I think that Doom Blow as written with the original 2.0 intent was great. In the original database there were like 8 out of 400 cards that had any kind of defense against curse. That being said, as ARC has always stated, we should trust our plot teams. If the current plot team for your game has decided that skills will not be useful and you should only be utilizing static damage to kill enemies, then that is the game you are paying for. It is definitely a 1.3 mentality, and hopefully they are giving you neat LCO abilities and items to make up for all the other 1.3 pieces that were removed which helped to deal with those kinds of problems. I have Doom blow on a fighter card, every time I have used it in Crossroads it has landed and worked. Every time I have used it in any other game it has been defensed. Some legit, some questionable. It honestly comes down to the cards your team is writing. I can 100% say that the intent of 2.0 was more NPC lives, less NPC immunities and defenses, but while the owners might have originally been on board for that, most plot teams were not. In addition, all skills are going to be weaker when facing NPCs built on PC stats. If anything, 2.0 has increased natural PC defensives while removing most rampant itemization. I would still say trust your plot team, but the fix really needs to start at a local level instead of looking for a national change to fix a local statting issue. Give your teams feedback.