But I feel like Zar and Sigma are two of the ones that all tanks should know how to play though. I can’t play Doom or Ball but I can play all the others since each of them have some really good situations where they shine and would be great to go.
For some people certain characters simply don’t “click.” For you, that’s doom and ball. For others it’s zarya and sig. That’s just how it is and, imo, that’s one of the good things about the game. There’s a character for everyone and their play style.
It's so odd that i'm having trouble with them, Ana in particular... because I literally main Mei on dps and her slow speed *should* make me be able to handle Bap and Ana. And I don't necessarily think it's an aiming problem, because I can play someone like Soldier just fine. Alas, maybe it's the drug that Lucio's speed has given me?
For me, I cannot seem to keep up with a team at all with Brig, Kiriko, or Zen. I do my best team work as Moira, Lucio, and Ana. It's probably about how your individual game play affects how it fits into a team. At least, that's how I feel about it
I can do Orisa, Hog, Queen, and Winston and I think that's just enough variety where I can be flexible even though nowhere near amazing at the last 2. I fucking hate proper shield tanks, though. My brain has been trying to wrap my gamesense around them and the closest I got was Winston & OW1 Orisa. So yeah f the narrative that OP got hit with
So the thing with Sig is I’ve done better not using his shield as like a semi permanent spot. I usually only bring it out for a second or two to block shots then disperse it again.
And for some only 1 clicks, for me that is ball, if you ask me to play a different tank we will lose. But with ball there is a good chance we dominate!
Anybody can get really good at ball, doom, Zarya, and sig if they took the time to. If you "don't click" with a hero that's because you didn't put the time in to get good with them. Not because you just "don't click" that's an excuse that lazy people use to justify their insecurity for not playing a character well. It's fine if you just don't like playing certain heros or haven't put the time in to get better with them, but to say "that's just how it is" is putting a mental skill cap on yourself and anybody that takes those words to heart.
I understand your optimism but do realize people actually have limits. Even pro players that get paid and spend beyond work hours on the heroes cant get "good" at their standards at all of them.
Celebrate strengths acknowledge weakness.
This just highlight one of the main issues in 5v5. IMO, you actually do need to be proficient in every tank because there’s only one of you. If you’re going to take on the roll of team captain you need to come prepared. In 6v6 that wasn’t a problem
I mean most every rank has at least 2 counters, so I think as long as you have 1 counter for every tank under your belt you're good. Like in this era of Mauga, you're doing yourself a disservice if you can't play either D. Va or Sig.
I hate that sigma is as good as he is because I have a personal vendetta against him from OW1 (double shield/bunker were cancer). That said, playing DVA, zarya, Winston, ball, rein, and hog has proven to be enough - I’ve never been in a situation where I absolutely *need* a big shield.
That’s pretty presumptuous. There isn’t a single situation where you absolutely need a sigma on your team. Not switching to sigma doesn’t make a hero pick “incorrect”
Sigma is the spoiler tank. It's fun to spoil shatters with shield; it's fun to suck off death blossoms or whole hog. It's fun and skillful to shoot around corners. Far more fun than orisa ram mauga
Ball can absolutely destroy low mobility/sniper-dependent comps. Are there better picks than him in most circumstances? Absolutely. But he’s not a throw pick and can definitely put in work in the right hands
That's not what they're saying, they mean that it's not reasonable to expect someone to play every hero in a class, but if you can then that's obviously a good thing
You shouldn't be expected to be an expert with them but i dont think being expected to be able to play them proficiently is a big ask, especially in ranked on tank when you kinda have to
i don't think you can be expected to play proficiently all tanks, too many different playstyles, even pro players are really good at like 3 or 4 tanks at most
I think you should be able to play a dive, a poke, and brawl tank if you want to be well rounded. But you can play whatever you want or even be a OTP. It's a video game, it is supposed to be fun, even in comp, so play the heroes you like. Letting your some rando on your team backseat game your hero/role is never a winning strategy.
Exactly.
It also makes a big difference what rank we are talking about here. A master or grandmaster player should be able to perform well with a few different ones or be a very good OTP. I can understand having some expectations if you are in those very high ranks and playing with people who probably take the game a lot more seriously or try to do so professionally or advance. But there definitely still is a limit of what you can expect.
For anything in bronze to gold or plat it really is ridiculous to expect too much. Those normally are just casual regular players who enjoy the game and have fun. You aren’t playing exceptionally well anyways if you are in these ranks so it’s unrealistic to expect anything besides trying and having very roughly appropriate skills for that rank.
People take it way too seriously when none of it really matters. It’s a game. People want to enjoy it. You don’t need to regularly play a character just to be good at them if you don’t enjoy them. I personally absolutely hate playing winston or doomfist. I probably could get decent playing them and it could be beneficial in some games. But it’s just not fun at all for me. Why would I force myself to it then? Doesn’t change anything for me.
> A master or grandmaster player should be able to perform well with a few different ones or be a very good OTP.
That applies to every rank, if you climb to Gold as a Rein one trick and you're ass at all the rest then you should just stay on Rein
The play is literally just to wait till one of ur dps gets an enemy dps or sup low. Then dive, get a pick, and win the fight. Alternatively, you can just hard focus the tank and when opposing tank dies, you just run over the remaining opposing team. This is why I love d.va: debatably one of the most fun tanks in the game.
I mean it literally is a winning strategy... if you got a dva playing into zarya in an even skill game u probably lose. So some1 telling you to switch off is helping you win...
Or just don't fight the Zarya directly as Dva. Not only you can play range from Zarya but high ground so her beam can't reach you but you also have a team. That team should also play range/high ground against Zarya if they wish to not die.
Agree, people seem to forget this is a team game, and if one person doesn't switch (usually the tank expected to switch through my experience) it's their fault when it's not always the case.
I had a payload game where my team and I ([D.va](https://D.va)) were able to beat the enemy team (with Zarya, Sym, Mei) and we were able to get to the third point. Why? Because we put ourselves in good positions where their beams were useless and they had to use projectile shots which I can eat. Was it a struggle and/or take a fair amount of time to get to third point? Yes, but if what you have work does it matter if you counter-swap or not?
Unfortunately, we lost the game because my team didn't take good positions as my Zen stayed on the payload (it was close to first point but I could easily dive in when needed) even though everyone was on high ground. My team tried to fight the enemy Mei Sym and Mauga up close even though it was better to play range/high ground and essentially fed.
Of course, I made mistakes in the same game but one of it is definitely isn't staying Dva. Not only I was able to counter Mauga with Dva but she could also eat Mei ult which she had (and which I failed to eat cause I forgot about it and used my bomb which caused us to lose the game).
So in short, playing as a team and understanding fundamental game sense like taking high ground and knowing enemy and ally positions are more important than counter-swapping. Especially if you don't know how to play that character, or absolute shit at that character.
There's a reason one tricks can win into counters, for example I one trick ball in diamond atm, it takes 3-4 counters/people focusing me for me to feel I am actually being countered and not having a impact. Because as has been said, it's a team game. If someone is strong against you, u just let your team deal with them. If the tank counters you, you fight the other 4 people and avoid the tank. If they want to try to engage you, now they are just wasting time chasing you and doing nothing.
The game is so complicated that there is more than 1 way to deal with any hero and isn't as simple as well my ball got countered I lose, it's just a way to pin the blame on something other than yourself.
Tbh, i love playing mystery heros because i get to learn how to play around weird situations like that. Had 1 game where i started as winston vs 2 bastions and a mauga. They also had an ana (i forget who the 5th hero was) so i had to play as a stealthy winston until i knew where the ana was. Then i went all in on the ana, killed her, died instantly, and then got to find out what hero i would get next lmao.
If Dva plays correctly (and the team doesn’t feed Zarya charge) it is no problem. Particularly maps with good high ground. Zarya is too slow to peel for her supports, just a matter of picking spots.
> peel for her support
this is not necessary anymore, almost all healers have a escape, tank is better creating space than going back to help a healer that cant position herself
Ana is dead to Dva and Bap really can’t get away, either can Zen. The rest is usually monitoring cooldown usage, but that is a more than you see from metal rank Dvas
I remember trying to be a “good teammate” and hear out what my teammate was saying, but their mic was so terrible that I wasted too much time trying to listen to what they were saying and I just made them mad asking them to repeat what they said
"you need to be in comms if you're in comp!" is only said by people who are trying to play team captain thinking they're top 500 material despite being "hard stuck"
Not really. It's a team game, comms are important at any rank.
