Shields are almost synonymous with main tanks. And you NEED a main tank in your team. In a meta where Zarya, Hog or Dva are the best pairing, you know there’s a big problem with your game
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So much fn this.
Why is it so difficult to understand that the off-tanks are not weak overall. They’re only weak compared to barriers because barriers are and have been ridiculously OP since forever.
I really don’t understand this pointless argument. Think about it like this.
M for main tanks (with barriers for arguments’ sake)
O for off-tanks (without barriers (let’s leave zarya out for now)
If the value of M is 10, and the value of O is 5, then the idea that O is “strong” but M is just too strong is nonsense. Clearly O is “weak” in this context. Raising O to 10 would make just as much sense as lowering M to 5. Except it makes even more sense. Why? Because if 20 is the amount you need to comfortably deal with the damage levels in this game, and snipers, then you clearly can only run 2M=20. If you run 1M and 1O, then you get 15.
Nerfing M, say to 7.5, means 1M and 1O = 12.5. But 2M = 15. So Nerfing M only ends up making picking even 1O a massive disadvantage and again only 2M is playable. Let alone how unplayable 2O is. Now we’ve all established that offtanks other than Zarya are currently literally unplayable. So reducing M down to the same value as O only means making all tanks unplayable, unless followed by across the board nerfs to every single damage source.
The simpler answer is raising O to 10. So then 1M+1M=20, 1M+1O=20, 1O+1O=20. So really the road to fixing tank balance with the least changes to the least amount of heroes is abandoning all the balance philosophy ever since season 3 that sought to make choosing third or fourth off-tanks less powerful and less attractive an option than picking a DPS. With 2-2-2, we all knew the game would break if offtanks are not buffed to more or less abolishing the distinction with maintanks. We’re a year later, but that lesson I’m not 100% sure has actually been accepted yet. The D.Va buffs are a step in the right direction, but her main issue was survivability so I don’t think it’s going to resolve it.
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This is not a pointless argument at all.
You are aware that the tanks are not the only characters in the game?
You can’t just buff off tanks without considering how it effects the other roles. I want to remind you that there was a Meta with 3 tanks (two of them being off tanks) replacing all DPS.
Off tanks have always been in the meta until sigma came in, as a shield off tank.
There was a reason why Rein + Orisa was not viable. Because Off tanks provided better value. Hog being better with Orisa and Zarya being better with Rein.
Again, how would you like to buff hog for example to provide the same value as shield tanks? You simply can’t beside doing some crazy stuff.
Outdated thinking about protecting the other roles from being replaced by offtanks when it’s literally impossible for this meaningless concern to actually become an issue because of 2-2-2 is what killed the tank role.
Offtanks were always going to need to be as strong as main tanks for 2-2-2 to work. Offtanks were always going to be replaced by double main tank in 2-2-2 if they weren’t buffed to be equal to main tanks. The main proof that that’s exactly what happened? Sigma and Orisa being called offtanks now.
So Rein is “the” main tank, Orisa and Sigma with their shields are replacing offtanks with zarya’s bubble barriers being the only offtank that survived. And the “offtanks” that have been nerfed to the ground and not restored once it was impossible for them to threaten the DPS slots? They’re just not tanks anymore.
There is no solution to the tank problem that doesn’t end with offtanks as strong as main tanks. The game will continue to die till 2-2-2 rebalance is actually done as it was meant to be done and we all knew it would need to be done.
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I.e. A great way to increase queue times by 50%.
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I want to play sigma all the time
Incidentally I figured a way to buff anchor tank damage, without buffing anchor tank damage.
They already nerfed the tanks. Their shields and armor is weaker than it use to be.
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like u say, the barriers have got nerfed. that’s right. but at the same time, buffing of non-barrier tanks is also required.
I know the devs planned to buff D’va, but I think the patch should have run much earlier.
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Yes please!
Revert dva’s defense matrix nerfs,
Give something to hog, perhaps a damage resistance aura or revert one or two damage nerfs,
And maybe give hammy a team-oriented adaptive shield buff.
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No, nerf all dps, just nerf non-hitscan dps less.
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Barriers are too much free value. They’re just not balanced correctly for the utility they offer.
The problem with buffing all off tanks blindly. Is that they can win games. It’s harder and requires you to be that good on either the tanks or the healing to do it. But in those cases, making them strong would be devastating. Especially the lower you go in rank.
I had this QPC game yesterday. Both teams had no barrier tanks. We only had Ana as healing. They had two healers. We got through Volskya with Hog and Zarya. That little healing, compared to the enemy, was enough. Now buff them. You’d probably wouldn’t even care about the healer.
That’s just in QPC. Role Q forces two healers. Put the best healers with the best off tanks. This is mostly goats. It just change into that.
So you just admitted that it’s way harder to win on offtank than on double maintank. The fact that buffing them would make it easier is not an argument against, but for.
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They should fix it not blindly.
If I could only play Orisa and sigma I would be happy until I wanted to play ball.
…huh…
What if roadhog’s right click was replaced with a fat shield
I’ve often said that all Zarya needs is a revert to the energy storage and Grav radius changes.
hog’s fat shield is always been activated. it is a passive skill.
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We can all agree lmao
1 Like