Hi guys i'm a consistent t500 player since the alpha and have been maining Dr. Strange all along. I was an otp at the beginning and then slightly shift to play other tanks to fit certain compositions like Mag or groot.

I have approx. over 400 hours on strange from alpha/beta/game release and feel qualified enough to give my thoughts on the current state of him as a tank + talking about the continuous nerfs season after season.

Lets start off by going back all the way to the alpha. There is no discussion that he was absolutely busted, broken and beyond op. That has to do with things i am going to list.

• In the alpha we had way less dps heros and his upkeep & pressure was really strong since his shield wouldn't break quickly. Basically way less damage in the game to keep him in check.
• His auto attack + shield + auto attack animation cancel was absolutely broken and you would get ult every other 20 or so seconds
• Other tanks like groot mag cap etc haven't been adjusted and were quite lackluster
• His ult would stun for 4 seconds and overall he had just a tons of damage

Then next up the beta. This is where the nerfs would be starting

• His auto attack shield auto attack animation cancel is gone
• He got overall a damage nerf across the board in compensation for a little more hp and shield
• But he was still top tier pick for tank and still would be a lethal threat with his damage output

Which brings us to game release and season 0

• He would get nerfs to his Maelstrom of Madness and Gamma maelstrom with adding damage falloff
• On top of that decrease the shield value

Again i think at this point, the game was quite Dr. Strange dominated in ranked and pro play. Nobody could argue these nerfs they are fairly justified. At this point, we didn't have The Thing and Emma in the game yet.

Now we are heading to current day and current balance changes in season 2

• He suffered severe nerfs to his projectiles auto attacks which is leading to awkward situations where enemies survive now with 1hp since you need an additional auto attack. This feels very sloppy and chunky and is absolutely a game changer for him to be a threat
• Further nerfs to his Maelstrom of Madness
• Gamma loss with hulk -> another loss of damage source
• New scarlet teamup gives him +100 hp but tankyness doesn't help since ironfist and wolv do %dmg and he gets easily bullied

Conclusion

Dr. Strange was already quite a balanced tank in season 1.5. He would leave the spotlight being the 4th or even 5th tank option with the introduction of The thing and the magneto/groot buffs. He was barely seen any stage play even in pro play and t500 lobbies.

It is quite apparent there is a trend going on with Dr. Strange it is nerf after nerf. It is outrageous that other tanks like Groot or Mag wouldn't receive nerfs to this extent.

Another point is that Dr. Strange lost quite the identiy of being the "lethality and aggressive tank".

On that note I hope they revert the changes and bring him back where he was in season 1.5

I also want to shoutout bogur and miles they brought up really good points as well and feel free to discuss openly! We need to stay together and bring him back to glory.