A Comprehensive Beginner's Guide to D.Va

INTRODUCTION TO D.VA'S ABILITIES

To a beginner, D.Va can seem impossible to play. Her primary fire barely does any damage from a distance. Her missiles are slow-moving projectiles that can be frustrating to hit. Her critbox is HUGE and smack in the center of her mech where everyone and their hamster can point and click. Her Defense Matrix--widely agreed upon to be the best ability in the game-- only lasts 2 measly seconds! How is anybody supposed to get work done with this massive flying ult battery?

There are very good reasons why she has been in every meta so far and I will explain why. This is part one of a series in which I will teach you the basics of D.Va. This particular guide will focus on her abilities, when to use them, and how to make the most of them.

FUSION CANNONS

TYPE: Hitscan

DAMAGE: 0.6-2 per pellet

FALLOFF RANGE: 10 - 20 meters

SPREAD: 4.15 degrees

AMMO: Unlimited (no reload)

D.Va's primary fire is her Fusion Cannons. They shoot a total of eleven pellets at a time, each one dealing up to 2 damage (excluding headshot bonus). They are often referred to as "shotguns" due to the similarities. They deal decent damage upclose but very little from a distance-- we're talking literally 1 damage sometimes here. This is largely due to the wide spread of the weapon, which makes it easier to land more pellets up close rather than far away. On the plus side, her cannons have infinite ammo with no reload, so you can be firing forever if you want to! The downside to that is that when she is shooting, her walking speed decreases by half, making her mech quite lumberly and slow.

WHEN TO USE

D.Va's cannons are mostly useless from afar. You could use it to do tickle damage to the enemy team, but that will just give their healers ult charge while generating minimal charge for yourself and very likely not securing any kills. However, it can be useful to spam damage at any enemy shields. The enemy will not gain any ult charge from regenerating shields, and any extra damage done to a shield will help break it faster. This will also apply pressure to the enemy team-- there are psychological effects of being shot at, even when you know not much damage is being done, especially at lower ranks. Oftentimes the enemy will feel compelled to keep up or stay behind their shields to avoid this poke damage. This limits the actions they can take. For example, if a Brigitte keeps her shield up against your damage, she will not be able to attack while it is up. If a Genji opts to stay behind a shield to hide from your damage, this limits the angles he can take to attack your team.

On the other hand, when D.Va is up close to the enemy, her cannons can be devastating. On average, she will deal 44 damage per second from 20 meters away, but a whopping 146.7 damage per second from 10 meters away!* Her individual pellet damage may not seem like a lot, but with her constant fire rate, this damage really adds up! Her walking speed will be reduced but that doesn't matter much since you are already close to the enemy. Good tracking skills will help you make the most out of Fusion Cannons, but no worries if you're a bit rusty there-- D.Va is a very forgiving character to practice with.

*According to the damage calculator linked at the bottom

FUSION CANNON TIPS

Earlier I mentioned that her cannons barely deal any damage from afar. However, they can be useful when used against a Mercy. When Mercy takes any damage, this pauses her auto-health regeneration for one second. D.Va can prevent a low health Mercy from healing herself, leaving her an easy target for another teammate.
The spread of Fusion Cannons seems like a huge disadvantage, but it actually makes D.Va a decent counter to Sombra. If you know the enemy team has a Sombra, whenever you are not actively doing something, you should be constantly shooting wherever you think an invisible Sombra might be hiding. If even one of the pellets hit Sombra, she will be revealed. Additionally, if Sombra gets damaged while hacking someone, it will cancel her hack and activate a 2 second cooldown for it.

BOOSTERS

DAMAGE: 10 boop damage

DURATION: 2 seconds

COOLDOWN: 5 seconds

Boosters, in my opinion, are up there in the list of best abilities in the game. Can you imagine a flying Reinhardt coming at you with his hammer?

In any case, D.Va is currently the only hero with the ability of omnidirectional free flight, making her one of the most mobile heroes in the game. This is the reason D.Va has so many different roles-- her mobility is what enables her to accomplish so many different tasks.

Boosters run for 2 seconds, but can be cancelled earlier by toggling the ability again or by meleeing. However, it's possible to deal a melee at the beginning of your boosters without cancelling it, then another melee at the end to cancel. This is discussed more here.

WHEN TO USE

Boosters can be used offensively or defensively. Some common uses are listed below.

