Current overall game design issue with the tank meta

Discussion

I posted this somewhere in a comment, but I feel like we need to have more conversation on the game design around the tanks.

I think this might be the crux of all the current meta issues and how the game is designed around this. Tanks counter other tanks too well.

Some examples:

-Reinhardt nullifies roadhogs main ability of his hook.

-Roadhog/Zarya can counter DVas DM.

-DVa can counter almost every character minus 4-6, 3 of which are tanks.

-Rein can ground pound everyone in front of him, unless another reinhardt counters it or a zarya bubble.

-Reinhardt counters DVas ultimate. As does Zarya +1 and it can boost Zarya to boot. A well placed Winston can nullify its damage as well.

-Winston is one of the few characters (Except another reinhardt and a sym) that completely bypasses Reinhardts shield. No other characters can negate it without an ult. If a Sombra can manage to get the drop on Reinhardt without teammates noticing, so can hack the shield down, but that is a very rare case.

On one hand this makes sense because it allows for tanks to be a pivotal role and a central focus for the teams. On the other, because they are so powerful and don't have a lot of negation outside of other tanks, it has involved into a very tank heavy game like we see now.

I don't really have an answer or anything else to say about it, but i think it would be wise if we dicussed the issue why tanks should or should not cancel eachother out.

Due to their high health pool and high healing output along with no strong DPS counters to them has naturally lead to tanks playing a stronger and stronger role in the meta.

A few seasons ago Reaper was the go-to tank buster because of his close range/high damage dealt to tanks, which is nullified back Ana almost outhealing all his damage. Even without that, Roadhog is pretty much a better shotgunner than reaper right now. Roadhog (all the tanks really) should be afraid of a reaper that gets the drop on him, but it really doesn't seem to be impactful right now.

So what do you all think? Do you think that tanks counter each other too much? Do you think it's fine? Do you think blizzard should design a character that isn't a tank be more of a tank buster?

I don't have an answer or a really strong argument either way on the subject, but am interested to see if anyone else has a strong opinion on the matter.

Posted Jan 5, 2017, 10:59 PM UTC

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