D.Va Techniques

In this part of the beginner's D.Va guide series, I will show you some common techniques that you can incorporate into your gameplay.

Midair bomb (L shape throw)

Since D.Va's bomb has a spherical area of effect, it is often more impactful to throw the bomb up in the air rather than having it sit on the ground. This is done using D.Va's boosters. The bomb can be deployed at any part of the boost and it will carry the remaining momentum.

One common mistake with this is flying directly up and pressing Q. This does get your bomb up in the air, but usually it flies too high and detonates too far from anyone to kill them. Instead, you will want to use your boosters to make an L shape. By spending some of the momentum flying forward, you will be left with less momentum for flying upward-- which is exactly what you want! The L shape also allows for some repositioning, so you can use the beginning boost time to get near the payload or past an enemy shield.

You don't always need to use the L shape but it's the easiest to learn and do. Get creative with uses of your bomb!

Sliding bomb slowly

Honestly I haven't come across a situation where this was exactly what I needed, but it's a fun quirk of the bomb. If you boost facing the ground and release your bomb, it will slide forward very slowly across the floor. Perhaps this could come in handy if you wanted to have your bomb land in a specific spot without going too far, but you could accomplish the same thing using the L shape throw. The left video shows the slow bomb while the right shows a normal one.

Sliding bomb diagonally

Another quirk of the bomb is that it will slide along diagonal walls. Your bomb just needs to hit the wall at an angle and have some remaining booster momentum. Pretty self-explanatory. If you are not at an angle to the wall, it will just hit the wall and stop.

Surprise bomb

You've probably already seen some surprise bomb POG's. These require some map knowledge as well as awareness of enemy positioning, or just a lot of luck. To do one of these babies, stand somewhere behind cover, throw your bomb over the cover, and cross your fingers for some kills. Keep in mind that since you can't see where it's going, these bombs can be a surprise for you too! It's helpful if you have something like Infrasight to see exactly where the enemies are, but usually you'll have to use your game sense to figure out where a good spot to land a juicy bomb is. These can often net a few kills if you choose your positioning and timing right.

Pharah suicide

This one is pretty fun. Pharah takes splash damage from her own rockets, so her ult is the perfect opportunity to make her die by her own hand. To do this, when she starts ulting you should first matrix to protect your teammates while flying towards the Pharah. Once you're around melee range, stop matrixing and allow yourself to get hit. The splash damage comes from the rockets hitting your mech. D.Va has so much health that Pharah will die before you do. Be careful if you are not at full health because you can be demeched by this. I recommend around 400 health for a safe attempt.

Some Pharah's are ready for D.Va's to try the suicide technique and will turn away from you to avoid the splash damage. You can guarantee the kill by also firing your missiles and primary fire once you're close enough. Tip: you can use missiles and matrix at the same time, but you can't use your primary fire and matrix together.

Block Deadeye

"It's hiiiigh noon." Where's the McCree?! Since D.Va's matrix can eat this potentially fight-flipping ult, this should be your top priority once you hear that ult line. First thing is to spot the McCree-- think of spots where he'd have a good view of as many of your teammates as possible. He'll often (but not always) be behind your backline and/or on high ground. Second thing is to get in front of him as fast as you can. Third--this is the tricky part--is deciding when to matrix. There can be some mind games involved with this. Some McCree's will panic and fire right away to avoid wasting their ult; in this case you should have matrix on ASAP and keep it on until he fires. Other McCree's will wait to either build up their damage or try to outwait your matrix; in this case, you'll want to time your matrix so that he fires during matrix's duration. You can also use your missiles to either kill him or force him to fire his ult early so he can escape.

In the worst case scenario, McCree has outwaited your matrix and outlived your missiles. You can still protect your team! D.Va has a fat mech that is easy to hit and doesn't fit through an opening in Mei's Ice Wall, but that makes it all the better for bodyblocking! Get up in McCree's face as close as you can and you will be the only target he can shoot. You'll probably be demeched and die right after, but that's better than him landing a sick multikill on your team. Tip: Keep in mind that matrix's range is now 10 meters

Boosters engage-disengage

It's tempting to use your boosters to fly into the thick of battle, but beware of feeding! If you want to use your boosters to engage, it's usually best to save some of the boost duration for escaping back to safety as well.

Super boop

If you boost into an enemy, you'll boop them a bit and deal some damage. To REALLY give them a good boopin', boost into the enemy and melee as soon as you make contact.

Melee-boost-melee

Meleeing usually cancels your boosters, but you can actually melee once at the beginning of the boost and then again at the end. To do this, hit boosters and melee at the same time. That should allow you to melee as you start boosting. The next time you melee will cancel your boosters.

Floating

Small efficiency tip-- I learned this from emongg. When you cancel your boosters, you still carry a small bit of upward momentum for a short time. If you need to fly to high ground and don't need the whole boost duration, you can cancel your boosters once you're almost there and use the leftover momentum to "float" onto the ledge. This allows you to start the cooldown timer sooner and get your next booster sooner. Again, this is saving split seconds and isn't a big thing to worry about, but I thought it was interesting enough to include here!

Pitching for airborne enemies

This technique is one of the more difficult ones to get right, but can be super useful for fighting flying foes. I actually learned this technique from Jayne and he has a great video demonstrating how to do it (also shown below). To summarize, you start by boosting towards the airborne enemy. Once you are close, quickly and sharply look up to gain height, then cancel your boosters. You'll float for a second before you start falling back down. Use your missiles and primary fire on the enemy, tracking them as you fall. This technique basically puts you in D.Va's most effective damage range for the longest amount of time (imagine the enemy is the center of a ball with a radius of 5 meters; you want to be inside the ball to do the most damage).

Side note: There is a lot of great material in Jayne's video, some overlapping with this guide. I recommend watching the full D.Va section of the video if you have the time!

Bodyblocking

As previously mentioned, D.Va's mech can be used to block McCree's Deadeye, but it can come in handy for other situations too. Use your mech to trap enemies in corners, block them from escaping or entering a room, and get them away from your squishy teammates, just to list a few. Get creative with this!