The new Doomfist will definitely create an adjustment period for some previous Doomfist mains. Shifting his role from Damage to Tank in Overwatch 2, Talon’s head has had his abilities reworked in order to fit the new class. Here’s a guide on how his abilities work now, and how to play him as effectively as possible.
Weapon and Passive Abilities
Doomfist’s weapon and passives encourage the player to get in close to the enemy for maximum effectiveness. His unique passive will make up for the fact that he has the second lowest total health of the Tank Class (450hp, with Junker Queen just behind him at 425hp). While these will individually seem weak, they are improved with the rest of his kit explained later
Primary Weapon: Hand Cannon
Default Keybind: Left Mouse Button
Damage: 5 damage per projectile x 11 projectiles = 55 damage per shot (110 if all projectiles are critical hits).
Magazine Capacity: 4 shots
Reload Time: 0.5 seconds per shot (2 seconds total for all 4 shots).
Doomfist fires his Hand Cannon at a target.
Doomfist’s primary fire is a short-range shotgun integrated into his left hand. Projectiles have travel time, so you’ll need to lead your shots to maximize damage against a moving target. However, if used in tandem with his other abilities, you won’t need to account for travel time that much. Each shot is reloaded individually, over time, and automatically while not firing. The spread is also fairly wide, which is perfectly fine for Doomfist’s in-your-face playstyle. Just don’t expect to be out-sniping a Widowmaker, or even any medium-range Hero like Soldier: 76.
Passive: The Best Defense
Effect: Grants you overhealth when damaging enemies with your abilities.
Overhealth Granted: 30 per enemy hit (75 per enemy hit with Meteor Strike).
This is Doomfist’s primary survival tool. The amount of overhealth gained scales with the amount of enemies you hit. At base, Doomfist’s Rocket Punch and Seismic Slam will each give 30 overhealth per enemy hit. The maximum number of temporary health you can have with this passive is 150, granting Doomfist a potential 600hp total.
Passive: Tank Role
Effect: Reduces knockback received. Less Ultimate generated by healing and damage received.
New in Overwatch 2, every Hero gains a role-specific passive ability. This will allow Doomfist to stay on course while moving, as well as be less rewarding to the enemy while being damage. Although healers will generate less ultimate from healing you, this will be offset by the fact that, as a tank, you should be taking more damage than other characters over the course of a match.
Abilities
Doomfist’s abilities are the bread-and-butter of his kit. While other Heroes’ staples of their kits are their primary fire, Doomfist relies heavily on his abilities. This is made clear by the quick cooldown timers and synergistic qualities to these abilities. Here’s exactly what they do and how they synergize.
Seismic Slam
Default Keybind: Left Shift
Effect: Leap and smash the ground.
Damage: 50 damage
Cooldown: 7 seconds
Range: 15m leap (while looking straight ahead), 15m flat cone.
Doomfist is coming down with a Seismic Slam
Seismic Slam works very differently for Doomfist in Overwatch 2 compared to the previous installment. It’s shifted more from a damage tool to a combination of crowd control and mobility. While it no longer scales damage based on airtime, it can be used to leap into the air, much like Winston’s Jump Pack. It can now launch you up into the direction you are looking. The cone of damage is also much wider than before. What the game doesn’t tell you is that enemies damaged by Seismic Slam are slowed for a very brief moment. While it lasts for much less than a second, it may stifle the mobility of some Heroes who require that precise timing for their mobility, setting them up for a combo.
Power Block
Default Keybind: E
Effect: Protect yourself from frontal attacks.
Duration: 2 seconds
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Damage Resistance: 80%
Using Doomfist’s Power Block will reduce incoming damage. Take enough damage like this, and his next Rocket Punch will be more powerful.
This is Doomfist’s primary defensive tool in Overwatch 2. Replacing his Rising Uppercut from the previous game, it serves as a counter to heavy fire. As you take damage from in front of you, a meter on the right side of the screen will fill. The more damage you take, the more the meter fills. If the meter is filled, your next Rocket Punch will be empowered, as explained below. The damage resistance is extremely strong, able to withstand even a D.VA Ultimate. If you’ve hit enough enemies to gain a decent pool of overhealth, it’s possible to power up your Rocket Punch without losing a single point of health. The ability can also be cancelled early by firing the Hand Cannon, using another ability, or pressing the key again.
Rocket Punch
Default Keybind: Right Mouse Button
Effect: Hold to charge then release to launch forward and knock an enemy back. Damage increases if the enemy hits a wall.
