-counterpicking out the wazoo, its literally insane at this point, entire teams of 5 will form a fat counterpick squad against 1 tank. tanks have to counterpick the most, & its horrible game design. either tank has to swap because of the other tank, dps, support , or all three.
-playing fair tanks gets you melted, & people wonder why tanks got the negative reputation of being “raid bosses” , because the dogwater balance of the game forces you to retort to braindead garbage like hog/zarya/orisa and magua to an extent. any fair and/or non-obnoxious tank is stress on the player. the balance is so bad that it makes bloated *** SIGMA look fair - the original “ana” of tanks is ironically balanced for the horrid state of 5v5, & its sad as hell.
-tanks are still blamed for everything. dps can clear as day have negative stats across the board but the glass ego bums with severe insecurities are still gonna strawman an excuse about tank. support too. and its always the worst player that runs their mouth first. even with dps being the power role right now , its still ''wE LoSt oUR tANK, gg" .
-least endorsed role, because nobody plays tank and overlook their contribution unless they won by a stomp.
affected by bad teams the most. if its a team diff, tank gets crapped on the hardest
It’s really 50/50. Because it was a slightly positive change towards making the tank gameplay feel better, but then again tank vs tank matchups got worse which almost negates that
And even if it didn’t, changes like this are irrelevant when the real fix to the ordeal is duo tanking. Trying to compensate for that, or even trying to get anywhere considerable towards that surmount, is impossible with changes to a single tank. This makes changes like this irrelevant to the overall feeling of tanks
I was optimistic but as usual left very disappointed, tank is still by far the weakest (importance doesnt equate to strength) most team dependant and least fun role. I hate to say it but its always gonna be this way in 5v5 unless tanks are litterally gods
My suspicion on what they wanted to achieve: less damage done to armoured targets would cause Hog, Orisa, and Mauga to sink out of sight. Hog and Mauga would become tankier but be less of a tankbuster.
The reality: Orisa was probably more impacted by the separate and targetting beating with the nerf bat. Hog needed a hotnerf. Mauga’s still in OWCS.
playing ranged dps against good tanks is really annoying in multiple cases. While your tank is busy trying to kill squishies, the enemy tank is up your butthole the whole game and you can’t really kill him, even if he’s technically inting hard. this counts for dive tanks especially.
the only way to solve this problem is using voicechat and suggesting your teammates to focus the lone tank or bait out their cooldowns or even switch to mediocre hardcounters aka. sombra, reaper, bastion etc. which doesn’t really help the situation for both sides and launches the game into an endless abyss of toxicity.
some would say skill issue and they’re probably right it takes much more coordination and flexibility in counterpicking to succeed vs. a good playing tank than ever before. this is where all the one-sided steamrolls come from:
a lot of players don’t want to be counterpicking constantly and suggesting to swap makes people mad and mentally booms the team. So, you take the steamroll either way.
On the other hand, if you’re playing tank, you’re going to face a lot of heroes that are good against tanks, anything that denies value, helps to burst you down or stun you. Even more so after the midseason patch. It’s needed to keep you in check, but it’s the reason why people hate to play the solo tank.
The changes have made Rein broken af. Monkey pretty broken too.
Ana still bullies the same tanks she always did and makes them unfun to play.
Nothing much changed - broken tanks and Ana ruining the fun and counter-swapping constantly. They added venture to the “too much CC” lineup so you now get games against doom+venture+lucio (+junk sometimes) which are completely unplayable even with the knockback passive.
Overall I’m sticking with DPS until something changes that makes them fun, like reworking Ana.
They made Winston and Rein actually playable and vaild without completly invalidating the other tanks.
Orisa is kind of throwish but nobody likes her so we wont complain.
This is literally the second time (since season 2 which still sucked because it was JQ trumps all) that tanks are the strongest and most oppressive role, so you’re clearly smoking glue and playing with a major headache if you think they are bad rn.
