The conversation about Tank’s role balance in Overwatch 2 has been a heated one, but the Season 12 patch has shifted even more power into the role to make them raid boss level threats. It’s been made pretty clear by OW2 game director Aaron Keller that the Tank role is Overwatch 2’s biggest problem, and it’s not because the role is too weak. Quite the opposite, actually.
So much of the game hinges on Tanks doing well that veteran streamer Flats told the OW devs to their faces that it’s impossible for the average player to do everything that’s expected of them in the role. And they, to some extent, agreed with him. Here’s the thing, though: In order to have a strong enough frontline in Overwatch 2, Tanks have to be raid-boss level threats.
Season 11 showed this in spades, where the Tank diff was felt more than ever after every character in the role received some hefty buffs . And, while Season 12 didn’t change much about Tanks themselves, everything else was changed around giving them even more power in the meta. Overwatch 2 Season 12 doesn’t solve the Tank problem In all fairness to the Overwatch 2 dev team, solving the problem with playing Tank isn’t something that’ll happen overnight.
In fact, I’d be surprised if it ever happened. New Overwatch tanks like Mauga and Ramattra are designed around doing everything for their team, while what were previously off-tanks like D.Va and Zarya have clear weaknesses newer heroes don’t have.
They simply aren’t .