The Overwatch 2 developers have released a blog detailing their thoughts about the current state of tanks this week and the overall balance changes they want to introduce in the coming months, with plans to buff the overall archetype in the works.
The main purpose of the June 28 developer update, posted on the official Blizzard blog, is to address player concerns about the tankiness and survivability of all tank heroes. Both developers and players have noted Overwatch 2‘s anti-heal passive makes it difficult for tanks to stay alive without serious assistance from their teammates, even after the tank buffs introduced during season 10.
Specifically, the developers have noticed that “both Support heroes need to focus solely on the Tank just to keep them alive,” causing situations where all three players feel chained to each other throughout the match. This creates scenarios where certain damage dealers receive no help from their supports, or damage-dealing supports like Illari can not freely move around the map to attack the enemy team.
The developers continued, discussing different hero metrics they are tracking and including a new chart for the “tankiness” of every hero in the game. This tracks how often characters die throughout a match and how quickly they are defeated. The data is then compared to the number of times a hero is expected to die in any given match.
By using this newfound data, the developer team has concluded that every tank hero is significantly less tanky than previously, and assures players they are “putting together a patch that is targeted at increasing the tankiness of many of these heroes.” After announcing their plans for a tank update, the developers also laid out their philosophy for hero balance, stating that they enjoy hero-specific changes instead of roster-wide updates.
Overwatch 2 is no stranger to sweeping gameplay changes, such as removing 6v6 combat, passive healing, and creating the anti-heal damage passive. Now that all of these changes have settled into the game’s meta, the developers are looking at improving the gameplay experience for tank heroes.
The developers state they are happy with the sweeping changes implemented into the game, such as the anti-heal passive, but they believe “individual buffs or nerfs to heroes can have a dramatic impact on their effectiveness.” While the devs don’t detail the specific changes they have planned, tank mains can rest easy knowing their favorite heroes are on track to returning to their former glory.
