What is this design philosophy? I get that tanks are supposed to be duelist kings that win 1v1’s by default against any other role, but isn’t it overkill to also give them the best sustained damage output in the game? Why even call them “tanks” when they are just DPS heroes that are are 5x harder to kill and have more lethal ultimates (on average)?
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Welcome to OW2. Tanks are just stronger DPS with a bigger hitbox and health pool, supports are just more versatile DPS with self heal.
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Tanks are doing the job of two people while only being one. That’s 5v5 baby!
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I can take down any tank in a 1v1 as hanzo apart from ball or zarya , zarya just has too much up time I jus have to play from range.
Ball 1000hp and no crit.
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Tanks need to be a threat in order to take space. This is correspondingly balanced by them being close ranged characters that have conditional range at best.
If you run into them, they will win the duel, but if you kite them, you’ll win the duel. You play the spacing game with them and win that way.
If tanks aren’t a threat, then they do nothing but feed the enemy ult charge. You can’t take space without presenting a threat. And the way that they threaten, is with their damage.
It’s why Winston became almost useless when people had the idea of running Illari/LW comps. Because nothing died so he legitimately did not matter at all.
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Zarya is the best followed by doom if he isn’t countered.
There was another one but i forgot his name used to be fat throwing chains and dismembering people.
This would make sense if the match was just 1 tank vs 1 tank. Fortunately this is a TEAM game where DPS heroes exist, who’s job it is to do DPS. The tank is there to defend their team with physical presence, be in front and take hits. That’s why they’re called TANK. Tanks having the best sustained DPS on top of that and being able to destroy people 1v1 on their own makes absolutely no sense.
The tank should NOT be the primary DPS. That’s what they are in OW2, and they should not be.
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No it still makes sense otherwise. Because their weapons have to be threatening. There is no reason to not just treat Rein as a deployable shield if he doesn’t do damage.
And they are good because they have a lot of freedom to take off angles and otherwise help the tank do their job.
No, they aren’t. The tank is there to spearhead the push, to break the frontline and get their team through the fight. They are not there to be sentient shield.
Because when they don’t have dps, they don’t function. Sigma is the closest to what you describe and he can do a one shot combo. He has an incredibly offensive ult. He is still dangerous.
And you know what happens if you walk up to sigma? He dies. Because he isn’t much of a threat up close. Hence why Sigma plays the kiting game. Because he needs to maintain being a threat, and can only do that at moderate range.
They are not the primary dps, not even close. They are deadly in small subsets. Dps are deadly amongst all.
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Ok so walk me through this. A tank doesn’t have enough damage to threaten you. Why would you not just walk past them and kill the 200hp supports behind them?
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Tanks can not both be. The worse role that can do nothing AND the role that is the best dps. 
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Nobody suggested that Rein should do 0 damage. Where did you get that from?
Tanks just shouldn’t be the best at DPS. That is all.
The tank doesn’t have to be the best DPS on the team in order to threaten people. They can do lower damage than DPS heroes and still be a threat.
Might want to check your scoreboard sometimes and look who is #1 on kills and damage done in most matches. It’s the tank.
Tank is the primary DPS.
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But they already aren’t. Fight them at a distance.
Damage done is high because they’re constantly trying to push for distance.
Kills is high, because tanks are always pushing for distance.
They are not the primary dps.
And they frequently aren’t the highest. Hell at this point one of the most optimal ways to play it gets low stats.
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This game is about capturing objectives, which requires you to get close to them. In case you forgot.
And they can do that while constantly dealing damage and getting kills. The biggest threat to a tank is a superior enemy tank.
While doing the most damage and getting the most kills.
Tanks have the highest damage output on the objective, and OW revolves around the objective.
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How would you suppose they push a line forward without dealing damage then? You say that “nobody said they SHOULDN’T do damage”, but if you’re pushing, you actively have to be disrupting, doing damage, and getting those sweet sweet kills. Do you want the tank to fold like a stack of cards?
Yes, which your tank can do, as a dps you are not required to kiss the enemy tank. You are perfectly free to maneuver around the point and play out of the range of the enemy tank. You don’t see dps in top500 kissing the tank either. They win the fight then win the point.
No the biggest threat to a tank is distance. Kite them. You will beat them.
Because unlike every other role Tank is not meant to have downtime. They are expected to always be on the frontline, their numbers are always ticking up. Their numbers aren’t as impactful most of the time. They are a constant threat. Dps are a conditional threat. The numbers differ as a result.
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Yet tank players will still say their role is weak.
This topic is stupid. The game doesn’t work if the tanks aren’t a real threat in their niche ranges. There would be no point in having a tank class
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Same reason some DPS are the best tanks…
That feel when Deflect is one of the best tanking tools in the game, and only 4 heroes can actually bypass it
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We’ve been there. They tried lowering Orisa’s damage per bullet back in early 2020 (IIRC) and they had to revert it because it simply didn’t work having a tank that isn’t threatening.
That feel when QP Genji stands in the open flashing his little weeb stick around and then gets hacked. 