They’re simple on the surface. It’s another case of a perceived low skill floor but a high skill ceiling. Very much similar to things like Moira, Mercy, Brig, Doomfist, Bastion, etc.
i play a lot of tank, i know how hard it can be to manage. a high skill ceiling doesn’t mean fun. a very mechanical hero can still be very boring.
Its not they’re too hard, its because they suck from all the nerfs they’ve gotten, and its not fun to play a punching bag that cant fight back
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No. IMO, some of them are simply too passive for the level of power they bring to the table.
The big problem-tank right now is Rein. He’s powerful enough that if someone doesn’t pick him, your team is essentially throwing unless the other team also doesn’t have a Rein.
Rein is also the most passive tank in the game. Second only to Orisa.
Many tank players only play tank for the shorter queue, and refuse to play anything but the meta hero of the moment since they don’t want to put up with the stress of maining a non-meta hero of a role they don’t actually want to play.
When faced with “Rein or throw”, they’ll elect to just sit in the dps queue or go for a support slot instead because Rein is just so boring.
Non-active tanks like Rein should not bring as much power to the table as he does. Reins regularlyblock 20k+ damage in QP, and in comp can block upwards of 40-60k damage over the course of the game.
This is ridiculous. Sigma and Orisa can’t even begin to touch those numbers since their nerfs, and even their nerfed numbers are untouchable by best D.Vas, Hogs, and Balls in the game.
Barriers are too powerful for what they require. Rein’s barrier is definitely way too powerful, and Sigma’s and Orisa’s might very well still be too powerful (no way to tell that until Rein gets nerfed/adjusted though).
No. Tanks are NOT too hard. If anything, the barrier tanks are way too easy for the benefits they provide.
Tanks aren’t exactly hard…
It’s just that people don’t know how to play them properly.
That’s how most of my tanks in my matches are anyway. Either they RAMBO all the way with complete disregards to their teammates or they play like a sniper character.
Too hard? On the contrary, Rein and Zarya offer a huge amount of value for very little effort.
Tanks aren’t too difficult to grasp. The issue is that DPS players almost never actually play correctly and seem to default to standard FPS instinct rather than playing with the team.
Tanks can’t really make value, only act as a multiplier for it. You can stand there trying to nudge your DPS as much as you want, but you’re relying on them actually using what you give.
It get really noticable if you play Orisa or Sigma a lot. People never use your shields.
No, they have simple mechanics and play at a much slower pace. However, they’re weighted down by responsibility and very few players have the mental fortitude to carry it.
And that was before they got neutered.
Now they’re just bad, reduced to walking ult batteries for everyone to shoot at.
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Mechanically no apart from hammond.
They are difficult because of decision making. For example winston can either carry or feed nonstop.
As for why not a lot of tank players:
It’s not fun to get your heroes to get nerfed 20 times.
It’s not particularly fun to play a game in your free time only to go and have responsibilities. I can’t play more than 3 games on tanks before tilting hard.
I wish they could just dump a ton of tanks into the game (and I am hoping 3 of the possibly 5-6 OW2 heroes will be Off/Main tanks)!
The thing that worries me however is that they haven’t had a ton of success with alternate tanking methods, yet. People still hate Wrecking Ball and they are afraid to step outside if a burly man isn’t carrying a wall in front of them.
For OP’s topic of whether “Tanks being too hard keeps them from being popular” – I think the answer is No. They just want more variety; the devs need to improve past tanks and introduce new types of tanks that mixes things up a lot to pull in new players.
Some of my favorite mechanics belong to tanks (DVA’s two forms, Hook, WB’s agency and freedom, Clutch Zarya plays, Diving backline as Winston) – everything just slows down however when I realize that my team can’t exist if I don’t correct Blizzard’s map design and act as a bullet sponge for everyone until they seize the objective.
Variety is good for any role! We need different tanks that accomplishes their goals in their own unique ways. As long as the community and devs keep trivializing tanks that don’t match “the Image” of what a Tank is, people will avoid the role (except the ones still in it).
DPS gets people that love Doomfist, Mei, Ashe, Widow, Symmetra – everyone’s favorite type of playstyle is in that roster! Supports even get some variety though I feel that they’ve been slowly getting their individual strengths chipped away in favor of more healing. (Really hope that reverses - more DIscord is a start!)
Tank has “This Option” and then all of the other options that seemingly can’t work without the first one stapled to them.
Creating more tanks that are different and making them feel effective will help make this role popular!
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And the fact that most of us bought a FPS where we all want to shoot and kill something. Tanks and supports are not made for that
Every 30 seconds you have to say into the mic “somebody save me guys!” Who wouldn’t want to sign up for that?