Tank players, who do you main. And for that tank, what supports do you like playing with on your team and which ones do you not like on your team.
I’m curious if there’s any pattern with what tank people play and their preferences for support. I’ll go first.
I main D.Va.
I wouldnt say i have a Main anymore, i tend to just play whatever i feel is right for that situation.
Favourites to play though are Rein, Orisa, Ball and Winton probably.
Supports i like on my team - Ana, Kiri, Juno, Lucio and Zen (Map dependant tho)
Supports i dislike on my team - Mercy, Moira, LW and Zen (Map dependent)
I’m basically a tank main at this point, I’ve had several weeks in a row where my most played hero is a tank so…
For tanks, I main Orisa and Winston.
For Orisa, I honestly don’t care what supports I get, anything works with her.
For Winston, I’d prefer something long ranged, most likely an Ana (as much as I hate playing against her), Nano is just TOO good on Monkey sometimes. Weaver is also a good pick, I’ve had my butt saved a multitude of times (and again, another support I hate playing against…).
As for supports on my team I’d rather avoid, probably Moira and Bap, as both should be near me for their ‘burst heals’ and that’s usually not going to happen. Then again, I play Winston very hit and run so ultimately, as long as I monitor my health and get out when things get dicey, anything works so long as it’s not two really low healing supports like Lucio+Zen.
When I used to tank a long time ago mostly rein dva ana mercy zen,I got good moiras too a lot, this was in ow 1.
Lucio was the support I had the most trouble working with.
For all the good moiras i got , i got 2x reddit bro lucis
And mostly resulted in me picking hog.
In ow2 I did little tanking overall Kiri is alright unless you get 4 step plan bros.
Lw was the toughest mostly cause you rarely get good lws.
Juno and illari were good mostly, mainly like illari burst healing to stop my feeding demechs.
I don’t have a main, I play all the tanks somewhat equally, though it kinda depends on the maps I get on any given day, for example, if I get a lot of maps with a lot of verticality in a row, I’ll probably end up mostly playing Winton, Ball & D.va on that day. (If I had to pick favorites though, I’d say Winton, Zarya & Ram)
My favorite support to play with will always be Lúcio, regardless of what hero/role I’m playing. Getting speed boosted around just makes every hero feel better to play imo, and his boop has some nice versatility, either for peeling by booping enemies away from you, or setting up easier kills by booping them into you, or setting up combos by booping them into the air.
From a gameplay standpoint, I really don’t mind any of 'em. The only one that can be mildly annoying is Lifeweaver if they do particularly bad pulls, but even then most of the time it’s just an honest mistake so it’s hard to get too annoyed with them imo.
Aside from gameplay though, I find Kiriko & Juno pretty irritating, and I think I’d be a mildly happier person if I didn’t have to put up with their annoying voice-line spam as often >_<
Ball/sig
They’re all fine, pick what you feel is best. If you go really heal heavy i will take more damage. If you go more dps i will take less damage go for more packs. That’s why i play those chars, unlike some other tanks that need an ana glued to their behind all game you can still do something with zen/lucio.
But if i had to pick, mercy + lifeweaver is the worst. Atleast one of the support should add some damage.
I don’t really consider myself a character main and sorta make a hero pool for myself. In this game, it’s Ram, Zarya, and Sigma.
The only support I don’t want is Lifeweaver. While a part of that is that pacifist LWs are common, it’s not the whole story. The truth is that his kit is pretty unpleasant to work alongside in general. Life Grip simply feels discombobulating, even when it’s used for a good reason.
If we really, really have to have a Lifeweaver then please, for the love of all that is holy, do not pick Mercy to co-support. The lack of pressure on the enemy team is palpable and agonising. My heart sinks whenever I have this particular support line-up.
I only play Rein and Winton when tanking because I’m trash.
Supports I don’t want are Mercy and LW. Not because LW is bad, but because I have trust issues with LW players and for good reason. And when you get a Mercy/Lucio combo…you’re in for a pretty rough ride
Give me an Ana or Lucio any day of the week. Charging to the point as Rein with Lucio beside you with speed boost feels sooooo good.
Not a tank main, but when I play tank:
Mostly play Mauga/JQ.
Like playing with Kiriko/Juno/Mercy/Brig
Dislike playing with Ana/Lucio/Illari
Neutral on Lifeweaver/Bap/Moira/Zen
This is entirely due to player behaviour.
