Overwatch is finally getting around to fixing Doomfist

Heroes never die, but the same can’t be said for their villains. Five months after release, Overwatch’s biggest and baddest antagonist isn’t exactly high on the list of anyone’s picks when a match starts. A shame, but an understandable one at that. On the surface, Doomfist is designed to be a close-quarters fighter thanks to a selection of punch-heavy offense and little in terms of defense.

Successful Doomfist players know that the key to victory lies in closing the gap between any and all opposition. A feat which has become more and more difficult as of late and pretty much non-existent in competitive circles. The primary problem? Doomfist’s pool of health is a mere 250compared to some of the other heavy characters in Overwatch, his cooldown between special moves leaves him open to vicious counterattacks and sacrificing range for damage doesn’t always guarantee a quick kill.

Problems that Blizzard are looking to nerf as they begin tweaking the punchtastic villain. “I wanted to give you guys a quick update on some Doomfist issues we’ve been working on,” principal designer Geoff Goodman wrote in a blog post.

We’ve just updated the PTR today with many bug fixes, and even since then we’ve fixed a few more. We also have heard your feedback that you’d like to see more details about bug fixes in our patch notes, instead of just tuning changes and features. We’re going to work on this, so starting next patch there will be more detailed information on this kind of stuff. Thanks for all the feedback and keep it coming, especially if you get a chance to play on the PTR and test out these changes.

Here is a summary of where we are right now with Doomfist issues specifically:

Things that are fixed

• Wall slamming should be much improved. The wall slamming logic has also been simplified so players should find that a 45 degree impact angle is the cutoff between the target being slammed into the wall, or sliding off. This is the biggest change that should be noticeable instantly.
• Rocket Punch now breaks breakables again. Not only was the bug fixed that caused it to no longer break breakables, but the system we have in place now should break them much more consistently than before.
• Seismic Slam being canceled when landing too close to a wall should be fixed.
• Seismic Slam will now ‘slide’ a small ways up ramps instead of instantly triggering. Winston’s leap has also changed in the same way. The slide distance is manually tuned so let us know if it seems like he is sliding up ramps too much or too little.

Things we’re still working on

• Seismic Slam has a bug when you or your target is near a corner, it will sometimes not find them as a valid target. We have identified this bug but it is going to take a little longer to get a fix in place.
• Ghost punches. This is an issue where you Rocket Punch and go through an enemy, instead of impact them. Some of these reports are latency related, but we did find an issue that was causing this to come up beyond just typical networking issues. Hopefully we’ll get in a fix in soon.
• Corner bounce. This happens if you use Rocket Punch near a corner or edge, and it causes you to ‘bounce’ off and slide quite a ways away, probably messing up your punch. This is a recent bug caused by a seemingly unrelated change. We have identified why this can happen though, and are working on a fix for it.

Things we’re still investigating

• Rocket punch vs. Rocket Punch/Charge. We get reports that it can feel really ‘random’ what happens when 2 Doomfists using Rocket Punch hit each other, or a Reinhardt using charge hits a Doomfist that is Rocket Punching. We’re still gathering data and information on this one, and hope to be able to improve the consistency of situation. The intended result is that both players should fall over, much in the same way that two Reinhardts charging into each other knocks both of them down.
• Aerial Seismic Slam sometimes causing Grounded Seismic Slam. We’ve gotten reports of people being up in the air and using Seismic Slam sometimes triggering the ‘Grounded’ version instead of the ‘Aerial’ version. This one seems really rare so its pretty hard to track down, but we’re looking into it.

Doomfist isn’t exactly easy to master in Overwatch. Contrary to popular belief, bringing a gigantic mechanised fist to a gunfight isn’t a smart move. Blizzard usually has a knack for improving their roster in Overwatch (Unless you’re playing as Genji), so it should only be a matter of time until they nail the perfect mix of action and strategy for Doomfist, creating the One-Punch Man that the game deserves.

Last Updated: December 1, 2017