Understanding Tank Hero Roles

[Bromeo TTG]

Launch is around the corner, and there is still a lot of discussion regarding tanks, or rather, which tank is the best. In my opinion, I don't really think any tank is worse then another but rather they suit difference scenarios or situations. I go through what tank heroes work and where in this video:




Do any of you guys disagree? Or rather think certain tanks perform other roles better? I think its important to know the strengths and weaknesses with each given tank and promote the concept of hero switching depending on the stage you're at in a game.

[McFuu]

I love Zaraya. But her biggest weakness is actually the other team. If you are having trouble absorbing damage to boost your attack she is extremely lack luster. I think she excels at control point maps, where the enemy has to push her out of the capture zone. Unless you are down to the end of an escort, or time is about to run out on a capture point, she can 100% be nullified by ignoring her. Pretty much the only hero in the game to have that weakness.

[Senistian]

I think of Rheinhardt and Winston as more traditional style mitigation tanks. Rheinhardt seems to do best on mobile targets such as payloads where Winston can shine one control points. As for D.Va Roadhog and Zaraya I think of them as more off tanks. Granted any of the tanks can be a traditional style tank the way you play each of them is very different. Roadhog and zaraya shine when there is a winston or rhein also on their team. This allows them to break away from the objective some and give support to the tank on the objective. D.Va is especially an off tank since her strengths are the ability to get anywhere and in any hero's face at a moments notice. So if she needs to go and kill the sniper way off on the cliff she can't also be on the payload. this is where a winston or rhein comes in handy, they can continue moving the payload/taking the point while the off tank hero's go off and deal with the enemy team before they get to the objective.

[Bromeo TTG]

I love Zaraya. But her biggest weakness is actually the other team. If you are having trouble absorbing damage to boost your attack she is extremely lack luster. I think she excels at control point maps, where the enemy has to push her out of the capture zone. Unless you are down to the end of an escort, or time is about to run out on a capture point, she can 100% be nullified by ignoring her. Pretty much the only hero in the game to have that weakness.

Yeah I get what you're saying but I don't know if she can be completely ignored. I found it pretty easy to keep up high energy on most maps by just floating around with the support and shielding myself and them. I do agree that she is quite strong on capture point maps though.

I think of Rheinhardt and Winston as more traditional style mitigation tanks. Rheinhardt seems to do best on mobile targets such as payloads where Winston can shine one control points. As for D.Va Roadhog and Zaraya I think of them as more off tanks. Granted any of the tanks can be a traditional style tank the way you play each of them is very different. Roadhog and zaraya shine when there is a winston or rhein also on their team. This allows them to break away from the objective some and give support to the tank on the objective. D.Va is especially an off tank since her strengths are the ability to get anywhere and in any hero's face at a moments notice. So if she needs to go and kill the sniper way off on the cliff she can't also be on the payload. this is where a winston or rhein comes in handy, they can continue moving the payload/taking the point while the off tank hero's go off and deal with the enemy team before they get to the objective.

I find Winston particularly weak as a payload protector and would go as far as to say Roadhog does this roll better. His 600pt shield just gets torn apart so quick and with such a huge hitbox and no sustainability for a while after his weak shield drops he becomes really easy to deal with. I do agree with your 'off tank' concept, and I personally think when we start to see a meta develop that it will predominantly be filled with multiple tanks or multiple healers.

[Airlick]

D.va is not a tank at all, she's a mobile bruiser. She has no CC, no sustain, unless you consider boosting away to find health packs sustain, and no survivability under focused fire (though I suppose no tanks other than Reinhardt and ulti'd Winston can survive under heavy fire). Same goes for Roadhog, except of course he has a lot more sustain. You can't use them as tanks to maximum efficiency. Zarya also doesn't qualify as a pure tank, she's a supportish offtank that can do quite a lot of damage if the enemy team boosts her up, but she's as squishy as a Tracer without barrier. Reinhardt and Winston are the only tanks that could be considered traditional so far.

