I need to go get my tank placements done before she hits console, that’s what I think. I play Rein and Orisa mostly and I just see this as the death knell for shields. Would not be surprised if role queue disappears shortly after. If Echo is, according to Jeff, mostly used by the devs themselves to copy tanks, no one is going to want two tanks on the team.
2 Likes
I’ve stopped playing the game as my main game. I just keep tabs until OW2 comes out or more tanks are added. I’ve not uninstalled, because I still like to play the occasional pickup game, but past one game, and I get my fill quickly.
Stopped playing DPS because the queue times were disgustingly long just to get a result of a leaver or a bad team with trolls or no communication.
Play tank for the queue times, if I can get off Tank I end up having a good game, main tank games always suck unless I play during the work week and get people my own age on a team. With Covid going on, I don’t even want to see what the player pool is like.
Honestly it’s just really depressing. I love the game, I think it’s got huge potential, but it just has nothing going on for it. The community has told Blizzard time and time again what the issues are, and it feels like pulling teeth when it comes to the deves finally getting around to fixing it. It’s been several years and it seems like the tank and healer characters are desperately needed to keep role retention.
I get people want to talk about the game and not have to deal with negative stuff on the forums, but the truth is I have not had legit fun since the first year around launch, or in short bursts when a new hero gets released.
12 Likes
Echo is really cool, I actually like her because one of the best ways to use her is to duplicate the enemy tank and apply extra tank pressure combined with a very aggressive ult.
The problem is though, Echo seems so fun to me that I’m not sure I’d want to be taking on the tank role full time when I’d much prefer to play Echo and then pop out the most engaging tank gameplay (due to having ult so quick).
So in a weird way the DPS role will now have access to the most enjoyable tank gameplay, partly because you get to do the clutch bits without doing the more defensive stuff.
I kinda wish they continued to experiment with 1/3/2 to be honest because to my suprise the tank gameplay in that was some of the most fun tank gameplay I’ve had in Overwatch.
On the whole, I think if they want to stick with 2/2/2 then they really need to work hard toward balancing out the options in each role. If they are not going to take something like 1/3/2 further then they need to add more tanks to entice more players to play it and give tanks more options for swapping up the overall gameplay.
3 Likes
Ligma is banned this week, so I’ve been rocking Hammond and Winston so far. Fun stuff! I’ve been pretty much one-tricking Sigma this season, so it’s fun to get back to my other tank choices.
Preddy shiddy.
Double Tank Ban incoming and Echo announcement is a complete disaster.
I wanted Echo to be an innovative and fun Tank.
I expected her to be a Support and I would have been completely fine with that.
What I definitely didn’t see coming was DPS Echo 
It’s probably time to Q up as DPS until OW2 release 
5 Likes
Sounds like solvable problems to me.
Imagine if Sigma and Orisa were fully viable solo barrier tanks.
Without any sort of concern about DoubleBarrier making the game super boring.
And with the potential to give strong buffs to Tanks, to make them more enticing to DPS players.
None of your topics about this made a good impression on me I’m afraid.
2 Likes
I can assure you this one has zero midgame changes to Tanks.
This one allows for 24/7 offtanking fun if people are so inclined.
Plenty of room for Tank buffs for Sigma/Orisa.
And it makes a ton easier to design future Tanks.
It sucks being a tank main honestly .Tanks are really underpowered atm and im sick of it .DPS just have so much power creep .
10 Likes
So, my honest opinion is this. Echo seems incredibly fun and engaging. She also seems to be incredibly OP to me because of how easy it will be for her to burst down tanks. It’s nothing for her to ambush a tank and basically delete it.
I really like the character in a lot of ways, but I have some concerns that she’ll make tanking even harder and less enjoyable. I also think that it’s going to have a negative impact on DPS queue times and I am worried about that for many reasons.
I guess I’m apprehensive. I’d love to play her a bit, but that will mean one less tank and one more DPS and if even a small percentage of tank players are doing that then we’ve got a problem.
Sure would be nice if both teams went double offtank then, huh?
Or you could just ALWAYS get offtank, and have a guaranteed barrier tank player on your team.
Waiting idly by for Valorant while playing the Diabotical beta. Basically only playing Mystery Heroes the bare minimum to get event items, but I doubt I’ll stick with it for long.
