Overwatch 2 Is Removing The Second Tank Slot From PVP Teams

Interesting. I'm not too up on OW but from what I seem to gather from a few games I play is that it's really hard to make people want to play tank in general, so maybe it's a good thing.

It's a surprising choice, to say at least. I like the balance of the current team members so, kinda disappointed here, as I play almost every match as a tank and usually each tank has it's own space

Oh wow that’s a big change. Honestly probably for the best. Means there’s a whole lot more tactics when it comes to choosing a shield character like Rein or an attacking blob like Roadhog.

Because yeah, we need to liven up a heavily balanced Moba and make it Spicy for the next box purchase. No wonder Kaplan left.

@Krysus It’s not a MOBA.

Ok I mean I didn't see it coming but what heck.

Is it me but with the first game, I really didn't like, and it seem'd alot of the balancing was based on overwatch league, I mean for some reason they would nerf character's only pros hated, plus showed alot of favoritism, I mean they will nerf some character's out the ass, and others just go untouched,(I think ashe was one of them but I can't remember)

I didn't really like this, I mean look at symmetra, they really hate her bc they wouldn't stop nerfing her, they keep't on kicking her wile she was down, wile character's like ashe, She was already a well rounded character in my opinion, but why in the world did they need to buff her five time???

And i'm not saying that some character's need a buff or a nerf, I mean bastion was busted ok (One of my mains) so I can agree with the nerf's, i'm just saying that I think overwatch league has a big impact on the game (Duh LOL), just saying, taking in your casual player's advice is not the worse thing in the world. (And when I say casual I mean people who don't play overwatch league) Also, Also, this is just opinion and nobody has to take this as fact, I'm not saying it as such, and your free to disagree.

@Snatcher I honestly can see what you mean. Personally, I think they should incorporate different rule sets for casual and competitive play. Lock competitive to the current character balancing but allow casual players to play on different character settings, like MMOs sometimes incorporate where they can play on servers running a different version.

@nessisonett

That matters. Not even a tiny bit.

@Krysus Well, it’s a totally different genre for a start.

@nessisonett Thank you, I have just been wanting somthing like that fro a bit, so you know, the voice of the casual players are just shoved in the trash bin.

@Krysus dude there not the same at all.

@nessisonett

To be very polite, who cares. It doesn't matter. Blizzard screwing the pooch with another IP, is.

"We feel like this is the next step in the way Overwatch ought to be played.”

Shouldn't that be down to how the playerbase plays? I don't know that statement rubs me the wrong way weirdly. Comes off as one person wanting it to be one way while the players enjoying the game another way is wrong.

I still haven't played the first game, I need to get on that!

@IronMan30 If you are I would get it on any other system that isn't the switch, its not the worst thing ever by any means, but its sure its not the best way to play the game.

I stopped playing this game after every update seemed more and more focused on the esports side of things. Even during the PVP Livestream they mentioned how less players and redesigned UI would make the game easier to follow for spectators. It's more than obvious that they're trying to make Overwatch the next big e sports game...Seems to me they only take suggestions offered by esports players seriously, everyone else is just an afterthought. I hope they're happy at least, it looks like Blizzard is making a fun game just for them.

I’m a Winston main (a tank), and normally I jump to the back to finish off the supports while the other tank holds or advances the front line. Blizzard would really gave to really change Winston’s mechanics for me to continue playing him as the only tank.

Why not Six, it mas a good number

I don't play much OW, but being limited to 1 tank feels kinda yikes..

Having two tanks with damage from 6 players split between them was fine.. having 1 tank with 5 players damaging it just sounds unbearable. At least if they hard focused 1 tank, you had another, or they both 'tanked' together. Limiting it to 1 just puts even more demand on that player and they probably will just make tanks even more unkillable to compensate, which isn't what was needed.

Blizzard just makes really bad decisions, its why HOTS is pretty dead and nobody really talks about OW much, OW had such a booming start then Blizzard existed and suddenly it tanked in popularity.

This just seems odd. It makes the off-tanks (such as Winston and Roadhog) a non starter to pick. They say they are reworking but these two will need a massive rework to actually feel like a tank.

The 5 player limit I am fine with but why not have the last 2 slots as flexible slots? So the screen would be something like this:

1x Offense
1x Tank
1x Support
1x Offense or Tank
1x Support or offense or tank (based on option not selected from player 4 above)

Still means you only have a maximum of 2 of any one type but can have 2 Tanks, if you so choose.

I still have this game in my Switch library and I wanna get into it but I really have trouble understanding how to play it. I doubt that this change will have any impact in terms of being friendly to newcomers and casual players like me.

Huh, when did Overwatch 2 come out? Weird how I haven't heard it mentioned much.

