I think barrier tanks not being mandatory makes for a much more interesting Overwatch personally
Not that they ever were mandatory, but now they are driving that point home.
Adapt and overcome. Barrier tanks are neither useless nor necessary right now, and it’s pretty interesting.
Many of us said it, right from the start:
This dude does too many things and its too easy to move the barrier and just press W on anyone.
What did they do? nerf all tanks instead of just his barrier and put a ridiculous CD on reposition. Yep, thats all. Now we are here.
Sigma is a high skill hero, what are you even talking about?
Why does everyone keep saying this?
Reinhardt was left alone. You can still play a powerful barrier. They’re still 100% as mandatory as ever, you just now get to choose from Reinhardt, Reinhardt, and Reinhardt instead of Rein Sigma and Orisa.
there was nothing high skill about running orisa+sigma. those two tanks alone could melt any enemy solo barrier. not too mention they could stack their other sustain and peel capabilities together during the off chance they didn’t have a barrier to protect them
And yet Rein + Zar is dominant below GM + M level. If it really is that easy, then why isn’t it used everywhere? IIRC, original Origma (pre-barrier patch) was the go-to in most ranks.
I think everyone failed to realize that Rein/D.Va, Rein/Zarya, Winston/D.Va, Winston/Zarya all were, in their defensive playstyle, very similar to Double Barrier, with a main barrier tank taking the brunt of the damage, and another tank dealing with various angles and burst damage, with the two cycling their defenses when needed.
Sigma didn’t change that, he simply embodies it, makes it better, as he uses a classic barrier (better than DM) that is not based on a short duration (better than Bubble).
Rein/Orisa was tried at the latter’s release, and failed because neither of them could cover off-angles, as both their barriers are stuck to the ground.
People would gladly run double off-tank if it didn’t mean the enemy hitscans would get a field day, farming ult charge on the tanks and killing the backline again and again. Nobody likes seeing B.O.B showing his robotic butt every 30s to kill whatever didn’t eat enough bullets from Ashe.
the tank role has a rooster?
I’ve been running Zen in quickplay alongside Roadhog Zarya like every single game, it works fine there since the barrier tanks are weaker and Hog is stronger.
Reinhardt still needs to be bumped down a bit, but telling yourself that he is uber strong and absolutely mandatory doesn’t make it true.
obviously rein+zarya is still going to be run on the OG rein+zarya maps. there are several of them
but i truly dont understand how people are unable to get value from hog+zarya or hog+ball right now. as long as your tanks and dps aren’t bad just shred the rein shield and make the rein useless
you don’t need a rein barrier if you break theirs, or just kill their squishies faster with dpsy tanks
Not any more, it’s been nuked. 
Orisa would’ve gotten nerfs without Sigma either way, Orisa Hog was meta right before he came out.
Rework him as an off tank without a shield, or make him a main tank (Reduce his damage output / buff his survivability), that weird hybrid won’t work.
No. They added a tank that is enjoyable to play and his shield is his most fun ability imo. He has been severely nerfed already, and I’d rather have fragile shields and tanks made stronger in other ways than see his gameplay destroyed.
He didnt destroy the tank role for me. For me he made it actually my favourite role.
Furthermore, there are other possibilities, like passive shield hp penalties if 2 shield tanks exist on a team, or max 1 shield tank per team with shield tank dibs queue etc.
darn, guess they got cooked
Rein + Zarya’s been used on pretty much all maps though.
Maybe you’re right and Hog will smash the default picks down here, too. It’s early days yet.
hog zarya has been very popular in my high diamond and low masters games. beating out enemy rein zaryas. although how good each team’s dps has been a factor too. really good widows or pocket ashes are farming right now
Sigma was their answer to lots of the complaints that we voiced here on the forums as tank players. We wanted another main tank with a barrier and we complained about tanks being too team dependent. So voila, here’s Sigma with a barrier and self peel and damage to make plays on his own.
He was everything we were asking for from a tank, which is why you’re still not going to see too much hate for him. The truth is we want him, many of us still want tanks to be more like him. The problem was how overtuned he came out of the gate and his synergy with Orisa, not his design. And we’re only allowed to say that because we have the advantage of hindsight. Nobody could have predicted with certainty what his impact in the meta would before his release.
counter point orisa rein saw plenty of success in owl
No. Orisa was meta with a much stronger shield… along with Widowmaker and Hanzo.
She was meta with hog… Not as double barrier.