[Kalmakk]

I feel like Reinhardt is the only tank which is never a bad pick. He always has extremely strong team synergy, no matter what objective, no matter whether it's offense or defense, and no matter what the rest of your comp is. His skill set is just so generally useful that he's always going to be my tank fallback. Bloody good fun too. Definitely the most satisfying character to fill the "tanking" fantasy. Very simple for pub teams to make use of him too without coms.

Zarya is a tank that I've never felt has a very significant presence on a map. Her shields are easily avoided, her gun doesn't do very much damage, and with no self heal, her hp isn't all that high for a tank either. Her only really strong contribution is her ult, which, when used in conjunction with another hero alt, is almost always a multikill or team kill. Requires coms. Situational.

Roadhog is a really great character in general, even disregarding his "tank" label. I still don't think it actually fits all that well, honestly. He doesn't ever actually tank things. He's a disruption and target picker hero. His strengths lie in looking for key enemy targets like Mercy, Pharah, Bastion, Reinhardt and Widowmakers, hooking them out of position and ruining their cohesiveness. Roadhog has the highest skill cap of all the tanks, due to his alt fire's mechanic. Timing that shot so that the range is exactly in range enough to explode and hit a target with every fragment, but not so close that the shot's 2nd phase doesn't trigger, is very challenging, but when it pays off, it pretty much one shots any hero who isn't a tank. That, and being able to hook heroes out of their ult channels, makes him quite dangerous.
I've actually found Roadhog works well on teams that already have a Reinhardt, as they compliment eachother perfectly, and solve one another's respective weaknesses. Hog stays behind the shield (so he cant get used as a bullet sponge for ult charges) and eliminates heroes who usually try and flank Reinhardt close range, while also hooking in weak targets for the rest of the team to clean up from behind cover. It's a nasty strat.

Dva is a pretty obvious role. She's an aggressor and the best flusher of snipers in the game. Her weapons hit like a wet noodle though so besides this she really doesn't do much. Ult has such a long ramp up and obvious tell, that it rarely kills people anymore. Mostly for forcing teams off of objectives, which it's pretty damn good at. Hard countered by Mei in almost every single way. Damn you Ice Witch.
Oh yeah, once people get the timing down, whenever her mech suit dies, she's completely immobile and a sitting duck during her animation to jump out of the suit, so people with strong hits like Hanzo will just camp her exit space and wait for the free 1 shot kill.

Winston... Needs a buff, really. The shield is the obvious weakness. Aside from that he's pretty good at what he's for; Disruption. Especially in Ult form. He completely ruins team organisation when he's leaping all over the place sending people flying, even if he doesn't kill a single player. Individually, he's probably the weakest Tank... But when you run 2 of him on a single team (like C9 did in their tourny game against LG), there isn't actually a counter. They just wreak havoc. I expect some tuning to Winston to make this comp choice a little less effective, actually. Watching it happen was a bit cringey.

[McFuu]

Yeah I get what you're saying but I don't know if she can be completely ignored. I found it pretty easy to keep up high energy on most maps by just floating around with the support and shielding myself and them. I do agree that she is quite strong on capture point maps though.

Maybe not completely ignored, but she definitely is lowest priority kill. Where as the other tanks are highest priority kill with the exception of possibly a healer (situational). I also think the open beta really skewed people's opinions in the game. It was too short, and by the end of it, I still wasn't seeing level of play from teammates and enemies I was used to in closed. I did well with Zaraya during open, mainly because people kept feeding me power while I was shielded or I would shield a teammate. In closed you rarely get attacked, unless on a control map where they have to get you off. She is very very strong when played well on those maps.

Roadhog - All around good, excels in most situations. Strong self heal, coupled with high dps and the ability to cherry pick enemies that need to die. His ult is great at both damaging and disrupting. Does best with a Zenyetta for passive heals and extra dps or a lucio for movement speed assist and aoe healing.

Reindhart - Best on payload maps, both defensively and offensively. When there is a set line of attack its his time to shine, and payload is mainly where that happens. He is good on capture and control maps, but what makes him good there is either after the point is captured, or just trapping people killing them quickly. His ult is a pure disrupt, but if you get off a charge afterwards you can kill whoever falls into it much easier than you see the usual people swinging away.

