Doomfist Synergies and Matchups

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Role in the Current Meta
  • 2. Doomfist Synergies
  • 3. Doomfist Counters
  • 4. Doomfist Is Strong Against
  • 5. Doomfist TL;DR Tips
  • 6. Reading Further for Doomfist
  • 7. Changelog
• +Abilities and Strategy
  • 1. Doomfist TL;DR Tips
  • 2. General Playstyle
  • 3. The Best Defense...
  • 4. Hand Cannon
  • 5. Rocket Punch
  • 6. Rising Uppercut
  • 7. Seismic Slam
  • 8. Meteor Strike
  • 9. Combos for Doomfist
    • 9.1. Damage Combo
    • 9.2. Mobility Combo
      • 9.2.1. Rising Uppercut and Rocket Punch
      • 9.2.2. Rising Uppercut and Seismic Slam
      • 9.2.3. Rocket Punch and Seismic Slam
      • 9.2.4. All Basic Abilities
      • 9.2.5. Using Your Ultimate in a Combo
• ×Synergies and Matchups
  • 1. Synergies
    • 1.1. Zarya
    • 1.2. Ana
    • 1.3. Winston
    • 1.4. D.Va
  • 2. Counters
    • 2.1. Soldier: 76
    • 2.2. Pharah
    • 2.3. Sombra
    • 2.4. Orisa
  • 3. Strong Against
    • 3.1. Genji
    • 3.2. Reinhardt
    • 3.3. Ana

On this page, we list the good and bad matchups for Doomfist. More specifically, we list the heroes that Doomfist synergizes well with, the heroes that counter Doomfist, and those that Doomfist is strong against.

The other pages of our Doomfist guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

Zarya and Doomfist work incredibly well together in a similar way to Zarya and any other dive-centred hero. With her Projected Barrier, Doomfist can extend into the enemy team without fear of being caught out and killed quickly. In an attempt to stop Doomfist picking off targets, the enemy team might be forced to grant Zarya charge by destroying her barrier, which is hugely beneficial to your team.

When playing with Zarya, make sure you communicate with them to ensure that their barrier is ready to be used. Without knowing this, you might dive into the enemy team and be caught out and killed off before they can save you.

You can also combo your ultimates by diving into the centre of Graviton Surge and dealing a huge amount of damage to the heroes caught in it.

Ana's abilities as a ranged healer synergise perfectly with Doomfist, allowing him to receive support while diving the enemy backline and picking off targets. Despite Zenyatta also being able to heal Doomfist while he dives, Ana has a far higher output of healing at a distance and, with the addition of her Biotic Grenade, she can ensure targets are unable to be saved.

It is worth making sure that, when diving the backline, there are no "blocks" for Ana's shots in the way. It can be a big issue if there is a D.Va or Reinhardt between the two of you, since she will not be able to heal you through their defensive abilities.

Doomfist and Winston come together to make an incredibly potent dive pair; with both using abilities that launch them at enemies, they can single out and finish off enemies swiftly and, most importantly with the addition of Winston, safely. With his Barrier Projector available, he can protect Doomfist when he dives into the backline, as well as stop any burst healing coming in from an enemy Ana.

Make sure to coordinate with your Winston so that you both dive onto the same target. Splitting your focus can be deadly for both of you and end up with one of you getting caught out and picked off before a kill can be secured.

The combo with Winston is very similar to playing with D.Va, so it is worth reading both sections. The only piece of information that needs to be added when you have a D.Va on your team is that she has a mobile protection ability rather than a stationary one. This allows for you to chase an enemy further before needing to retreat. Communicate with D.Va so that you know when her Defense Matrix is about to drop. You need to allow enough charge on it to retreat as well, otherwise you will get picked off when it drops.

When coming up against any mid-range, mobile hero, Doomfist is going to struggle, but Soldier deserves a special mention. With the potential of his Helix Rockets, Sprint and consistent damage, he can become a huge problem for Doomfist.

When facing him in a one-on-one situation, you have to make a decision of whether the fight will work for you or not. If Soldier already has the high ground and you have no way to quickly close the gap, you need to retreat. Trying to run up to him will almost always result in you being killed before you can even touch him and, when you do eventually get there, he can simply Sprint away from you.

