TL;DR: Solo Tanks are gonna be individually tougher, like “fat Damage dealers” (okay, that’s gonna help them be better at pushing / leading / engaging), but can we expected all of them to also be Protectors and/or Disruptors (as additional tasks) or is it just that (none of these additional task-expectations)?
I know it’s difficult to give feedback about it since we don’t play it, but from this old AndyB’s reply I could start comprehending what is the vision Devs have about the “tasks” of the role:
Calling attention to:
- Disruptive line breakers.
- Push-leading protectors.
And from the rest of it it’s understandable that they are keeping those tasks, but adding more agency to play either aggro or protective + making them tougher on an individual level, but a little less about group-providing defenses.
One thing not clear though is if Push-leading protectors are two different things or just one, cause Roadhog, the tank most quoted as balance reference to explain this new direction, is the most individually though tank (okay), but kind of isn’t the best at any of those tasks, which feels like he’s just a good character to push/lead, but not that good to protect or disrupt, very basic.
In my opinion, which is as much biased as anyone else’s opinion, I just wanted something like “We are going to make Tanks individually tougher, so they are good at leading-pushing, and keep them still good for protection and/or disruption”.
But people even have been discussing the perspective they have about Hog for years, cause he resembles a Damage character that has the differential of being fat and more durable. His hook is more of an insta-kill combo than disruptive to mess up with enemy line-structures (unless I’m wrong and people consider that disruptive enough, but if the player misses the hook oftenly he probably won’t be disruptive at all) and he doesn’t have mobility enough to fast take the enemy’s attention away frequently. So are they gonna make more significant changes to Hog or that’s it? He will be kept that way? Cause if so that explains tanks being just individually tough characters to push/lead, but with no expectations else, rather than they gotta be protective and/or disruptive on top of that.