Tanks shape the structure of the game, they define how the game is meant to be played (Supports and DPS too to some degree but mostly tanks)
A diverse tank line up means a numerous playstyle options making each game a completely new experience.
This is why we need more of them. And preferably tanks that like to push and take space. More tanks like Rein/Winston and less like Orisa/Sigma/Hog which are more about shooty shooty than they are about pushing and taking space.
The way you do this is by giving them unblockable AOE melee attacks on their primary fire. And make sure in future support/DPS releases you stay away from melee attacks (Doom/Brig/etc were such big problems and will always be the most difficult to balance)
The threat of unblockable AOE damage is the most effective way a tank can take space and claim an area, while the rest of their kit can define the playstyle.
Yes, I’m asking for more “no-aim” M1 heroes. Because if done right (e.g. Rein) they can have extremely high skill caps.
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Jeff stated that there will be more tanks and supports coming but not until after OW2 is done.
But I don’t like the direction they are going with their tank releases.
Look at Sigma/Orisa/Ball etc. They all have point an click weapons.
I think we need more tanks with weapons similar to that of Winston or Rein.
We don’t need more Tanks, necessarily.
We need more simultaneously worthwhile Barrier Tanks.
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less like Orisa/Sigma/Hog
Sigma doesn’t take space? Maybe it’s just who you’re used to; I feel like I make the most space with Sigma (in Gold).
But yeah I totally agree, if new tanks fit certain people’s play style they’ll play it more often. So I’m sure there’s plenty of players who will enjoy the tank role once OW2 is added
So basically more bots and less engaging tanks mechanically? Just so it’s easy for DPS to play around?
That’s what it sounds like.
I think what we actually need are tanks with more overlapping playstyles and abilities. Tanks tend to end up in pretty hard metas because each brings something unique to the table. They need to overlap more to allow more freedom of choice.
I actually think that is true of some support heroes too. Lucio is a perfect example. Speedboost is so unique and enables so many things that some way to make the team faster probably should be on multiple heroes.
Well, I did figure out how to solve the problem of “How do you buff barriers, without triggering the problems of DoubleBarrier”.
Turns out, all you need to do is make Orisa and Sigma weaker at close range.
Then speedboosted Deathball and Dive just have to get into close range and walk through the barriers.
Rather than melting through a bunch of barriers.
Could even make it so Discord goes through barriers, and you can’t cleanse Discord.
âś… Buff Barriers, counter at close range
Meanwhile Rein has one of the highest skill ceilings and Orisa is widely considered to have one of the lowest in the entire game not just the tank category.
I honestly think the easiest way of buffing Orisa/Hog without buffing Orisa/Sig is buffing hog.
Give him a passive that makes shields in range of him more resiliant to damage. That way you’re buffing Orisa’s shield in Orisa/Hog without buffing it in Orisa/Sig.
Considered by who? A streamer ? Lol there’re were barely any Orisa players in high rank prior to her being meta.
Imagine though that we had multiple versions of Defense Matrix, more dive tanks, more melee shield tanks like Reinhardt, more ranged turtle tanks like Orisa, etc.
Blizzard tries to make each hero super unique. Maybe they should overlap them more instead.
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The thing is, if you have heroes that are too similar, but one is just straight up better, then you’d never use the other one.
Luke if you had an identical copy of Rein, that had 20% less barrier
That happens anyway. Some games have lots of ways to crack the same egg. Overwatch sometimes has only one.
So, I’m not on the Valorant bandwagon, but you’ll notice that lots of different heroes in that game have some form of smoke. They don’t all seem to have one, but many do so your team probably does.
In Overwatch there’s a team ability with a huge strategic advantage like speedboost or defense matrix and you have to pick a specific hero to get that. What if 3 heroes had different versions of those abilities? They don’t even have to be super close, just serve similar functions. Mercy’s rez and Baptiste’s lamp are related. One is preemptive and the other is after the fact, but they serve the same function.
Which is nice and all in theory, but we aren’t going to have that luxury anyways, what with zero new heroes for the next 6 months or so.
So we’re gonna have to solve this with balance changes.
I’m thinking long term. Short term balance changes, but the problem can get worse or better as new heroes are added depending on how those heroes are designed. I’m suggesting that they need to revisit their philosophy of how they design new heroes to allow them to inhabit the same space a bit more.