Before role queues there was just one pool of heroes. People had in mind that some of the heroes were tanks and later they put those “tanks” into a role. But what really makes a hero a tank? If you look at all the tanks and compare them to DPS heroes, it looks like the definition of a tank is a hero with 2 to 3 times the HP and really bad hit boxes and damage roll-off. Another way of saying that is that the meaning of tank is a hero whose job is to draw damage away from DPS and be healed by support.
Why must this be the case? Why must tanks, by definition, be penalized twice (with size and damage roll off) for their HP advantage? Surely there is a new definition of tank that can make the role equally as fun as DPS.
How about a tank is a hero that can shield other heroes, and I don’t mean this should be limited to the static shields of Rein / Sigma / Orisa. It could be dynamic shields like Zarya’s bubbles or a shield aura. Or how about a tank is a hero that is unaffected by crowd control or cannot be headshot or has big melee damage.
Re-defining tanks would open up the role allowing for abilities that would make it more fun. Tanks would not necessarily have large hit boxes and high HP. But nothing would prevent a tank from having wall climb, or movement abilities. And most importantly it would make the role independently fun.
Ideally—in my eyes—Tanks should be reclassed to “Juggernauts.”
There should be two types of said Juggernauts:
Initiators: Juggernauts that serve as the breakpoint/battering-ram for the team (Reinhardt, Orisa, Sigma, Winston).
Bruisers: Juggernauts that are more about brawling than leading the charge (D.Va, Roadhog, Wreckingball, Zarya).
The role itself should be about commanding presence on the battlefield and being the biggest bad that the enemy needs to either be wary of or take down first and foremost.
This idea should work since both teams will only have one Juggernaut on their team, and having them play this way should garner more players to the role, rather than just making them beefier Damage heroes.
It would be like fighting a super-boss in those superhero movies: taking down the biggest baddie in a stylish way thanks to either brute force or strategic teamwork.
I guess a fat high hp hero with abilities designed to push the enemy back and give your dps/supports breathing room to do what they do. Take Eichenwalde first point for example. Bad tanks will just sit in the choke and never push left or right. Only they can do so because they have the hp and abilities to do so. If dps or support tried to push through first they’d get melted.
I think this is why people want to say “Brawler”. I view 'juggernaut" specifically like the Marvel character in games where they are tanky but they resist or endure damage, they can’t be flinched, have tons of armor and rush down or pummel their way through enemies in the front line. It would be like if Reinhardt could move like Wrecking Ball.
Or at the very least, has the commanding presence. Even something as simple as removing the movement penalty when Barrier Field is deployed can help out with this.
The most inaccurate statement I may have ever read. Just say you know nothing about the game and move on. There were actually 4 categories of heroes at launch offense, defense, tank, and support. They removed the offense and defense categories and lumped them all into one dps group.
One works with its team and tries to get them into the fight. The other goes right in.
As in the pics, even before rolequeue when we had more tanks they were in the minority, and because few people want to use them, you often only get one tank unless you’re REALLY in trouble and need someone to go second tank mid game, essentially the playerbase was self regulating.
The tanks had to be powerful to not get instagibbed when swarmed by three or four DPSes. And while technically this makes them really powerful (A tank main on a main tank and a healer main on a mainhealer can carry a 1-4-1) the way the mindset of the typical player works means they essentially never got abused (Even at the height of goats, you were still hard pressed to get two tanks)
The game went downhill when they tried to fix a meta that had been practically nonexistent on ladder in the first place and then forced everyone to use a single comp.
Tanks are heroes meant to “create space” for their teammates. The term “creating space” basically just means making an area safe for healers and dps to move in and perform their functions without getting killed.
There are 3 main ways this works in current overwatch - Shield tanks, Initiation tanks, and Defender tanks.
Shields are the easiest to understand, they just plop a barrier down for squishier teammates to stand behind. This role is filled by rein, orisa, sigma, and sometimes dva.
Initiators create safe areas by drawing fire away from the team. Hammond, winston, and sometimes dva can jump into the middle of an enemy formation, forcing all the fire onto themselves and allowing the rest of the team to push behind them.
Defenders are great at removing threats that are already on their team. zarya can bubble a teammate in trouble, roadhog can pull threats off of his supports, and once again, dva can fly in to bully enemies off of her team.
TL;DR tanks command enemy fire and attention so their squishier team has room to breathe. The choices are fairly intentional, and I wish you could enjoy the role as much as i do