Compiled list of all the D.Va nerfs, buffs, and reworks post launch

General Discussion
1

Nerfs

  • September 1, 2016 Patch: After being activated, Defense Matrix will begin regenerating following a 1-second delay (formerly .5 seconds)
  • January 24, 2017 Patch: Health increased from 200 to 400; Armor decreased from 400 to 200.
  • January 24, 2017 Patch: Bullet damage decreased from 3 to 2; Number of bullets per shot has been increased from 8 to 11. (Debatable nerf, might remove from the list)
  • September 19, 2017 Patch: Defense Matrix’s resource meter will now deplete twice as quickly; Energy regeneration per second has been increased to 12.5% (formerly 10%).
  • April 10, 2018 Patch: Booster impact damage reduced from 25 to 10.
  • April 10, 2018 Patch: Missile explosive damage reduced from 6 to 4.
  • January 24, 2019 Patch: Defense Matrix Cooldown increased from 1 second to 2 seconds.
  • January 24, 2019 Patch: Overwatch general armor nerf
  • PTR - Matrix cut by a freaking third because why not

Buffs

  • July 19, 2016 Patch: Ultimate cost decreased by 15%; Explosion delay reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds; Explosion no longer damages D.Va (the player who activates it).
  • September 1, 2016 Patch: D.Va’s Boosters are no longer auto-cancelled if activated while her primary fire is active.
  • November 15, 2016 Patch: Movement speed while firing has been increased by 25%.
  • November 15, 2016 Patch: Mech health increased to 200 (formerly 100). Armor remains at 400. This buff was nullified by the swapping armor and hp values nerf. Her overall HP is now effectively at the lowest it has ever been despite being 100hp higher than launch. Also the armor strength reduction further reduced this
  • February 28, 2017 Patch: Enemy shots no longer need to travel a minimum distance before they can be blocked.
  • September 19, 2017 Patch: New ability: Micro Missiles. (Buff? It came at a big trade-off)
  • September 19, 2017 Patch: Fusion Cannons can now be fired while flying.
  • October 10, 2017 Patch: An option to manually hold down D.Va’s boosters rather than toggling them has been added under Options > Controls > D.Va.

Reworks

  • July 19, 2016 Patch: Defense Matrix has been reclassified as an alternate fire and is now bound to RMB (by default). Cooldown decreased from 10 seconds to 1 second. A new resource meter has been added; this meter will deplete while Defense Matrix is active (last 4 second when it’s full) and then recharge when it’s not in use (takes 10 second to reach full charge from empty).
  • September 19, 2017 Patch: New ability: Micro Missiles.

Did I miss any?

11 Likes
2

the number of nerfs is absolutely irrelevant

she was left overtuned post-rework and they refused to balance her properly

the MM + boosters combo could effortlessly erase a non-mobile squishy very easily, took them months to address it.

matrix could still eat most of cooldowns and could still nullify a lot of ults, especially channeled ones which in turn made some heroes worst in the game.

glad that they are addressing it now

I guess the fact that she is having 85% pickrate in a meta that is supposed to be bad for her due to beam attacks, CQC and melee and she still is almost never
swapped or forced to swap and she is in fact being picked to counter her counter, that reeks of busted

and she is a great reason why dps can’t counter goats and why it’s not possible to reliably anti-heal goats

in many ways, this should be the worst possible meta for d.va and yet, it’s probably the 2nd best for her after dive. and she will still see more usage in bunker and vs bunker than any other tank even with these nerfs

4 Likes
3

She was overtuned yes, but she was brought to balance arguable 2 nerfs ago.

The issue with D.Va is the same issue with Lucio and Zen. They hold the monopoly on their role. There are no other characters in the roster that can do what they do. And as a result they become must picks due to what they bring to the table.

Is because of what I said above. It is not that her kit is OP, it is that her kit does what no other hero can. Which is why we need more off-tanks to fill in some of those roles.