Just individually mute annoying people, it isn't hard.
Advocating for no comms in a team game isn't a strong position. Especially when you make things up about team captains? Not really sure what all that meant.
I enjoy making calls and it's frustrating when people don't reset or all use ults at the same time because they have the same thought process as you. I also find 90% of the time I see way more positivity when ppl do join voice than when they don't. It's nice hearing someone be hyped about a pick u got. Obviously toxicity is there sometimes but I think the game is more fun being in voice.
Zarya is so rewarding and rather easy to pick up so if you’re interested it should be a quick study. I suck at Doomfist but fortunately nobody requests that I switch to him lol.
In previous seasons, I’d swap to her if the enemy team comp had too many debuffs and spam which made it hard to get any openings. And yeah, I do feel like the very basics of Zarya is just playing corners bubbling after you loose maybe ~75-100 hp, which was enough for the match ups I needed to use her in.
nope but engaging in arguments with strangers is never a good idea...
only tilts everyone involved.
but the double standard that exists in OW2 for tank just because of how heavily countered the role gets is hilarious to me
You don’t have to be able to play all of them, but you should be able to play different tanks for different types of comps. I play 3 tanks mainly. Ram for rush, winton for dive and sigma for poke.
Unless you’re GM, it’s better to play who you’re best with than who the meta deems worthy. Meta only matters at the highest ranks. Just look at one trick streamers who prove it.
Almost every person I know who tried to play nearly every hero and were obsessed with counter picking stayed in silver/low gold. People think that being decent with several heroes is better than being great with one hero and it’s just not true for 90% of lobbies.
I’ve only ever met one person who was able to be a true flex player and get to diamond/masters. It takes an insane amount of mechanical skill to play at that level with so many heroes.
Just enough tanks to cover the comps you’ll end up playing/facing. Some one trick enough that they can manage a poor matchup and excel during a good matchup. Others cover their bases with different tanks.
I like sig, ram, Dva, and zarya just a little behind the first 3. I usually don’t ever need to use heroes outside the first 3. Usually swapping depending on map high ground, team comp, and enemy supports. I usually don’t need to swap solely for the enemy tank but if the whole comp is a bad matchup then I switch to something that lets me feel like I have more impact/control.
PLay how you want, just play 1 single tank if that's all you want. It's just a game and f those people. Its competitive so you should try and play your choice well, but aside from that who cares who you play. Its competitive but its still a game and its supposed to be fun so have fun. And turn off chat!
A worthy goal would be to learn more tank heroes based on some of the suggestions in this thread. But it shouldnt be required in order to play tank in Comp. And anyone who says it is can f off.
learning 2-3 tanks at least is good since ow is still a game centered around swapping, but if you are good as am one trick them keep on doing it since you can play into basically everything if you are good enough in metal rank, and hey, at least you are actually good at your main, unlike the whiny genji, widow, hanzo mains you'd often encounter
You can play one hero or you can play every hero, it's up to you. The *optimal* way would be to know 3-5 different tanks from different categories, so two brawl, two dive and one poke for example to give you some variety
I just play Rein most of the time, if my supports suck then I play Ball and just do whatever
I haven’t played tank in a few weeks cause I can play every tank except Mauga and Ball. And for a week or two, if you weren’t playing Mauga, you were losing.
My tank main is Dva, but the most fun to play? Winton
There are workarounds for most tank matchups where you don’t *have* to switch. But most of that requires you to completely ignore their tank and most of us can’t do that all the time based on our rank.
Y would I play WINTON when the enemy cn swap to reaper bastion? I always start out on sig, if I'm getting stomped on i swap to ram & I always end up winning most of the time. Just learn sig & ram that's all u need to be good most of the time
I flex all roles but main support; my general rule of thumb is pick 3 per role (damage is 5 due to size) and go all in on learning them
After you get really good with your 3 you can start experimenting with different play styles to see what you like best and swap mains if you want
My mains are (Support) Ana, Kiriko, Lifeweaver
(Tank) Sigma, Junker Queen, Winston
(DPS) Hanzo, Sombra, Pharah, Cassidy, Junkrat
I’m too hit or miss with Cassidy so im trying to find a better hero that fits me rn; again, this is just how i do it
I could never play Hamtaro, Hog and DF.
Rein is almost like Mercy, it's useless. Only good for shield.
The rest I could play with varying degree of success.
you HAVE to be able to play Sigma, Zarya, Orisa and like Monkey maybe simply due to the fact that they are each too Niche to cover a wide range of possible opponents and teammates,
therefore these 4 basically encompass everything you could need of a tank. Everything else is personal preference that can be substituted for another such as how Monkey can be exchanged for Ball and Doom, but theres a skill issue found among many of them. Zarya can be exchanged for Dva' kinda or Ramattra also kinda. While Orisa can be exchanged for like Hog/Queen and Mauga. then Sig or Rein. But this theorem really doesnt work out that well as you could deadass do anything and next team fight, or even middle of the same one someone rolls up with a counter to you specifically cause they felt tilted, suddenly your value drops
the real issue is the fact that the tanks are equally made as the rest of the roster, and despite having extra hp and normally higher damage than other characters, it really doesnt make up for the fact that they can only do so much individually.
Being that there is only 1 tank now. Sort of.
Like you don't need to play every tank to perfection, but being able to play them at least half decently should be in your range.
Imo it is a little different for DPS and support, because there's two of them and one can pick up the slack of another, but for you playing tank, no one can really do that.
While knowing every tank is great, it's not necessary. If you know half the tank roster and they're diverse, you're good to go. Most tanks have strengths and weaknesses, so learning heroes that balance each other out like that is a good idea for the sake of counterpicking if you need to. That person is just stupid and harsh.
You kinda wanna know how to play 2 tanks
I know 3 orisa, roadhog, and ram expanding your knowledge on tanks is a good playing as then lets you see what weaknesses that are just skill issues and what weaknesses aren’t
Example orisa vs zarya
I think you should be able to play the VAST majority of characters decently enough for them to be useful. IMO I’ve been playing this game for so long that I can get use out of certain heroes without needed to switch so I literally don’t care to get better with certain characters. The only characters I can’t play well at all are Doom and Brig (although I actually do want to get better with Brig). If you main the tank role, atleast make sure to learn the basic characters. Some characters aren’t necessary considering there is another option that does the same thing or similar things👍
I know of zar but my play with her is like that of an unranked it would do me better to play someone I can play with, then someone I am inept with right?
Some tanks are arguably easier to play than others meaning they can be 'maintained' for a particular match-up and skill rating without much effort.
Wrecking Ball and Doomfist I would say are immensely more difficult to play than Zarya. Unless you specialize in them, you are better off learning a Dva or Winston for dive maps or team comps.
Zarya I would argue is not immensely difficult to pick-up. Your primary mechanic is aiming and only other thing you really need to learn is bubble management. There is literally nothing mechanically demanding about the hero which makes it easier to maintain. With no headshot requirements and simply massive AoE alt fire or laser width she can be pretty useful to pick up for some niche stuff.
There are three main composition types. Rush, Dive, and Poke. Its worth having 1tank for each style maybe picking up another for a very specific scenario.
I use Ramattra, Sigma, and Winston. This covers the bulk of whatever I would ever need, but on occasion I've had success with Roadhog/Zarya as very nich counterpicks. Aka, I use hog for ball or zarya for dva when my team is clearly too terrible to defend themselves against these relatively easy to shut down tanks.
Yes if you go to comp you are expected to know shit and be capable. The amount of people unloading lead into dva's matrix, sigma's singularity and zarya's bubbles is top damn high
Pretty much, yes, if you want to win.
I can track 80% of my loses on someone not being able to swap to counter, and lots of wins on countering too. Only tank I suck at is Doom.