Yes, it’s a weird take to say “The armor change makes tanks deal less damage and receive more damage” It made armored tanks take less damage from some sources and more from others, and even made some tanks deal more damage, not less. It isn’t just all bad like your first comment said.
Every tank would be gutted if it was 6v6 bruv. Tanking would feel way worse
They made tanks get more inherent value which makes them more unfun. They need to nerf down tanks inherent value (giving skill based value) or else they will just get more unfun to play. By what I have been hearing some 40% of tanks stopped playing in the last month or so. They are making major mistakes on balancing tanks. Though it doesnt help that Mauga and Hog are still taking over the meta. Please just gut these heroes.
I feel like that’s the common consensus right now, including for me.
The best way I can describe how tank feels, is that you are either the best player in the lobby and can’t lose, or you are the worst player in the lobby and can’t play. There seems to be absolutely no in-between, but in the rare cases that both tanks are equally matched, it becomes a team diff. Such a weird role.
Non-symmetrical game formats like 5v5 are just not able to be balanced.
Passives as Band-Aids have made the game more stale for EVERY SINGLE ROLE in the game. (excluding the heal over time everyone got)
Tanks can’t easily kill other tanks so they get less people to shoot and get all the CC focused on them alone. They’re expected to take all the space and be everywhere at once. This also dumbs down their gameplay loop cause they don’t have that 2nd tank liberty of flanking or doing anything other than what they have to do in a 5v5 format which is mostly shoot the other tank.
DPS have more angles to flank on, but less people to shoot. Usually you don’t shoot the tank unless they’re the only person on your screen and you can’t duel them cause they are raid bosses with too much HP. This reduces your options so you focus on everyone behind the tank, aren’t challenged by a subtank, and the game feels like deathmatch for you. There also is no 6k kill pop-off moment. Getting a 5k just never feels shocking enough. They have also added more invulnerabilities into the game denying value and playmaking in OW2. The game is a chore with less options for dps.
Supports after the HP and hitbox changes have teammates that take more damage and require more healing, thereby reducing (for example) Ana’s player agency. Instead of having open choices, she has to heal bot more squishies as though they were genji, frequently taking damage to these larger projectiles. Tag the dps passive onto this and support role becomes more miserable as well.
“What happened?” Was Blizzard took the path of least resistance to make 5v5 LOOK like it works, by butchering and hacking away at the gameplay loops yet queue times and YouTube disdain shows that it’s going in the wrong direction.
If this game is to get any better, Blizzard needs to stop doing the bare minimum, pull up their sleeves, and balance 6v6.
Tank is by far the most impactful role on a team. In response to that fact. Do you know what your team does? They don’t support you. I’m not talking about support players. DPS are by far the most braindead players in this game. If your DPS isn’t helping your tank maintain dominance, you’re going to lose your game.
Yeah that is why tank is the least played role by far at all ranks. People would rather cheat and play a dps or support than pick these so called “overpowered raid bosses”.
The armor changes also effect Torb, Brig and Bastion since they have armor. Also Pharah and Junkrat are far more deadly now. Ever tried to deal with Pharah as a tank?
I feel as if tank has more or less always been the most powerful role in Overwatch. It has never been particularly popular because they are simply not fun. There are some vague exceptions that have seen the lion’s share of playtime. Namely Reinhardt, Dva, and Roadhog. Reinhardt is a classic and gives you the true “tank” vibe. Dva is a great enabler that draws out the waifu crowd. And Hog… He is a glorified DPS.
I understand that tank players or specialists definitely have different opinions. Tank enjoyers love Winston. Doomfist is one of the most specialized heroes in the game. But largely the vast majority of Overwatch players only want to play one of three I listed and that’s a huge problem.
5v5 has made all three of them far less fun or engaging depending on which one we are talking about.
It’s just a mess, man. No idea what they do to make the role more appealing. We need some genuinely unique designs and playstyles. The reality is we do not get enough heroes in a year. Even if the next three heroes were tanks it would be too little, too late.
