Similar to other folks, I dislike playing a tank because I become wholly reliant on my team actually working… as a team. In QM as a tank, it’s entirely possible to end up without a healer to keep you going or as a team of tanks and bruisers with no dedicated damage dealer.
A tank also tends to receive a lot of blame when things go wrong; if Illidan dives the healer and your 3 damage dealers totally ignore him, it is somehow your fault for not burning all 3 of your abilities and your ult to shut down that one character who was well out of your reach. Or, if you DID burn all of your abilities to do it, your team gets rolled by the rest of the enemy team because you stopped disrupting them; again, absolutely your fault.
Tanks also tend to not be fun. A lot of tanks are just a variation on “Here are your two CC skills, and here is your self-sustain skill. Go get wrecked.” Newer ones like Mei shake things up a bit, thankfully.
Lastly, why play a tank when I can play a bruiser with almost the same function? I can do pitiful knockbacks, a sad stun, and an occasional good ult as ETC… ooooorrrr I can roll Leoric with a fatal AOE slow, massive self-heals, reliable damage against all targets, and two interesting ults to pick from.
Well, you are heavily reliant on the team following you in. It is also often hard to make game winning plays. You often feel like you are just tickling the enemy. I also find a lot of the kits to be a bit bland.
Muradin has lots of utility, but he just looks so bland. Etc has great qualities, but just looking at the character screams blandness to me. I don-t know why. Stitches is kind of boring. Tyrael is incredibly versatile but also way too squishy for a tank. Mei has potential but I’m waiting til she cools off(pun unintended) for me to try her. Anubarak is weaker nowadays. Joanna is powerful, but slow and short ranged. I just find her dull. And garrosh is strong but he is cheap and I don’t lile his playstyle.
I like Diablo(despite being simplistic,I like his kit) and I like Chen.
I also play healers 50% of the time, and I feel similar to tanks in that you are heavily dependent on the other players being competent…This affects my desire to play tank when I don’t go healer.
I’d say it’s more like: heavily reliant on the team waiting for you to engage. I need to improve on my timing, but on the other hand if we are two levels or 10/20 down on objective #1 or #2 of 3 (e.g., Cursed Hollow) or something like that, then I want my team to let the opponent take it and soak and take camps instead. But no. They all run it in whether or not I’m there. Leroy Jenkins can go to hell.
As a dps I can basically win a teamfight through my own plays. I can often 1v2 and compensate for someone dying.
As a tank, you have less kill potential. You can SET UP a great teamfight or a kill, but if your teammates are sea cucumbers - they’ll waste it and you’ll lose.
As a healer - even more so. Most healers will be completely helpless if the team are idiots.
That’s not to say you can’t be a playmaker and solo carry as a heal or a tank. But usually that means a relatively large skill gap with your opponents. I think that on a same skill level you can’t carry as a tank if your team is worthless.
But as a damage dealer this gap requirement is much smaller.
Only when your team can follow up. When they can’t - I honestly feel utterly helpless as a support role. I can cc all day - if my team doesn’t kill and instead dies all the time - I can hardly do much. An odd kill here and there.
As a dps, I always feel that I can make a difference.
That, for me, is the reason I dislike playing tanks and absolutely LOATHE playing healers.
I have no problem tanking or healing.
Or tanking and healing at the same time as Uther.
But I think a lot of people are bad as tanks.
They “initiate” by diving into the enemy team, right when their assassin is being dove on by Zeratul, or with allies who don’t have mobility and can’t get in range to help until you’re dead.
Often it’s not that allies didn’t follow up (though some people do seem to have super sluggish reflexes and an inability to change targets), but that they couldn’t safely follow up.
No matter the class you should know the capabilities and positioning of your allies, and need to spend entirely too much effort reading their mentality and figuring out their tendencies as individuals.
I don’t dislike tanking in HotS. It’s such a diverse and nuanced role. It’s difficult to put metrics on it. A good damage or healer will have big numbers with few deaths, but for tanks, it’s much more difficult to pin down. You just feel when a tank is good, but the numbers might not show anything in that regard. I like that. Clutch plays don’t have a number.
That said, the lackluster pve and macro capabilities do annoy me from time to time. When the team tries to constantly fight and neglect lanes, there is almost nothing a tank can do for a quick soak.
Because its easier to que as a assassin and just gaurntee kills yourself than it is to rely on other assassins as a tank that can’t do anything by yourself. Healers don’t get blamed for anything as long as they can heal and don’t die.
Some of the most satisfying HotS moment for me were when I land a great Mosh, and our assassins needed a fraction of the total stun duration for them to wipe the entire enemy team. I didn’t do any damage, but I felt like a quarterback who just made an incredible throw that led to a touchdown.
On the other hand, the most frustrating moments come from similar situations, except that our potato assassins stand there and auto attack, or chase a tank that poses no threat.
Tanking requires patience and learning how to control a fight. You need to know how to engage and how to peel and the difference between the two. Tanking relies heavily on follow up and if your team cannot follow up, you need to reassess. Yes, there are bad DPSes, but that can somewhat be negated if you change up your tank-style to best fit your comp vs. their comp. (E.g. - Switching from Engage-mode to Peel-mode.)
I see why people would dislike tanking, beyond “I deal no DPS.”
It feels interactive and impactful. Yeah, Mei is a bit busted right now because she can inflict almost every single version of CC in the game and even has psuedo-stasis for “unstoppable” foes, but at least she’s fun to use with a very mobile and controlling kit; she can keep enemies locked down long enough that even the most brain-dead or cowardly allies can easily follow up with her.
That’s kind of funny. My experience with tanking is the opposite. I see things going badly and I’m disengaging and watching for every opportunity to peel and shield my team in the process of herding them out but nope! They’re stubbornly going down with that ship. And then streaming back in 1 by 1 while I’m pleading with them to give the enemy this one, just soak, we’ll take next, etc.