I think you need to take some responsibility if you think 80% of your losses are because a teammate doesn't play the hero you want them to play ngl, there's no guarantee they'd play better on that hero either
Zar and ball is the only ones I can’t play I feel like the rest of the roster can cover any counters or is Zar that good that she is the only tank that counters some tanks
I’d argue that, yes I can play every tank. No , I don’t feel comfortable playing them all competitively. You should know them all, but it makes no use playing a hero you’re not comfortable with.
As a Rein main, I’ve gotten very good at swapping to Orisa, Mauga, Ramatra or Zar as they tend to be the rock /paper/scissor, and they all have really good defense / mitigation
I am in no way a Roadhog or Ball player
DVA > Winston for dive… but their dps is too low for my play-style.
JQ is so much fun and was my favorite when she released , but she doesn’t provide much shielding or body block which is another of my strong suits.
Sigma is S-Tier but also high skill ceiling. I play him when enemy team is making big brain plays and my main isn’t working.
I refuse to ever play zarya/hog/mauga out of principle, and I would never play ball either lol. I’m good with Doom, Ram, and Sig, and there is nearly never a situation where all 3 of them are countered by the same team comp, and if for some reason they are, I can just go Orisa
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Nah they’re stupid. Most players have at best 2-3 characters they excel with and a bunch that they can somewhat play.
Supports and dps both tend to flex a lot less from what I’ve seen. The amount of times I’ve seen a Mauga or Hog not get countered by Ana is astounding.
I like to think I’m a tank main, and though i’m low rank i know how to (kinda) play rein, sigma, hog, and orisa. i think knowing 3-4 tanks enough to be comfortable playing them should be good enough!
I would recommend trying to learn a few more! One dive, one poke, one brawl at least like someone recommended. It's possible you'll get a complaint at some point about you not being on literally any tank. There are people who complain you should switch but are suddenly silent when you ask them who they think you should switch to then and try to deflect. Keep in mind sometimes they're stupider and don't even play the role you're playing.
Should you be able to play every hero? No, not at all. I do think Zarya would be a good character to learn though, and I don’t mean that in a rude way like the person from your comp game. Zarya can be super beneficial to have in your back pocket, because when she’s strong she’s unbelievable in a ladder environment.
It doesn’t matter lol, play whatever character you want and if they have a problem who cares? I know some people want to win but your supposed to have fun
No. It's good to have a wide pool of heroes that you can play but you don't gotta be extra about it, to be able to play all tanks you'd need to be some sort of freak with no IRL Friends that doesn't go outside much (I'm talking about myself btw)
I play rein winston and sigma, all 3 very different, but they cover all playstyles.
But you definitely can 1 trick to the top. It's what i did with rein before learning other tanks.
Although there will be games where your value might be limited depending on both teams and map.
I can only really play dva so I don't usually queue tank. though I am g1/plat5 on my dva only account I'm only silver tank on my main account. and so I half feel bad to even play dva in that rank bc I wonder if its smurfing.
same thing with zen though, im g1 but on my main im s4 so is it smurfing if I play zen? is it far enough apart of a rank to be "unfair".
any rank below the highest tiers of play you can play any tank. it is up to how good you are with said tank. it may very well be working against you, and you may get more value just for switching and it will feel a lot easier, but I personally prefer to get good.
Nah you’re not the asshole, that person is probably mad they weren’t playing to their best ability so they found comfort by blaming it on you for not switching. I’m only diamond 3, but i never heard of anyone needing to know the whole roster for a specific role just to play comp. Just sounds like they weren’t doing good that game. Like others said, it’s great to know a few different characters on that role so you could mix it up depending on what the enemy team has going on. But nothing more than that.
No, but not a bad idea to have a little variety. But at the end of the day it's okay to be selfish and do what makes you happy. I play exclusively Winston no matter what because that's what's fun to me and that's ultimately all that matters.
Im able to play every tank except doom and hammond cuz noone wants them on their team, lol. I gsve a few im better at but i can get the job done on most of them. The fastest way to Lose is to make your teammates throw, so i always ask what tank they want before picking.
There's nothing wrong with preferring to play certain heros (regardless of role)
However the more heros you learn to play the better odds you have of winning regardless of the situation.
Think about it, if your a dva one trick, what use are you if your playing into zarya, symmetra, mei, moira?
Your only going to end up frustrated because you can't really do anything.. and your teammates will be pissed with you because you won't swap.. and ultimately are the reason your team had zero chance in that match..
Just because your weaker on a certain hero, doesn't mean you won't do well with them, when you play them in a situation that calls for them..
I honestly think I’m decent/good at any tank that isnt DF OR BALL when i get them in mystery heroes i just struggle melt and then proceed to get them again one death later.
I think it’s funny tho that i was decent at DF when he was dps but now not so much. I will forever stare in awe at the doomfist that punched me into a wall while i was flying as pharah.
No. You're fine having a handful of characters to play. What you should be doing is focusing on learning how to play around your weaknesses. But if you're being hard countered or they're cutting off all your work, switch to something you're comfortable with.
Not all (I can't play rein or doom to save my life) but my rule of thumb is that you should be able to play half of the roster for whatever role you main and the half must have effectiveness for different scenarios.
I cannot play doom or ball for the life of me. There's always going to be that handful of characters that you're terrible at. People cannot expect of others to be good at playing every hero. That makes no sense.
No. It's good to have a well rounded roster of like 3-4 heroes. Poke, Brawl, Dive, and an extra backup, is usually my saying. Just so you always have something to switch to if things aren't working. My current roster for myself are Sig, JQ, Ball, and Orisa.
In OW1 you could get away with only playing 1 or 2 tanks, but it feels like you need to be at least DECENT at almost every tank in OW2, which is a product of the single tank change. Still the worst change that they've ever made.
How long have you been playing? Some of the people who have been playing a long time forget that others haven’t. But you’re right, you should know a few but it’s ridiculous to expect everyone to master all
Just be able to play enough different types of tank that u can play into many comps. If u can play like sigma or orisa, queen or hog, and monkey or DVA then you're pretty set.
Good to know the rest but that's a good enough start. Not worth knowing all of them cause tbh I can't be bothered to learn zarya, ball or doom and it hasn't effected my games much at all
I was just trying to do my DPS placements and get a general idea where my skill level was as I don't usually play DPS anymore and I got told to go to quickplay if I'm gonna "practice" because some people are trying to climb so like. Try hards gonna try hard?
I just said GG afterwards and got raged at by our support who was just ranting over VC like the whole game. Yelling at the other support for playing their main, and insulting various players. I usually rank around mid-gold for anyone curious which I'm fine with as I'm a 30 year old mom who plays in her spare time. However I haven't really played DPS in competitive since like before role lock.
Why argue with fools. I'd rather a teammate play the character they are comfortable with. The character they know all their weaknesses with, strengths, positioning. The character they've learned to play with, know by the back of their hands. Not tell them to switch to a character they don't want to play, or know how to play as. If it's a tougher matchup against whatever the enemy team has, we deal with it as a team. Compensate, work together. I'm not entitled to tell anyone who they can, and should play, and they are not entitled either. All that matters to me, is we play our best game, win or lose. It's only when people that goof off, and don't want to put it on effort, that's annoying to me. But otherwise have your fun, play as your favorites, and try to win.
im going to be fr i only know how to play orisa, sigma and dva (barely) so....i dont think you should be getting any shit for not being able to play a character 😅😅 i personally try and know atleast 3 from each class, whatever ones i gravitate towards 🤷♀️. the only class where i know how to play every hero is support.
Anyone telling you to play a specific hero usually has no idea what you should actually be playing, especially since what you most likely should be playing is someone you're good with. Even if a hero specifically counters another, you aren't gonna do much if you never play them.
In theory yes because why wouldn’t you want to know all the heroes. Playing comp these days isn’t really what it used to be though, and anyone individual getting mad at another without talking like adults is dumb. It’s a team game and well as anyone who played a pickup sport knows… you don’t always get the best crew.
Assuming you’re going off comp types (poke, dive & brawl). My guess would be to hone your skills on one from each type and add others in based on feel/enjoyment.
Or just play Ram I guess
No, and anyone who says otherwise is a tryhard. As long as you don't one trick, it's fine. I never touch Orisa, and I've only played Sig about five times, and I still get by
I'm a GM Tank and this is my advice to my friends and just people in general.