Devs either don’t care or have no idea how to make the tank/support roles enjoyable and put them on equal footing with the DPS (and, in fact, often seem to make decisions in spite of them).
I see no point in dumping any more time into this game.
1 Like
She’s going to be a pain to deal with as tank I assume with her shield shredding ability. She can also ignore the shield and shoot her sticky AoE shots, damaging everyone behind the shield if no one keeps her in check.
However, imho, making her a DPS was the smarter move. If she was a Support, every DPS will be skipping queue to play Echo as a DPS because she can transform herself into any hero on the enemy side.
Pair that up with DPS playing DPS Moria/Ana/Baptise, or as Zen/Lucio, it will be hell playing tank for the team. There will be so much complaining about why no one is healing.
At least as a DPS, she does not reduce the amount of Tank or Support unit in the team, and according to the dev internal testing, the most popular use of Echo’s ult is to change into Tank or Support except for specific scenarios.
2 Likes
You remember when tanks were supposed to feel like a team leader and shot caller, a raid boss even.
Now I just feel like the Diablo 3 lootgoblin. Sure I have slightly more health then the average enemy but who cares I’m here to fill the DPS ults and distract from killing my teammates for .05 seconds.
I have in all honesty stopped playing, the tank role feels really bad to play. Its boring, I don’t feel like I have any real impact and most of the time my team will blame either my healers or me for not covering enough, even though all I do most of the time is cover and stop flankers all round long to little success. Mostly because time to kill is so out of wack for certain heroes. How do you even stop doomfist from killing your healers when the tanks that are good can’t even peel without getting your team murdered?
Echo just feels like another gut punch. A DPS with an out of control stacking ult, long range tank buster, with tons of escape and no way to reach her at close range.
So once again the queue gets longer for everyone, either wanting to play DPS or for all of those that just frankly don’t want to play a very weak and stale tank or support roster. Feels bad man.
11 Likes
Not the most fun it’s ever been, don’t really understand the need for another tankbuster character. A little worried cause Rein is the strongest pick right now, but dealing with her hovering out of your reach is gonna be miserable if you try play as him. Especially in lower ranks where people won’t have the aim to shoot her down for you.
I know the obvious concern was “adding another DPS will make DPS queue times longer” but I think if she turns out to be a must-pick, it’s going to make Tank players stop queuing up as often as well.
I can at least acknowledge she’s a fun and interesting hero, and I’m curious to see what strategies and team comps people get to work around her. But I don’t think the fun of it will transfer across to playing tank
4 Likes
While I am not feeling anywhere near as much angst as a lot of our support players are (though I was expecting her to be a support as well), I confess that I am concerned.
It’s, unfortunately, a given now that new heroes are introduced purposefully unbalanced in order to generate both buzz for the character itself, and collect stats on how the character is used and how other players react to them. How unbalanced is up for debate, but generally from a (subjective) POV there are variances. They can range from the outrageous e.g. Brig 1.0, to the relatively benign e.g. Ana.
Echo, from what I have experienced on the PTR and what others have said about their own experiences, seems to be much closer to outrageous territory than benign. Her shield shredding abilities will further encourage the need for two shields … just when shields have been nerfed, and now hero bans. Her focusing beam is going to cause quite a few headaches for tank and non-tank players alike.
But it’s her Ultimate that concerns me the most. The fact that she can transform into any hero (minus herself), while intriguing, also gives her their health stats and weapon abilities. She gets their ults as well, and the Ult generation is ridiculous.
As of this time, unless Blizzard decides to apply major patch changes to her before many months pass, I will very likely pass on playing tank when she comes to the live game. Just like with Brig 1.0, I (and everyone else) don’t need the added headache.
1 Like
I’m enjoying Tanking right now. Although, I’m surprise they would release a DPS when the queue is still an on-going issue, its not that big of a deal to me.
Same way I felt since they started the wholesale nerfing of tanks and buffing of DPS. You don’t feel powerful as a tank, you just feel like an obstacle with feet.
6 Likes
I’m actually OK with an idea like this. It’s been suggested many times. I’ve even suggested it before, just not with the cool graphics.
IMO this change would also be a good opportunity to make Mei and Doomfist official off tanks. Maybe even rework Bastion.
They won’t do it though. I believe Jeff already made a comment about them not wanting to split the role. I think it’s a good idea though.
If you think about it, she kinda does, since her Ult will let her use the stuns of McCree, DF, Rein, etc.