So how are you supposed to play D.Va effectively

[Mormolyce]

You want to fly in, bump someone for a good amount of their hp, fire and melee them. Then, you proceed to shoot at them as they slowly kite away from you, and proceed to murder you because of your gigantic head critbox, and you can't kill them because your damage falls off and spreads too much, and you walk so slow you can't keep up. Who knew a tank with almost a full HP bar of armor could be so squishy?

Basically, to play Dva effectively you just don't play Dva

If you do that to good D.Va targets like Widowmaker or Mercy, and they decide to stand and fight you, they die. You may lose your mech, but they're dead.

I don't recommend taking that tack with tanks though. It works well against turrets, but you need backup to pull that off.

[Bullettime]

You just basically dive their backline and shotgun the hell out of people while trying to negate as much counterharass as possible or try to block ults like Mcree's.

Her crit box desperately needs to get fixed though. Blizzard is even stating that she's underpowered and I feel like damage buffs are unnecessary. She's just way too squishy as a tank due to her deceptively large headshot zone so she gets straight murdered by frontal fire from the heroes she's supposed to rush and mow down.

[Deleted]

I see D.Va mostly useful only as a Widow killer. Maybe there are people out there who can get more out of her.

[Fenzha]

She blocks literally every projectile except of Hog's hook, she also doesn't block lasers, that is Symmetra's, Zarya's and Winston's primary fire modes. You can even shoot down Tracer's bomb if she throws it at you. I think you can also block Junkrat's tire if you stand right next to him when he launches it, same as Hanzo's dragon, but I'm not sure about that.

I was a little surprised the first time D.va ate my ult on Mei... poor little robot friend.

[Deleted]

You play D.Va effectively by not playing her at all. All her skills are done better by any other hero in the game and she's even more fragile than most of the flankers are.

[Hottage]

Stop playing her like Rienhart, you should think of her the same way as Tracer, she's for jumping over obstacles and flanking the enemy from behind. She's also interesting in that she morphs from an up-close bruiser to a longer range shooter when her MEKA dies.

Clever combos of rocket pack and ultimate can easily clear out entrenched enemies from a point too.

[Gamevizier]

D.va, basically plays like a Daeva.

bear with me on this.

You are a Daeva, it's not your job to charge the enemy head on or wrestle with their tanks one-on-one (though you can when it comes to it) you are there to chase their squishies/snipers/anyone who can't do good face-to-face combat and kill (eat) them like the evil Daeva you are. you can charge into their backline when they're fighting your frontline fighters, harass the aforementioned heroes OR the very injured ones that have retreated, maybe even grab a kill or two and then get out before the enemy is alerted of the big bad demon running among them.

and don't forget to do the creep while you're chasing them :3.

[Deleted]

D.va, basically plays like a Daeva.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daeva

I'm not sure but I think you might want to explain what you mean by "like a Daeva", because it seems like you might mean something else than it's Wikipedia entry. Perhaps some game or anime or something has a "Daeva" in it?

Or, are you perhaps referring to something like this?

the daevas are noxious creatures that promote chaos and disorder

In other words, a blitzkrieg unit. But then, Tracer and Genji already serve that purpose, and are much better at it.

I would like to reiterate that in my personal experience, the only time a D.Va has been a problem has been when I'm playing Widow, so for me at least they seem to boil down to two things; 1) Widow harassing and 2) Q nukes.

[Gamevizier]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daeva

I'm not sure but I think you might want to explain what you mean by "like a Daeva", because it seems like you might mean something else than it's Wikipedia entry. Perhaps some game or anime or something has a "Daeva" in it?

Or, are you perhaps referring to something like this?

In other words, a blitzkrieg unit. But then, Tracer and Genji already serve that purpose, and are much better at it.

I would like to reiterate that in my personal experience, the only time a D.Va has been a problem has been when I'm playing Widow, so for me at least they seem to boil down to two things; 1) Widow harassing and 2) Q nukes.

in my country a deev (daeva) is the monster that shows up and chases lonely traveleres and steals children. quite sneaky and malicious. mythologies vary from country to country.