Charge Duration: 1 second (can hold a full charge for another 0.75 seconds)
Cooldown: 4 seconds
Range: 20m lunge, 5-15m knockback on non-tanks
Punch Damage (minimum-maximum charge): 25-30 damage, 37.5-45 damage while empowered
Wall Damage (minimum-maximum charge): 20-40 damage, 30-60 damage while empowered
Hurl yourself towards an enemy with Doomfist’s Rocket Punch. Hitting them into an enemy will knock them back, and hitting them into a wall will cause more damage.
Doomfist’s signature ability has definitely seen better days, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be useful. Alongside Seismic Slam, Rocket Punch grants phenomenal mobility and crowd control. The hitbox is quite wide, and can hit multiple enemies at once. It’s Doomfist’s best displacement tool, allowing you to knock enemies way out of position and into the sights of your Damage teammates. Enemies that are knocked back can’t use their abilities for a split second. You can even cancel some focused abilities, such as Moira’s Coalescence. When empowered by Power Block, Rocket Punch deals 50% more damage, launches you further, charges faster, and stuns enemies that you hit into walls. Remember that you can use left click to cancel a punch while it’s charging. This is useful if you see no enemies to hit and you want to stay put.
Ultimate: Meteor Strike
Default Keybind: Q
Effect: Leap up into the air. Move the targeting circle, then press Primary Fire to strike the targeted area.
Damage at Epicenter: 300 damage
Damage outside Epicenter (close-far): 100-15 damage
Duration: 4 seconds
Leap into the air and target an area with a Meteor Strike. The closer enemies are to where Doomfist lands, the more damage they take.
Doomfist’s Ultimate ability works similarly to how it did in Overwatch 1. Jump into the air for a period of invulnerability, then land on opponents to damage them, dealing more damage to enemies closer to the center. Squishier enemies get one-shot if they’re caught in the center. There is a period of time where enemies can see the landing zone, as well as a slight delay between the second input and your actual landing. Due to this, use Meteor Strike to take out a backline character, land on an enemy that has little mobility or can’t move at all, or try to predict their movement. The Ultimate is also a fantastic repositioning tool, even if you don’t snag a kill with it. It can set you up behind enemy lines, ready to harass the healers and turn attention away from your teammates. Alternatively, its quick casting time makes it a great get-out-of-jail-free card, allowing you to instantly return to your team to regroup.
Playstyle
Doomfist is an excellent Dive Tank in Overwatch 2. His mobility is nearly unmatched, indirectly increasing his bulk by making him hard to hit. With his passive granting him temporary hit points, as well as his Power Block rewarding you for taking damage, Doomfist should be at the front lines of a fight. When playing him, you should be in the faces of your enemies, displacing them as much as possible. You can easily outlast a Healer or Damage character in one-on-one combat, giving you the kill. Alternatively, you can knock around the tanks and keep them from body-blocking the squishier enemies.
Of course, if you get the opportunity, don’t be afraid to go for some cheeky environmental kills. Just be sure to avoid throwing yourself of a cliff in the process.
Tips & Tech
Here is some advice to keep in mind while playing as Doomfist. Also here are some combos and inputs to maximize your effectiveness.
Target the Healers
Healers are more vulnerable than other characters, and often need good positioning to stay alive. Your Rocket Punch can send them flying towards your team, ready to shred them. Of course, it’s possible to take them out on your own if you separate both them and yourself from the enemy team.
Peel Out When Needed
Your mobility makes you difficult to pin down without crowd control abilities. Your low health also makes you a relatively vulnerable Tank, ironically. If you don’t find yourself in a favorable situation, don’t be afraid to use your abilities to escape rather than engage. Return to your team and heal up before reengaging.
Your abilities come back quickly. Don’t be afraid to use them defensively.
The Stun Combo
This is a very simple combo that can nearly guarantee you a kill on a squishy enemy. With an empowered Rocket Punch, knocking an enemy into a wall will stun them long enough for you to take them out with two headshots from your Hand Cannon, provided you’re close enough for most of the projectiles to land.
Movement tech
One special thing about Doomfist is that all of his abilities can be canceled. This is imperative to faking out your enemy, timing your attacks perfectly, and making you unpredictable. Most importantly, is that it leads to some tech as well:
- While in the air from Seismic Slam, you can immediately start charging a Rocket Punch.
- While in the animation for Seismic Slam, hold jump to bunny-hop a couple of times before slamming to get some extra distance on the leap.
- During the lunge of a Rocket Punch, jump to cancel the punch and maintain some momentum, especially off of a ledge or slope.
