Tanks in Overwatch are a failed concept, simply put no one wants to play them.
Just picking a tank heavily restricts the player. If you pick a tank expect all CC, all focus fire, all attention to be focused on you. This is the purpose of tanks. However, it also means that tank players have nearly zero freedom. You exist purely so the other classes don’t have to deal with all the BS in Overwatch. You are basically a masochist if you pick tanks.
I don’t think gigantic hitbox monsters with massive HP pools should exist. Heroes that are balanced this way are always going to be a sponge for CC and focus fire. Yes you are tanking this for your team but it means that you don’t actually get to play the game.
Personally I think tanks as a class should be removed and replaced with Defense, Offense and Support.
Defense replacing tanks and are designed to be like Mei.
Mei is already basically an off-tank but she can’t be bullied like tanks, in fact a lot of time she is the bully. She only has 250hp and a medium size hitbox but she can hold her own against nearly any hero in the game.
Tanks shouldn’t force players to play in a particular way, they should just help control points and push past chokes. Beyond this tanks and all other heroes should have the freedom to be played how they want.
No forcing the entire team to stay behind shields.
No forcing the tank to stay in one place.
No forcing focus fire/CC on one hero.
That would help, and so would making tanks actually capable of tanking. The card system in Paladins makes it easy to punish compositions like GOATS, which Overwatch didn’t really allow for without them. It also made 4-5 DPS viable through allowing lifesteal and not needing healers or tanks as much.
I don’t think tanks themselves are a failed concept, but the way the community has reacted to them (thinking of tanking as a “role,” demanding a shield instead of using cover and movement, generally trying to medieval-ize a shooter) has been atrocious.
We need to stop forcing people to play tanks, and start talking about movement and area denial as fundamental, rather than “tanks.”
I do and many others do. Its a great concept in a team oriented game imo
This isnt how tanking in overwatch is though.
Imo tanking is a great in OW. It can be a very decent mix of damage dealing, killing, making space, peeling and being the winning difference in fights. Its just let down by
no tips on how to tank properly (focus on making space, peeling, shielding, leading the line etc) for newbies who never played it before.
lack of hero choice made worse by need for main/off tanks
Good for you and those many others.
However, virtue signalling doesn’t take away from the fact that tanks are by far the smallest player pool in the game.
The problem is not enough people share your opinion. People don’t like playing tanks.
No tips of how to tank properly
Lack of hero choice
Damage creep
I do agree these contribute to why people don’t want to play tanks but I don’t think they are the defining factors.
If the devs fixed this all tomorrow, I don’t think people would be flocking to play tanks.
Well
A tank should be someone to fear
They should by default have some sort of immunity to cc. Not fortify though
They could all have some sort of reduction, so while orisa has CC immunity as well as zarya, and rein has boop reduction, some characters could have stun reduction as a passive so they are the pick of counterplay
Not only that, but my concept of tank is pretty similar to what we saw in 1-3-2, dva was immortal and I loved that. Zarya was an actual tank and not a fat DPS, and I loved that
Rein was a bit more oppressive
Winston had a bit more durability
I think tanks should be more focused on having abilities to prevent damage and having a decent amount of armor to survive like in 1-3-2, since they become more tank and less fat DPS
Do we need hard changes? Yes
If someone has too much armor we could get a character that is an armor buster, healers also need a buff so keep up with the damage, and so on
I didn’t. They made her dumber in 1-3-2. You have to keep the shield managing system difficulty the same for me to like 1-3-2. Not here press e bubble and act like Lucio.
I dno i personally feel like the devs could get more people on tanks if they actually put the effort in.
I started playing mainly dps and shared the same opinions of tanks as many others but after shifting mainly toward this role i see that i was ignorant and didnt actually understand the carry/fun potential mostly because u have to learn it for yourself, and its a lot harder a role to learn than dps and healer imo.
Tanks will always be the smallest playerbase (im sure they probably are on most games) but i think in a team oriented game its healthy to have a selfless role that requires so much thought.
