u/CheriOW

I see a lot of people confusing Domina for a poke tank. How could they not, honestly? I mean, I did. Blizzard themselves said that was what they designed her to be! Unfortunately, Blizzard is not infallible, especially when it comes to their tank designs, like how they thought Ball would be an off tank. But I'm here to tell you: Domina is a brawl tank. She's not the throw pick people imagine her to be, you're just playing her wrong.

First of all, this isn't 2018. Brawl doesn't mean Reinhardt. Her primary fire is in line with what a lot of modern brawl tanks would have. Characters like Mauga and Ram have primary fires that's good in the neutral game. Range and neutral poke tools don't disqualify you.

Next, her shield. It's a stationary deployable ground targeted shield, which is most similar to, specifically, Ram shield. That's it. This part won't be long, just think of it like Ram shield.

Her push is a fully melee range ability. If it did full damage and stunned just pushing enemies away, sure, I might be inclined to agree it's a peel and disengage tool for a poke tank, but it isn't. You have to push enemies into something. The way I've found most successful using this ability is to just walk at someone, fight with them, and stun them either if you start winning (for kill pressure) or losing (for disengage or to buy time for your team to heal you).

Next, where it gets a bit difficult, her crystal. An infinite range aoe dot ability with a delayed explosion which even slows with major perk. Now, you can use that to control a choke, for sure. But between the travel time and the delay on the explosion, throwing it from far away gives enemies times to just push through or back off. Even if it does a little damage, you likely won't get the explosion on anyone. It's similar to a Ram E. Throwing it on top of yourself/at the floor while fighting someone, or into a wall and then pushing someone into it to stun them, does a lot more damage and has a much higher chance to get the explosion value off.

Her ult has a very similar problem to crystal. It's slow moving and easy to counter. Just walking at enemies so they have no reaction time will help it a lot. You can also use it defensively between the healing from its damage and the enemies not being able to shoot you through it. I like to use it on enemy tanks a lot more now that they buffed the shield health.

Finally, her passive. Abilities deal damage, you heal. It's like a less reliable JQ passive. The more enemies you're hitting with your abilities - which means, the closer range you play - the more healing it will do.

I'm just a masters player, so don't even take my word for it! Take it from top Korean and NA pro teams who played it in a Kiri Lucio rush comp at the recent midseason championship. I used to think she was a poke tank and really did suck at her, and I was taking the range and (now removed) push perks. Now, I take the heal on shield usage minor perk, and the slow on crystal detonation major perk. It's been my most played this season in ranked and one of my highest winrates. I really enjoy this character and her design, and hope even one person reading this also enjoys her and feels capable of playing her better now. Think of her abilities as similar to something like a mix of Ram and JQ. You're not a poke tank, you're not a disengage tank, you're not Sigma... you're a brawl tank that also has a good neutral.

I see a lot of people confusing Domina for a poke tank. How could they not, honestly? I mean, I did. Blizzard themselves said that was what they designed her to be! Unfortunately, Blizzard is not infallible, especially when it comes to their tank designs, like how they thought Ball would be an off tank. But I'm here to tell you: Domina is a brawl tank. She's not the throw pick people imagine her to be, you're just playing her wrong.

First of all, this isn't 2018. Brawl doesn't mean Reinhardt. Her primary fire is in line with what a lot of modern brawl tanks would have. Characters like Mauga and Ram have primary fires that's good in the neutral game. Range and neutral poke tools don't disqualify you.

Next, her shield. It's a stationary deployable ground targeted shield, which is most similar to, specifically, Ram shield. That's it. This part won't be long, just think of it like Ram shield.

Her push is a fully melee range ability. If it did full damage and stunned just pushing enemies away, sure, I might be inclined to agree it's a peel and disengage tool for a poke tank, but it isn't. You have to push enemies into something. The way I've found most successful using this ability is to just walk at someone, fight with them, and stun them either if you start winning (for kill pressure) or losing (for disengage or to buy time for your team to heal you).

Next, where it gets a bit difficult, her crystal. An infinite range aoe dot ability with a delayed explosion which even slows with major perk. Now, you can use that to control a choke, for sure. But between the travel time and the delay on the explosion, throwing it from far away gives enemies times to just push through or back off. Even if it does a little damage, you likely won't get the explosion on anyone. It's similar to a Ram E. Throwing it on top of yourself/at the floor while fighting someone, or into a wall and then pushing someone into it to stun them, does a lot more damage and has a much higher chance to get the explosion value off.

Her ult has a very similar problem to crystal. It's slow moving and easy to counter. Just walking at enemies so they have no reaction time will help it a lot. You can also use it defensively between the healing from its damage and the enemies not being able to shoot you through it. I like to use it on enemy tanks a lot more now that they buffed the shield health.

Finally, her passive. Abilities deal damage, you heal. It's like a less reliable JQ passive. The more enemies you're hitting with your abilities - which means, the closer range you play - the more healing it will do.

I'm just a masters player, so don't even take my word for it! Take it from top Korean and NA pro teams who played it in a Kiri Lucio rush comp at the recent midseason championship. I used to think she was a poke tank and really did suck at her, and I was taking the range and (now removed) push perks. Now, I take the heal on shield usage minor perk, and the slow on crystal detonation major perk. It's been my most played this season in ranked and one of my highest winrates. I really enjoy this character and her design, and hope even one person reading this also enjoys her and feels capable of playing her better now. Think of her abilities as similar to something like a mix of Ram and JQ. You're not a poke tank, you're not a disengage tank, you're not Sigma... you're a brawl tank that also has a good neutral.

Pretty much as the title says, I've seen a lot of people parroting the idea that Dmon is a one size fits all best in slot tank that's going to rival release Mauga in strength and take over every tank's niche, primarily Rein and Dva's. While I can't speak to the strength of it since we haven't gotten a playtest, I want to take a minute to explain to anyone saying this why I don't agree.

First of all, both the trailer and ability description graphic very clearly limit Dmon to horizontal boosters. This already kills any Dva comparison. The Initiator subrole, aka dive tanks, excel at abusing verticality. It's why even to this day, no matter the meta, you'll see pro teams run things like Winston on Dorado. An inability to clear or hold a high ground (without team assistance/prior setup to get there) is already a very large niche that a third of the tank roster can fill better than her.

Next, the Rein comparisons. Melee weapon, a shield, surely this is just Rein, right? Not really. Rein's shield is larger with double the health, which enables it to be used more as a rotation tool. Rein excels in being able to support a very specific kind of brawl that tries to get on top of you and wins almost without contest if it can. It's why you see it set up with picks like Mei or Sym to alter map geometry, and aoe intensive healers like Baptiste or Lucio, as well as Lucio's speed. Dmon doesn't allow for this. Her sword swings do lower damage, her shield is smaller and wards off less damage. If anything, I think her niche will be closer to Ram's than it is to Rein's, especially if the numbers I saw on the minigun - 4 second max duration with a 6 second cooldown - are true.

Next, the demech/remech thing. Part of the strength of Dva's mech mechanic is that bomb can be used to instantly recharge it, effectively meaning it's a near guaranteed second life. Dmon's only way to instantly charge remech is Mercy rez. It's not a get out of jail free card, it's a very contingent second chance.

I think Dmon is, in a way, the tank version of Shion, and hear me out on that. Shion was created to be able to fulfill a specific team comp niche - that of Tracer or Reaper's - without stepping on their toes, design-wise, or overshooting and adding some crazy new mechanics that are unlike anything we've ever seen. I think the cool parts of her kit - Surging Strike and a dedicated horizontal movement ability - are being overshadowed by unfair and presumptive comparisons made more off visual association than anything else.