- Immediately after jumping during a rocket punch, look up at an angle and Seismic Slam for some serious distance.
In this Doomfist compilation by Overwatch streamer and YouTuber ZBRA, you can see ZBRA use precise ability cancellation to attack enemies on the high ground.
Hero Interactions
With the structural nature of Overwatch 2’s Heroes, Doomfist naturally has advantages over, disadvantages against, and synergies with other Heroes. Here’s a few suggestions for each of those categories so you know who to look out for when in a game.
Heroes Doomfist Is Great Against
- Ashe – She can charge your Power Block quickly, and she’s easy to chase down if she uses her Coach Gun.
- Baptiste – With your Rocket Punch, you can keep enemies out of his Immortality Field.
- D.VA – Her Defense Matrix can only block your Hand Cannon, and she can charge your Power Block quickly when she uses her Micro Missiles.
- Genji – His shurikens will easily net you a full charge on your Power Block. Predict where he’ll land when he’s jumping for an easy stun with a powered-up, undeflectable Rocket Punch.
- Mei – Since she no longer freezes without her Ultimate, Mei can be baited to use her Cryo Freeze, then punished for her lack of mobility. Your abilities’ movement won’t be impeded by her slow.
- Mercy – With few defensive options, her best choice is to fly back to her teammates, which is what Doomfist is built to prevent.
- Tracer – Save your rocket punch for when she Recalls. Predict where she was a second ago, and you’ll net yourself an easy kill with her low health.
- Widowmaker – One charged shot can power you up while Power Blocking, and you can chase her down easily if she tries to grapple away.
- Zenyatta – He has no mobility, and his high damage makes it easy to charge with Power Block.
Doomfist can quickly close the gap on Widowmaker to take her out.
Heroes Doomfist Struggles Against
- Echo – Her verticality makes her difficult to hit. Moreover, her sticky bombs can bypass your Power Block.
- Junkrat – If his bombs get behind you, they won’t charge your Power Block. With multiple mines, he can easily keep you away or outright kill you. His trap also limits your greatest tool: your mobility.
- Lucio – His passive healing and great mobility makes it hard to put in any permanent damage without help.
- Moira – Her damaging Biotic Orb can bypass your Power Block if it gets behind you. She will also quickly out-heal your damage if you aren’t perfect with your shots. Moreover, she can simply Fade away.
- Orisa – She can stun you out of your abilities with her Energy Javelin, and her Fortify will render your damage and crowd control potential a null factor.
- Pharah – While she’s in the air, she’s extremely difficult to hit. One direct hit can charge your Power Block, and if you manage to survive when she lands, you have a good chance of beating her.
- Reaper – Reaper likes to engage just as close as Doomfist does. He will out-damage and out-heal you, unless you fully charge a Power Block and stun-combo him.
- Roadhog – He simply has too much health, can outheal you, and Hook you out of your abilities. His Scrap Gun will vastly out-damage you, too.
- Sombra – Being so ability- and timing-dependent, Doomfist struggles greatly against a Sombra harassing him. One second of no abilities can be a death sentence for Doomfist.
There’s not much Doomfist can do to an airborne Pharah.
Heroes to Pair with Doomfist
- Ana – She can heal you from the back lines and negate the enemy’s healing that Doomfist struggles to overcome. Also, a Nano-Boosted Doomfist can dish out a surprising amount of damage.
- Genji – A fellow diving Hero, Genji can put in great damage on crowd-controlled enemies.
- Lucio – He’s able to keep up with you for healing and additional crowd control with his Soundwave.
- Reaper – Knock enemies closer to him, and he’ll shred them for you.
- Tracer – As you crowd control and distract the enemy, Tracer can be right in the fray with you to clean up
- Zenyatta – An Orb of Harmony on you will heal you from afar. An Orb of Discord on an enemy will help Doomfist make up for his fairly low damage output.
A Nano-Boosted Doomfist can cause havoc among the enemy team
Conclusion
There’s currently discourse in the Overwatch 2 community about Doomfist as a Tank. The general consensus is that he needs a buff, and Blizzard seems to agree with this. In a Developer Insight article they published, by Season Two, Doomfist should see some improvements to Power Block and Meteor Strike.
Regardless of Doomfist’s current state in the Overwatch 2 meta, it’s clear that he’s still able to put in work for a team. For people looking for an aggressive tanking playstyle, Doomfist is the hero for you. Get good with him now, and his upcoming buffs will make you feel unstoppable.
