🔸 Why Tanks are Unpopular

General Discussion
1

(Summary below)

Tanks are unpopular because:

1- First, people like the FREEDOM to KILL stuff, not babysit teammates.

2- They also like MOBILITY to FLANK and/or SNIPE to kill stuff with their guns & weapons.

3- For killing they like a good GUN & WEAPON gameplay FEELING, generally a FAST & LETHAL one.

You can’t do that properly with Tanks because:

#1
-Pushing a front-line and/or peeling for teammates may feel like a duty/responsibility or babysitting.

#2
-Well, Tanks are big targets, they are easy to be focused by damage and CC, which (in exchange) is what makes them good to draw attention away from their teammates to work around under less damage pressure (more freedom).

-Most of the options we have are slow and also very dependent on supports to ensure they endurance to do their jobs.

-It’s an under pressure and team reliant (less independent) role.

#3
-Most of them lack long range.

-Winston has a low damage over time beam weapon; Rein and Sigma have higher damage, but slow fire rate; Orisa, D.Va and Hammond have lower damage, but fast fire rate.

-Only Zarya and Hog get the fast & lethal feeling (with tradeoffs, of course) and that’s why they’re more popular among damage-focused players.

By having 2 tanks in each team at least they can divide/share the pressure and the attention they draw to them and they bring relevance to the role since they cannot be potentially ignored in comparison to what could happen in a solo tank environment (like in the past or future - 132).

But, unfortunately, it is an unpopular role.
Everybody wants tanks on their team, but no one wants to play them.

Summary:
-People like the FREEDOM and MOBILITY to FLANK and/or SNIPE with FAST & LETHAL guns/weapons to KILL stuff, not to babysit teammates.
-Tanks are not popular because pushing a front line or peeling may feel like a duty or babysitting. Most of them have a slow or stationary gameplay (few mobile options). Most of them don’t have a fast & lethal weapon feeling.
-Also, despite the fact that they are more durable, the tradeoffs are that they are bigger targets, easier focused by damage and CC.

It ends up being an under pressure role that also lacks some popular gameplay appealing aspects.

17 Likes
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Lack of playstyles, fam. We still lack literally the most basic… ranged hitscan. No wonder people playing a shooter are not into it. Go figure.

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Unless it’s the two tanks you mentioned

Maybe that’s why I play them so much :thinking:

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I figure that the most popular tanks are the most lethal (Hog and Zarya) or the most mobile ones (D.Va, Hammond and Winston) in terms of appealing gameplay.
Since Sigma has a flexible barrier and deals good damage he also has some appealing.
Rein and Orisa gameplay are the ones less attractive I may say.

5

Having chad energy to deal with gengus are my reason to play them both.

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I keep saying it, it’s because of how the DPS class works.
We can’t have high damage tanks who have an engaging role in team fights because then they are fulfilling the DPS’s job and a tanks job. The DPS class need to be able to have some other utility aside from high damage, take Sombra for example, she was one of the only DPS viable during Goats because she had something no tank could provide. Im telling you, the tank role could be much more engaging if all DPS had some other utility aside from high damage so that way you can have tanks with high damage who don’t make DPS look useless. But alas only DPS are allowed to have high damage and an active role in team fights because otherwise they would be a useless role, so tanks must simply be something for the enemies to shoot at.

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I love the tanks for Paladins, they actually can kill stuff.

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I don’t really see a problem with that.

Because of 2-2-2 they should be making each role more equally popular, even if that means they are unequal on impact to the outcome of the match.

The equal impact idea is a fossil from back when the game was balanced around OpenQueue.

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Because the tank role has a much much more niche audience within FPS games. It doesn’t matter how unique they make each tank, if the entire job of the role is to be a wall that directs enemy fire, very little people are going to want to actually do that.

then thats surely going to turn off even more people from the role, theres a very small group of people that like playing tank and an even smaller group willing to voluntarily play a role with a lesser impact on the match.

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So make Tanks more fun, even if that means Tanks are more impactful than DPS.

The whole idea of balancing for equal impact is a fossil from when the game was balanced without a RoleQueue.

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Then you’re just going to end up with a role of blatantly OP characters, which will just lead to players of the other two roles quitting until eventually you have the same situation, but with the tank class and dps classes positions swapped.