[Jessicka]

In other words, a blitzkrieg unit. But then, Tracer and Genji already serve that purpose, and are much better at it.

I would like to reiterate that in my personal experience, the only time a D.Va has been a problem has been when I'm playing Widow, so for me at least they seem to boil down to two things; 1) Widow harassing and 2) Q nukes.

A Genji and Tracer aren't going to get as far as the point and sit there long enough to pull the entire defensive line off their positions, allowing your whole team to walk in behind them and take them all out. D.Va on the other hand will do this all day. It's as much kamikaze as it is blitzkrieg, but it is very effective at winning matches, even if it does leave you with an awful K: D Ratio.

[Deleted]

Best buff for D.Va would IMO be a reduction in the movement speed penalty while shooting.

Take away the movement penalty, give her ammo & reload. 100/100 clips.

[Ferrair]

Charge in, get up close and aim at their heads.

Push them around as much as you can.

That's how I play D.Va, just be as irritating as possible up close. You die very quickly, but D.Va without her mech does decent damage with a very high rate of fire, just spam the hell out of it.

[Jessicka]

give her ammo & reload. 100/100 clips.

I'd be happy to keep the movement penalty if I got this and a bump in damage tbh. You're up in faces, ramming people against walls, the movement penalty is barely noticeable. And if they do run, the rocket boost is such a short cooldown you can catch up very quickly anyway.

[Gamevizier]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daeva

I'm not sure but I think you might want to explain what you mean by "like a Daeva", because it seems like you might mean something else than it's Wikipedia entry. Perhaps some game or anime or something has a "Daeva" in it?

Or, are you perhaps referring to something like this?

In other words, a blitzkrieg unit. But then, Tracer and Genji already serve that purpose, and are much better at it.

I would like to reiterate that in my personal experience, the only time a D.Va has been a problem has been when I'm playing Widow, so for me at least they seem to boil down to two things; 1) Widow harassing and 2) Q nukes.

then you've not played against good D.Va players, because the harassing capability of a 500 health mech + a good pilot with a small hitbox is really great. Tracer can be countered because she's squishy and if she's caught she's dead, Genji is a little problematic but he still doesn't have as much health as a 500 + 150 hero.

[Peligrad]

On the buff side:

I'd like to see D Va's defense matrix have a longer max duration, shorter CD, allow it to be canceled early, grant her bonus movement speed when walking backwards, and add a mechanic to it where it feedbacks some AoE damage at very short range when it is struck. Additionally, if D Va nullifies an ultimate with her defense matrix, the feed back in front of her deals significant damage and has a significantly larger AoE.

This would make defense matrix a lot more versatile and give D Va the situational defense/ability to escape she needs as well as rewarding her with some damage for effectively blocking damage from herself and her team mates.

D Va is supposed to be a decent skirmisher and choke point breaker and her ability to block certain ultimates should really be emphasized IMO. These changes would improve her effectiveness at this role.

I'd also like to see her ult get about .25 seconds less time before detonation to at least rush people to take cover or employ shields a little faster.

On the nerf side:

I think players need to be punished a little bit more for losing their mech outside of their ultimate use. I'd like to see D Va get a vulnerability window of about .75 seconds as she exits her mech where players can take her out before she gets to shoot back. The biggest problem with D Va currently is that is way too easy for a D Va that you out played to turn the table on you with her second life right now. This change makes a D Va that you have dead to rights, dead.

[ComputerNerd]

Don't play her as a "tank" ie a damage sponge. She's a backline harasser. Charge their snipers in their nests with your shield up and kill them or force them to retreat. Chase Mercy and kill her (unless her team defends her she's basically dead meat). Other supports are a bit trickier but you can at least split them up. You can also charge at Bastion and Torbjorn's turret with your defence matrix up, however if it's just you you'll probably die before Bastion does (Torbjorn's turret is less of a problem unless Molten Core is up). It does allow your teammates to finish him off though.

