I know I'll be downvoted to hell and through for my takes. But recently I've seen a post about ridiculous support queue times, and the frustration of said players on how they can't play the game. Replies were mixed, but a few told the same message, and it's that we need more tank players to compensate. And as an ex-Tank main I thought to vent my thoughts regarding the role and community's outlook on it.

I don't think there's an issue of appeal, if anything I'd say that OW2 does better than Marvel Rivals, is that its tank roster is really interesting. For me, DVa instantly caught my attention and became my first main. I like supporting people, and DVa provided that for me in the tank role. I was like Mercy flying towards soon to die ally, yet instead of an angel is was a several pound mecha with the healing beam was replaced by matrix. Plus, I liked her personally and aesthetics.

During the time I started out, there was a huge issue of counterswaps. It wasn't about who was the better tank, but who was more willing to swap to a counter. So pretty much \~80% of my matches would just be against Zarya, which was incredibly unfun and painful experience. Something that I vented about on the community, to which I received countless "skill issue, git gud, counterswapping doesn't play a part, no wonder you're X rank". People kept saying counterswapping wasn't a big deal, yet whenever I watched streamers and they got counterswap, they'd reply with a counterswap of their own. There's a reason why Flats having a counterswap war in spawn was such a popular clip. Yet despite knowing it's a clear issue making the tank experience miserable, everyone kept on gaslighting us that we were the problem and not the system. And if we disagreed with the notion, we'd get publicly humiliated online.

As a DVa, it didn't help that I was an off-tank. Her kit just felt off in 5 vs 5, she was designed as a dive hero, but since she was diving, that means main was open to be steamrolled, since there was not a single bullet sponge to apply pressure. So I had to play on main, but her kit was not designed for that, I lose out in brawls. Well I could instead risk and try to kill the supports, after all that's the entire point of the dive tank? Except supports were so powercrept that they simply could not die, having too much sustain to eat through. Supports in general just have to many unfun abilities, Ana's anti automatically wins a brawl; there's no counter, Baptiste's immo automatically negates a damage ultimate, and Kiriko just makes you straight up invincible. And the counter for those busted abilities? Just bait them out. And what if the support player doesn't get baited? Well you lose. And yet we tanks lie at fault of our fights being dictated by a singular ability. Hence I remember advising for the return of 6 vs 6, because at very least when shit goes wrong, we'd have a second tank to cover us. It just simply feels more secure and interactive. Something stood against, saying that we were the issue and 6 vs 6 was just copium. And now years later I am realizing that my gut feeling wasn't lying, 6 vs 6 is MILES better than 5 vs 5, at least as a tank. I can freely take angles with another tank covering main, that or we overwhelm the enemy team if it's 2 dive tanks, that or I can act as a support if we're on defense, keeping duelists off of supports.

Lastly is the pressure upon the role. I played both support and tank for a significant amount of time, and personally tank receives a lot more insults than support. Since as a support, the worst they can say is "gg no heals" and end it at that. But as a tank people carve into every single minute mistake you make (which makes sense, since we're in the frontline so everyone can always see what we're doing), even though nobody is perfect. And then proceed to make a big fuss about it. Like "I was being harassed by Genji, why didn't you turn around", idk maybe because 50% of the vision is inaccessible to me. I am focused on frontlining, I can't constantly be switching panoramics like I am some kind of a spin bot. Ping if you need help. Btw speaking on frontlining, I got so many insults for "not making space", like why didn't you push into them? Well because I'll die. Tanks don't make space, they take the one available and then secure it to have the team safely push up with them to that more strategical position. Sure you can make space with tanks, but that's usually with an ultimate. But outside of that, a dps has to get a pick or at least distract the enemy team for me to push up and make an advantage. If there's no space available, trying to contest it is equivalent to 1 vs 5, which is just suicide, I am not risking my life and our currently secured space for that. Especially considering abilities like anti exist, that or supports constantly complaining about LoS when you need them most.

Ultimately, people just say that I am a bad tank, I am trash, tank is not for me, and etc. And well what happens is that I just leave. Playing this role really is just reserved for masochists. So I swapped for Support, only coming back for a short while once 6 vs 6 released. It's not that I hate tank, I still love DVa, I love her way more than Kiriko. However, the community's outlook surrounding the tank players is unbearable. When supports complain about Sombra, everyone headpats them, meanwhile when a tank complains about Ana, they get insulted for being trash at the game. You cannot vent or express your frustrations as a tank. Nobody sympathizes with you. You cannot advance changes that would make the role more fun, because all other role mains will silence you because "skill issue". So the only bargaining chip are the queue times, less tank players there are, the more visibly the queues increase. "More people need to play tank", yet nobody bothers to make changes that would benefit tank mains. Instead choosing to give pointless advices, "just bait out X ability, just do this, just play around this". It's all tiresome, and thankfully I don't have to deal with it anymore as a Support main. Which I am both happy and sad about. 

Vent over . . .



Community is the reason for why there are so few Tank players.