If people are playing their character well, my favourite duo is either Ana/Kiriko/Juno + Lucio/Brig.
I mostly play Dva, Sigma, Queen, Rammatra and Orisa (I have even started playing mooga… I’m sorry. But I only play him when my hitscan DPS can’t hit the broadside of a barn and get farmed by pharah) supports I play Juno, Zenyatta, and Kiriko.
When I play Dva I like playing with supports who can keep up with me, lucio, Juno, mercy.
And DPS I can enable with my matrix, reaper, Cassidy mainly and mobile close range characters like tracer and Venture.
Sigma I can play with basically anyone but for queen, I will love you forever if you go people who boost my mobility and Kiri to stop the inevitable anti. Ramm and Orisa kinda do the same thing so speedboost and brawl characters please.
For my supports just give me a player who knows: 1. I can’t heal through walls
2. I won’t follow you if I know you will die
Then we will get along famously.
Ball, and (TL;DR) I almost literally don’t care so long as they can peel for each other/get value in the team comp.
In my experience, though, the Zen and Mercy players at my tier seem to have the hardest challenges in terms of getting the most value without maximum effort. With the new Pack Rat healthpack perk, my heal line is almost completely irrelevant to me. The only difference it might make is lightly starving my support ults on my roll backs. Which doesn’t matter, Ana is gonna hold that Nano until OW3 or waste it on me, anyway.
It’s been a life age since I’ve seen a Mercy who can swing with Ball and the DPS almost never go dive with me/coordinate my slams, even given 3 2 1 countdowns every slam/engage and pings on my squishy target. But this is in QP.
One caveat is I do crossplay often enough with IRL console friends lower than my skill tier/who are playing more to vibe than win, and sometimes PC friends (who do play to win) at higher tiers than mine. It’s all kind of scuffed though, cause I have nearly consistent internet issues (ping wiggles/spikes) because the oligopoly that controls my internet connection doesn’t play nice with the heritage area of the city in which I live. Been trying for years to get the government to hold them accountable, but you can imagine what that’s like.
If Winston, I like Ana, Kiri, Moira, Bap, Lucio, Lifeweaver, Juno, and a right-click pocket Mercy for the Big Zaps. Zarya, same supps.
edit: if I am forced to play Hog I need a Kiriko. If they don’t start with an Ana it’s never long until they get one.
Cool thread!
I main D.Va as well and to a lesser extent Reinhardt, Wrecking Ball, Mauga and Hazard.
For Supports, I have some mild preferences.
I hope to have a Mercy. I have a soft spot for Mercy mains. They are so sweet and adorable (especially the Pink Mercy mains). 
For the other main, I prefer Juno, because shes my Support main. Love that girlie! 
But really any Support is great. All of them do well at healing and having a Main Support of any of the heroes on my team is always a treat! 
My least favorite is a Lifeweaver support. Usually, they do not know when to use Life Grip properly. Even the ones that have good timing cause a disruptive gaming experience. I easily get dizzy from suddenly movements (no spinny rides at the fair!), so being yanked around is very jarring for me. But if they use their Life Grip sparingly, its not so bad. Then theres the Petal Platform. Again, improper Petal Platforms are very annoying. Most Lifeweaver players dont use them right.
Its always nice to see a Baptise on my team. Hes one of the rarest supports I see. I used to main him before Juno came along, so mad respect for the players who play the coolest brotha in OW2 
I haven’t played since they released hazard and so my answer is dated.
I only played this game to play junker queen. I’m not even a tank main, I am a dps player up until the JQ release.
As for supports. If you play tank you want a Lucio so we’re basically asking what other support do you want?
I preferred Lucio Juno + commanding shout. Rush rush rush
Most Ana players are a throw despite what this forum wants us to believe. Ana is one of the most aim intensive heroes in ow and most of the player base is just bad at aiming
General consensus was Moira adds more value on the average match by match basis. Ana performance is up and down peak and valley. So much variable. Where Moira is just Moira. Consistently easy value
Juno is the new Moira + speed and a better ult.
In short if you are a tank in 5v5 or 6v6 speed is your friend because speed over heals takes space and winning on tank isn’t always a k/d but a positioning game
Interesting!
I’ll stan for the LW mains, I’ve seen absolutely goated game-winning Weavers with insane mechanics and pulls/saves in my day, to the point where I felt obliged to type out my thanks/priases of him in chat.