Speaking of defence matrix, you can use it to shield your teammates from threatening ultis like McCree's and Pharah's. I think Reaper's too?

The other thing to realise about D.Va is that her charge does significant damage as well as the knockback if you hit someone. Gives you a big headstart on the damage, and gets you up real close where your cannons can do some actual damage. They are weak sure, and she does die often in close quarters, but after ejecting you actually do MORE damage and are really hard to hit if you keep moving. Plus your pistol rapidly recharges your mech. I often explode my mech deliberately...

I always try to be behind the enemy. If they start following me, I lead them as far away from the objective as I can - while they're chasing me they're not contesting and they have almost as much travel time back to the fight as D.Va does, even if they finally kill you. You can accomplish a lot just by wasting their time.

And of course, her ulti. Use it to zone out an objective or force snipers/Bastions to move. Huge impact on the battlefield even if nobody dies to it. Learn it, live it, love it.

Yeah, I think the defining of the characters so strictly as tank in the traditional sense is a problem.

[ro9ue]

When shield is up, I go ahead and tank a bit.

When shield is down, I stay in the back or flank and get some shots in to build up ult.

Then I just charge in and blow up.


Thought that was the only way to play her?

[Kelimbror]

The term tank doesn't mean unstoppable bullet sponge. Tank just means you have higher survival and control than other classes and can use them aggressively. D.Va isn't very good in wide open maps, but excels in maps with alcoves, cubbies, lots of movement but not in the open.

Like everyone else has said, she harasses backlines and pushes people. You see a Mercy beam attached to someone's arse? Charge right into her and get her out of there. People near ledges? Knock them off. Snipers? Fly to them with your shield up then wreck their face if they don't run away. If they do run, don't chase into wide open areas. Look for a way to engage the team again, then go back to the snipers new location when your charge is up.

And obviously, use her ult to clear payloads/points. What you should definitely not do is charge into the other team with none of your backup in sight, get your mech killed instantly, then flail about and die. At least when you are with your team, an ejected D.Va still has one of the smaller hitboxes and best little guns in the game.

[Bullettime]

The term tank doesn't mean unstoppable bullet sponge. Tank just means you have higher survival and control than other classes and can use them aggressively. D.Va isn't very good in wide open maps, but excels in maps with alcoves, cubbies, lots of movement but not in the open.

Like everyone else has said, she harasses backlines and pushes people. You see a Mercy beam attached to someone's arse? Charge right into her and get her out of there. People near ledges? Knock them off. Snipers? Fly to them with your shield up then wreck their face if they don't run away. If they do run, don't chase into wide open areas. Look for a way to engage the team again, then go back to the snipers new location when your charge is up.

And obviously, use her ult to clear payloads/points. What you should definitely not do is charge into the other team with none of your backup in sight, get your mech killed instantly, then flail about and die. At least when you are with your team, an ejected D.Va still has one of the smaller hitboxes and best little guns in the game.

Eh she's not supposed to be a huge bullet sponge but she is deceptively squishy due to her immense headshot zone that is also center body and thus easy to hit. She gets absolutely shredded by any sort of frontal fire and depends heavily on surprise or knocking down her target.

She's a tank character that ends up being played as a bruiser-esque flanker and can only really tank anything when her matrix is up. Otherwise she gets ripped apart far faster than likely intended, hence why Blizzard has stated she's up for buffs.

[Dug]

You need to use her as the tank who can go into the backline and pick off stragglers. You get right in their face and start blasting away and just being an annoyance to them. They'll alert their team and when they come to their aid you jet out and know you'll have enough health to escape. Never try and use her as a "traditional" tank or even try to go 1v2/1v3 because you'll most likely lose. Just look for the opportunities. And of course her ultimate is the best are denying areas