Tips for Main Tank

General Discussion
1

Starting to play Main Tank more. So just wanted to throw up this post if anyone wants to give some tips. Thanks.

Also, I do like playing agressive on tanks, so if there are any agreesive Main Tanks out there, tips for playing like that would also be nice.

2

Just like Ana says to rein in uprising Don’t just charge in there on you own

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3

Well damn, have to completely change my playstyle.

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4

If you play winston, dive behind their backline when you attack them. It makes the whole team have to turn around.

Also, Wintson’s bubble is for blocking cooldowns and cutting off healing, not for blocking damage.

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5

Get out while you still can, tanking in this game is currently the most frustrating thing you can do. if the insane damage spike doesn’t get you, the CC will.

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6

Winston, dont use your bubble asap, wait for DM or zaryas bubble to get used.
Rein, dont feed, suicide or any other stupid stuff
Orisa, time your Halt right to get low HP targets off cover or to stop an push
Just some tips

7

Unless your supports say they are going to hard pocket you, then feed your brains out. :wink:

8

A few going off the most common mistakes I see:

  • Your goal is to claim areas for your team to occupy and displace the enemy team from theirs, not just hold one spot all game (especially on offense in certain modes). Don’t be afraid to push forward and move around when there’s room to do it.

  • Unless your healers are Mercy/Brig/Zenyatta, avoid going past enemy barriers during a fight, because the rest of the healers will immediately lose the ability to help you.

  • For Reinhardt specifically, trust your teammates a little bit. If a Tracer starts poking you in the back, for example, keep your shield up and assume that your teammates will heal you through it and get rid of her themselves. She has no support as long as your shield is up, but as soon as you start trying to handle everything, your team loses their protection.
9

Even then, you migth take more dmg then your supps can heal. Taking some pock dmg is fine but dont feed your brain out.

10

Well yeah. 90% of the time, play like Super, but for 10%, it’s Bumper time.

11

Well, what kind of main tank?
We got 4 “main” tanks:

Reinhardt: Very good on offense. Hold barrier up. Move forward with team. Sometimes swing your hammer to clean up a teamfight, but seriously, keep barrier up for the damage heroes on your team to do damage.
Do not use charge for long distances unless it’s to get out of spawn. Best use of charge is either short range, or as a finisher after you used Shatter.

Orisa: Pretty good on defense. Pick a corner. Refresh shield often. Learn to “double shield” before teamfights. Use Halt! to pull people out of position. Use fortify to bait out any stuns and knockbacks.
Learn the Orisa shield dance. It’s great fun.
Can be used on offense but you need decent heals. On offense, put shield forward all the time. Use fortify to move forward and facetank some damage, then put barrier on feet. Get healed. Shoot people. Repeat. Just never ever be alone.

Winston: I can’t play Winston. I’ll let someone else write his playstyle.
I only know he’s a main tank because he creates space. And he does so by jumping the backline, dropping shield, and forcing the enemy frontline to come back and protect their backline. Basically.

Wrecking Ball: Actually a main tank, unlike what some plat-stuck nubs tend to claim. His tactic to be a main tank is similar to Winston. Basically you need to grapple, and bowl through enemies and push them back that way.
Or, you swing up, then piledrive down. Pop your shields. Get into mech mode. Shoot some heads. Roll back out but towards enemy spawn. Heal up with healthpacks. Attack again from backline. Your mobility is your weapon and you can likely do what you need to do without healers.
It’s why I don’t really like Winston; he usually dies before his jump is back up.
But, WB is countered incredibly hard by any CC. Especially sombra hack.

12

I drink lot’s of coffee and coke to stay focussed when playing main tank.
It’s a very tedious role that’s going to become progressively more annoying and boring the more you play it, as few other players ever want to.

13

There was a similar thread a while ago that I just remembered:

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14

So feed 100% of the time?

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15

Well, I play a lot of Hammond, granted I don’t consider him a Main Tank. Well he can work with D.Va, but that’s it for “main tanking.”

16

Hammond is 100% a main tank. Usually, he plays as the ONLY tank. He’s used in comps that play very split and have a lot of mobility.

ex: Hammond / Pharah / Sombra / Soldier / Mercy / Lucio

Very scattered, lots of disruption and damage.

17

Hammond is like top tier difficult main tank to learn. He might work well with any dive tanks or even barrier main tanks, and DPS heavy team with only 1 main healer. short tips is maybe watch Yeatle or if any Ameng plays if you can find them.

But what I know about Hammond is that he is a very mobile main tank with decent dmg,

with mobility you do not always have to rely on your healer to heal you, because healthpacks are your friends.

piledrive more, but if the enemy has mei or sombra, you might be screwed.

always make sure you swing high + press Q + then piledrive.

The rest of advanced stuffs are for you to discover and experience.

18

Well yea, when he’s solo tanking, but at that point, there is no Main or Off Tank.

19

Main tanks make space.

Off tanks support the main tank and peel for the backline.

20

Techinally, Off Tanks can make space too so you can run 2 Off Tanks and have one be “Main Tank”. Granted, enemy team can swap to completely crush this depending on the tanks.