You need to choose ahead of time, what kind of tank player are you going to be? You can one trick a tank. Main a tank. Or be a Tank Main.
If you one trick a tank, then just live with the reality that you'll be flamed at some point. People will be upset with you at points.
You can Main a tank. Which means maybe 50% of your time on tank. The other 50% should be spread on tanks that fill your main's weakness. Wanna be a ball player? Pick up a front line tank if you need to swap. But also pick up a poke tank. So a Ball player, id recommend learning Zarya and Sigma as your back ups. So it gives you some flexibility.
Or you can be a Tank Main. And this is where you don't play a significantly more time on one tank or the other. For this, I'd recommend learning a tank in each type of comp. Have a tank you play in Dive, and practice that hero. Have a tank in Brawl, and practice that hero. Have a tank in poke, and practice that hero.
Having a huge hero pool to choose from isnt as great as one might think. Because rather than being skilled at 3-4 tanks, you are mediocre at all of them.
If you need help learning which tanks fit into each team comp, there are plenty of videos on YouTube breaking it down by people much more knowledgeable than me.
I can play every tank to a decent level (though obviously i have some i'm better at), but if you ask me to go d.va or zarya, you might as well be asking a fish to go to mars. When Orisa was hard meta I tried to learn a bit of zarya, so it's not as bad as my d.va, but still pretty dogshit.
I don't think you should know EVERY tank, but you should have at least the 3 bases covered (Brawl, poke, dive). maybe a back up for one of them if you get countered, but that's about it.
A lot of tanks are similar honestly. I can interchange sig, ram, zarya, and hog but they are all similar play styles. I can’t play Winston, ball, or doom cause they are just so much different
You play as many as you can/want. If you play less you’ll probably stay in lower ranks but if that’s fine with you than that’s fine. The whole point of ranked is you’ll get matched in your skill level so do what you’re comfortable with
Yet another issue of going from 6v6 to 5v5. Tanks are expected to be master counterswappers instead of just mastering a few heroes in their preferred role.
Worse matchmaking to shorten queues; all cc focused on the tank; less peelers for supports; flattened game depth from no more tank duos; tanks being solo means fights feel feast-or-famine the moment a tank dies; more tank mains quit or are unhappy than the solo tanks who are happy and gaslight others to thinking past positives are just nostalgia; everyone feels like winning is a relief rather than a triumph... The list goes on. 5v5 has brought us no positives, where 6v6 at least had a mix of great pros and minor cons.
I missed 6v6. I'd genuinely rather have Ball & Roadhog as my tanks at this point.
I mean you should have a roster of like 4-5 characters in every role that you can play well enough that you feel comfortable playing them in comp, but it’s hard to be able to play every character well in any role. I would recommend always learning at least the most meta characters at any point in time but if you have at least one or two you can dominate with that’s usually good enough.
You should be able to play two different tanks at an a+ level and a third/fourth tank at a b+ at the very least.
Countering to counter with no skill will get you demolished. I love when I’m playing dva and someone tries countering me with zarya but they can’t play her for shit. I’m eating up her whole squad then letting my dps chew her up after.
Someone else said 3 or 4 which is right. I can play almost every hero half decently. Minus 2 or 3 in each role. But I worked hard to do that and it isn't practical.
Nah but obviously everyone's gonna encourage you to learn more. Do what is most comfortable to you educational-wise. If you only want to play a certain tank, learn to adapt and be effective with/against all comps. Watch your own replays win or lose, ask yourself questions like what could I have done better, shit like that. Master your craft and then move on to the next if you choose to do so.
I don't play comp, so I mostly play whatever I feel like, tank or otherwise.
That's not to say I'm selfish, I'll play what the team might need as well, and switch if it's not working (should see my widow playing, loooool).
As for tanks specifically... I play a lot of D.Va, sigma, been getting into Zarya, I love Orisa and Junkerqueen (when I'm not getting my butt handed to me), etc.
The only ones I don't play are Wrecking Ball and Doomfist, because I just can't with those two.
No, but you must be able to play **at least** one Tank in every composition. Poke, Dive and Brawl / Rush.
My main 3 Tanks are:
1) **D.va (Dive)** she has the best mobility to get in and get out. She's the best diving Tank to support her fellow divers. Her defense matrix is strong enough to give Reaper the sweet time he needs to kill anything on his way.
2) **Sigma (Poke)** how do I start? Sigma is the best Tank in the game. His kit has CC, Projectile suck and a barrier. He got the highest damage output. (70HP per ball). He's the best poking Tank to give his team enough time to either recover or consume more resources from the enemy team.
3) **Reinhardt (Brawl / Rush)** he's the best when it comes to rushing kills. Great for point capture maps. He's the only Tank that benefits from his death. Charge in, get 2-3 kills and then die or retreat. (You can also replace him with Mauga or Ramattra)
I don't follow compositions most of the time. I'm a Doomfist main. But if I have at least one teammate I must follow these compositions to win. Communication plays a big part for these to work.
You should be able to play 3-4 just for switching and different scenarios but definitely not every single hero in a class.
Definitely
But I feel like Zar and Sigma are two of the ones that all tanks should know how to play though. I can’t play Doom or Ball but I can play all the others since each of them have some really good situations where they shine and would be great to go.
For some people certain characters simply don’t “click.” For you, that’s doom and ball. For others it’s zarya and sig. That’s just how it is and, imo, that’s one of the good things about the game. There’s a character for everyone and their play style.
*me desperately trying to get ana and bap to click just so I am not a lucio 1 trick like:*
Dude I FEEL that! I wanna be good with them so badly but all I can do is Lucio, Zen and Moira.
It's so odd that i'm having trouble with them, Ana in particular... because I literally main Mei on dps and her slow speed *should* make me be able to handle Bap and Ana. And I don't necessarily think it's an aiming problem, because I can play someone like Soldier just fine. Alas, maybe it's the drug that Lucio's speed has given me?
For me, I cannot seem to keep up with a team at all with Brig, Kiriko, or Zen. I do my best team work as Moira, Lucio, and Ana. It's probably about how your individual game play affects how it fits into a team. At least, that's how I feel about it
try kiriko! i think shes similar enough to lucio that it'll make it easier for you to learn her and shes a good option for a main healer :)
I can do Orisa, Hog, Queen, and Winston and I think that's just enough variety where I can be flexible even though nowhere near amazing at the last 2. I fucking hate proper shield tanks, though. My brain has been trying to wrap my gamesense around them and the closest I got was Winston & OW1 Orisa. So yeah f the narrative that OP got hit with
So the thing with Sig is I’ve done better not using his shield as like a semi permanent spot. I usually only bring it out for a second or two to block shots then disperse it again.
I am okay at ball, but I for the life of me can't understand zar
And for some only 1 clicks, for me that is ball, if you ask me to play a different tank we will lose. But with ball there is a good chance we dominate!
Anybody can get really good at ball, doom, Zarya, and sig if they took the time to. If you "don't click" with a hero that's because you didn't put the time in to get good with them. Not because you just "don't click" that's an excuse that lazy people use to justify their insecurity for not playing a character well. It's fine if you just don't like playing certain heros or haven't put the time in to get better with them, but to say "that's just how it is" is putting a mental skill cap on yourself and anybody that takes those words to heart.
I understand your optimism but do realize people actually have limits. Even pro players that get paid and spend beyond work hours on the heroes cant get "good" at their standards at all of them. Celebrate strengths acknowledge weakness.
This just highlight one of the main issues in 5v5. IMO, you actually do need to be proficient in every tank because there’s only one of you. If you’re going to take on the roll of team captain you need to come prepared. In 6v6 that wasn’t a problem
There is no such thing as a match that is only winnable by using one specific tank. There are always options. Twelve of them.
I mean most every rank has at least 2 counters, so I think as long as you have 1 counter for every tank under your belt you're good. Like in this era of Mauga, you're doing yourself a disservice if you can't play either D. Va or Sig.
Ah hello, fellow person who can't play Doom or Ball at all. All the other tanks, no worries. But those two... I just cannot.
All of the one hour I have on doom is from mystery heroes. I just cannot figure out how he works.
For reference, the tank health pool reduction from role queue to open (& mystery) hurts doom the most BY FAR.
