Overwatch 2 has 11 different tank heroes, and four of them received buffs or quality-of-life changes in July 11’s season five mid-cycle patch, making it so players might have to pause for a moment at the hero select screen.
Prior to the patch, the game had a number of viable tank options. Outside of Roadhog, Wrecking Ball, and Doomfist, which all have exceptionally low pick rate according to Overbuff, there’s a lot that just about any tank can offer in the game.
Junker Queen, Sigma, and Ramattra have all had some amount of time in the limelight over the past three months or so, but now with buffs to Reinhardt and Orisa, the meta might be due for even more changes.
Related: Overwatch 2 season 5 mid-cycle patch notes
In a developer blog on June 30, game director Aaron Keller said that the design team was looking to give the two heroes an increase to their “front-line capability.” Now we know that this is coming in the form of buffs to the two heroes’ front-line abilities.
Reinhardt’s Barrier Field health is 200 higher after getting upped to 1,400, and the damage reduction on Orisa’s Fortify is now 50 percent, up from 40 percent. Meanwhile, Ramattra got a quality-of-life change to his Ravenous Vortex projectile that can now go through enemies, but not enemy barriers. Lastly, Wrecking Ball’s manual reload time was reduced to incentivize players to reload without using the automatic reload from going into ball form.
Related: Best Junker Queen Counters in Overwatch 2
While Junker Queen will still likely be a popular pick on the competitive ladder, in situations where a shield is necessary, these changes might lead to an influx of Reinhardt players. Reinhardt is already a massively popular pick in competitive across all levels in part because of the simplicity of his kit.
However, that simplicity can be his downfall when pitted against newer tank heroes with shields, like Ramattra and Sigma. So having a little bit more shielding could be a difference maker for players trying to figure out how they want to approach compositions that need a barrier.
Meanwhile, Orisa hasn’t been an especially popular tank selection for a while. This buff to her Fortify might not put her on the same level as Junker Queen, who also lacks a shield, but it certainly moves her closer.
