As an avid Overwatch fan, there’s nothing worse than hearing a “Nerf this” coming from behind you. And, obviously, the death that ultimately follows D.Va’ s ultimate. While Blizzard has left this game-changing move alone, one of Overwatch’s  fan favorites is getting a bit of a rework. D.Va is receiving a new ability called “Micro Missiles”, but her Defense Matrix is getting a downgrade.
The principal designer, Geoff Goodman, made a forum post about the changes and received surprisingly good comments. Here are the detailed changes:
Defense Matrix: Energy drain increased by 2x. This means her effective uptime for this ability has been reduced by 50%.
Boosters: D.Va can now use her Fusion Cannons while flying.
New ability – Micro Missiles: D.Va launches a long salvo of small missiles that explode on impact, dealing damage in a small radius around them. This ability can be used while using her other abilities or firing her Fusion Cannons.
The combination of these changes allow her to play more aggressively and deal more damage, at the cost of being able to Defense Matrix as often as before. Defense Matrix still remains an extremely powerful tool when timed correctly, but the reduced uptime means D.Va won’t be able to use it nearly as often overall.
Her new Micro Missiles ability in combination with her ability to fire while flying allow for some more aggressive play, as well as opening up some new options versus heroes such as Pharah. Overall the goal here is to reduce her reliance on Defense Matrix and make her more fun to play. As far as balancing goes, we want to nerf Defense Matrix as an ability, not D.Va as a hero.
It’s not set in stone as to whether these changes will stay for D.Va exclusively. These changes have been put in place to improve the player’s experience and to ultimately make her more fun to play. The current PTR build doesn’t include D.Va’s updates, but Junkrat, Orisa, and Widowmaker did see a bit of a buffer.
The Overwatch Summer Games are still in full effect, at least through the end of the week. All of you D.Va mains, how do you think this will affect your play style? Let us know in the comments below!