D.Va - Best of capture and control maps when you don't have control. She is offensively mobile and bullet shield is great at knocking down coordinated attacks. Charge in take an enemy out the fight and fire fire fire. Once the point is controlled though, she is a poor tank, not the best of defense.

Winston - Great at taking points, a little bit weaker defensively though. He excels as either offense on capture and control maps, or he excels on defense in payload maps. He is also strong as a mid-game switch, going up against a team with a winston tank requires a bit more mobility, so playing as reindhart until you hit that D wall that stops him because of his slowing moving, switching to winston will knock that concentrated fire power down.

[Bromeo TTG]

Maybe not completely ignored, but she definitely is lowest priority kill. Where as the other tanks are highest priority kill with the exception of possibly a healer (situational). I also think the open beta really skewed people's opinions in the game. It was too short, and by the end of it, I still wasn't seeing level of play from teammates and enemies I was used to in closed. I did well with Zaraya during open, mainly because people kept feeding me power while I was shielded or I would shield a teammate. In closed you rarely get attacked, unless on a control map where they have to get you off. She is very very strong when played well on those maps.

Roadhog - All around good, excels in most situations. Strong self heal, coupled with high dps and the ability to cherry pick enemies that need to die. His ult is great at both damaging and disrupting. Does best with a Zenyetta for passive heals and extra dps or a lucio for movement speed assist and aoe healing.

Reindhart - Best on payload maps, both defensively and offensively. When there is a set line of attack its his time to shine, and payload is mainly where that happens. He is good on capture and control maps, but what makes him good there is either after the point is captured, or just trapping people killing them quickly. His ult is a pure disrupt, but if you get off a charge afterwards you can kill whoever falls into it much easier than you see the usual people swinging away.

D.Va - Best of capture and control maps when you don't have control. She is offensively mobile and bullet shield is great at knocking down coordinated attacks. Charge in take an enemy out the fight and fire fire fire. Once the point is controlled though, she is a poor tank, not the best of defense.

Winston - Great at taking points, a little bit weaker defensively though. He excels as either offense on capture and control maps, or he excels on defense in payload maps. He is also strong as a mid-game switch, going up against a team with a winston tank requires a bit more mobility, so playing as reindhart until you hit that D wall that stops him because of his slowing moving, switching to winston will knock that concentrated fire power down.

I found during closed beta I, or the blokes I played with, would squash on Zarya simply because I maintained my bubble on high priority targets like Lucio. Additionally, I would often find that if Zarya wasn't dealt with, she would eventually ramp anyway, its not hard to soak damage if you want to. As a result she would just sit on high energy and do way too much damage. I do think she is weak but I dont think the solution is to ignore her. We usually just focused her, the shield lasts 2 seconds. Better to just focus her since shes got such high potential otherwise. That worked for us at least.

I disagree with people saying D.Va is a poor tank. I've played upwards of 30 hours on her and I can safely say that she works just in a controlled environment. You've just got to play to her strength, poking and soaking. That still works on a controlled point. Upsetting an assault with your charge is a hugely underrated mechanic of hers, often lead to teams totally dominating because they were out of position and easy to target and pick off.

Obviously this is all just my opinion, but I don't think there is nor will there be a tank that out performs everyone.

[Airlick]

Dva is a pretty obvious role. She's an aggressor and the best flusher of snipers in the game. Her weapons hit like a wet noodle though so besides this she really doesn't do much. Ult has such a long ramp up and obvious tell, that it rarely kills people anymore. Mostly for forcing teams off of objectives, which it's pretty damn good at. Hard countered by Mei in almost every single way. Damn you Ice Witch.
Oh yeah, once people get the timing down, whenever her mech suit dies, she's completely immobile and a sitting duck during her animation to jump out of the suit, so people with strong hits like Hanzo will just camp her exit space and wait for the free 1 shot kill.