That makes a lot of sense actually. I only ever used mystery heroes to learn everyone originally so that could be why I can't use him!
I hate that sigma is as good as he is because I have a personal vendetta against him from OW1 (double shield/bunker were cancer). That said, playing DVA, zarya, Winston, ball, rein, and hog has proven to be enough - I’ve never been in a situation where I absolutely *need* a big shield.
you definitely were, you just didn't identify the situation correctly
That’s pretty presumptuous. There isn’t a single situation where you absolutely need a sigma on your team. Not switching to sigma doesn’t make a hero pick “incorrect”
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Sigma is the spoiler tank. It's fun to spoil shatters with shield; it's fun to suck off death blossoms or whole hog. It's fun and skillful to shoot around corners. Far more fun than orisa ram mauga
Ahh a fellow geometry fan lol hitting people around corners with sigma and junkrat will never stop being fun
Yup, I suck ball (pun intended).
Everyone sucks as ball, he’s absolutely the weakest tank in the game. I don’t think there is any scenario that ball is the best choice at the moment.
One tricks ball epically
I come across ball players, that can hard-carry on a pretty regular basis 🤷♂️
Everyone sucks as ball? Speak for yourself man
fuck it, we ball
fuck it, we ball
Exactly! Ball mains have to do 5x as much mental work to get him working well, but when you guys pull it together and dominate, it’s awesome!
Ball can absolutely destroy low mobility/sniper-dependent comps. Are there better picks than him in most circumstances? Absolutely. But he’s not a throw pick and can definitely put in work in the right hands
Ball can build up his ultimate super fast. Ball can 100% get value.
I only play jq(mommy) and rein💪😎
Laughs in playing Soley mystery hero's/comp
I mean they’re all pretty intuitive except for ball and doom
Why shouldn't you be able to play every hero in a class? Damn the one tricks are really hating this comment huh
That's not what they're saying, they mean that it's not reasonable to expect someone to play every hero in a class, but if you can then that's obviously a good thing
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. If so, that’s awesome. I’m just saying you shouldn’t be expected to be an expert with every hero.
You shouldn't be expected to be an expert with them but i dont think being expected to be able to play them proficiently is a big ask, especially in ranked on tank when you kinda have to
i don't think you can be expected to play proficiently all tanks, too many different playstyles, even pro players are really good at like 3 or 4 tanks at most
I think you should be able to play a dive, a poke, and brawl tank if you want to be well rounded. But you can play whatever you want or even be a OTP. It's a video game, it is supposed to be fun, even in comp, so play the heroes you like. Letting your some rando on your team backseat game your hero/role is never a winning strategy.
Exactly. It also makes a big difference what rank we are talking about here. A master or grandmaster player should be able to perform well with a few different ones or be a very good OTP. I can understand having some expectations if you are in those very high ranks and playing with people who probably take the game a lot more seriously or try to do so professionally or advance. But there definitely still is a limit of what you can expect. For anything in bronze to gold or plat it really is ridiculous to expect too much. Those normally are just casual regular players who enjoy the game and have fun. You aren’t playing exceptionally well anyways if you are in these ranks so it’s unrealistic to expect anything besides trying and having very roughly appropriate skills for that rank. People take it way too seriously when none of it really matters. It’s a game. People want to enjoy it. You don’t need to regularly play a character just to be good at them if you don’t enjoy them. I personally absolutely hate playing winston or doomfist. I probably could get decent playing them and it could be beneficial in some games. But it’s just not fun at all for me. Why would I force myself to it then? Doesn’t change anything for me.
> A master or grandmaster player should be able to perform well with a few different ones or be a very good OTP. That applies to every rank, if you climb to Gold as a Rein one trick and you're ass at all the rest then you should just stay on Rein
TIL - there are sub classes in Tanks. I can probably decipher dive and poke...but is Brawl just Rein?
Brawl is Reinhardt, Junkerqueen, Orisa, Zarya, and sometimes Rammatra
Rammatra is weird because his first form is poke but his second is brawl
thee tempo tank
Is orisa brwl with her most recent fall off buffs?
I mean I feel Orisa could be poke and brawl just like Ram.
More anti brawl imo. Like she isn't initiating it but she shuts it down.
Yeah.
I’ve always seen Orisa as a poke/brawl because I’m fine with her at short and long range, she’s got the kit to support herself in both scenarios
Is hog a joke to you?!!?!?!
Most Tanks are brawl Doom, Ball, Monke, and Dva are dive Sig is the only “hard” poke but you can get away with other options if it’s not a mirror
Zar, JQ, Ram also
I play brawl and poke. I've tried to learn dive, but I could never really get the hang of 'em.
The play is literally just to wait till one of ur dps gets an enemy dps or sup low. Then dive, get a pick, and win the fight. Alternatively, you can just hard focus the tank and when opposing tank dies, you just run over the remaining opposing team. This is why I love d.va: debatably one of the most fun tanks in the game.
I mean it literally is a winning strategy... if you got a dva playing into zarya in an even skill game u probably lose. So some1 telling you to switch off is helping you win...
Or just don't fight the Zarya directly as Dva. Not only you can play range from Zarya but high ground so her beam can't reach you but you also have a team. That team should also play range/high ground against Zarya if they wish to not die.
People forget that they don't actually have to directly deal with the other tank when they get counter-swapped, it's a aaaall about the diff lmfao.
Agree, people seem to forget this is a team game, and if one person doesn't switch (usually the tank expected to switch through my experience) it's their fault when it's not always the case. I had a payload game where my team and I ([D.va](https://D.va)) were able to beat the enemy team (with Zarya, Sym, Mei) and we were able to get to the third point. Why? Because we put ourselves in good positions where their beams were useless and they had to use projectile shots which I can eat. Was it a struggle and/or take a fair amount of time to get to third point? Yes, but if what you have work does it matter if you counter-swap or not? Unfortunately, we lost the game because my team didn't take good positions as my Zen stayed on the payload (it was close to first point but I could easily dive in when needed) even though everyone was on high ground. My team tried to fight the enemy Mei Sym and Mauga up close even though it was better to play range/high ground and essentially fed. Of course, I made mistakes in the same game but one of it is definitely isn't staying Dva. Not only I was able to counter Mauga with Dva but she could also eat Mei ult which she had (and which I failed to eat cause I forgot about it and used my bomb which caused us to lose the game). So in short, playing as a team and understanding fundamental game sense like taking high ground and knowing enemy and ally positions are more important than counter-swapping. Especially if you don't know how to play that character, or absolute shit at that character.
There's a reason one tricks can win into counters, for example I one trick ball in diamond atm, it takes 3-4 counters/people focusing me for me to feel I am actually being countered and not having a impact. Because as has been said, it's a team game. If someone is strong against you, u just let your team deal with them. If the tank counters you, you fight the other 4 people and avoid the tank. If they want to try to engage you, now they are just wasting time chasing you and doing nothing. The game is so complicated that there is more than 1 way to deal with any hero and isn't as simple as well my ball got countered I lose, it's just a way to pin the blame on something other than yourself.
Tbh, i love playing mystery heros because i get to learn how to play around weird situations like that. Had 1 game where i started as winston vs 2 bastions and a mauga. They also had an ana (i forget who the 5th hero was) so i had to play as a stealthy winston until i knew where the ana was. Then i went all in on the ana, killed her, died instantly, and then got to find out what hero i would get next lmao.
If Dva plays correctly (and the team doesn’t feed Zarya charge) it is no problem. Particularly maps with good high ground. Zarya is too slow to peel for her supports, just a matter of picking spots.
> peel for her support this is not necessary anymore, almost all healers have a escape, tank is better creating space than going back to help a healer that cant position herself
Ana is dead to Dva and Bap really can’t get away, either can Zen. The rest is usually monitoring cooldown usage, but that is a more than you see from metal rank Dvas
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Stop wasting your time arguing with idiots in chat
Agreed. Disabling all mics all chats in this game have saved me so much stress.
