Just two weeks after the epic announcement of her addition to Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch’s D.Va is now live on the game’s public test realm—and her ability overview has her looking very strong.
D.Va fills the role of a Ranged Warrior in Heroes, with good mobility and survivability as well as two different playstyles, both in and out of her MEKA suit. This looks to create lots of variation and different ways to play her in the game.
Her spotlight video describes her strengths as initiation, mobility, sustained damage, and being a hard-to-kill bruiser. Her abilities amplify these strengths, and they’re very similar to her skillset in Overwatch.
D.Va plays very differently in and out of her MEKA suit. In “Mech Mode” she is highly mobile and tanky, while in “Pilot Mode” she is squishy but capable of dealing long-range damage with her pistol. This is similar to how she is in Overwatch, only her out-of-suit abilities are stronger in Heroes.
WATCH: Hone your D.Va with one of the game’s finest mech pilots.
Mech Mode
Default attack
D.Va’s mech fires in an area in front of her, and she can move while shooting, dealing damage to multiple enemies in the affected area.
Q: Boosters
D.Va’s main form of mobility, her mech boosts a short distance, dealing damage to and knocking back heroes that she runs into. This can be canceled early by pressing Q again. It’s a strong ability for escaping and also chasing down fleeing foes.
W: Defense Matrix
When activated, Defense Matrix produces a field that reduces the damage from enemy heroes. She can move while using it, but she will be locked facing the direction that the ability was originally used in.
E: Self-Destruct
This ability is like D.Va’s ultimate in Overwatch, except it’s one of her default abilities in Heroes and has no cooldown. D.Va ejects from her MEKA and it explodes, knocking back enemies and dealing high damage in a large area after a short delay. The ability is charged by both taking and dealing damage, and it looks strong for damage-dealing and zoning.
R1: Bunny Hop
D.Va’s Heroic Ability in her mech sends it bouncing up and down like a bunny, making her unstoppable while dealing damage and slowing enemies in her vicinity. This ability can only be used in mech mode.
Pilot Mode
Default attack
D.Va’s pistol deals high damage to single targets at a much longer range than her MEKA. The trade-off here is that she has way less health while outside of her mech. She cannot move while attacking.
E: Call Mech
This ability charges just like Self-Destruct, only it’s for “Pilot Mode” exclusively. When D.Va deals damage, the ability charges up and allows her to get back into her mech when fully charged.
R2: Big Shot
D.Va charges up her pistol and shoots a laser in a straight line that deals damage to all enemies in its path. It has a very short cooldown and helpfully reduces the cooldown of Call Mech with each hero it hits.
D.Va has two very distinct playstyles in Heroes, following on from the likes of Greymane. The way she’s played is changed drastically whether or not she is in her mech. When D.Va’s health bar is depleted in Mech Mode, she immediately switches to Pilot Mode, so you will need to be adept at both to succeed.
You can check out the patch notes and try D.Va out for yourself right now if you download the Heroes PTR in the Blizzard App today.