Yup... I think she could use a slight buff, either to damage or range on her gatlings (considering that it's not that easy to catch and stay on target, her gatlings should just blow people up at close range the way Reinhardt does OR she should have longer range so that she's not completely handicapped in the damage department if she can't get close) and to mech detonation time, since it's quite impossible to get a kill with it against people with half a clue, and she loses 1v1 to most characters - well, with exception of Hanzo, Widow and supports, she also works decently against Bastion. Otherwise noobstomper is all she'll ever be. I mean, I love her, but she really isn't that good and only gets worse the better the other team's communication is.

[Sanct]

Yup... I think she could use a slight buff, either to damage or range on her gatlings and to mech detonation time, since it's quite impossible to get a kill with it against people with half a clue, and she loses 1v1 to most characters (well, with exception of Hanzo, Widow and supports). Otherwise noobstomper is all she'll ever be. I mean, I love her, but she really isn't that good and only gets worse the better the other team's communication is.

I feel like D.Va is the only hero that should be a candidate for a buff. I really can't remember ever being killed by a D.Va, other than those hilarious death-from-above ult drops. Which happened in one or two games out of 200+

[Kalmakk]

I saw one of those "Overwatch Mythbusters" videos recently on youtube where they were testing what sort of terrain counts as LoS for her ult explosion. Turns out, you can hide behind one of those TINY roadsign poles and not take any damage what so ever. I did a bit of looking and found it, if you're curious. It's a bit sad actually. Feel like this isn't ok...

30secs in


Edit: This link isn't meant to detract from OP's content in any way, it's just illustrating a point.

[Bromeo TTG]

I feel like D.Va is the only hero that should be a candidate for a buff. I really can't remember ever being killed by a D.Va, other than those hilarious death-from-above ult drops. Which happened in one or two games out of 200+

So do you think D.Va is weaker then Zarya overall? Ignoring the first getting better at the game hump, when the dust settles post launch, would you expect to see D.Va get a buff over any other tank? I don't really think any hero needs any changing at the moment, but I definitely don't think D.Va is weak enough to be considered a buff candidate.

- - - Updated - - -

I saw one of those "Overwatch Mythbusters" videos recently on youtube where they were testing what sort of terrain counts as LoS for her ult explosion. Turns out, you can hide behind one of those TINY roadsign poles and not take any damage what so ever. I did a bit of looking and found it, if you're curious. It's a bit sad actually. Feel like this isn't ok...

This has been on Blizzards radar for so long I'd assume its been fixed. Even still, I'd say the situations where you're able to align yourself behind a small obstacle vs. just running behind a wall are pretty low. Who knows, maybe it is so negligible that Blizzard won't fix it.

[Kalmakk]

I feel like Blizz could at least make her ult do damage through destructible terrain. That'd be fine. The lamp posts on Kings Row are fine imo. That tiny road sign though, that's silly.

The only Tank I feel could potentially use a buff is Winston, and that's to his shield. Even by 50-75hp. That'd be enough. Right now that thing is like cutting cheddar.

Another weakness I think D.Va suffers from, is the unique placement of her Headshot hitbox when in mech mode. Because she's right in the middle of her suit, it's really really easy to get headshots on her by accident, without particularly aiming for them. She's the only hero where a centered body shot is actually optimal. Once people figure that out, she's going to be in a worse state than before.

[jellmoo]

A well played Zarya is brutally effective. She works in peaks and valleys, and can quickly tear apart a team during a peak. She has a fairly high skill cap though, and requires both coordination and situational awareness. She can't be ignored or she'll tear you apart, but she's also a poor focus point, as then her team is all over you. It's a bit of a weird design for a tank, but it's effective nonetheless.

For me, Winston is the weak link, which is a shame because I really wanted to like him. Right now, he's really only good at pouncing and scaring new players. His damage is really, really low and his shield is too easily broken.

[Sanct]

So do you think D.Va is weaker then Zarya overall? Ignoring the first getting better at the game hump, when the dust settles post launch, would you expect to see D.Va get a buff over any other tank? I don't really think any hero needs any changing at the moment, but I definitely don't think D.Va is weak enough to be considered a buff candidate.

