Overwatch Workshop mode demos potential Doomfist nerf

Doomfist is by no means a new Overwatch hero anymore, but he’s constantly one of the most complained-about characters and a new Workshop mode aims to make him a little less frustrating to go up against.

Most of the complaints about Doomfist come from players not playing Doomfist, who are frustrated with how easily he can take any non-tank hero in a one-on-one matchup in most scenarios.

The reason for the Doomfist hate comes mostly from his Rocket Punch ability, which deals 100 damage at full charge, and another 150 damage if your target hits a wall after being punched – which is enough to eliminate any non-tank Overwatch hero.

Doomfist burst into the meta along with the 2-2-2 update due to his ability to deal large amounts of damage and cause chaos in the enemy backline.

This has also led to him seeing more playtime in the Overwatch League 2019 playoffs, which include the new 2-2-2 Role Lock system.

“What we got instead was a massive variety of damage heroes—from Doomfist to Tracer,” Overwatch League caster Wolf “Wolf” Schröder wrote about the new meta. “Doomfist battles are fun to watch, and Sigma-Orisa synergy feels satisfying to see in pro play.”

What could be done to make Doomfist less of a pain to face?

Reddit user VectorGambiteer brought up the idea of nerfing Rocket Punch to make it deal less wall damage based on how far away the punch happens from a wall.

“One nerf for Rocket Punch I’d be interested in seeing tested is for the wall impact damage to be reduced the further you are away from the wall when you get hit,” Vector explained. “Let’s say punch moves you 10m (think it’s slightly more after the knockback changes). You could reduce the damage of wall impact so it’s something like:”

Vector admits these numbers could be changed as it’s just an idea at this point, but they did make a Workshop mode so they and other players could test out the changes.

“The basic idea is that this will get rid of most BS one-shots, like being punched into a distant wall when you’re behind your Rein barrier,” they said. “But it doesn’t change his mobility, and his 1v1 potential is still massive because of his primary fire and other abilities.”

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This does seem like it would be a reasonable change; it would keep Doomfist as a powerful DPS threat, but get rid of his ability to one-shot and instantly tilt anyone who’s not a tank.

For players who want to try out Vector’s proposed changes to Doomfist, they made a Workshop mode with the changes. The Workshop code is: K2WHK.

What other changes are coming to Overwatch?

With a new hero, Sigma, and a new meta shaping up, Overwatch developers have confirmed that they’ll be making more hero balance changes, with Symmetra and Zarya as the next up to get worked on.

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We still don’t know when the Symmetra and Zarya changes will be coming to the PTR, whether it’s “Blizzard soon” or actually coming up, but with the Overwatch League offseason coming right up, now does seem like the right time to change or revert how some heroes operate.

Overwatch is also coming to the Nintendo Switch on October 15, so it will be interesting to see what changes are made before then.

Given there’s only about a month to go at the time of writing before Overwatch comes to the Switch, Doomfist mains will probably be one-punching away in the latest version as well, at least for a while.