Idk if people don’t remember this but there were times in 6v6 where support was just as much a bottleneck on queue times as tank. I definitely remember points where flex queue was a 50/50 shot between tank and healer.
But as the role shifted away from healbotting and we got a higher quantity of support heroes and more variety of playstyles, more people started queueing for support and now there are times where it’s queues are similar to dps.
So if support can become more popular, why does everyone assume it’s impossible to happen with tanks? Tanks were unpopular in 6v6 because of egregious CC spam and boring shieldbotting playstyles being hard meta. Tanks are unpopular in 5v5 because of counterswapping spamming. These are all fixable issues
19 Likes
They’re not all that much popular, plus there are more supports that are dps in disguise than there are tanks that are three dps stuffed in a trenchcoat.
17 Likes
What he said, when you look at the data they provided, the Support queue barely changed, even though its still 2 needed, still at least twice as bad as DPS, i think in the end of the line, all there is is that both support and tanks are just simply not well designed for the FPS genre or maybe even just in general, the same problems also appear on any game with the “holy trinity” like MMOS.
3 Likes
You can find the answer to that by asking the same question differently. Support wasn’t as popular before and now they are, what did the devs do to make the role more popular?
The answer is simple, they made the role more fun and rewarding to play. (though not true for all heroes, but true for the role as a whole)
They can do the same for tanks, they’re just having a hard time accomplishing that goal for one reason or another. It doesn’t mean it can’t happen like this community likes you to believe, it’s possible to make tanking more rewarding and fun, the devs just hasn’t figured out how to do that yet.
2 Likes
If they could be, they would be now. They’re overpowered raid bosses atm. It sucks so bad on support that I switched to DPS. I think the role is too boring for most players.
The reason is that the community won’t let the devs do what needs to be done to make tanking fun which is to basically reduce counterplay against the tank from CC and other tanks. If you can’t hack ball or anti Hog or Sleep Rein or beam down D.Va or use Reaper on Winston then that is going to be great for tanking but everyone else will cry bloody murder. So the devs don’t do what is necessary. But the trick is tank power levels on defense could come down some if they could make plays and not be counterswapped after every death.
4 Likes
I dont think the answer is to just have the tanks have no counter-play whatsoever against them, just watching two kaijus fighting eachother until one of them die of boredom, thats just going in the completely wrong direction in my opinion, the problem with tanks is the inherit design of being a tank, having to lead and carry your team, most people dont like doing that.
1 Like
Sitting way in the back, sniping people and occasionally getting a headshot is way easier and more satisfying than trying to force your team to move forward with you instead of running away every time the enemy team appears.
2 Likes
Support was never not popular. The period where support had high queue time was adjustment period.
Support is the role with the least amount of pressure to perform well. It was never gonna be unpopular.
1 Like
This basically proves my point. I didn’t say no counterplay. I said reduced counterplay specifically in the areas of CC and other tanks.
I also said if we fix the counterswaping issue then we could pull back on some of the power, but only if you remove some of the counterplay.
And I think it’s the right direction. It’s basically the complete opposite direction they’re currently going in. So I assume you like the current direction and loved the giga tanks patch.
2 Likes
Because some of the community also has a sense of how a satisfying gameplay loop should be like, with sufficient play and counterplay from both parties, i`d hope at least.
Removing counterplay = giving power to the ones without counterplay, you realise, right? No matter how you cut it.
Either that, or the game becomes boring for the sake of becoming boring since there is no real way to have a diverse cast that dont somehow end up countering one another.
Huh, how is making the giga tanks even more giga not basically going in the same direction the devs are going tho?
Did support become more popular, or did dps and tank become less popular as support got powercrept to the moon?
1 Like
Does tank just not have a high quantity of different playstyles?
The difference between the other roles and tanks is that as the tank, it’s your job to get shot at. The other roles avoid that as much as possible, but as tank it’s not just difficult to do that, but counter productive if you aren’t taking the heat of your team.
Tanks are essentially made to be big punching bags, and people generally don’t find that enjoyable. This isn’t a new thing to Overwatch, that’s just always the case with games that have tank characters.
Basically during 6v6 there were only 8 tanks. One of those was Orisa, who was obscenely boring to play pre-rework, and another was Wrecking Ball, one of the hardest heroes in the game, and one was hog, who was consistently trash tier. And of the 5 remaining, realistically you’d dislike 1 or 2 of them because of personal preference. It was just a pitiful amount of variety, like I remember playing quite a bit of sigma even though I don’t even like sigma all that much just because I need something other than winston, dva, rein
You are right on there being a lack of choices, though that more boils down to tank duos really restricting your options if you didn’t want to get crushed
1 Like
It is because solo tanking sucks.
2 Likes
Because when a tanks good DPS cry that theyre not the most important player and do whatever they want in the lobby so Tank always has to feel bad
2 Likes
I feel that the added tanks aren’t that interesting to play or what many people want or expect from that role.
Junker Queen has no shields and doesn’t move around like people like with other tanks. Personality is unique but not very attractive to many in a conventional sense.
Ramattra is an interesting villain lore wise but he’s a pretty simple to play hero. Some people view it boring or cheap. Would rather use a Sigma or something.
Mauga attracted people’s attention with regards to Baptiste story but his play style is very simple and infuriating for some players. And again doesn’t really do the mobility/shield thing for their team or preference. Some people avoid playing tanks perceived in a negative light.
So, I think new tanks are just not really the type of heroes people want. And solo tanking old tired tanks that roughly do the same thing for years isn’t that great of an option some players either.
Because most people are quite stupid and have lost the ability to think critically. They just hear popular opinions and think “yeah I like that. I will adapt this one as my own opinion.” and they do it with everything. It’s the internet disease and why the world now functions in hive minds and tribalism.
Support literally went from the least played role to the most played role in OW2. In season 1 supp queues were 1 minute. By season 3 it was longer queues than dps.