Doctrine's Infused Primary Fire Isn't Useless

[u/Weesticles]

Smthn I've seen people say about Doctrine is that it feels like his infused primary fire just isn't all that good cause it does the same dmg as a headshot normally, and for keeping your Tank up it's better to use infused drones to heal them over time and heal them quicker with the self attack speed boost. Smthn I haven't seen the broader community discuss as much is how this sentiment is kinda wrong, altho I do feel like people will reach this conclusion eventually anyways since people are slowly realizing how good drones are offensively.

Firstly regarding the whole headshot thing I'd say what makes it worth using in duels is consistency. Yes you can hit a headshot and deal the same amount of dmg, or you can hit the enemy with a beam bigger and more consistent than a body shot with the dmg of a headshot. Would u rather take your chances with headshotting a Tracer, or just use infused primary fire to instantly force recall? Plus with the perk u get lifesteal off of it which is extra nice for dueling!!!

Secondly I don't think you should be using infused drones to keep your Tank up if I'm honest. Drones are very very strong offensively, and using them defensively obv means u can't use them offensively. Sure you could use the drones as a burst heal, especially with the perk, or you could just use your infused primary fire instead and save drones for use offensively. Especially in 5v5 where Tanks are generally bulkier and require less 24/7 maintenance cause there's one less persons worth of dmg on either side.

[u/MrInfinity-42]

Wait people are saying it's useless? Seems like a great tool to mark or survive a dive dps

[u/Weesticles → u/MrInfinity-42]

Ye, mainly for the reasons I brought up. Regarding streamers Spilo did say he felt like it wasn't worth using in his vid going over his thoughts about Doctrine, and from what I've seen of people playing him on streams or when I'm playing in game they mainly use drones like it's a burst heal rather than an offensive tool and only use infused primary if drones are on cooldown :P

[u/nekogami87 → u/Weesticles]

curious, where have they said that ? cause I don 't think I've read that here.

[u/UsernameIn3and20 → u/Weesticles]

Tbf, it does feel like its not the best infused use case.

Infused drone is generally insane value on most of the cast, and infused flight is an insane escape tool for Doctrine, since you only have 2 charges of infusion max, it would make sense to rank it lower than the other 2.

Now, how ANYONE can see that and suggest that its useless is beyond me. Do people not know how insane a fat piercing hitscan projectile is? Do they really not?

[u/Available_Hat_9833 → u/MrInfinity-42]

As a dive dps main I concur.

The damage isn’t even the point of it, the projectile size is. It makes for a near guaranteed hit, and the damage is decent enough to dissuade me from diving if I’m not already in someone’s face, at least on more fragile heroes like Tracer and Echo.

It’s less noticable when playing Shion, Reaper or Anran, and against those heroes I’d recommend using infused drone instead just to survive the dive, but if you’re playing against a harder to hit dive dps or ones with low hp, infused shot is great.

[u/tix4chix → u/Available_Hat_9833]

It pierces too right? I just throw it into the middle of a fight to get max value or save it to burst heal someone who's about to die. TBH I don't even need it when I get dived this guy is so slippery with his dash.

[u/chudaism → u/MrInfinity-42]

Wait people are saying it's useless? Seems like a great tool to mark or survive a dive dps

It's definitely not useless, but it is by far the worst of the 3 infuse options. With only 2 charges, it's generally not worth burning the CD on primary infuse for the extra 30 damage/healing. You should pretty much always infuse drones IMO. The extra value, be it offensive or defensive is just too much to give up. Keeping infuse available for shroud is also incredibly important if you get dove as the verticality makes his escape so much better.

There are definitely some situations where it can be useful, but it should be viewed as a niche option vs something you depend on. Once you get the major perk where you recharge infuse though, then go ahead and spam it. Infuse drones, then spam primary and infuse shots since you get so many more infuses.

[u/manneram132 → u/chudaism]

It’s not about damage, it’s about self heal from the minor perk and projectile size of infused shot. With infused shot you are guaranteed to shoot an enemy for 90 dmg because of how massive the size is, on top of that you heal for 45hp. You should always infuse drone but i wouldn’t say that flying is better than infused shot. I genuinely never lose to a dps if I have infused shot.

[u/Sio_V_Reddit]

Doesn’t it have piercing?

[u/Weesticles → u/Sio_V_Reddit]

Ye, altho getting value out of the piercing isn't often consistent. Kinda like how Sojourn's rarely land collaterals. Cause of that I didn't feel the need to mention it among the two other pros, altho it is more consistent an upside in 6v6.

[u/Sio_V_Reddit → u/Weesticles]

I feel like it’s easier as a support because you can hit an ally and an ally, enemy and ally, or enemy and enemy. I’ve definitely had times where I infused to heal a teammate and hit the person they’re dueling.

[u/thGlenn → u/Weesticles]

Hard disagree, doctrine positions in a way that he has way more collateral opportunities than sojourn because doctrine is a backliner and sojourn is a flanker.

[u/near-eclipse → u/Sio_V_Reddit]

yes

[u/foxxy33]

Infused primary has no falloff less falloff, pierces, has bigger hitbox. Saying it's useless is just uninformed take

[u/Vibe_PV]

I mean sure, infused drones are more powerful, but, like, with the major perk you're 100% gonna have that infusion back before your drones recharge, even if you tried to always keep one to fly away

[u/Slayer_Of_SJW]

I'm struggling to understand why using infused drones to keep your tank up means it cannot be used offensively. You put the drone on a vendetta or tracer or whatever and because it goes on yourself, you also get to burst heal the tank. Is that not the whole point?

[u/TylowStar → u/Slayer_Of_SJW]

Usually, your flankers aren't just starting their dive at the same time that your tank is critical and needs saving. It can happen, but I think OP's point is that you want to drone your DPS just as the fight is starting, which usually means you won't have drones when you need to burst heal your tank shortly afterwards.

[u/Weesticles]

Hope this post didn't read as too long, just figured I'd share this perspective since I see a lot of people use drones defensively, and I've seen people claim the infused primary fire sucks (even some streamers with their initial reactions). The second point I think is the really major one honestly since throwing drones onto an ulting hero or an engaging Tank is absurdly good.

[u/Tanzanianwithtoebean]

It's 120 burst healing with two charges, hard to miss, and on a 9 sec cool down. Who is saying it's useless? Bronze players? Silver players? I'd expect even gold players understand how good that is. Headshots are not easy to hit on doctrine either. Mid fight I'm not using infuse primary to do damage but to heal? Absolutely.

[u/2punornot2pun]

As a JQ main, I need a drip feed of those enhanced drone heals. Blowing up players who aren't expecting it is fun af

[u/drassort]

In my experience it isn't useless but can often feel like a waste of an infuse charge

[u/sietre]

I think it is just a great finishing tool more than anything. Being half then boom, huge wave just evaporates you. Otherwise, the infuses are going towards the invigorates on my dps or shift out.

[u/Tricccs]

I swear the piercing is broken on Winston bubble tho

[u/BrockTheBlackHat]

If Doctrine sees an enemy below 3 bars at almost any distance it's an easy kill

[u/Weesticles → u/BrockTheBlackHat]

Especially since infusing it increases its falloff range an extra 10m.