14 Likes
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She was overtuned yes, but she was brought to balance arguable 2 nerfs ago.

she wasn’t, matrix is still too strong

hopefully this does it now

The issue with D.Va is the same issue with Lucio and Zen. They hold the monopoly on their role. There are no other characters in the roster that can do what they do. And as a result they become must picks due to what they bring to the table.

no, they are simply too strong

lucio didn’t need both aura buff and ult buff, he needed one, not both

zen still gets too much value out of discord and his damage output is too high (not on squishies but on tanks, it’s much easier to melt tanks with zen than it is with some dps - you can melt a primal rage winston very easily and still stay alive whereas with most dps you just die before you can do it) while also having a super strong ult. he needed a harsher nerf for quite a long time and hopefully he gets it

Is because of what I said above. It is not that her kit is OP, it is that her kit does what no other hero can. Which is why we need more off-tanks to fill in some of those roles.

if you get more offtanks like her, they will be played instead of a dps as an extra-tank, that’s how good matrix is and burst damage that she also provides

it’s not about her having no competition, it’s about her simply being too good and doing too much of everything

3 Likes
5

The last nerf gave tons of counter play

This is perception. They seem strong because they offer what no other hero does (like D.Va)
When a character brings something unique to the table it can be seen as strong, however if it was more common then it would not be seen as such

not sure if you noticed but outside the pro scene most games are 4+ dps. Tanks are lacking in general in the game. An increase would do some good

Again the presence of more off tanks would fill this issue

3 Likes
6

The last nerf gave tons of counter play

No, it gave counter-play only if D.Va flashed her matrix when she shouldn’t have

It still prevents you from using your abilities until she does so. Helix, Flashbang, Hook, Anti-Nade, etc.

This is perception. They seem strong because they offer what no other hero does (like D.Va)
When a character brings something unique to the table it can be seen as strong, however if it was more common then it would not be seen as such

Nobody cares if it is unique or not, what matters is how strong it is. In many ways, D.Va pretty much counters everything more or less.

not sure if you noticed but outside the pro scene most games are 4+ dps. Tanks are lacking in general in the game. An increase would do some good

People prefer playing DPS over Tanks. That doesn’t mean that the balance of power between the two is okay, just that the first ones are more fun. It’s irrelevant from balance POV to look at anything that isn’t a pro-environment

Again the presence of more off tanks would fill this issue

As I’ve said, it would just shift the meta towards even more tank-heavy compositions. It has been the case pretty much every time.

1 Like
7

yer forgetting that as a support his healing is arguably low with no way to increase it’s output outside of ulting. a fair trade having low healing output for his dps.

depends. DM is specialized against burst damage. if you get a team with off tanks full of “like her” meaning against burst damage then you go with dps with sustained damage. Consistent Sustained damage is a bane to DM since it depletes DM’s resource meter fairly quickly.

This argument is like saying “if you add a lot of shield tanks people would just play those type of tanks” (which can be arguably true because of “goats” but thats mostly because of healers enabling the tanks) but the reality is that shield tanks just stop sustained damage while making burst damage more important to use. since burst melts shields.

what im saying is that shields (tanking abilities good against sustained but weak against burst damage) have competitors mainly winston, rein, and orisa. There’s only one tank that can protect the team against burst damage which is D.Va and her DM (which again is weak against sustained but good against burst an inversion of the shields). Zarya’s bubbles are arguably good against burst damage but it’s only on a single ally and herself at a time not really a team taking ability like DM and the other tank’s shields.

only because the healers have been enabling the meta not the actual kit of the tanks themselves

1 Like
8

When has a Tank release given us Tank heavy metas?

3 Likes
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Thats kind of what shields are supposed to do. Also hook goes through matrix. All tanks can prevent these things (except hog and hammond) so i am not sure what you are trying to accomplish

The meta formed around these abilities because they were so unique. If they were more common place it wouldnt be an issue

There we go. So you dont have to worry about tanks taking their spots as you mentioned earlier.

You mean goats which rarely makes an appearance outside of OWL and the highest of the ladder?

2 Likes
10

yer forgetting that as a support his healing is arguably low with no way to increase it’s output outside of ulting. a fair trade having low healing output for his dps.

his healing is okay for an off-support, the real issue is that he gives basically just as much damage as a dps slot and that justifies running him almost always

depends. DM is specialized against burst damage. if you get a team with off tanks full of “like her” meaning against burst damage then you go with dps with sustained damage. Consistent Sustained damage is a bane to DM since it depletes DM’s resource meter fairly quickly.

it increases TTK versus non-burst damage and it gives healers and the targeted person time to react and get behind cover or receive healing. it’s only slightly less good vs sustained damage than it is vs burst damage. that’s the reason why characters like soldier have 14-15k damage per game but are still trash and can’t get anything killed when it matters

since burst melts shields.

