Remove D'VA's Defense matrix

General Discussion
1

DM is at this point the single most nerfed ability in the game. We barely get any use of it.
It is a 10m shield that can only block projectiles that lasts for 2 seconds. Yet somehow by some logic its broken. Even though even before the nerfs it was nowhere near the strongest defensive ability.

This is a 2 second shield with an 10 second cool-down.
It can no longer be used to even defend your self - let alone your team mates as even if the projectiles are in the 10m range they go through it 99% of the time.

People firing DIRECTLY AT ME can still land shots through DM now.

Per use you can get around 200 damage blocked. The second weakest shield is Winston bubble and its 800 hp.

This “Shield” She has only protects a 1/4 of the screen and only protects forward for 7 meters. FOR 2 SECONDS.
It then goes on a TEN SECOND cooldown. If you use it before the cooldown is up you get an even larger penalty as it stops recharging for another second.

In the pratice range standing directly behind the training bot thats getting shot with your back against the wall you are unable to shield the bot. That is 7 meters.
If you stand in between the bots and shield forward you protect nether of them. Thats 1 meter.

You are putting a shield half the range and size of winstons bubble on a zarya bubble timer that takes 10 seconds to recharge.

You get 2 seconds of the smallest protection zone in the game for a 2 second cooldown. This protection only stops a few ults also , zarya, mei, hanzo, pharah, reaper, mcree and 2 seconds of soldiers.

Now this is IF and thats a BIG IF you can time it right, its not on cooldown, and you have the resource bar for it.

This ability is now so useless.
Lets compare dva to the other tanks.
D.VA vs orisa. They average the same damage, D.VA’s shielding is around 6k per match. orisa’s is 25k.
D.VA vs Reinhardt. D.VA averages 3k more than rein but rein averages 12k more shielding at all ranks.
Zarya, Every stat on these two is exactly the same. Damage blocked, Damage done, and win rate. Below 50%…

Winston, 2k damage less Double the shielding.
Wrecking ball and hog are the same damage recently which is 2k more per round than dva. However their elim ratio is much higher.
Hog and balls solo kill is 17 and 15 respectively.
D.VA’s is 2.

She is getting one of the lowest damages, she is getting the lowest solo elims (which is really bad for a dive tank) she has the lowest shielding, and has an ability that is utterly useless.

My proposal.
Scrap DM entirely. Its taking up an ability space and has near 0 impact at all levels of play now.
Give her literally any other defensive ability.
My ability proposal

New ability flares, Takes place of dm

Shoots a group of flairs that seek out and destroy projectiles in an area.
The flairs cover a 20m wide area and nullify all projectile and hitscan damage that goes through the area.
The ability lasts 5 seconds and has a cooldown of 10 seconds
The flares eject out the back of the meka and swarm around with d’va being the center point. Any flares that hit walls will be instantly destroyed allow mei to interrupt the ability.

A total of 10 flares shoot out covering the 20m area that shoot down all incoming projectiles for 5 seconds, If a flare hits a wall it is destroyed reducing the overall area of the ability

9 Likes
2

It’s ult & burst denial, not a shield. 2 seconds is pretty forgiving for a prediction based ability. Plus this new ability sounds reta- unfun and broken for anyone who isn’t D.Va

6 Likes
3

Who is we?

Dude, you need to stop overreacting. Same goes for other players who’s overreacting cause of these nerfs what dva’s got.

Even the top level players whos playing dva at pro games have said that this nerf barely did nothing to her & is pretty much the same.

2 Likes
4

I have certainly noticed dm nerf affecting top tier dva plays like Mouffin, however it’s still better to have matrix than other random dps ability.

1 Like
5

I was once playing mei against a Dva one mmatch and whenever i throw my ult, that Dva popped her defense matrix and eat my ult for lunch, i got so frustated i was about to make a “Dva defense matrix is OP” post but im not that type of sore loser. No, im not saying her defense matrix is OP and should be deleted. I think its still pretty good if used correctly and perfectly timed. But i agree, defense matrix need buffs, it literally CANT SAVE DVA in the middle of a team fight AND SHES THE ONLY TANK. It blocked like 3 shots from reapers shotguns before dissapearing.

6

Laughs in Resurrect

8 Likes
7

LOL. I didn’t take it very seriously up until I read it and now I completely don’t take it seriously. Comparing Off Tanks to Main Tanks in terms of damage blocked per game on average? Wtf is this nonsense? That’s like comparing Hog’s avg healing per game to a healer’s avg healing per game. It’s complete and utter nonsense.

2 Likes
8

Rez has only been nerfed, what, 2, 3 times? The rework was a huge rez buff.

9

20m?!?
5 seconds duration?!?
10 Seconds cooldown?!?

I’m glad you aren’t part of the balancing team because this idea is just bad. It would be OP and incredibly broken.

1 Like
10

I’m going to let you guys in on a secret. D.Va’s defense matrix is, in general, not very strong at eating spam damage. It’s not even the strongest ultimate denial tool anymore. Where it shines is denying abilities.

Your firestrikes, your halts, your damage orbs, your nades, your storm arrows, dynamites and flashbangs. All bad be eaten by defense matrix, usually in ways that regular shields can’t.

A lot of the time this barely impacts your damage blocked, but had a large impact on the game. If you can actively counter two high impact abilities with just defense matrix, you’re doing well.

2 Likes
11

dm isn’t a shield
it blocks infinite damage for a limited amount of time in a narrow area

12

Dva sucks nowadays, when I get her in MH I die faster than any other tank

13

Actually is seems balanced “if” it also blocks friendly fire.

Otherwise it is another immortality field that Bastion would gladly welcome

14

I’ve not experienced this, and I play a fair amount of D.Va.

Winstons barrier is 600, and if you are blocking small amounts of damage with DM you are using it wrong :l You don’t waste DM on trash damage, you use DM to stop clutch damage that owuld otherwise eliminate your mech or a teammate.

But it’s not a shield, it offers a completely different function, thus why comparing it to a shield is just silly. It’s a field of nope for all enemy projectiles, and that field goes a decent amount forwards too so you can pivot and clutch block for teammates.

And don’t hold down DM and waste it all at once, tap it, and only block what you NEED to. That’s the difference between a good D.Va.

Sounds cool but having them last 5 seconds is abit over the top, and ultimately would be a nerf because it’s not on a resource and you’d have less access to block clutch things. It would lower the skill floor to effective use but nerf effective use comparitively to DM. Just because you struggle with it doesn’t mean it’s bad.

1 Like
15

DM is the best non-ultimate ability in the entire game. As long you can deny ultimates it will be fine.

She is an offtank not s main tank stop feeding trying to soak damage without DM.

16

It lost 2 seconds and some distance. Sentry lost a 1000 HP shield, spread headshots, and after getting a buff, it got nerfed again.

17

That doesn’t happen. Looking at the rest of the post, this isn’t the only part that doesn’t make sense.

18

it was broken yes u can twist it around at will

19

I think that they should remove Defense Matrix and replace it with Mei’s Ice Wall and then give Mei a new ability

20

As a dva main, I can tell you that DM is absolutely fine.

My damage blocked per 10 minutes went down by about 1000 after the recent nerf. And normally, i get around 6 to 8k