Hi!
First things first: I´m FortyTwo, I´ve been playing HotS since Spring of 2017 and this is my first guide.
D.Va was one of my first heroes and has grown to be one of my all-time favourites. When I started playing her, I started cold and developed my own style of playing her. This guide illustrates my current preferred build based mainly on my own experiences playing her in both QMs and the Leagues.

Me choosing D.Va in matches regularly raises questions that I want to answer here, because you might get asked the same things:

Q: Why don´t you choose a real tank?
A: I play D.Va, I´m not the tank. We still need a tank.

Q: What is your purpose, if not tanking?
A: I´m going to fill holes wherever they appear.

This build is for situations where your team already has a tank, a healer and two assassins and still needs a fifth Hero. The role that D.Va fills with this build is closest to that of a solo lane bruiser, but not limited to that. As a player, you will be more effective the better your overview over the battlefield is. When your team has downtime, you´re effective soaking and pushing your lane. When your teammates are in peril or an all-out brawl commences, you can take quite a beating while delivering good sustained damage and crowd control. In brawl situations, you take the role of a second, more offensive tank.

First, a few words about your Basic Attacks. Your AAs are your fuel. Your volatile, explosive fuel for Self-Destruct as a Mech, and your life-saving fuel for Call Mech as a pilot. Shoot everything that has a red health bar.
Your AoE Mech AA is amazing at clearing waves of Minions and zerging down enemy front line heroes, and also charges Self-Destruct very well when positioned carefully. Your advantage is that the Mech can fire AAs constantly, even while moving. When clearing waves, select the Mage minion in the middle of the wave and position the Mech in a way that keeps as many minions in the AoE as possible. When fighting Heroes, try to utilize your mobility. Most enemies will need to stop to attack you. Remain a moving target to make their jobs harder.
As a pilot, your auto-attacks are half as fast as Tracers, dealing close to twice the damage (4/s x57 compared to 8/s x28). If a low-health enemy faces you in your weakened mech, let them take the Mech down and make them face the consequences immediately. But remember that you won´t be able to shoot while walking as a pilot any longer.


Boosters allow for great mobility and basic crowd control through their knockback. Use them for diving into and disrupting enemy formations to expose their back line or isolate enemies. With some practice, you´ll be able to judge when an enemy will die from a booster hit, too. When an enemy is trying to escape from you with very little HP remaining, they´ll end up as what I like to call a road kill.
Of course, the Boosters are also your escape, keep that in mind and watch their cooldown carefully.


Defense Matrix is a debuff for affected enemies that reduces their damage output.
As the name suggests, the first purpose is defensive: Use them when a teammate (or D.Va herself) is in danger of being killed by an enemy hero. Body-block and debuff the attacker to save a life. The second purpose is a psychological side-effect: Using the Matrix often makes opponent players think you´re afraid of them. More often than not, enemies will hit you more during Defense Matrix. When you need t top off your explosive charge in a brawl, pressing W will most certainly taunt an opponent into helping you with that...


...which leads us to Self-Destruct. When that fabulous pink bar is filled to the brim, press E for your ultimate crowd control ability (Yes: Think of this as your ultimate ability and treat it accordingly.)
The ensueing explosion will cause what D.Va is made for: Chaos and Distraction. Opponents will often seek the closest way out of the big circle of death, isolating them or driving them back or into your teams´ arms. Positioning the Mech is key: Use Boosters to send the Mech where you need it quickly. If you want the enemies to run away, place it between the teams, For splitting them, place it in their midst, and for forcing them into an engagement, send it behind their backs. Note that this ability is not designed mainly to kill your enemies, but to disrupt their strategies and formations. Its CC functionality comes before its damage output.


Speaking of damage: Big Shot is not your ultimate, but your tool for dealing damage while your Mech is down or busy exploding. It has a very short cooldown and does good damage, and it doesn´t cost any resources. Spam it. Use it for camps, clearing waves, bursting squishy opponents or finishing off wounded enemies. Someone who has little HP left and is running away from your Mech´s explosion radius will often overlook the AoE of Big Shot.
Don´t feel bad about shooting fleeing opponents in their backs. They´ve had it coming for underestimating you just because you´re pink.

1:

Rush-down makes your Mech just as mobile as any regular mount-user. You´ll be the first at the front line at the match start and remain mobile throughout the whole match. Switching lanes and rotating in to support your team will be easier with this talent. Timing and positioning is the key to my style of playing D.Va, and Rush-down gets you wherever you need to be in no-time.

4:

Bring It On makes it easier for you to explode quickly. Explosions are awesome. As I said, think of Self-Destruct as your Heroic Ability and treat it accordingly.

7:

Dazer Zone adds a slowing effect to your already efficient way of preventing enemies from harming you and your team. In chase situations, it can help your assassin colleagues closing in on retreating opponents, and when your team is retreating, it keeps enemies from chasing them efficiently.

10:

Big Shot makes your pilot even more dangerous than she already is. It is like adding a chainsaw to a bear. Or a flame thrower to a shark. It´s awesome. Look at chapter 2 for an explanation an when and how to use it.

13 + 16:
+
Expensive Plating and GG, WP are choices that are best explained in combination. Expensive Plating will let you soak more damage in your Mech form; the price paid (the longer cooldown on Call Mech is almost completely nullified by the next talent, GG, WP. The time between reaching level 13 and 16 is usually one of the shorter phases of matches, these talents are the two talents following closest after each other. That makes the price you pay for a stronger mech very low. In conclusion, this combination allows for an even more aggressive playstyle after reaching 16, making D.Va a fearsome dive bruiser in brawls.

20:

MEKAfall at level 20 eliminates one of the highest risks of playing D.Va. She is most vulnerable when she is at low health in pilot form and needs to call in a new Mech in order to survive. Up until 20, Call Mech has a short channeling period, during which she is very exposed to any enemy assassin. MEKAfall sorts this problem.
Also, killing someone by making the Mech land on their head is the best feeling you get when playing D.Va. Roadkills with Boosters take second place.