I realized that the boycott was not going to work, so I gave in and tried it. It was actually worse than I thought it would be as a tank. Here’s what I learned.
- It’s impossible to hold a line unless the enemy has to come through a tight choke and has either no or very limited flanking routes. It plays much more like an arena shooter and didn’t feel like Overwatch.
- Depending on the map and my healers, I could go from feeling kinda overpowered to very underpowered on the same tank. Most of the time I didn’t have that raid boss feeling I was hoping for.
- Healers are even more important than in the live game. And most healers I played with were not up to the challenge. I, and consequently our entire team, was a lot more effective when healers actually focused on me.
- I had to play much less aggressive than I normally play as a tank. I love playing aggressive tank, but my team would not always push with me and played much too spread out often.
- I won most of my games. The only time I got an endorsement was a game that I lost where I actually played pretty poorly. Normally in 2/2/2, I get 2 - 4 endorsements per match. It was weird getting none. I’m not sure why that is.
- All the enemy team, or our team, really has to do to win is rush down the tank. If the tank dies, the rest of the team usually does too.
- Pharah + Widowmaker + Sombra = nightmare.
- The enemy going Mei + Reaper + Sombra is a huge compliment, but also super frustrating.
- Doomfist, Sombra, Soldier, and Torb are all much better in this mode than live.
- Sym is actually worse believe it or not.
- Zarya is by far the best tank.
- Winston is criminally underrated. He’s decent. I am reminded of how much I miss playing him. He needs 2/2/2 buffs.
- D.Va, Ball, Orisa, and Sigma are all trash
- Reinhardt is very overrated. He’s too easily flanked. He’s not bad, just I think still weaker than he’d need to be.
- A weaker version of Roadhog’s new ability should go live in 2/2/2. He actually really needs this or he may never be viable.
- Zarya, Orisa, Winston, and D.Va could all partially keep some of their buffs too in 2/2/2. Certainly not in full, but a little bit.
- Brig, Mercy, and Ana all seemed to be good. Moira and Zen were pretty useless.
Honestly, it wasn’t fun. I don’t want it to go live. I haven’t had games this frustrating in a while. Even when I won, I think I only really enjoyed one game.
Edit: one more thing that was interesting. My tank queue times were still really quick. I was still getting rewarded with a loot box. DPS was actually still the longest, shorter than 2/2/2, but still longer than either of the other roles. At least when I was playing.
67 Likes
- The game is far far more team dependent. In 222, if you lose a person you can still win. But in 1/3/2 you lose your tank, or you lose a healer. You’re completely done for. The other team immediately dominates. You lose your tank, that’s all your protection, peel and driving force lost. If you lose 1 support, even if it’s an off support, one main healer cannot keep anyone alive with the amount of damage coming in.
In 222 you can rank up just by playing well, your team doesn’t have to play to the standard you are. But, if you have a weak link in 132 you’re getting dragged down hard. Making it much much harder to climb.
22 Likes
Yeah, I didn’t expect to enjoy it. It was actually worse than the old days because at least before role queue I could try and convince one of the DPS to swap to tank or just drop the tank entirely and go full on death match.
Being stuck as the only tank when your DPS all go flank and your healers are MIA is miserable.
12 Likes
Well, for one thing, 321 is not sustainable – period. Yes it might resolve DPS queue times, but we have yet to see further evidence to support it. Regardless of that, it doesn’t appear to resolve anything else. Instead it only creates more problems for others.
6 Likes
Doesn’t sound like someone who would give a fair assessment.
6 Likes
your name sounds like someone who would favor it for some reason.
8 Likes
I did actually try it. I went in with an expectation, that much is undeniable. But instead of that preconception being challenged, my experience just reinforced it.
3 Likes
He was one of the tanks that basically got placeholder buffs for 132, imo, but yeah, he’s cool regardless. It’s also really fun to support a Winston, especially as Mercy. sigh
2 Likes
We just need tanks to feel more like raid bosses and give healers self defense buffs. (Maybe quicker switch speed for Mercy and more life steal from Moira)
1 Like
Well I enjoy it but I wouldn’t say I favor it.
I didn’t try to enjoy it too much since Jeff said it’s probably not going to live.
That right there is the biggest reason to never go the route of 1 tank or 1 healer ever.
As the tank in that mode, and even to an extent in normal 2/2/2 (but 1/3/2 exacerbates it by ALOT) there is too much responsibility put on that lone tanks shoulders, or just tanks in general. The tank is basically in charge of winning or losing for the rest of their team, the healers have to follow tank gameplay, which means they’re following us, and the DPS don’t have much effect on the outcome of it at all unless the tanks doing their job.
The answer to it in the end of the day? Share the responsibility of tanks around all 3 of the roles, if your tank doesn’t play well your whole team is gone. If your DPS doesn’t play well oh well at least I am a tank fully capable of carrying their weight… wish I didn’t have to though. Tanks are too much of the games win condition, and the answer is NOT to put even more responsibility on a single hero.
4 Likes
i love how 90% of games are stomps because of widow hanzo and mcree and the tank is zarya makes the games so creative (Heavy sarcasm btw)
3 Likes
I mean if 1/3/2 is to be the new role lock (it won’t) then blizzard will balance around that system.
Just as tanks and supports have gotten heavy nerfs entering 2/2/2, dps would if we go 1/3/2.
Again we won’t, so moot point.
2 Likes
I don’t think that would change my enjoyment of the mode, but I am curious about something. I agree with you that if this went live it would ultimately mean a lot of DPS nerfs eventually. Do you think that would cause DPS players to quit like the tank nerfs have discouraged some tank players?
2 Likes
dps AND tanks require a great many nerfs to change the distribution of responsibility over the win condition >.< They’re both eachothers problems in that regard.
Though if you lose 2 of your dps, as long as your carry dps is still alive, you can win. Funny how that works, all the pressure is basically off for the dps role.
I liked the Tank changes, but I feel like Winston needs to be changed. His jump is too strong as is. Some of the dps heroes would also need some adjusting.
Yes but nowhere near the degree of tanks. People like playing dps because of their play style. Power matters but not as much as play style.
I do not agree with this. I’d like it to be available a bit more often.
I do not entirely disagree. But it is basically like that in 222 regardless. The only real difference is that they share the burden. The tanks are still responsible for winning and the healers still need to follow them if they want anything done. Most dps lack solo impact. Blah, blah, blah.
The difference is heavily overstated. My issue with 321 was how chaotic and flank heavy the game becomes.