Imagine if ALL SoloBarrierTanks were viable. Without making DoubleBarrierTanks too powerful.
Here’s how to do it:
Buff Barriers up.
Shooting one barrier damages all barriers.
Buff Sigma/Orisa/Rein damage
Buff BarrierHP back up
Rein barrier = 2000HP
Sigma barrier = 1200HP
Orisa barrier = 900HP
Winston = 800HP
Damaging one barrier, damages All barriers on the enemy team. This is “linked-damage”.
Barriers are not damaged below 200HP by linked-damage from other barriers. (Indicated by dark blue BarrierHP).
Orisa and Winston get barrierHP bars for undeployed barriers.
If an Orisa/Winston barrier is deployed, the linked-damage targets the deployed barrier.
If an Orisa/Winston barrier is not deployed, it the linked-damage targets the undeployed barrier. (Even if it’s on cooldown).
Sigma/Rein/Brig barrier would be targeted by linked-damage regardless whether it’s deployed or not. However it would not affect the 2sec cooldown to begin regenerating BarrierHP.
Rein hammer = 90 damage, up from 75
Sigma spheres = 40 damage each, up from 30
Orisa bullet = 13 damage, up from 10
Result:
All SingleBarrier Tanks are viable, with a series of offtanks to pair them with.
A good amount of barrier tank combinations are also viable.
This creates more tank variety. Instead of “Choose Rein, or Lose” for the vast majority of the playerbase.
I don’t mean creating more buckets as in you queue for barrier tank. Just a stipulation that only 1 barrier tank can be selected. 2 off-tanks would still be a valid permutation and no queue buckets would be changed.
You need to go after WHY barriers are seen as essential. If barriers are strong, people want two barrier tanks because two strong barriers are OP. If barriers are weak, people want two of them because just one is pointless.
It’s funny that tank balance is so bad the community is out here theory crafting just to get something. Either the shield for a tank becomes a much smaller aspect of a tanks kit by buffing other aspects and nerfing shield health, or we make tanking a solo thing with 1-3-2.
No, it’s all good, just thought there might be relevant thoughts in the other thread. I got the idea from one of your posts, after all. Don’t care about “credit” for something that will never happen
Actually only Rein has a barrier as essential to his kit. Sigma didn’t need to be released with a barrier. Winston has mobility.
Orisa I don’t know, fortify and halt!?
I’m a bit confused about the Brig inclusion. So if there was a tank comp like D.Va Hammond or something without a barrier tank, she’d just have a 500 hp barrier?
There would be a minimum value of 200HP that isn’t targeted by linked damage. Which solves the conflict with Brig/Zarya. And gives Orisa/Winston some barrier to work with, which is often “enough” to block Ults.