fights, to the point of it being unhealthily focused on that aspect of her, hence trying to tone it down alongside buffs to other areas of her.
A talent has been added in at level 10, akin to tracer having a level 10 talent that buffs her bomb, to increase it power if the player chooses to focus on self destruct as their focus.
Defense matrix Area increased by 10%
Reasoning: a small buff to her “tank” ability to make it easier to use. Its a powerful skill, but its drawbacks make it less powerful that I feel it should be out of the box without talents to buff it, since your ability to move it around to keep enemy’s inside of it is limited once cast. I feel a 10% area increase is a decent buff to it without making it overly powerful.
New ability Added in:
Reactive armor (Q): For the next 3 seconds, D.Va gains 10 armor and a shield for 15% of her maximum health. Damage taken while Reactive armor is active counts double towards self destruct charge. 12 second Cooldown
Reasoning/intent: Meant to address D.Va’s main issue as a bruiser, lack of sustain (which bruisers generally require to bruise and take camps). This ability functions has a dual function: Its first is that she both gains a bit of shielding to allow her to be able to maintain her health levels during fights, with the armor bonus helping to make her tankier during that time even if the shield gets busted.
The second function is that its akin to Zarya’s shield, acting as a punishment for people focusing her during her cooldown by generating much more charge for her.
The cooldown is longer than other bruisers/tanks with similiar shield CD’s (Tyrael, anub, zarya), but wanting to avoid making giving her too strong of an ability.
Talent changes: (Only altered or new talents are listed here in this section; if a talent is not listed as altered or changed, its still available as a choice)
Level one:
Rushdown: removed (partially folded into baseline boosters)
Crash course: Removed (folded into hit the nitrous)
Pro moves: In addition to its current benefit, Pro moves has the following passive bonus: Passive: D.Va’s mech’s speed is increased from 85% base movement speed to 95% base movement speed
Hit the nitrous: Altered:
Initial speed of Boosters increased to 325%, then decays to normal speed over 0.5 seconds. During this time Boosters deals 50% bonus damage.
❢ Quest: Damage 20 enemy Heroes with Boosters.
❢ Reward: Damaging enemy Heroes with Boosters lowers the cooldown by 1 second per Hero hit.
New level 1 talents:
Twin-linked: Passive:Auto-attacks heal for 15% of damage dealt.
!Quest: Auto-attack 500 times
!Reward: Gain access to miniature-rocket ability
Miniature-rocket: 1 key: D.Va launches a rocket forward (range: 20, width 1, speed 1 seconds to reach end of range) that explodes upon hitting the first target in its path, dealing 150 damage in a small aoe (1 radius). 15 second cooldown, holds 3 charges. Auto-attacking reduces this cooldown by .5 seconds
Rational: meant as a talent to suppliment D.vas that want to focus on the bruiser aspect of the character as opposed to her supportive abilities, this both increases her sustain and gives her more late game dps to use.
Back to base: Grants the Back to base ability
Back to base: 1 key ability. D.Va exits her mech and assumes pilot mode, with her mech teleporting back to the fountain. While at the fountain, the mech regenerates 2% Hp per second. When D.Va exits her mech with this ability the cooldown on call mech is refreshed; however, when the mech is called back this way its HP is not automatically at 100% like normal, but whatever HP it has healed to at the fountain (essentially meaning she can call the mech back at any time after using this skill)
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Reasoning/rational: This ability is twofold. First, its a way for D.va to have additional sustain out in the field, being able to send her mech back to regenerate while staying to soak XP in a lane or help out some in a team fight. Its second function is for D.Vas that choose to function on pilot talents, allowing them a way to essentially swap modes without destructing their mech.
Level 4 talents:
Bring it on: removed (emphasis on generating self destruct charge pushed towards use of Reactive armor, which should allow for more charge built baseline)
New talent: Elite training: Pilot mode gains 50% increased Damage and use of the torpedo dash ability. However, deaths in pilot mode now grant 100% death XP to the enemy team, up from 75%.