If I’m on Ball or Winston (my two fav tanks), they can pull me out when I get a little too aggro, and I loathe poke with a passion (it’s babysitting ‘tanking’ while your team gets to play… not fun), so I tend to be more aggro than average, though I’ve learned through experience when to bounce out to donate to those sweet support ults. That said, burst in this game is fairly stupid and things will surprise you so sometimes that TightGrip quite literally gives you life.
I’ve also seen Weavers Grip-save stuff like game-turning Pulses and pull our McCAsses and BoBs for 4k+ Noon In There’s.
But I will say StrifeWeavers exist as well, they are undeniable, and extremely frustrating to team with. The man’s poor perks need hella buffs, though.
Also, though LW Mercy can be unkillable, they’re only ever on the Red Team 
In my experience, those pro Lifeweavers are rare! But yes, youre right. They can pull-off some incredible clutch Life Grips! I wish they were more common…
I’m a realist but technically/deep down an optimist at heart. I’ll hold space for/defend those Weavers because they are that exceptional! I play him sometimes and only hope to get there, someday.
A lot of people in the thread so far said No Weaver, so I had to speak up (and I knew you two probably wouldn’t get mad at me for quoting you). While I’m here all like No Zen 
I’m sure that there are some crazy LWs out there, but 99% of them are standing at max distance spamming healing.
As far as Grip goes, I’d rather have utility from almost any other support. Juno and Lucio give me speed not just to get out of bad positions that I get myself into, but to be able to rush down the enemy or simply get around the map faster. Bionade applies a ton of pressure. Etc.
A good Grip every now and again is such a niche scenario by comparison to the constant utility that others bring. It’s not enough, especially when coupled with the lack of pressure that he’s bringing. In some situations Grip can even be a sort of anti-pressure; that tank gets pulled back, but unlike with (say) IF or Suzu, he’s now lost a lot of ground.
Oh, they’re definitely unkillable on blue team as well. The trouble is that everybody else on the team is dead because they don’t have burst sustain and they don’t have pressure. And the lack of deaths make them feel like they’re not the issue. It’s a very stubborn Sym that doesn’t swap in the face of a Pharah that farms them over and over.
They do get a lot better in higher rank. Getting backfilled into a qp game with a silver one is terrible though. Like 50/50 if he is going to make a good play or ruin your play with grip. Unlike ana, kiri, bap or moira throwing their cd’s on you which is literally never bad even if its a waste.
But he does have some synergy with dive tanks. Like doom are free to use both his abilites to get an elim, normally that would be suicidal. Winston can be hyper aggressive and get elims that would normally mean trading. Ball can 5x slam into ana/cre, get 30% ult charge, eat sleep, get gripped back into team to share shield with everyone and then go in again with full hp and everyone having 75+ hp. It can actually be lots of fun.
And ofc you got some utility with petal.
Big oof.
Nawww, Zen has no defensive ones, his Trans is always 0.25s or meters late, and Blue Mercy holds Res like it’s her religion. I’d take Grip over those any day of the week.
No arguments there, those other supports provide way better utility (buff Petal).
I feel like this frequency really depends on tier, and I will say my bias is dive tanks and Zarya, so Grip-saving me where no other support could without ulting is invaluable, and Triple Bubble is kind of insane. But I also don’t deny your experience and have had BadWeavers so I understand where you’re coming from.
IF and Suzu will never hit me unless those two are completely insane at predicting when I’m liable to be crit in my dive sequence/pattern. It can happen, it just happens less than you seem to get GoodGrips. For me, it matters less if I lose ground because I have Leap/Hook to get in soon, anyway.
Not me! We Ball!! Then Mercy can Res that DPS she didn’t heal GuiltRes is pretty funny.
Hey… I Turret and shoot those vultures out of the sky, ok!? On maps like Defence Blizzyworld it’s so funny to watch them scurry after 4 turrets hit them from either sides of the pillars then you right-click them as they drop 
Fair point!
But please don’t get me started on silver Ana, Kiri, and Baps. Silver Moiras are alright…
Very fair, and probably why I am happy to defend him. But I’d also argue a useless Weaver is the same as a useless Zen or Mercy (or even Bap). To me, the idea he gets more flak for it just because Grip is highly visible doesn’t sit right.