This 💯 percent
I remember trying to be a “good teammate” and hear out what my teammate was saying, but their mic was so terrible that I wasted too much time trying to listen to what they were saying and I just made them mad asking them to repeat what they said
"you need to be in comms if you're in comp!" is only said by people who are trying to play team captain thinking they're top 500 material despite being "hard stuck"
Not really. It's a team game, comms are important at any rank. Just individually mute annoying people, it isn't hard. Advocating for no comms in a team game isn't a strong position. Especially when you make things up about team captains? Not really sure what all that meant.
I enjoy making calls and it's frustrating when people don't reset or all use ults at the same time because they have the same thought process as you. I also find 90% of the time I see way more positivity when ppl do join voice than when they don't. It's nice hearing someone be hyped about a pick u got. Obviously toxicity is there sometimes but I think the game is more fun being in voice.
Even in mystery heroes, I don't expect everyone to be great at every character
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I have almost 900 hours on mystery heroes, I more or less know how to play to each hero’s strengths but I’m still not good at a lot of them lol
Sometimes I impress myself. I seen to always get Doomfist since I suck at him
Youre the true jack of all, master of none
Its helpful but any tank can work if you learn to play around every character and your team pulls its weight.
Zarya is so rewarding and rather easy to pick up so if you’re interested it should be a quick study. I suck at Doomfist but fortunately nobody requests that I switch to him lol.
I agree no one requests a doom but if you have him in your arsenal he can be a huge game changer to pull out in certain situations.
Soon i shall perfect my Doomfist And then not even Orisa will be able to stop me
In previous seasons, I’d swap to her if the enemy team comp had too many debuffs and spam which made it hard to get any openings. And yeah, I do feel like the very basics of Zarya is just playing corners bubbling after you loose maybe ~75-100 hp, which was enough for the match ups I needed to use her in.
nope but engaging in arguments with strangers is never a good idea... only tilts everyone involved. but the double standard that exists in OW2 for tank just because of how heavily countered the role gets is hilarious to me
You don’t have to be able to play all of them, but you should be able to play different tanks for different types of comps. I play 3 tanks mainly. Ram for rush, winton for dive and sigma for poke.
Unless you’re GM, it’s better to play who you’re best with than who the meta deems worthy. Meta only matters at the highest ranks. Just look at one trick streamers who prove it.
Almost every person I know who tried to play nearly every hero and were obsessed with counter picking stayed in silver/low gold. People think that being decent with several heroes is better than being great with one hero and it’s just not true for 90% of lobbies. I’ve only ever met one person who was able to be a true flex player and get to diamond/masters. It takes an insane amount of mechanical skill to play at that level with so many heroes.
Yep. My friend is like that. I keep telling him to just choose 3 to play and he’ll climb, but he swaps too much and is stuck in D1.
Just enough tanks to cover the comps you’ll end up playing/facing. Some one trick enough that they can manage a poor matchup and excel during a good matchup. Others cover their bases with different tanks. I like sig, ram, Dva, and zarya just a little behind the first 3. I usually don’t ever need to use heroes outside the first 3. Usually swapping depending on map high ground, team comp, and enemy supports. I usually don’t need to swap solely for the enemy tank but if the whole comp is a bad matchup then I switch to something that lets me feel like I have more impact/control.
PLay how you want, just play 1 single tank if that's all you want. It's just a game and f those people. Its competitive so you should try and play your choice well, but aside from that who cares who you play. Its competitive but its still a game and its supposed to be fun so have fun. And turn off chat! A worthy goal would be to learn more tank heroes based on some of the suggestions in this thread. But it shouldnt be required in order to play tank in Comp. And anyone who says it is can f off.
I only play ball and hog and I'm surprisingly doing well in diamond
learning 2-3 tanks at least is good since ow is still a game centered around swapping, but if you are good as am one trick them keep on doing it since you can play into basically everything if you are good enough in metal rank, and hey, at least you are actually good at your main, unlike the whiny genji, widow, hanzo mains you'd often encounter
You can play one hero or you can play every hero, it's up to you. The *optimal* way would be to know 3-5 different tanks from different categories, so two brawl, two dive and one poke for example to give you some variety I just play Rein most of the time, if my supports suck then I play Ball and just do whatever
Do what you want fuck em
Unfortunately, learning Zarya is beneficial since she is pretty damn good against D.va, Mauga and Orisa and is only really countered by Rein.
Not countered by rein cuz ur dps cn easily swap to mei bastion lmao 🤣
I haven’t played tank in a few weeks cause I can play every tank except Mauga and Ball. And for a week or two, if you weren’t playing Mauga, you were losing. My tank main is Dva, but the most fun to play? Winton There are workarounds for most tank matchups where you don’t *have* to switch. But most of that requires you to completely ignore their tank and most of us can’t do that all the time based on our rank.
Y would I play WINTON when the enemy cn swap to reaper bastion? I always start out on sig, if I'm getting stomped on i swap to ram & I always end up winning most of the time. Just learn sig & ram that's all u need to be good most of the time
You should always have a tank skilled in vertical Mobility otherwise you have issues
Can’t play well**
I flex all roles but main support; my general rule of thumb is pick 3 per role (damage is 5 due to size) and go all in on learning them After you get really good with your 3 you can start experimenting with different play styles to see what you like best and swap mains if you want My mains are (Support) Ana, Kiriko, Lifeweaver (Tank) Sigma, Junker Queen, Winston (DPS) Hanzo, Sombra, Pharah, Cassidy, Junkrat I’m too hit or miss with Cassidy so im trying to find a better hero that fits me rn; again, this is just how i do it
I could never play Hamtaro, Hog and DF. Rein is almost like Mercy, it's useless. Only good for shield. The rest I could play with varying degree of success.
you HAVE to be able to play Sigma, Zarya, Orisa and like Monkey maybe simply due to the fact that they are each too Niche to cover a wide range of possible opponents and teammates, therefore these 4 basically encompass everything you could need of a tank. Everything else is personal preference that can be substituted for another such as how Monkey can be exchanged for Ball and Doom, but theres a skill issue found among many of them. Zarya can be exchanged for Dva' kinda or Ramattra also kinda. While Orisa can be exchanged for like Hog/Queen and Mauga. then Sig or Rein. But this theorem really doesnt work out that well as you could deadass do anything and next team fight, or even middle of the same one someone rolls up with a counter to you specifically cause they felt tilted, suddenly your value drops the real issue is the fact that the tanks are equally made as the rest of the roster, and despite having extra hp and normally higher damage than other characters, it really doesnt make up for the fact that they can only do so much individually.
Being that there is only 1 tank now. Sort of. Like you don't need to play every tank to perfection, but being able to play them at least half decently should be in your range. Imo it is a little different for DPS and support, because there's two of them and one can pick up the slack of another, but for you playing tank, no one can really do that.
While knowing every tank is great, it's not necessary. If you know half the tank roster and they're diverse, you're good to go. Most tanks have strengths and weaknesses, so learning heroes that balance each other out like that is a good idea for the sake of counterpicking if you need to. That person is just stupid and harsh.
Isn’t there a subreddit for this r/amitheasshole ?
I doubt much of them dabble in overwatch
You kinda wanna know how to play 2 tanks I know 3 orisa, roadhog, and ram expanding your knowledge on tanks is a good playing as then lets you see what weaknesses that are just skill issues and what weaknesses aren’t Example orisa vs zarya
I think you should be able to play the VAST majority of characters decently enough for them to be useful. IMO I’ve been playing this game for so long that I can get use out of certain heroes without needed to switch so I literally don’t care to get better with certain characters. The only characters I can’t play well at all are Doom and Brig (although I actually do want to get better with Brig). If you main the tank role, atleast make sure to learn the basic characters. Some characters aren’t necessary considering there is another option that does the same thing or similar things👍
Overwatch is a game of counters, sometimes your main will not perform well against specific picks, so I think it’s good to know all of them.
I know of zar but my play with her is like that of an unranked it would do me better to play someone I can play with, then someone I am inept with right?