Offense:

Booping enemies off the map for environmental kills, or into a precarious position where they will be exposed to attack
Flying into the enemies to deal damage
Chasing down targets
Launching D.Va bombs
Getting better positioning to attack

Defense:

Knocking enemies out of position (for example: forcing a Widowmaker to give up her sightlines)
Contesting high ground
Fleeing for safety. Very important!! You definitely want to boost out of a fight if you are losing or about to die. One exception: ~Dying on the point to stall~
Peeling for teammates that need help
Boosting to matrix something. Some of the easier things to catch are Pharah's or McCree's ults

BOOSTERS TIPS

Boosters can be set to either toggle or hold
You can fool an enemy on high ground by backing off the ledge-- making them think you are leaving them alone, possibly getting heals from below-- then boosting back up to get some surprise damage in
Check out this guide for different booster techniques

MICRO-MISSILES

TYPE: Projectile

DAMAGE PER MISSILE: Direct hit (7), Splash min/max (2/4), Self (4)

SPEED: 40 meters per second

FALLOFF RANGE: None

AREA OF EFFECT: 1.5 meter radius

AMMO: 18

COOLDOWN: 8 seconds

Micro-missiles are slow-moving, hard to hit, but powerful. If all missiles hit its target, it can deal up to 126 damage. They can also do splash damage, and can inflict splash damage on D.Va herself. Micro-missiles have no damage falloff. Since they are projectiles, you will want to air your crosshair where the enemy is GOING to be, to accommodate for the missile travel time.

WHEN TO USE

Because they are such slow projectiles, it is much more effective to use Micro-missiles up close. Being at a short range makes it easier to land more of your missiles and inflict splash damage. ~Check out this guide for ways to secure kills~

MICRO-MISSILES TIPS

Micro-missiles are on a relatively long cooldown of 8 seconds. Try not to be too trigger-happy with it and save it for situations where you know it will get value
Micro-missiles are great for breaking shields

DEFENSE MATRIX

RANGE: 10 meters

DURATION: 2 seconds

COOLDOWN: 2 seconds

RECHARGE TIME: 8 seconds, from empty to full

Here is what makes D.Va one of the strongest characters in the game. This is an incredibly powerful defensive ability, able to eat any enemy projectile-- including ultimates! The tide of a battle can be turned with a well-timed and well-placed Matrix. It will eat an infinite amount of damage for as long as it lasts, which is 2 seconds total.

WHEN TO USE

You may be tempted to use Matrix to eat as much damage as possible, but it is much more strategic to save it for eating abilities or ults, causing the enemy to have wasted their cooldown.

There are some situations where it is smart to use Matrix to eat spam damage, however. Here are a few:

Saving a teammate from death. If you see a teammate low on health and being harassed, you should definitely Matrix them! The best way to contribute in a game is to avoid dying-- and prevent teammate deaths
When moving through a choke. On some maps like Paris and Horizon Lunar Colony, the attacking team is forced to pass through a single narrow choke before getting anywhere near the point. This allows the defending team to focus all of their damage down that choke, quickly destroying anything that tries to pass through. Oftentimes a Rein shield and Lucio speed boost can be enough to get you through, but D.Va's Defense Matrix is definitely a useful supplemental tool. Even though it only lasts for 2 seconds, it can save you a ton of shield health, or even act as a shield itself
When your team shield is down, especially with a friendly Orisa. If your team's shield goes down and enemy fire is pouring in, D.Va can Matrix incoming damage while waiting for Orisa's next shield to come up or while teammates move to a safer position
When fighting a Bastion. Bastion, the bane of bronze existence, is able to unleash a devastating 450 damage per second max while in sentry mode, easily enough to demech D.Va before she can kill Bastion. One strategy for dealing with him is to have D.Va use Matrix to absorb all the turret damage while your teammates quickly dispatch of Bastion. This can make D.Va a good pick against a bunker composition, though this does require team coordination

DEFENSE MATRIX TIPS

Very important to note: Defense Matrix does NOT work against "channeled" damage, which includes things like Zarya's beam, Moira's grasp, Symmetra's beam, Winston's zapper
You cannot use primary fire while matrixing, but you can use it with Boosters and Micro-missiles all together
Matrix only lasts for a max of 2 seconds, so be careful with its usage! When you are trying to block a McCree Deadeye, if he is smart he will try to outwait your Matrix, so it may not be best to use it immediately after his ult line
Similarly, you should be careful about Matrix's cooldown of 2 seconds. At the beginning of fights, the enemy team will often use cooldowns like Rein's Firestrike or Moira's Orb. If both abilities comes at the exact same time--great! Matrix will eat them both at the same time. However, if they come between 0 and 2 seconds apart, then if you flashed your Matrix for the first one it will still be on cooldown for the second one. To handle this, it can be more effective to keep Matrix on for a longer duration to try to eat both-- IF you think this is the best usage of Matrix. This applies very frequently to the first fight of the match when you know the enemy has no ultimates. For the following fights, you will want to save Matrix for whatever you think will get the best value-- for example, eating a Firestrike vs saving it for a possible incoming Reaper Death Blossom
When you are on attack, sometimes the enemy will try to get an early pick or some ult charge as your team is first coming out the door. It can be helpful to have Matrix up when the door opens to eat any incoming attacks
Certain heroes are extremely vulnerable when they are ulting. Pharah and Reaper are great examples of this. When they use their ults, they are almost or completely immobile and unable to use any of their abilities until the ult is over. The ult animation is also flashy, huge, and very easy to spot. These qualities, along with the lethal amount of damage they are putting out, make them prime targets, often attracting the attention of the entire opposing team. When they are on the enemy team, you will want to Matrix this damage (or in the case of Pharah, you can force her to suicide). Also very important: when they are on your own team, you will want to Matrix them to protect them. This second part is very often overlooked. It is so easy to headshot or focus fire a Pharah or Reaper and kill them before their ult is even finished. D.Va can prevent this from happening! Admittedly, it is hard to predict when someone on your team is planning to ult if they don't communicate it. Unless they are already in your view, it requires a lot of game sense and awareness to notice when a teammate is planning to ult without any communication. Therefore, while you are still practicing and perfecting these game sense skills, it is more important to pay attention to the enemies and prevent them from getting multiple kills on your team, rather than potentially losing a single teammate

ULT: SELF-DESTRUCT

DAMAGE: Up to a huge 1000 damage!

