Crazy right!? Tank class needs a sniper?
Okay okay. Not an actual sniper but a ranged hero with a reduced hitbox.
What the tank class really doesn’t have is range. And when you don’t have range you are forced to engage.
Sometimes the enemy just won’t let you play tank…
Recently they added illari a dps focused support whose relative power level is equal to other supports but what she looses in utility and healing she gains in dps prowess.
You could argue if you are loosing a tank in exchange for this hero…. You could have a soldier 76 with 300 hp and it would be fair.
Bc it still may not be competitive with other tanks…
So you could really crank the power level on it.
In summary a hero that is the power level of tanks that is not built to take focus.
10 Likes
How would the Tank actually Tank?
The primary purpose of the Tank is to soak/prevent damage for their team (which they can do in multiple ways), how would this hero accomplish that?
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Lets go with no, and never bring this up again so blizzard doesnt get any big ideas.
22 Likes
If we had 2 tanks maybe, but with 1, never gonna happen
5 Likes
If Hog cannot have a 20 meter DISRUPTABLE combo that has counterplay pre-hook, during hook state, and post-hook… We ain’t getting a sniper, cuh. This playerbase couldn’t handle it. Look at Illari. She has one of the best damage dealer ultimates in the game and people are mad about her low DPS rail gun.
9 Likes
So basically you just want the option to swap to Widowmaker for the tank role…
Have you not heard of the great and glorious Sniper Monkey?
10 Likes
That thing that is on front line 100% of the time? Yeah, make it never want to be there (so who is?) and give it big damage.
Yeah, great idea
We need a tank to complain about more than Doom. At least doom tries to stand in front of some bullets
The only way I see that could work is if that tank had a bob like deployable that takes the focus.
Something that can’t be ignored.
Still probably a bad idea, but it could be pretty cool to have a hulking figure with a sniper rifle.
Just envisioning it in my mind is all.
Some huge, hunched over dude, with a hooded cloak on, and a huge rifle. He could have smokescreens that he can deploy, which would act as a way to reduce/block enemies LOS and potentially protect teammates.
He could play around these smokescreens using his large rifle as a blunt object for enemies that get too close, maybe have some sidearm weapon that he uses as his primary weapon, and he can switch to his large rifle as a blunt object weapon (like torb hammer).
And then for his actual sniping, it could be an ability, where you can press e or something to load a shot into the rifle, and then you can aim it to fire. And the shot would do a flat amount of damage, but also slow enemies and disable any movement abilities.
P.S. - Still probably not the best idea to have a sniper tank, but my mind started racing with ideas as I heard this.
4 Likes
Yeah, I think it’s doable with caveats.
You want the tank to have SOME team utility. But you also want the tank not to be unkillable for the tanks that have to deal with snipers (poor dva 
).
I think you would want tracer rounds and a loud and flashy charge up mechanism for the gun.
1 Like
Yeah, when he actually gets around to using the “sniping ability” it should definitely have some sort of indication that he’s pressing the “I’m coming for you next” button.
Overall, I don’t think it’s feasible to have a tank that’s mostly focused on just playing long range. But you can give him options for long range like that suggested ability. And just make sure that a “tank who can snipe you from long distance” is his theme visually and gameplay-wise.
2 Likes
Sure. That’s why we have Widow.
Jokes aside, a Tank sniper doesn’t work. Tanks are meant to take space. Unless they literally made Widow again on the Tank roster, they wouldn’t take any space or hold it.
Dropping mini stationary barriers like barricades instead of the actual hero being the soaker of damage would be something I think could work.
1 Like
Hear me out…scoped fire strike
4 Likes
You could have a giant laser beam everyone sees at all times while you aim and charge the shot, have it be very flashy when YOU are being targeted, etc… it would be like one of those game levels where you are being targeted and have to run to cover. And the tank hero could look like an evangalion with a big sniper lol.
Ok now for the suggestion in an alternate universe that would make everyone’s brains explode:
You could make widow into a tank, losing her peel and team support, and make venom mines more versatile. Venom smoke. Then you change nothing about widow except selfheals on headshot, and extremely low cooldown on grapple.
Boom, balanced widow, gotta sacrifice a tank to use her. I kid, but could work. Lol.
Yeah it’s crazy but I somehow agree.
The popularity of tanks is miserable while that of supps, thanks to ana the sniper, is very high and now on par with dps. What’s more important for a game, the vague concept? or the real gameplay? I’ll choose the latter.
It doesn’t need to be a sniper. It could just be like cree. Precision/midrange hitscan.(Not like junkerqueen, the least popular hitscan weapon type shotgun.)
1 Like
I’ve wanted a sniper tank for a long time now. It definitely needs to happen. We kind of have it with Winston’s new secondary fire. But not the same. I want a tank that’s got burst damage and the aiming down sights.
Lets be fair…seeing certain sections of the playerbase rage would be funny.
Almost as funny as ow1 sombra and hogs combo making a comeback
2 Likes