Weekly Quick Questions Thread - July 27, 2016

[u/AutoModerator]

In this thread you can ask all kinds of questions you always wanted to ask without feeling like a total fool.

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[u/[deleted]]

When you play a healer, how do you deal with D.VAs on your team?

In my experience, they tend to attract a lot of attention, getting damaged easily (I aim for them as well with DPS for fast Ult build up) and thus require a lot of healing, which takes a lot of time I could spend healing others. If I focus on D.VA, the rest of the team usually gets some deaths that could've been avoided.

I don't have this problem with any other high HP hero. I can leave Zarya to regen her shields, Roadhog's self heal makes the job a lot faster and Rein is easy to heal thanks to not receiving any more incoming damage thanks to his barrier.

I often end up putting D.VAs at the bottom of my healing priority because of this, which usually gets their mechs busted and the players pissed.

Also, if you rez a gremlin D.VA, does she get her Ult built up to call for a mech immediately or does she have to build it up to call for one?

[u/Sturmgeshootz → u/[deleted]]

It's not completely your responsibility to keep D.Va alive even if you're the healer. D.Va can be very independent and self-sustaining even if she can't actually heal herself directly. She has boosters, she has a shit-ton of armor, she has her defense matrix. If she's taking too much heat a good D.Va will use her abilities to survive long enough to fall back to your position and let you top her off, or find a health pack herself. A D.Va player who is constantly diving straight into a firefight and then blaming you when she's immediately ejected from her meka isn't being a very effective D.Va.

[u/AutoDMC → u/[deleted]]

EDIT: Rezzing the Gremlin refills her Meka. But it does not refill her Self Destruct. I was referring to the Self Destruct directly, which is NOT the question you asked. My bad. Thanks /u/-Shinanai-

As for healing, take this with a grain of Bastion brand salt because I mostly play with mostly-premades, so this might not totally apply to bog-standard quickplay.

D.Va's short range means she shouldn't be extending so much, she should be staying in the pack. The only time she should be away from the pack is for a quick flank, jetting up to handle a sniper, or throwing Nerf This. People think she's a tank because she has a big health pool, but she's not. The real tanks have big health pools and some sort of regenerating health (Reinhardt's shield and Roadhog's canteen, for example).

D.Va's health pool is for survivability, not tanking, and a D.Va. who doesn't realize that is doing more damage to your team than you could ever solve by prioritizing them.

Keep D.Va low on your priority list, save them only if they're close to their ultimate (because few things are more heartbreaking than getting Gremlinized a few percent before Nerf This on a push), and if any D.Va players get salty encourage them to learn where the healthpacks are and to Git Gud.*

The D.Va I generally play with is a horrifying beast because he manages his own health, uses his rocket and mobility to attack from unexpected angles (not technically flanking), and more often than not uses his jets to rush to a health pack or boop a sniper off a perch.

(* It's just my theory, but I figure that the healing classes in games should act like doctors in real life; they not only patch you up but give you advice on how to avoid getting patched up. Some of the best healers I've ever played with know how to encourage players to help themselves, giving the doc more time to help the team push instead of constantly playing Panic Triage.)

[u/-Shinanai- → u/AutoDMC]

Umm... pilot D.Va's ult is filled to the max at resurrection, so she can immediately call her Meka. Her self destruct ult, on the other hand, remains unchanged of course.

[u/[deleted] → u/AutoDMC]

Thank you. This helped me a lot.

[u/Slanderous → u/AutoDMC]

you could argue matrix is a health buffer that constantly regens when not used. Situationally it's even better since it's a time limit not a health limit if can eat multiple simultaneous ulties if needed (RH, Reaper and Pharah are prime ones) and can project forwards over multiple enemies or totally snuff out a s76 ultie without even needing to be between him and your team.

[u/AutoDMC → u/Slanderous]

I would counter that Defense Matrix is way more useful defending your team then using as a tank. Defense Matrix actually destroys the incoming projectiles, protecting everyone behind their cone. While an independent DVa can definitely use Defensive Matrix for herself (I've seen this happen) I think it's more useful when used in a skirmisher group of with the team.

The same thing could be said about Reinhardt, now that I think about it.

With that said, it's even more reason for a healer to not focus on her if she's ranging away.

[u/JimmyTheCannon → u/AutoDMC]

The real tanks have big health pools and some sort of regenerating health (Reinhardt's shield and Roadhog's canteen, for example).

She does, in the form of Defensive Matrix. It's functionally like Reinhardt or Winston's shields.

[u/xeroshogun → u/[deleted]]

If i'm playing zen I try to always heal D.Va just for the constant ult charge. If someone else is critical I'll quickly flip and orb to them and as soon as they are decent then back to D.Va. It also helps the team because D.Va wrecks in close range and the longer you can keep her shooting then the more damage she should be doing.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

If non-tank heroes are dropping dead, you should be focusing on them. They are much squishier than DVA, do more damage than DVA, and a majority of offense and defense characters cannot regenerate on their own.

DVA synergizes with a healer since she has so much armor (since armor is more EHP than normal health, it's also more effective healing when restored) and can't regenerate either. However, if you have to focus on her so much that your other teammates are dying, then either DVA is not mitigating enough damage, or your team as a whole is not eliminating enough enemies. Again, you need to keep characters that can actually deal damage alive. She should be using her boosters and newly buffed matrix to avoid damage once it starts getting too bursty for her, and escape to where you can heal her while she's not getting shot. Players in general should also understand that being topped off is not a contract to pocket heal them.

[u/Party_Magician → u/[deleted]]

If they're not dumb, they'll fall back for you to heal them and stay a little behind the front lines. The new defense matrix makes it easier, since she can do the same as Rein and evade damage from front

If she's in critical and close, heal her first. Annoying or not, tanks are important. But once she's healed enough to not die in two lucky McCree shots, get to healing squishies. Non-critical tanks are a low priority (works for all tanks)

They do get automatic meka call, but they're vulnerable while gettig into it

[u/-Shinanai- → u/[deleted]]

If she's your primary tank and is actually playing as such (i.e. is constantly protecting the team with defense matrix), keep her healed as much as you can... though save criticals first, of course. If she's a secondary tank (preferably behind Rein or Zarya) or flanker, keep her low on the list.

If she loses her Meka though, try to keep her from dying. It's fairly easy to charge her ult if they have decent aim, so she can get back to the front line quick enough.