RANGE: 20 meter radius

CASTING TIME: 3 seconds before detonation

Last but not least, the infamous D.Va bomb! Here are two 6K's-- can you guess my rank in these clips?

(Hint: It wasn't high at allll. Please don't judge my crosshairs)

These flashy 6K's are a lot of fun, but as you climb higher in the ranks it becomes much more UN-likely that you will be able to get a full team wipe with your bomb. In fact, it's quite likely you won't get any kills at all! People will have learned to be prepared for D.Va bombs and know where to take shelter once they hear that notorious "Nerf this!".

WHEN TO USE

Even though you might not get any kills with D.Va's ult, this doesn't make it any less useful! It is extremely effective as a zoning tool--anyone within range of the bomb will die, and therefore much escape its effective range or be killed. Personally, I sometimes use D.Va bomb around the beginning of a fight when my team is in not-so-great positioning. This forces the enemy team to stop what they're doing and retreat for cover, giving my team a few seconds to get into better positions. Most of the time this won't secure any kills directly with the bomb, but definitely helps us gain an advantage in the fight.

Since the D.Va bomb is so great at zoning, this also makes it an effective counter to many enemy ults. For example, if the enemy Mei uses her Blizzard--well, first you have a chance to eat it with Defense Matrix! If that doesn't happen, then throwing your bomb up in the air will act as a defensive tool, forcing the enemy to retreat from the blizzard and hopefully preventing them from getting any kills on your frozen team. That is just one example. Note: This may seem obvious, but if you use your ult then you will not be able to use Defense Matrix or any of your other abilities until you remech. When countering an enemy ult, you will want to weigh the value of using the bomb vs your abilities and decide which is better.

In addition to countering, the D.Va bomb's potential of up to 1000 damage makes it a great ult to combo with other ults, such as Graviton or Shatter. While the enemy team is incapacitated, D.Va bomb will almost certainly secure a kill on those caught in the combo.

D.VA BOMB TIPS

There are a few quirks of D.Va bomb that you may not know about:

Baby D.Va is able to push her bomb before it explodes. To do this, you just walk back and forth into the mech. You won't be able to push it much before it detonates, but this can be useful in rare cases, such as if your bomb lands on the edge of a ledge when you meant for it to land on the ground below
In addition to pushing the bomb, the bomb can push enemies aside. This does not do any boop damage. However, if you're lucky or skilled enough, you can get environmental kills this way
D.Va bomb can interact with other abilities. One of the best known is with a friendly Symmetra teleporter. You just place one on top of the other (order does not matter) and the bomb will automatically teleport through. Others include an enemy Rein Charge and an enemy Hog Hook--they will be able to move your bomb like how they can move heroes. A friendly Charge or Hook won't be able to interact though
D.Va bomb will interact with the physical environment as well, allowing you to slide your bombs

BONUS: BABY D.VA ABILITIES

Eject

If you've spent any time playing D.Va then you already know this, but when she reaches 1 HP, you will automatically eject from the mech and emerge as a deadly Baby D.Va with 150 HP, a tiny hitbox, and a pistol you don't want to underestimate.

Light Gun (AKA the Bunny Blaster)

TYPE: Projectile

DAMAGE: 14

SPEED: 50 meters per second

FALLOFF RANGE: None

AMMO: 20

RELOAD TIME: 1.45 seconds

It is a ~hot debate~ whether D.Va is useful in her mech-less form or not. In my opinion, Baby D.Va can get a lot of work done! She is hard to hit and can do a surprising amount of damage if your aim is decent. Additionally, since her pistol has no falloff, she is very good at destroying turrets from afar, which is actually quite difficult for Mech D.Va to do.

Although Baby D.Va can secure kills and get into hard-to-reach places with her power of being small, it's probably best that you remech as soon as possible. If your aim is currently not-so-great, try to aim for the big enemy tanks (or even die on purpose if that's quicker).

Remech

This is Baby D.Va's ult. Remeching will do 50 damage to any enemies around her within a small radius. Baby D.Va can be killed in the middle of the remech animation which takes 2 seconds, so be careful to remech in a safe area!

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That's it for D.Va's abilities! Much of this information is taken from my personal experience and gameplay with D.Va, but a few extra sources are listed below. If you find a mistake or disagree with something, I would love to hear from you! Please leave a message down below if you have any questions or comments. Thanks for reading!

Next up: D.Va Techniques