RQ Tank from a GMs perspective

General Discussion
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First of all, this will be a wall of text so bare with me.

Since the beginning of competitive and Overwatch esports there has been two tank roles, Main Tank and Off Tank (sometimes referred as Flex Tank).

Main Tank consisted mostly of Rein, and Winston. Later on adding Orisa.
Off Tank consisted of Dva, Zarya, and Roadhog. Later on adding Sigma, even though he has a very MT playstyle to him.
Wrecking Ball since it’s addition has been sort of a hybrid between both roles.

With the announcement of role queue both of these two type of players knew that there was a chance that they would get paired with someone within the same sub-role, as technically a tank is a tank in role queue. Even as they consist of wholly different skill sets, meaning MT and OT characters, and most were only very happy to flex.

For example, in my personal case, I had been playing OT for many teams since the game released, so while I could flex to other roles and other tanks I only truly trusted my Dva, Zarya, Ball, and Roadhog in GM+ because that’s what I had been playing for years.

All of this was fine, I was happy to try to pick up MT for those rare occasions I was paired with another fellow OT player, if it meant always being guaranteed two proper supports and two dps. I enjoy playing Rein and Winston a lot, even if I am not very good at them. So all was good.

That was the general feeling with most tank players at first, as we all know the meta quickly shifted onto double shield; Orisa, and Sigma. You can get away with playing Ball, but that is still situational. Playing ANY other tank is borderline throwing, sure you can get a game where it “works”, but those are rare and very far from the norm. You will ultimately have a losing record if you don’t play Orisa, Sigma, and Ball. Or at the very least, have a very, very hard time keeping your SR.

Alas, this is nothing new, metas come and go. In high elos and teams you basically become meta slaves because winning takes precedence over fun or an enjoyable experience. When dive was meta, you always played Winston, and Dva. When deathball was meta you always played Rein, and Zarya. When goats was meta you always played Rein, Dva, and Zarya. You get the spiel.

So why is it different now? well it’s simple, Orisa and Sigma are boring as hell. Now of course this is all matter of opinion, I am sure there are people out there who love playing those heroes, but from I’ve heard from other fellow players the general consensus is that they aren’t fun. This includes myself.

Not only this, but I don’t think there has ever been such a big gap in playability amongst tank characters. For example, when dive was a huge thing, if your team was not good at it, it could be countered with a strong Deathball. Whatever tank you played, it could still have its usefulness. It was never considered “throwing”, maybe an un-optimal pick, but never throwing.

Lately there has been a massive number of tank players just refusing to play QP or Competitive. Queue times as a result have increased to extraordinary lengths for other roles. Again, this is for GM+, not all that knowledgeable on other elos, but I am sure this is generally the same pattern. So Blizzard added an incentive to counter this, this being 25 credits… and maybe if times are really long, one loot box. Really?

Yesterday Zarya was nerfed, further cementing this sentiment amongst tank players. Not going to argue the rationality of nerfing her or whether she deserved it or not, as that could be another topic unto itself. Sigma also received a nerf but not enough in the areas that make him meta.

We know that metas change, it takes a long time, but they inevitably change. So for now, queue times will continue to get longer, tank players rarer and the few that do play either submit themselves to playing Orisa/Sigma or face an incredible battle just to win a game.

I would love to hear about how my fellow tank players are faring in other ranks, and/or how this is affecting you non-tank players.

I’ve long given up trying to understand how Blizzard does balancing as I’ve been subject to their wisdom for over a decade, spread out over all their other titles.

19 Likes
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Nobody is going to read a post that long my dude

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At least I love Sigma, but yeah, constrictive metas and pairings are nothing new for tanks, unfortunately.

Hopefully Rein and Winston get the buffs they need soon, heck, maybe Roadhog too.

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I was a D.Va main from season 1. One trick till a few seasons ago.

She’s never been this garbage before. And the fact that there’s been zero communication about her state, but multiple comments that hint they dislike her, I’m beginning to despair and feel like that’s the end of D.Va and where they’re going to leave her.

I was picking up some Zarya and Sigma instead this season, because D.Va is literally unplayable, but still I’ve gone from “road back to diamond” to falling into gold. I’m down to a max of one match a day or even two days, down from ten or more since the beginning of this game.

I’m basically on my way out and balance changes are too slow and stubborn for me to see anything changing to make this game fun to tank in again. It’s a shame, because I just stupidly plonked some money down for a 144hz monitor and the only game I play that it matters for is Overwatch and the only hero I play that would benefit from it is D.Va.