Edit: Can't believe I didn't read the first sentence of the article.

@Snatcher As it happens I have given up on this game this week. I only play casual and would consider myself to be half decent but have won 1 out of the last 12 games because the balance is just all sorts of wrong, both in terms of matchmaking and characters. It's pretty much always one sided games now, either my time get obliterated or my team do the obliterating, hardly ever get close games anymore.
When I read the patch notes I question their decisions every time. Nerf Baptiste for no real reason yet leave Genji who is tiny and fast so is hard to hit, does somersaults while still being vertical in his view, appears behind you and back again before you can turn around and deflects all your shots back at you all while flinging crap at you that kills quickly without having to reload.

why didn't they just let you make your own comp?
no more than 2 of any role
if you want two tanks and one dps - that's your team.
if you want two tanks that heal and then one healer - that's your team.

@path4smash just play quickplay until it starts to make sense.

@path4smash It's a classic of the 'easy to play, hard to master' genre. Agree with @MJF - play quickplay or even Mystery, get a feel for all the heroes and understand how they counter each other. When an enemy is fast, play those that can slow them down; if an enemy is dangerous at close range, find a long-range hero that works for you, etc. You know the drill. Good luck!

@MJF It doesn’t work. Every single person picks dps and no one is willing to change. There are seasonal modes that let players just pick and it’s a disaster. What you suggest is nice, but it relies on people being decent, which they aren’t. Haha.

As a pc player of OW from day one, I have to say I don’t really understand this change. People who like to play characters like Winston, Hog and DVA are going to see a huge change to their play style. Maybe they should just boost their damage and move them to dps?

@Bomberman64 It's not, they're just announcing this change.

Overwatch was better when they didn't force you to have 2 of each kind. It was much more fun when you could choose freely

@XenoShaun The player base can only play, and has only ever played, within the confines of how the game is designed. Saying they should only change the game based on how players play the game would effectively mean they could NEVER change ANYTHING about the game, because any change would alter how players play.

@Kiz3000 The tanks are all getting buffs so they can play way more aggressively, which is why they are limiting it to 1 tank. Having 1 fewer tank means the healers should be able to keep the remaining tank, and both DPS, alive more easily.

@itslukec no, it is literally the was you learn how to use your characters - then bring that knowledge into comp

I'm not entirely against this idea and I understand the immediate benefits of doing it, but I'm also not entirely for it either. I play tank 50% of the time, but that's because I love running around as Roadhog to switch up my usual damage heroes. If there can only be me on a team then I won't play Roadhog anymore because I would hate the pressure. I don't play MMOs because of this role lock stuff, so I won't want to do it here either.

@MJF @unobvious Thanks! I will give it another go this weekend! I play mostly D.Va or Orisa as a tank or Baptiste on support. I can almost never get into any matches when choosing damage so I am not familiar with the dps kits which is maybe the reason why I struggle. My experience in OW like another person here said is either you dominate in a match or get dominated. Matches feel mostly one sided, I am not sure if it is because they have good dps players but I also notice teams with good support players have a lot of edge. I may have to read on the hero kits to understand it better so I can read situations as I am mostly clueless and playing with randoms.

This feels like making a change for the sake of change. Still, they're also making tanks take less damage overall, so I can see how having two huge damage sponges on the field could really affect how the game is played.

@MJF not everyone wants to play competitive. It is not the end all of modes in games like these. Some people are just having fun. I like the 2/2/2 style right now, but I suppose having one tank could be exciting. When the tank drops all hell will break loose. Haha

Interesting... interesting enough for me to jump back in after a year or so to check it out. It sucks as the “off-tank” is my favorite role to play, and once the meta determines the one or two best solo tanks it’s going to be incredibly toxic (again).

The activity of this game must be dwindling. Removing a tank player though is very upsetting because I main, Rein, Winston, & Wrecking Ball.

@itslukec he was complaining about not knowing what to do.
if you're already playing quickplay - then there's no reason to worry about knowing or not knowing
the assumption I made is that they are getting overwhelmed - and I literally told them to play quickplay
I didn't mention comp
I let them know where they can learn to play the game.

@ilh
Ah so it's not just me. I thought the same thing, only went back to play archives a few weeks back, then stopped again and gave it a shot a few days ago. Other team had tanks with silver and three stars, we had two level 30ish tanks. Also a five star support, you get the idea. Rolled back to spawn within two minutes. Gave up and went back to Three Houses.

They will need to do rebalancing across the board because the problem I find with tanks is that the match heavily depends on them whether anyone realizes it or not. Bad one and you can't get anywhere as not only are you down a player, you're also down some protection.

@Bret Thanks for pointing out. Still haven't heard much about this upcoming title.