Tank Counterwatch IS a problem

[Koechophe-11425]

I’m tired of the devs making tone-deaf statements like this:

@Baja-11423

I’m not really sure how I am supposed to ask this, but

Is the current Balance Team confident about being able to fix the biggest problems the Tank role has been suffering since the OW2 release?

I’m specifically talking about the Counterswap Meta and unhealthy Tank designs being “allowed” to exist, like Tank busters and unkillable tanks (Roadhog, Mauga, and Orisa).

Are we confident that making Tanks able to do almost everything is the right thing to do?
Are we confident that we can make Tank fun again for the majority of the player base without straight buffs?

The headshot reduction and knockback reduction changes are especially interesting to me because I really don’t think that simple number changes will fix how Tanks feel to play.

I don’t want to counterswap.
I don’t want to face unkillable and easy-to-play Tanks.
I don’t want Tank Busters.

I really LOVE this game but it currently feels like as if we were going into the wrong direction while ignoring the BIGGEST Problems :c

At its core, Overwatch is a game designed around being able to swap heroes to gain a tactical advantage or help solve a challenge you might be encountering. This contributes to keeping the moment-to-moment gameplay experience dynamic, drives hero diversity and offers a wider range of both strategic gameplay and skill expression in learning when/where/how to play multiple heroes.

There is a question of how much of an advantage is too much compared to the cost of switching. Ideally we want counters to be clear and understandable, but soft enough that it’s still possible to outplay a disadvantaged matchup. It is a team game though and 1v1 matchups are not the highest priority when assessing the heroes.

Tanks do feel this the most with only one of them per team in 5v5 role queue, but all roles do experience the pressure to counter and be countered to an extent.

We’re striving to find a balance between swapping heroes every death, (which certainly feels too often), and rarely swapping heroes or getting trapped in mirror matches every game, which quickly leads to fatigue. We’ve seen a lot of improvements here compared to earlier seasons, but it could always be better.

Saying, “Oh, yeah, you’ve got to counter in every role” is so stupid when a DPS can just go soldier and stay soldier the entire game with no clear drawbacks. Or when a support can just go Kiriko and stay Kiriko the entire game with no clear drawbacks.

Pretending the game is somehow balanced when a lot of heroes ONLY work in niche situations while other heroes work in every situation (and better than the niche ones do) is silly. Pretending that it’s okay for tanks to have to spin between heroes like a top while other roles don’t is just going to keep landing us where we’re at now, which is with queues being bottlenecked by the role that needs half as many people.

This problem is never going to be fixed if the Devs don’t stop pretending that they know better than us and that it’s all totally fine.