Zarya is more viable as a defender than D.Va is as anything.

[Bromeo TTG]

Zarya is more viable as a defender than D.Va is as anything.

How would you categorize D.Va then? Or if you were to give her a buff what would you think is appropriate?

[Kalmakk]

If I personally were going to change D.Va, I'd make her defense matrix have a longer duration and broader field of effect. Currently it's her only tanking ability, and it's woefully underwhelming compared to the other tanks. I think if she's going to be justified in her category she needs to have her real tank utility improved.

[Sanct]

How would you categorize D.Va then? Or if you were to give her a buff what would you think is appropriate?

If I personally were going to change D.Va, I'd make her defense matrix have a longer duration and broader field of effect. Currently it's her only tanking ability, and it's woefully underwhelming compared to the other tanks. I think if she's going to be justified in her category she needs to have her real tank utility improved.

^ This sounds pretty good.

D.Va's LMB, with the movement restriction, is woefully weak. If anything, I'd adjust the bullet spread of her LMB, to give her a slight boost to her pressure at mid range.

[Maxie]

I'd just love it if her guns didn't slow her down. But that might be too big a change.

[Tojara]

Really don't think there is anything wrong with Reinhardt, Winston or Zarya to be honest.

Reinhardt is pretty much in universally great IMO, with his only weak point being control point maps. Control point maps generally don't fit his strengths nearly as much. Damage is usually king in these types of maps and you aren't usually setting up a defense. A lot of control point maps revolve around loosely sitting around the point if you have it controlled trying to pick off individuals or stop an attack from advancing. If you don't have control he's not a bad pick in some circumstances, but his approach is normally advancing from a direction methodically while others hide behind him to get attacks off and/or causes enough distraction that others can flank and break through a defense. Speed is a big factor on control point maps, and he just doesn't fit it nearly as much. Keep in mind a few of the control point maps also take advantage of pitfalls, which heroes like Winston are better at.

Winston is also good. Great for chasing down snipers and is also pretty nice when paired up with another Winston when attacking. Doesn't do amazing damage but can kill low health heroes and has great mobility. Pretty good at breaking defenses, at least momentarily and causing a little bit of havoc.

Zarya I find is often overlooked but has some nasty synergy with pretty much every hero in the game. Can protect a lot of ultimates from being interrupted with her shield, and also has good synergy if you combo ultimates together with her own. If shes rolling correctly she is just as dangerous damage wise as any offensive hero, but that's also her weakness, essentially meaning if she's ignored or not played well she won't be doing much of anything. Shes can be used in most situations in my opinion, but I think she excels in control point maps because that map type just forces people to attack a lot which feeds her damage. A lot of control point maps have very small areas, which makes her ultimate pretty devastating as well.

Roadhog is more of a roaming type tank. I don't think he's super good in competitive, but he can combo a lot of heroes in the game if he lands his hook. I think the biggest problem with him is also his current strength in the game. He's one of the harder heroes to kill in the game, but you don't really have to kill him to take advantage of him being in the game. He's a huge bullet sponge meaning that the opposing team is going to be oozing ultimates by attacking him, which in turn makes it harder for the rest of your team. As such he's only useful in a handful of situations IMO, but I think he's still fairly solid on the control point maps with pits in them.

D'Va I'm not really sure where she fits, because everything else kinda covers what she does, if not better. Her damage really isn't that amazing, while her mobility is inferior to that of Winstons. She's kind of a jack of all trades that really does nothing better than all the other tanks. Her ultimate in her mech is actually pretty amazing, but the time it takes to blow up is too long and there are far too many objects which can cause you to effectively LoS her.

It's pretty hard for me to think of ways to change Roadhog without making him too good. Right now he's incredibly hard to kill, and despite his downsides he can combo a lot of heroes in the game if he merely lands a hook. D'Va would only really need some small adjustments (a second shorter on Mech explode, a longer shield, and probably a few less things that can LoS her ultimate) to make her used a bit more. Other than that I think the tanks are done fairly well.