I want to learn to play Tank better but all I can really play is Winston and D.Va who, admittedly, aren’t too useful for protecting your team.
Can anyone help me in this regard? Reinhardt and Zayra in particular.
Rein and Zarya are two of the most involved tanks in terms of how much value you can potentially provide for your team.
There’s a lot to cover lol…
Any particular areas you’ve questions on? That’ll give us a good jumping off point. What areas are you currently struggling with? Be more specific than “Everything” lol
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There are things I didn’t used to notice before especially the Winston video which helped me a lot on Winston, didn’t link the winston once cause you didn’t ask for it but you can look for it in the channel if interested.
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i’d suggest heading over to the Tank Main thread? https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/tank-mains-pub-food-drink-spirits-megathread/
i have a post bookmarked at home where someone wrote the basics of every tank which seemed p. useful to me, i can try and dig it up when i get back!
For Reinhardt:
I don’t know where to be stood in relation to my team (aside from in front of them) and when is and isn’t a good time to put down my shield and help with damage.
For Zayra:
I have no idea what I’m doing. Should I be going in to soak up as much damage as I can? Should I just be poking? And how do I know who to shield and when?
It’s hard learning Tank from Support because you get into the habit of thinking “If someone dies and I could’ve helped them, it’s my fault.” even if you’re the only thing keeping someone else alive.
If you think I wouldn’t be too good as these two, anyone you might recommend? My profile is public if that helps. (The console one, I don’t use the PC one)
Great questions! There’s plenty we can talk about… so if one answer leads to more questions, don’t be afraid to ask.
First off:
So think of tanks as a cross between DPS and support. The “support” aspect comes from the protection/space you provide for your team, and the DPS, obviously from your ability to take people out fairly easily, so long as you’re supported.
As a main tank (whether you’re rein/orisa/winston), you and your main healer are the backbone of your team. Your two priorities are to push forward and create space (more on that in a sec) and to “peel” back, aka, protect your support. You mentioned feeling as if it’s your fault when someone dies, and that’s a great mindset that talented supports have. They know that 9 times out of 10, which ever team loses their main tank first, typically loses the entire fight.
With that in mind, always keep within line of sight of your healer so they’ve an opportunity to keep you alive. An easy way to keep yourself from over extending is to ask “can my healer get to me from here”? If you’re chasing down kills but then dying, you’re not doing anything for your team.
As far as “creating space” (many people hear this but don’t fully understand), it’s all about pushing up with your support and more or less intimidating the enemy team into breaking their positioning because they don’t want to die. You’re a large high value target, but you also have a lot of health comparatively speaking, meaning, if you’ve a support with you, you can push up and make the enemy team play around you rather than being defensive and reactive.
While you’re creating space like this, your healer will inevitably need to break away to top off your DPS, which is why you need to keep an eye on them every couple seconds and ask “can they heal me from here”? Yes, they might sometimes screw up and be too far away to get back to you, but it’s a team game, so focus on helping and not on blaming people.
More in the next post… this one’s getting long lol
With Reinhardt, your biggest job is to create space. Always communicate when you’re going to move forward. Communicating in general is big-- calling when enemy has shatter, calling out shield health, calling out who’s low from your poke damage.
Additionally, while it’s usually ideal to wait for a pick before pushing, sometimes you don’t have that luxury. Use your judgment and build space. The key to good space is space where you cannot be knocked out position (pinned, primarily, because you’re dead if pinned and the enemy team is competent) and where your team is still covered. You want to avoid too tight areas and take high ground to enable DPS when possible.
The key to Rein is timing aggression. You don’t want to be predictable. Don’t swing-shield-swing-shield consistently, mix it up with multiple swings or longer shield times. You need to be, at the very least, matching the other Reinhardt for approx. % damage done, so that shatter is available at shield break or after their shatter. Pay attention to tells of a Rein looking for shatter-- most will stand straight at a choke with no ult, while some looking for opportunity will turn to the sides to line up a hammer down on the squishies behind you.
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So for rein, a lot of my previous post applies to him because he’s a large mobile shield. As far as where you’ll position yourself… you’ll take the front line and most importantly, you’ll keep pushing. This keeps constant pressure on the enemy like “oh !@#$ rein is moving in, I need help” and gives your DPS a chance to move in and pick people off while the enemy is focused on the living armor with a giant hammer ha.