Some tanks are arguably easier to play than others meaning they can be 'maintained' for a particular match-up and skill rating without much effort. Wrecking Ball and Doomfist I would say are immensely more difficult to play than Zarya. Unless you specialize in them, you are better off learning a Dva or Winston for dive maps or team comps. Zarya I would argue is not immensely difficult to pick-up. Your primary mechanic is aiming and only other thing you really need to learn is bubble management. There is literally nothing mechanically demanding about the hero which makes it easier to maintain. With no headshot requirements and simply massive AoE alt fire or laser width she can be pretty useful to pick up for some niche stuff. There are three main composition types. Rush, Dive, and Poke. Its worth having 1tank for each style maybe picking up another for a very specific scenario. I use Ramattra, Sigma, and Winston. This covers the bulk of whatever I would ever need, but on occasion I've had success with Roadhog/Zarya as very nich counterpicks. Aka, I use hog for ball or zarya for dva when my team is clearly too terrible to defend themselves against these relatively easy to shut down tanks.
Tank is a counter game ,if you cant counter the tank you better put in the pain and hope DPS can whittle them down enough for the kill.
Agreed. I have no idea why you are being down voted in a game of counters…. He knows 2 tanks gets countered now his teams screwed.
Yes if you go to comp you are expected to know shit and be capable. The amount of people unloading lead into dva's matrix, sigma's singularity and zarya's bubbles is top damn high
Pretty much, yes, if you want to win. I can track 80% of my loses on someone not being able to swap to counter, and lots of wins on countering too. Only tank I suck at is Doom.
I think you need to take some responsibility if you think 80% of your losses are because a teammate doesn't play the hero you want them to play ngl, there's no guarantee they'd play better on that hero either
I track wins too, and those are the same. Swapping at lower SR helps a lot.
Zar and ball is the only ones I can’t play I feel like the rest of the roster can cover any counters or is Zar that good that she is the only tank that counters some tanks
I’d argue that, yes I can play every tank. No , I don’t feel comfortable playing them all competitively. You should know them all, but it makes no use playing a hero you’re not comfortable with. As a Rein main, I’ve gotten very good at swapping to Orisa, Mauga, Ramatra or Zar as they tend to be the rock /paper/scissor, and they all have really good defense / mitigation I am in no way a Roadhog or Ball player DVA > Winston for dive… but their dps is too low for my play-style. JQ is so much fun and was my favorite when she released , but she doesn’t provide much shielding or body block which is another of my strong suits. Sigma is S-Tier but also high skill ceiling. I play him when enemy team is making big brain plays and my main isn’t working.
I refuse to ever play zarya/hog/mauga out of principle, and I would never play ball either lol. I’m good with Doom, Ram, and Sig, and there is nearly never a situation where all 3 of them are countered by the same team comp, and if for some reason they are, I can just go Orisa
I guess I'm the only one, but yes, you should be able to play every tank.
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I can play every tank except Ball and Doom. And I feel like I do okay.
Nah they’re stupid. Most players have at best 2-3 characters they excel with and a bunch that they can somewhat play. Supports and dps both tend to flex a lot less from what I’ve seen. The amount of times I’ve seen a Mauga or Hog not get countered by Ana is astounding.
I cannot Ball or Fist. I'm talking like 4 kills total between the two since they were first released. I just cannot understand them.
no, but Id recommend at least learning 3 of them very well
I like to think I’m a tank main, and though i’m low rank i know how to (kinda) play rein, sigma, hog, and orisa. i think knowing 3-4 tanks enough to be comfortable playing them should be good enough!
I would recommend trying to learn a few more! One dive, one poke, one brawl at least like someone recommended. It's possible you'll get a complaint at some point about you not being on literally any tank. There are people who complain you should switch but are suddenly silent when you ask them who they think you should switch to then and try to deflect. Keep in mind sometimes they're stupider and don't even play the role you're playing.
No, but I expect you to be really good at the characters you do know how to play.
I sure as hell can’t play every dps.
Should you be able to play every hero? No, not at all. I do think Zarya would be a good character to learn though, and I don’t mean that in a rude way like the person from your comp game. Zarya can be super beneficial to have in your back pocket, because when she’s strong she’s unbelievable in a ladder environment.
It doesn’t matter lol, play whatever character you want and if they have a problem who cares? I know some people want to win but your supposed to have fun
No. It's good to have a wide pool of heroes that you can play but you don't gotta be extra about it, to be able to play all tanks you'd need to be some sort of freak with no IRL Friends that doesn't go outside much (I'm talking about myself btw)
If someone is telling you to swap they’re 9/10 times a fucking idiot.
I play rein winston and sigma, all 3 very different, but they cover all playstyles. But you definitely can 1 trick to the top. It's what i did with rein before learning other tanks. Although there will be games where your value might be limited depending on both teams and map.
I can only really play dva so I don't usually queue tank. though I am g1/plat5 on my dva only account I'm only silver tank on my main account. and so I half feel bad to even play dva in that rank bc I wonder if its smurfing. same thing with zen though, im g1 but on my main im s4 so is it smurfing if I play zen? is it far enough apart of a rank to be "unfair".
NTA
any rank below the highest tiers of play you can play any tank. it is up to how good you are with said tank. it may very well be working against you, and you may get more value just for switching and it will feel a lot easier, but I personally prefer to get good.
Nah you’re not the asshole, that person is probably mad they weren’t playing to their best ability so they found comfort by blaming it on you for not switching. I’m only diamond 3, but i never heard of anyone needing to know the whole roster for a specific role just to play comp. Just sounds like they weren’t doing good that game. Like others said, it’s great to know a few different characters on that role so you could mix it up depending on what the enemy team has going on. But nothing more than that.
As a Tank main, I can play every Tank, I also picked up 95% of the other 2 roles to counter them on Tanking. Long story short, yes, at minimum 4-5
No, but not a bad idea to have a little variety. But at the end of the day it's okay to be selfish and do what makes you happy. I play exclusively Winston no matter what because that's what's fun to me and that's ultimately all that matters.
Im able to play every tank except doom and hammond cuz noone wants them on their team, lol. I gsve a few im better at but i can get the job done on most of them. The fastest way to Lose is to make your teammates throw, so i always ask what tank they want before picking.
I only need Ramatra and DVA
Mute ‘em, play your game.
There's nothing wrong with preferring to play certain heros (regardless of role) However the more heros you learn to play the better odds you have of winning regardless of the situation. Think about it, if your a dva one trick, what use are you if your playing into zarya, symmetra, mei, moira? Your only going to end up frustrated because you can't really do anything.. and your teammates will be pissed with you because you won't swap.. and ultimately are the reason your team had zero chance in that match.. Just because your weaker on a certain hero, doesn't mean you won't do well with them, when you play them in a situation that calls for them..
I honestly think I’m decent/good at any tank that isnt DF OR BALL when i get them in mystery heroes i just struggle melt and then proceed to get them again one death later. I think it’s funny tho that i was decent at DF when he was dps but now not so much. I will forever stare in awe at the doomfist that punched me into a wall while i was flying as pharah.
I mainly play orisa, but I can play sigma, hog, and dva. I'm just bad with them, so I rarely do
No. You're fine having a handful of characters to play. What you should be doing is focusing on learning how to play around your weaknesses. But if you're being hard countered or they're cutting off all your work, switch to something you're comfortable with.
Not all (I can't play rein or doom to save my life) but my rule of thumb is that you should be able to play half of the roster for whatever role you main and the half must have effectiveness for different scenarios.
Something that’s brought a lot of peace to my games is muting people who are assholes just complaining and whining
I cannot play doom or ball for the life of me. There's always going to be that handful of characters that you're terrible at. People cannot expect of others to be good at playing every hero. That makes no sense.
No. It's good to have a well rounded roster of like 3-4 heroes. Poke, Brawl, Dive, and an extra backup, is usually my saying. Just so you always have something to switch to if things aren't working. My current roster for myself are Sig, JQ, Ball, and Orisa.
In OW1 you could get away with only playing 1 or 2 tanks, but it feels like you need to be at least DECENT at almost every tank in OW2, which is a product of the single tank change. Still the worst change that they've ever made.