In a teamfight scenario, things become slightly better for Doomfist, mainly since you are no longer the sole focus of Soldier's damage. He is unlikely to be your main priority, but it is worth trying to focus him down if he is harassing your Pharah or backline too much. In general, it is better to focus on other enemies and allow your D.Va to jump onto Soldier.

Pharah is, unfortunately, an example of an unkillable hero for Doomfist in almost every single scenario. With her ability to stay airborne almost constantly, it means she will be in the perfect position to harass you while staying far out of your range. In practically every battle, your best bet is to simply try to retreat or hide until she has been eliminated by your team's hitscan. If she starts to float down or her boosters are out of power, you can try to poke her for some damage with your primary fire.

If you are caught in a one-on-one situation, your only real chance of killing Pharah is trying to use your Rising Uppercut, followed by a Rocket Punch to try and catch her.

Just as with heroes like Tracer, Doomfist relies heavily on fast paced sequencing of his abilities for mobility. By locking him down with her Hack, Doomfist can very quickly find himself stranded in the middle of an enemy team with no abilities to get away.

In a one-on-one scenario, Doomfist should be able to interrupt the Hack from Sombra and ensure that, with a quick combo of his abilities, she is dealt with fairly easily. This becomes far more difficult in a team scenario, especially when Sombra is more difficult to keep track of. You are unlikely to know where she is and, given this, you are less likely to be able to hit her to interrupt her Hack with your primary fire.

Your best chance of dealing with her is to keep track of her audio cues for when she steps out of stealth. If you are being hacked and are unable to stop it, try to use one of your mobility abilities to simply dash out of the fight before it lands. If the Hack goes off, you need to get behind cover as soon as possible - you will be unable to generate any shields and you will be a huge, slow moving target for any enemy fire.

When Doomfist fights enemies, he often relies on the ability to displace them and forcing them to reposition constantly. With her Fortify ability, Orisa essentially becomes an immovable object and reduces the amount of burst damage that Doomfist can inflict. This means that his combo becomes far less potent, especially if she can time Fortify properly.

In order to defeat Orisa, you need to ensure that you try and bait out her Fortify before attempting to combo her down. You will need to also try and dodge her Halt! since, once she slows you, her primary fire will deal huge amounts of damage to you.

Doomfist has enough health, especially when his shields are considered, to survive a burst combo from Genji and efficiently combo him. Your combo does enough damage to finish him off rapidly and it cannot be stopped by Deflect, but you need to make sure that he does not dodge it with his Swift Strike.

If your combo is on cooldown, you can use the mobility you have ready to kite Genji and keep poking him with your primary fire. You should be able to finish him off as soon as one of your abilities comes off cooldown.

One of the biggest issues that Reinhardt suffers from is his need for precise positioning to protect his team. When a hero has the ability to force Reinhardt out of position, it becomes a huge problem and Doomfist can do exactly that. His Barrier Field does not prevent the large majority of Doomfist's attacks, meaning that Doomfist can displace an enemy Reinhardt and allow for pushes straight through to the backline, completely ignoring the main anchor.

Make sure that you communicate timings properly and push into the enemy Reinhardt when your team is ready. You do not need to focus him down and kill him, you simply need to force him out of position before using your abilities to jump straight onto the backline with your team.

Ana is the perfect example of an immobile hero and Doomfist is a perfect example of a hero that capitalises on this immobility. As soon as Ana either misses or uses her Sleep Dart, she is an incredibly easy target to take down as Doomfist.

During teamfights, Ana is a huge priority for you to take down as Doomfist, since she puts out a huge amount of healing per second and, when left alone, can completely turn the tide of a fight. Dive onto her with your teammates as soon as possible and remove her from the fight, either by occupying her when she has another support healing her or simply killing her and moving to the next backline hero.

About our Author

Blainie is a Grand Master Support and Tank player, with a focus on analysis of gameplay and the meta surrounding Overwatch. He regularly streams his ranked games on Twitch, where he can answer any questions you may have about the game or guides.