As far as when to drop your shield, if you’ve a support, there’s no problem dropping it to eat some damage. You don’t want to soak up every. single. bullet. because then your shield vanishes in a second. Once it’s health gets around 500, drop it and tell your team “my shield is down” so they don’t stand there expecting you to jump back in front and guard them. Also keep in mind when you lose your shield, rein says out loud “my barrier is destroyed” which the enemy can hear, so another good reason not to let it happen.
Don’t use charge unless you know you’ll hit a wall only 5 feet in front of you. Any farther than that, and you’ll be so far outta position you’ll be an easy pick for the enemy team.
Zarya is a tricky one for me, and as a tank-main, I must confess I’ve had the most difficulty learning her (though a lot of that had to do with her just not being viable in the previous meta… which is changing this time around).
This’ll come with time, but with Zarya and her bubbles, you want to get into the habit of casting one, waiting 4-5 seconds, then casting the other… that way, you always have a bubble just a few seconds away. By doing this, you’ll be able to keep your charge as high as possible as often as possible. As far as who to bubble, look for team mates throwing their ult, like a pharah or mccree… you can bubble a rein that charges too far in. Can even bubble someone who’s about to eat a few junk rat grenades or dva missiles. The more charge you get the faster your ult charges.
Speaking of ult, zarya’s is one of the slowest charging in the game. A good way to tell if you’re improving with her is keeping track of how often you get her ult in a match. Only one or twice? Needs improvement… 4 or 5 times? Now you’re getting there.
Zarya is a close to mid range tank so dont waste time with long range targets. And here’s a fun one… her beam can go through deflecting genji’s ![:smiley:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/smiley.png?v=5" ":smiley:")
I don’t have as much to say for zarya for obvious reasons, but the video posted about “1 tip for each hero while using zarya” is a great starting point.
If you’ve any other questions I’ll be glad to help. I love tanks ha
For me aggression is key. Don’t do something drastic like charge in with rein suddenly and always communicate when your going in, but always move forward and NEVER stand in a choke.
Defensively you want to deter. For instance throwing damage out with orisa and constantly halting them, or playing rein with controlled aggression and taking swipe at those who get too close.
These are great! Tank you very much! 
Combat with Tanks comes naturally for me so long as I have a reliable healer (Benefits of maining Sym with some dabbling in Battle Mercy in QP). It’s when things are at a standstill that I suffer and that should be where a Tank is most important, right?
Forcing my way in with Rein is usually what I try to do but it often ends in my death. When should I back off and who do I need to look out for, aside from Reaper and anybody ulting?
Bubble management is hard for me but I’ll probably pick it up in due time but at least I now know who to bubble. Where should I be positioned as Zayra? Front? Back? And is it more advisable at a choke for me to move in first with a bubble or an ally which I can bubble?
Your help has been much appreciated, along with everyone else who’s been posting here! I’ve learned a lot today. 
If only this weekend wasn’t conspiring to stop me playing Overwatch. A couple of amiibo I ordered should arrive tomorrow and then Splatoon is having a Splatfest. I WILL put this information to good use in due time though! 
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BEST TIP: don’t play tanks until Brigitte doesn’t stun through barriers. Ok but seriously, D.VA is always good, if you REALLY want, she’s the only Off-tank you need. You need to learn all the main tanks because there is no way they can substitute for each other (and every meta shift completely screws over their status quo).
Knowing when to retreat isn’t as difficult as it seems, typically comes down to three things: 1) if your shield is down 2) if you’re by yourself 3) if you’re low health and no healer is nearby. Rein basically melts when he’s alone, but he enables his team to do great things when they’re all near him. If you find you keep dying when you try to push, check and make sure their main tank is down, or at least wait to get one pick from the enemy so your side has a number advantage.
You’re probably already aware, but one of your biggest threats as rein right now is baguette, but his hammer also works really well against her armor, so it’s a sort of catch 22. If she shield bashes you, you’ll easily survive if your healer is around… and then you’ve a chance to easily charge/pin her for a quick kill (remember not to charge too far! lol)… or just swing her to death. Reaper isn’t too big a deal so long as you don’t try to 1v1 him.
As for pushes, Orisa works well on many payload maps as you can throw the shield on the cart since the enemy has to come to you.
