If you haven’t heard, in the upcoming PTR patch, D.Va’s defense matrix has its effective range reduced from 15 to 10 metres in range. While this, at first, seems like a perfectly innocuous change, it will have certain ramifications beyond just general damage blocked that I’d like to discuss.
In particular, I’d like to highlight three heroes who I think will benefit the most from this change.
Ana: While D.Va is likely to be within 10m of her own team, it’s far less likely that she’ll be within 10m of the enemy team. This allows Ana to heal her team more easily with D.Va.
Roadhog: While his hook isn’t blocked by D.Va, Hog is shut down hard by a defense matrix followup. The followup will most likely occur in the last 5m of D.Va’s defense matrix range, so this nerf benefits Roadhog immensely.
Zarya: Fairly self explanatory, but this makes hitting gravs just that much easier.
Ultimate Summary
- Zarya: Graviton Surge
- Mei: Snowball
- Torbjorn: Molten Core
- Pharah: Barrage
- Tracer: Pulse Bomb
- Hanzo: Dragonstrike
Abilities
- Orisa: Halt
- Ashe: Dynamite
- Moira: Damage/Healing Orb
- Reinhardt: Firestrike
- Ana: Biotic Grenade
23 Likes
I want Defense Matrix to have a 1-2 second wind-up instead of a cooldown. It’ll make eating Ultimate’s a lot harder which it should be. A regular ability shouldn’t have an easy time at negating an Ultimate ability.
2 Likes
I don’t think they realize that DM is strong because the projectiles it counters are otherwise basically uncounterable, not because DM is oppressive.
Ergo, we need more non-ultimate counters to Grav and Nade, rather than nerfing the only counter just because it’s the only counter.
This sounds like trash, honestly.
looks at Ice wall, Barrier, Bubble, Fortify, Take a Breather, Anti-nade, Hack, and Shield Bash
56 Likes
It is not remotely easy to eat an ult with current matrix. You have to be tracking the ult, and be in position, and then crucially not use matrix even when you normally would. Then, you need to use it, just before they ult, as most of them are pretty quick if the attacker is smart and doesn’t toss it with any height.
Zarya ult especially, by the time you hear the voice line the ult has already left her gun.
24 Likes
One or two seconds is longer than the time it takes between most projectiles to be fired, to when they impact their target.
1 Like
Also, the sweep and protect your own team method will be nerfed heavily by that much sector area
The rammifications of nerfing D.Va: Some of us get to have a bit more fun when we play.
Captain Killjoy can’t get nerfed hard enough IMO.
1 Like
Hanzo also benefits. God knows how many times I shot dragons into wall but Diva still randomly ate it with her shield.
Though I dislike the change. Balance wise its good, gameplay wise they could came with a better solution.
Hanzo’s one of the least eaten ults mostly because you have to have a minimum distance away or the enemy team will be in the dead zone between hanzo and the dragons.
And yeah, because Hanzo’s OP butt needs buffs
14 Likes
So you like one of those Hanzos who ult from spawn? lol
2 Likes
No, but the only hanzos who have ground to stand on with “bahhh D.Va ate my ult” are the ones who ult point blank into Graviton and expect nothing to happen. While he benefits the least from DM nerfs, he still benefits.
5 Likes
what point blank, I was talking about walls
While there will inevitably be some impact from the lower range, I fully expect the more important change to be the new visuals. Half of the times that ultimates and important abilities get eaten are probably related to people not seeing where Defense Matrix is or whether it’s even active at a given moment.
This is why I don’t think the additional nerf is needed. Do the visual update, watch the number of ults eaten go down even more (it’s already overexaggerated, honestly).
3 Likes
Hanzo’s ultimate is probably one of the easiest to eat if you’re in range because you get a loud audio warning telling you which way to look, even through walls.
Junkrat and symmetra pretty fun to face… yeah sure. plays sym and junk and says dva is anti fun… yeah buddy sure… wow
Forum Mod Edit: This post has been edited by a moderator due to language. Blizzard Support - Forum Code of Conduct
10 Likes
So long as D.Va is with her team, abilities and ults that you would be throwing at her team anyways are still going to be within range. Tossing a Grav at D.Va’s team is still going to be eaten assuming D.Va is just within 10 meters of her team.
The only thing this changes is when someone is isolated such as getting hooked, or when D.Va isn’t with her team and accidentelly eats something for them anyways.
I see your most played hero is D.Va.
U mad?
But yes, D.Va is anti-fun.
All it really needed was the visual change. If it were more clear to see, then I think people would see it as more fair since you see when it’s up better. The extra nerf on top of that kinda…doesn’t make sense? Like, before it was nerfed, I didn’t even know the range. And I never saw complaints about the range until after we all found that the range was being nerfed.
Like, I have no problem with the visual update. It was very much needed. It’s the range nerf that I have an issue with. I would have preferred if they came out with the visual update, see how it shakes things up, and if DM is still too good for them, then sure nerf the range. But if you do both, and DM gets balanced, then how are we to know if it’s because players can see it more clearly or if it’s because of the nerfed range?
8 Likes
If you think any hero is anti-fun, just leave the game and go play CoD.
OW is not a game for you. Stop polluting it with your salt.
9 Likes