If you’re drifting away from Reinhardt, Orisa, Ramattra, or any of the eight remaining tank heroes in Overwatch 2, you aren’t alone. As much as it’s a crucial role, players are beginning to switch to damage and support heroes, as the game’s supposedly ‘most powerful’ characters are no longer fun.
In a Reddit post dated Sept. 3, a player named KStardust1412 shared a few paragraphs on why they think tanks aren’t fun in Overwatch 2’s present state. According to them, there are a lot of different abilities, including crowd control, debuffs, damage boost, and more, to counter and heavily punish tank heroes in the game, making their game miserable.
But what they mainly wanted to shed light on was the switch to five-versus-five in Overwatch 2 from the original six-versus-six format in 2016’s Overwatch. “But the problem is not only about balancing. [In my opinion], the core problem is 5v5. Why? Because of the lack of Off-Tank, or secondary tank if you prefer,” they said.
As veteran players would know, Overwatch 1 offered a six-versus-six format, allowing two tanks in each team. At that time, it was a lot easier for tanks to tackle a shower of chaotic abilities, as they had a fellow tank’s shoulder for support. But now, with Overwatch 2’s five-versus-five format, all of the burden falls on the team’s one tank. And it’s obviously too much.
“In OW2, you are alone, the only big fat slow target, so everybody is focusing your ass with every unfun ability available, no other huge hitbox to mitigate the damages to let you breathe a second, not stressful at all,” the player said, and the community couldn’t agree more.
“If they are going to make 5v5 work, they need to commit and flesh out the utility of all tanks,” a popular comment from another player named Steggoman read. “Just look at Ramattra compared to other tanks. He’s an all-rounder with a little bit of everything, so he has been consistently a great pick with no true hard counter.”
Ramattra has been the only tank that has been able to offer enough counterplay against Overwatch 2’s DPS and support heroes and not get stomped on in the process. He’s more suited to the five-versus-five playstyle than any other tank hero in the game, and it’s probably because he was launched after the sequel’s release.
“5v5 can work; they just need to commit, and instead of trying to make the tanks abilities stronger versions of their OW1 self, they need to give them the rework the tank role deserved by giving utility that fills in the gaps in their characters,” Steggoman continued, explaining what’s wrong with Blizzard’s approach almost perfectly.
Blizzard’s mistakes may be apparent, but it would be wrong not to acknowledge the difficulty of balancing Overwatch 2’s tank meta—and that too without overpowering them. They’ll need to rework the characters to fit the five-versus-five format, and it isn’t as easy as buffing or nerfing them.