(Torpedo dash cooldown increased to 15 seconds from its current 12 seconds)
Rational: Meant for those who wish to focus on a two mode kind of gameplay, D.Va regains the lost pilot DPS from the above stat changes, and torpedo dash as a move far earlier, allowing her a defensive tool earlier on for when attacking. However, it comes with the price of her XP from pilot deaths being far large and torpedo dash’s Cooldown being greater than it was.
Get through this: Removed/moved to a later talent tier in a new form
reasoning: a fairly poor and unpopular skill, enemies will generally move out of the matrix far before that extra time comes into play.
New talent: extra plating: Reactive armor lasts for 4 seconds, and the shield from reactive armor is increased to 18% of D.va’s maximum health.
Level 7 talents:
Coming through: In addition to its current benefits, enemies hit by boosters are also slowed by 20% for 2 seconds
New talent:Hardened battle suit: Pilot mode gains 10 armor and a 5% health increase, as well as access to the stasis grenade ability (new ability). Being killed in pilot mode grants .25 more hero kill experience to the enemy team.
Stasis grenade: Throw a grenade towards a target area (range: 15, radius 1.5, speed of .5 to reach its destination) that explodes and polarizes them, slowing them by 25% and making D.va’s pilot mode auto-attacks have 5 additional range against them for 3 seconds. 9 second cooldown.
rational: Meant for individuals who want to push for a more pilot mode oriented focus, D.Va’s pilot mode gains additional survivability and a long range skill shot that allows her to snipe that enemy with auto-attacks if she hits. However, this comes at the cost of making her pilot mode more costly if she slips up and gets killed.
level 10 talents:
Bunny hop: Cooldown lowered to 60 seconds. During Bunny hop, D.Va gains 25 Armor. Reactive armor can be used while bunnyhopping
Reasoning: Bunny hop is unpopular, and has a hard time fitting into the game due to D.Va’s current squishiness and its long Cooldown-- if she tries to lockdown a fleeing enemy team for her own team to mop up, there’s a good chance she’ll be blown up quickly due to her inherent squishiness for a bruiser. This armor bonus is meant to make her able to survive longer while performing bunny hop, and the lower CD is meant to make it more attractive. Its damage is kept low however since its seems intended more as a support than assault skill.
new talent:Unstable reactor: Increases the Radius of Self destruct by 10%. In addition, Self destruct also deals 3 to 9% of the enemies maximum health as damage, depending on distance from the center.
Reasoning: Meant to back a bit of the lost umph taken out of self destruct baseline if someone chooses to pursue the self destruct focus path.
Level 13 talents:
Expensive plating: Moved to level 16 talent tier
Reasoning: level 14 talents are all currently “mech tankiness” talents. This prevents D.va from focusing on tankiness if that’s actually what she CHOOSES, meaning its more an illusion of choice at level 14 since its all basically doing the same thing in a different way. New talents for different purposes added in level 14, with Expensive plating buffed and moved up a talent tier if the D.va TRULY wants more tankiness focus.
New talent: Large caliber shells: D.Va’s Auto-attacks gain 20% increased attack speed and 10% increased range
Reasoning: meant for D.va’s intending to focus on the damage route of D.Va
Get through this: Defense matrix Gains a second charge, and its cooldown is reduced to 8 seconds
Reasoning: meant as a replacement for the earlier get through this, for D.Va’s that choose to focus on support and offtanking for their team, the fact that it has two charges is meant as a replacement for Get through this increasing the duration, since it lets D.Va re-aim their Defensive matrix with a second cast instead of just increasing its duration; increasing this power more, its cooldown is also reduces, allowing for more frequent Defensive matrixes.
Additionally, by moving this down a few talent tiers, it lets D.Va pick up both it and the earlier Level 4 Defensive matrix talents, strengthening that as a focus.
level 16 talents:
Expensive plating: Health bonus increased to 24%; Drawbacks remain the same.
Level 20 talents:
no changes made
XD