Positioning for Zarya (again, I too am still learning with her) can be tricky because you almost have to find a sort of “sweet spot”. You always want to have an escape route, as her 400 health vanishes quickly, but you want to be close enough to the action that you can bubble the appropriate targets and keep your charge going. I try to stay between the main tank and the supports so you can help either side when needed.
As for pushing through the choke, I typically bubble a team mate first to gain charge from them, and only continue pushing if our main tank is alive and pushing as well. For me, zarya’s personal bubble is like a get out of jail free card that also gives you charge… but remember, that bubble actually has health and can go down quicker if you’re absorbing more incoming fire than usual, so it’s not fool proof.
I see many skilled Zarya’s that are able to solo tank with her, even though that is often times ill-advised. I’m trying to work up to that point in this meta, but it’ll still take time. Oh and another tip with her ult, if you’re ever alone and accidentally throw a desperation grav to save yourself, you can still get some good damage on the enemies with your alt fire and probably score a few picks.
Zarya and rein are two tanks that aren’t too hot by themselves, but with great coordination and team work, they can absolutely dominate. I think that is one of a few reasons the two of them take time to master since team work takes time to master.
You can’t be overly timid. It’s your job to push forward, even if you’re scared. Scared of failure, death, loss, whatever. Just push.
Hide behind the payload, or as Reinhardt to the side of it. This is fairly map specific. You don’t have to stand in front of it most of the time. Hiding behind it will provide your team plenty of additional protection, as well as yourself and your protective tools.
Don’t let them farm ult on you. If they’re farming you for ult, and they use it to kill your allies, make it hard.
That’s where you’re wrong. Every tank is perfectly capable of protecting their teammates.
Winston and his shield is perfect for turret characters like Torb and Bastion. His leap ability is useful for reaching teammates who are in the thick of things in need of a peel (no pun intended).
D.Va, in the same manner can use her Boosters to come to the aid of her teammates. She can intercept incoming attacks using her Defense Matrix to absorb projectiles.
D.Va and Winston are highly mobile characters and you need to use their mobility to protect your crew.
In terms of learning to tank in general, your main job is to either:
- A) stay on the pay load and keep it moving.
- B) Lead push so your team moves as one.
- C) Be the primary threat generator so enemies are focusing on you so your DPS can do their job and kill things on sight.
Once you master the foundational skills listed above, it’s a matter of learning how to utilize each characters toolkit to your advantage.
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I managed to sneak in a couple of matches practising in QP using the tips provided and Zayra went quite well, the tips on aggression and spacing out bubbles were lifesavers, literally.
I can’t say much on Reinhardt because apparently I’m some sort of contagious mutant as nobody stood behind my shield and healers apparently aren’t a thing and Brigitte is a DPS who doesn’t know what a repair pack is.
More to the point, any tips on how Rein can advance through a choke like Hanamura point A? It seems like whenever I tried, there was someone in every corner so I’d die no matter what I did with my shield.
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Winston and D.va are actually very good at protecting their team, though the way they do it isn’t quite the same as tanks such as Reinhardt or Orisa. Winston’s bubble is meant to block abilities, cooldowns, ultimates, not just raw damage like the other tanks. Defense Matrix is arguably the most powerful ability in the game for protecting, as it can completely shut down many ultimates. It can block devastating abilities such as Ana’s bionade from affecting your teammates.
Depends on the chokepoint. Different tanks perform better in different locations. Rein is less than ideal for Hanamura (Point A) due to everyone positioning themselves at the gate. I’d suggest using devising a distraction using a D.Va or Winston (or someone with high mobility). This will, hopefully, cause the enemy team or split up so they’re in smaller, easier, to handle groupings.
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Yeah this is good advice and typically what happens with me as I like to run rein on Hanamura.
Having someone to fly over the gate and distract the enemy so they break off and leave their tank alone at the gate is often what gives me the opportunity to run through and take someone out.
As you’re already aware, you’re running into a butt load of damage on point A so always make sure your healer is on you as you push. If you’re having issues finding people to work with you, LFG has given me a lot of success as of late.
I found this video pretty helpful for understanding basics. There are lots of videos online from various sources on how to improve on specific tanks.
Remember, no matter what tank you are playing the key is controlling space. Main tanks and off tanks do that differently. It’s good to understand that.