no, sustained damage is what melts shields, the dps over time is higher

burst damage is what counters healing, not barriers

There’s only one tank that can protect the team against burst damage which is D.Va and her DM (which again is weak against sustained but good against burst an inversion of the shields). Zarya’s bubbles are arguably good against burst damage but it’s only on a single ally and herself at a time not really a team taking ability like DM and the other tank’s shields.

it doesn’t matter how much of them is around

what matters is how strong the ability per se is

only because the healers have been enabling the meta not the actual kit of the tanks themselves

nah, it’s not the healers alone. it’s the ability of healers to cycle the healing with defensive cooldowns and barriers

lucio+zen+brig doesn’t actually have strong healing numbers, especially vs focused fire (ana could easily outheal them on a single target)

but when you add in the cycling of matrix, bubble, rein shield and matrix, you get all the time in the world to get things done

11

I miss 400 hp armor dva.

1 Like
12

I said it when it first came out but anyone complaining about getting any abilities off post two second cooldown nerf outside of the occasional fluke due to poor visuals just aren’t cutting it. The visual update was more than enough. Two seconds is plenty of time for even a projectile ultimate to travel. This change is to coddle people, nothing more.

1 Like
13

Thats kind of what shields are supposed to do. Also hook goes through matrix. All tanks can prevent these things (except hog and hammond) so i am not sure what you are trying to accomplish

Hook goes through matrix but the subsequent combo does not

As for shields, shields are usually non-mobile, can be broken or sidstepped and are clearly visible. You can outplay a barrier, you can’t really outplay the matrix once it’s applied onto you to turn you into a wet-noodle

The meta formed around these abilities because they were so unique. If they were more common place it wouldnt be an issue

Nobody cares about uniqueness, what matters is how strong it is

There we go. So you dont have to worry about tanks taking their spots as you mentioned earlier.
You mean goats which rarely makes an appearance outside of OWL and the highest of the ladder?

Ladder play is not relevant to the discussion

I am talking about pro-meta, you are the one who is bringing ladder into this. It’s completely irrelevant to the discussion

14

The combo goes through before the D.Va gets out of hook stun

The entirety of OW’s history says otherwise

Something you will never play? Seriously?

1 Like
15

i am not talking about hook on dva, i am talking about hook on her ally

The entirety of OW’s history says otherwise

mei’s ult is unique. it barely sees any usage
ana’s nade is unique, it barely sees any usage
ashe is unique, she barely sees any usage
symmetra’s teleporter is unique, she barely sees any usage
d.va’s matrix was unique prior to 3dm buff, she didn’t see much usage until it received 3dm buff

how unique something doesn’t matter

what matters is how strong it is and how much counterplay it has

typically the less counterplay it has, the more important it will be

Something you will never play? Seriously?

it serves as an indicator of the real strength of heroes

16

So cut Reinhardts shield down by 33% too?

This is such a backhanded comment, If it’s the only ability that can do what it’s trying to do, then people will care that it’s the only one that can do it.
Matrix is nowhere near as powerful as it was, yet it’s still one of the main reasons to form a team with D.Va in it, because nothing else can replace it.

Nothing irrelevant about it the OP never mentioned pro play. This is their thread not yours.

17

Can someone explain this one

18

No, I very clearly said that it’s fine

This is such a backhanded comment, If it’s the only ability that can do what it’s trying to do, then people will care that it’s the only one that can do it.

If you had an extra hero that has matrix, you would just pick those 2 90% of the time, not alternate between them

Matrix is nowhere near as powerful as it was, yet it’s still one of the main reasons to form a team with D.Va in it, because nothing else can replace it.

It’s still insanely powerful and if there was a hero that had something similar to matrix, both him and dva would be picked 90% of the time in pro-play

it’s a cooldown ability with an ult power level

Nothing irrelevant about it the OP never mentioned pro play. This is their thread not yours.

he is responding to me tho

19

ana has a low pickrate in pro-play because pro-dva players are good enough to repeatedly deny the nade at crucial moments

everything that ana has in her kit except nano is denied by dva

you don’t play a hero like that, it’s too risky

20

Last I checked, Ana was basically ubiquitous regardless of D.Va’s presence. Nade is just that brokenly strong.