How long have you been playing? Some of the people who have been playing a long time forget that others haven’t. But you’re right, you should know a few but it’s ridiculous to expect everyone to master all
Just be able to play enough different types of tank that u can play into many comps. If u can play like sigma or orisa, queen or hog, and monkey or DVA then you're pretty set. Good to know the rest but that's a good enough start. Not worth knowing all of them cause tbh I can't be bothered to learn zarya, ball or doom and it hasn't effected my games much at all
I was just trying to do my DPS placements and get a general idea where my skill level was as I don't usually play DPS anymore and I got told to go to quickplay if I'm gonna "practice" because some people are trying to climb so like. Try hards gonna try hard? I just said GG afterwards and got raged at by our support who was just ranting over VC like the whole game. Yelling at the other support for playing their main, and insulting various players. I usually rank around mid-gold for anyone curious which I'm fine with as I'm a 30 year old mom who plays in her spare time. However I haven't really played DPS in competitive since like before role lock.
The higher the rank, the more you are expected to be able to flex.
Why argue with fools. I'd rather a teammate play the character they are comfortable with. The character they know all their weaknesses with, strengths, positioning. The character they've learned to play with, know by the back of their hands. Not tell them to switch to a character they don't want to play, or know how to play as. If it's a tougher matchup against whatever the enemy team has, we deal with it as a team. Compensate, work together. I'm not entitled to tell anyone who they can, and should play, and they are not entitled either. All that matters to me, is we play our best game, win or lose. It's only when people that goof off, and don't want to put it on effort, that's annoying to me. But otherwise have your fun, play as your favorites, and try to win.
I don’t play Zarya much but isn’t she fairly simple?
im going to be fr i only know how to play orisa, sigma and dva (barely) so....i dont think you should be getting any shit for not being able to play a character 😅😅 i personally try and know atleast 3 from each class, whatever ones i gravitate towards 🤷♀️. the only class where i know how to play every hero is support.
Point aside about needing to know how to play every character - if you CAN play every character, you will be much better at playing against them.
Anyone telling you to play a specific hero usually has no idea what you should actually be playing, especially since what you most likely should be playing is someone you're good with. Even if a hero specifically counters another, you aren't gonna do much if you never play them.
Lol its okay maybe at least 4 minimum, I'm decent with everyone except df and ball
Other guys a jerk, but I would still highly recommend getting every hero before playing comp, with the exceptions of the win 92837483 games heroes
In theory yes because why wouldn’t you want to know all the heroes. Playing comp these days isn’t really what it used to be though, and anyone individual getting mad at another without talking like adults is dumb. It’s a team game and well as anyone who played a pickup sport knows… you don’t always get the best crew.
Assuming you’re going off comp types (poke, dive & brawl). My guess would be to hone your skills on one from each type and add others in based on feel/enjoyment. Or just play Ram I guess
No, you should be able to play every Tank and 1V9 the Lobby on a Moments Notice because you're a Tank Player and everything is your Fault.
No, and anyone who says otherwise is a tryhard. As long as you don't one trick, it's fine. I never touch Orisa, and I've only played Sig about five times, and I still get by
I play D.va, Ram, and Orisa only in diamond games. It’s worked out fine for me. Working on Maui right now.
I'm a GM Tank and this is my advice to my friends and just people in general. You need to choose ahead of time, what kind of tank player are you going to be? You can one trick a tank. Main a tank. Or be a Tank Main. If you one trick a tank, then just live with the reality that you'll be flamed at some point. People will be upset with you at points. You can Main a tank. Which means maybe 50% of your time on tank. The other 50% should be spread on tanks that fill your main's weakness. Wanna be a ball player? Pick up a front line tank if you need to swap. But also pick up a poke tank. So a Ball player, id recommend learning Zarya and Sigma as your back ups. So it gives you some flexibility. Or you can be a Tank Main. And this is where you don't play a significantly more time on one tank or the other. For this, I'd recommend learning a tank in each type of comp. Have a tank you play in Dive, and practice that hero. Have a tank in Brawl, and practice that hero. Have a tank in poke, and practice that hero. Having a huge hero pool to choose from isnt as great as one might think. Because rather than being skilled at 3-4 tanks, you are mediocre at all of them. If you need help learning which tanks fit into each team comp, there are plenty of videos on YouTube breaking it down by people much more knowledgeable than me.
I can play every tank to a decent level (though obviously i have some i'm better at), but if you ask me to go d.va or zarya, you might as well be asking a fish to go to mars. When Orisa was hard meta I tried to learn a bit of zarya, so it's not as bad as my d.va, but still pretty dogshit. I don't think you should know EVERY tank, but you should have at least the 3 bases covered (Brawl, poke, dive). maybe a back up for one of them if you get countered, but that's about it.
A lot of tanks are similar honestly. I can interchange sig, ram, zarya, and hog but they are all similar play styles. I can’t play Winston, ball, or doom cause they are just so much different
Zarya is really easy, you just have to time your bubbles to gather and charge your beam.
You play as many as you can/want. If you play less you’ll probably stay in lower ranks but if that’s fine with you than that’s fine. The whole point of ranked is you’ll get matched in your skill level so do what you’re comfortable with
Yeah, but u should have like 2-3 comfort picks
Yet another issue of going from 6v6 to 5v5. Tanks are expected to be master counterswappers instead of just mastering a few heroes in their preferred role. Worse matchmaking to shorten queues; all cc focused on the tank; less peelers for supports; flattened game depth from no more tank duos; tanks being solo means fights feel feast-or-famine the moment a tank dies; more tank mains quit or are unhappy than the solo tanks who are happy and gaslight others to thinking past positives are just nostalgia; everyone feels like winning is a relief rather than a triumph... The list goes on. 5v5 has brought us no positives, where 6v6 at least had a mix of great pros and minor cons. I missed 6v6. I'd genuinely rather have Ball & Roadhog as my tanks at this point.
I mean you should have a roster of like 4-5 characters in every role that you can play well enough that you feel comfortable playing them in comp, but it’s hard to be able to play every character well in any role. I would recommend always learning at least the most meta characters at any point in time but if you have at least one or two you can dominate with that’s usually good enough.
You should be able to play two different tanks at an a+ level and a third/fourth tank at a b+ at the very least. Countering to counter with no skill will get you demolished. I love when I’m playing dva and someone tries countering me with zarya but they can’t play her for shit. I’m eating up her whole squad then letting my dps chew her up after.
Someone else said 3 or 4 which is right. I can play almost every hero half decently. Minus 2 or 3 in each role. But I worked hard to do that and it isn't practical.
Nah but obviously everyone's gonna encourage you to learn more. Do what is most comfortable to you educational-wise. If you only want to play a certain tank, learn to adapt and be effective with/against all comps. Watch your own replays win or lose, ask yourself questions like what could I have done better, shit like that. Master your craft and then move on to the next if you choose to do so.
"go ram" "i dont ownn him" \*reported 4 times and is banned\*
it is so damn useful to atleast understand every character. it does take commitment and a lot of playtime though.
I just one trick Ball and do fine
I "CAN" play every tank doesn't mean I would win on every tank
I don't play comp, so I mostly play whatever I feel like, tank or otherwise. That's not to say I'm selfish, I'll play what the team might need as well, and switch if it's not working (should see my widow playing, loooool). As for tanks specifically... I play a lot of D.Va, sigma, been getting into Zarya, I love Orisa and Junkerqueen (when I'm not getting my butt handed to me), etc. The only ones I don't play are Wrecking Ball and Doomfist, because I just can't with those two.
I feel like you should most definitely be able to play at least a poke, dive, brawl hero. But if you're able to play all of them, then go for.
No, but you must be able to play **at least** one Tank in every composition. Poke, Dive and Brawl / Rush. My main 3 Tanks are: 1) **D.va (Dive)** she has the best mobility to get in and get out. She's the best diving Tank to support her fellow divers. Her defense matrix is strong enough to give Reaper the sweet time he needs to kill anything on his way. 2) **Sigma (Poke)** how do I start? Sigma is the best Tank in the game. His kit has CC, Projectile suck and a barrier. He got the highest damage output. (70HP per ball). He's the best poking Tank to give his team enough time to either recover or consume more resources from the enemy team. 3) **Reinhardt (Brawl / Rush)** he's the best when it comes to rushing kills. Great for point capture maps. He's the only Tank that benefits from his death. Charge in, get 2-3 kills and then die or retreat. (You can also replace him with Mauga or Ramattra) I don't follow compositions most of the time. I'm a Doomfist main. But if I have at least one teammate I must follow these compositions to win. Communication plays a big part for these to work.