Theres absolutely no way that a system where one class is blatantly more impactful than the other two is ever going to fly and the only reason it seems to be “fine” right now is because half the tank class left the game after their main got gutted and the other half is just silently hoping blizzard actually does something to help them.

12

You seem convinced that DPS would more readily quit the game, then switch roles.

Even if the other role is deliberately made to be fun for otherwise DPS players.

1 Like
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Unlike tanks and supports, DPS players have tons of games that support their playstyle that they can quit and go play. Trust me tons of DPS players would have no issue leaving the game.

So if it’s made for DPS players why even have roles at that point, since two roles are meant to appeal to the same type of people.

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…I do… On dps

Sure…on dps

Yes …on dps

I don’t que to play dps

Dva was popular even when considered trash and much less mobile

I disagree.

I like zarya because she’s the only tank not gutted from tanking.

That’s it. Every other tank was destroyed for what I want them to do: tank.

Cept rein but…I outgrew him in like season 7

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people have no patience, but there are few things as satisfying as landing a huge shatter and just cleaving their butts out of the ground, the instant on fire, the massive killfeed, it gets your blood pumping!
as frustrating as Rein is, when you are in the zone and you carry your team and you win, it feels good.

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The problem with tanking is that if you actually know what you are doing on tank theres a 90% chance the Matchmaker pairs you with a pepega tank that just rolls around on ball and feeds all game.

Or that your DPS rage when they can’t finish a kill and blame the tanks even though you’ve personally had several enemies at 1 but your Gengi is 100 yards away dueling Tracer.

Or that you get the DPS Moira+Boostio comp and you get zero healing on your first 3 deaths and get called toxic for asking what’s up.

That’s why people hate tanking. It’s so important but the whole team treats it as a luxury to be used in passing at best. The tank characters themselves are secondary to the issue.

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My take,
Every tiny tank mistake is amplified because of the amount of damage coming in from the other team. Every slight misstep, every tiny bit of bad positioning or bad shield timing, is punished far more than any small slip up on support or dps. And that, is stressful. Why would people play a class with very little fun return on the stress investment? I sure as heck don’t.

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I don’t like tanking because it feels like most of the fun factor is in the hands of other players.
If my team sucks and I’m on support I can still have fun on zen getting some good elims and dueling tracer/genji/doom. No matter how lost the game is, outplaying the flankers or dumping a full charge into orisa’s face or demolishing hog during his ult is all fun times.
Can still land some sweet sleep darts and out play squishies that come for you.
etc etc
Similar for dps, even if its a lost game you can still have fun getting some sick elims etc

what do you do as tank when people don’t play to your strengths, or when you arent getting the needed heals

I don’t queue tank because my fun comes to an end once ppl counter ball. I’d be down to play zarya but if the other tank isn’t rein or if ur team is running around like headless chickens or if people are trickling, if you arent getting adequite heals, then there’s no fun to be had. so I don’t queue tank.

again, feels like too much of the tanks fun factor is in the hands of other players

1 Like
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Tanks take a certain mentality, patience and fortitude to play effectively. Most players, especially dps, lack that.

1- We like winning. Period.
2- Hammond/D.Va/Winston says otherwise
3- What are you, high?

Look if you just suck at tanking that’s fine, sit in your dps queue and s t f u. Seriously stop talking, you’re embarassing.

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Having switched to learning Echo and experimenting with DPS, I now think tanks are the most important role by far. Why? Because they shield/protect and kill stuff and have game changing ults. They can do a lot (as long as they receive support).

In bronze the team with the best offtank usually wins just because if the offtank gets a lot of kills it makes everyone’s life so much easier.

However the fact tanks need support is what puts a lot of people off. Without it, you die repeatedly. In lower ranks there is no guarantee that your healers will stick around as they often go on the frontline and this infuriates tank players.

So although being hugely impactful, tanks aren’t popular. That said, support isn’t too popular either. Everyone wants to play DPS despite it being less important than the offtank role. I mean, they even had to bring in role lock to force pro players to pick DPS. That is how powerful tanks are.

Plus I’m sure competitive open queue will be dominated by tanks at the higher ranks.

1 Like