I’m regretting that decision and I’m sad every day for what they’ve done to D.Va. I was super excited for rolequeue but now I’m just depressed instead of enjoying this game. I leave after one match and play Stellaris, and I’m more and more just not logging on and just asking my buddy if he wants to continue our Stellaris game instead.

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Well, you’re not wrong.

I’ll listen to it though.

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I have 800+ hours tanking, almost 700 of those on Reinhardt.

My rank has almost always been in Platinum low to high and all the numbers in between.

I feel what we are experiencing today is a result of the changes to tanks due to GOATS being the META for so long. The secondary attribute to this is how Sigma is used and the way his kit works with other tanks.

The GOATS META brought us changes to armor that were ineffective to remove the problem that existed and too drastic to keep in the game for role queue. In addition, the DPS hero buffs made playing a tank who has static placement of both themselves and their defensive measures a detriment to team play. You kill Reinhardt’s shield, you kill Reinhardt. You kill D.Va’s mech, you kill Defense Matrix. You kill Roadhog, you kill his hook and damage. Orisa and Sigma detach themselves from their main defensive ability. Once it is down they are free to move about and do other things. Damage dealers are forced to bring down the shield, while taking damage from 6 sources, not 5 or 4.

Previously, in a conditional environment where Reinhardt, D.Va, Winston and Zarya could survive while damage was being dealt without the fear of being removed from the field in less then 3 seconds they were viable options for people to play.

In the end I don’t think Blizzard will be doing anything to change this formula. They should, but they won’t.

Edit: I read your whole post by the way, it wasn’t that damn long people.

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That’s unfortunate.

Here are some ideas I had to bring back a fun Tank meta:

  • Rein: Move faster while shield up, and less affected by slows
  • Lucio: speedboost buffed back up
  • Orisa: Halt slows less, Fortify less powerful, but Fortify can bodyblock Ults
  • Zarya: Bubbles can fully block EMP both shieldhp damage, and hack status
  • Zenyatta: 30% discord, and discord goes through barriers
  • All healers: primary healing goes through barriers
  • Sigma: Rock can be Matrixed/Vortexed/Deflected
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I will do you one better

Sigma;

Enact a 1-2 second cool down to remove and redeploy his shield.
When Sigma Dies his ultimate goes away.

That will fix the problem from a tank perspective. Sigma has too much value from instantaneous placement of his shield. It is the very reason Orisa wasn’t super powerful before.

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Yeah…

Dunno about the shield placement. I’d have to think that one through.

But also wonder if his “Defence Vortex” shouldn’t block Roadhog hook.

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I made a similar post as to why they nerfed tanks of course not as elaborate as yours. I am a Rein, Hog, Zarya, and recently Sigma main now. I’m really on the fence about continuing playing or not after these nerfs. It’s already hard to play tank but I did it and with these nerfs it’s sucking the fun right out of main tanking.

Anyway Honor and Glory friend.

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Except those who do… literally took me a minute to read it …the horror

And can’t disagree…Slowly but surely people will realize that this role queue thing is just a Band-Aid…it is not an actual fix for anything

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Is it Role Queue that forced Blizzard to nerf tanks and supports in the first place?

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I read it easily actually.

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It doesn’t address it at all…but it can exacerbate underlying issues…which is what OP is saying

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Role Queue hasn’t been around long enough for Blizzard, mind you I am saying for Blizzard who are historically known for changing things at the pace of a sloth (that is both drunk and asleep), to change what needs to be changed.

Blizzard introducing Role Queue along side a new hero was a stupid move. Nothing more to say there.

I read the whole thing. The OP is talking about tank balance more then Role Queue. Yes, Role Queue is a main point, but even in a Role Queue environment the tanks can be balanced. My opinion is Blizzard has no want to move quickly in this, nor do they want to do what is necessary to fix the problem for tanks Role Queue or not.

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Read the whole post. Tanks need a rebalancing against each other similar to what they did with supports pre Goats.

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This is the main thing in this thread I can agree with. It doesn’t really have anything to do with RQ. It’s simply that Orissa and Sigma have an element of their kit that’s super high value in the current environment. Not that they are innately too strong or RQ has created a problem.

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it’s genuinely not fun to play this game right now for most roles, tank especially

too often you feel completely helpless out there and you might as well not even play if your tank partner doesn’t play sigma or orisa

the anti-goats buffs need to be reverted, doomfist’s shields need to be tuned down and sigma needs to be tuned down. it’s really not rocket science. maybe it won’t be perfect but it’ll be a lot more playable

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I will cause i like reading in english even more than in my native language lol

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TL:DR tank is not fun to play because there are only 2 playable heroes.

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