In the original game, teams always consisted of two tanks, two DPS, and two support. It was an even split, meaning the responsibility was shared across six members instead of a single role being thrust upon you. This changed in Overwatch 2 , with teams now made up of five people and only a single tank. Whoever fills the role is expected to soak up damage, keep their position, and have a level of confidence that I absolutely do not have. I am a baby.

Part of the tinkering feels like vanity too. In Horizon Forbidden West , Aloy was too chatty when she was alone , remarking that items will be sent back to storage (somehow?) and repeating the same few lines over and over. People said it was annoying, so it was taken out. But surely they knew it was annoying? Surely part of the point was to make Aloy endearing in this way? I’m sure people think Aloy shutting the hell up is an improvement, but mostly it just feels like fixing something for the sake of it. It doesn’t feel like developers have the license to be creative and eccentric if a few people joking around online is enough for the studio to mandate changing the game. Gaming is becoming more risk averse, not less, in the presence of a constant safety

Being a tank is scary. You need to lead the way, make the decisions, and Overwatch2Tactics.com be the driving force for your team that encourages them to push forward and claim victory. I’ve written about the role in Final Fantasy 14 and how it will never be for me, but Overwatch was an exception.

A smaller team and more concentrated strategic focus for each player in Overwatch 2 is definitely a good thing, but it also presents a higher skill ceiling for us to meet if we want to perform well and not let people down. I am a decent DPS player, but now I can hang with the best when it comes to heroes like Moira, Lucio, or Mercy. So I stick with them, staying in my lane instead of risking old favourites that might get people moaning at me as I fail to do things correctly. This shouldn’t be a problem, and the majority of it is definitely on me, but Overwatch 2 has brought back a lingering multiplayer anxiety I thought I had conquered.

Luckily, however, it seems that fans will be getting their wish soon. The next big update is coming November 15, and will nerf Zarya in several different ways. For starters, the Barrier's duration is going back down to two seconds, as it was in the first Overwatch. On top of that, it will now have an eleven-second cooldown, stopping you from spamming it so much in bat

Failing to do so consistently will lead to a constant stream of deaths or a lack of focus, because without a tank to move alongside, all your teammates can do is flounder around and hope for the best. I’ve been on the other end of this conundrum constantly since launch. So many matches have been lost because a dipshit tank doesn’t play the objective, or charges in before immediately complaining that I wasn’t around to heal him despite jumping into the fray being impossible. Bad tanks are the worst, and I don’t want to take on that reputation because I end up making a silly mistake. Anxiety is one hell of a thing.

I mean, I shouldn’t be afraid of disappointing random strangers in a game of Overwatch 2, or worrying they think less of me because I don’t know how to stop feeding as D.Va or suck at hooking folks with Roadhog. If being tank is thrown at me when I queue for all roles, I stick to a reliable hero who is fairly hard to fuck up - like Orisa. She moves slowly, but has plenty of hit points and abilities designed to deflect attacks and heal your allies. Doomfist, Sigma, and Zarya are a little more varied, and I’d need to practice standing a chance at not sucking so bad. But with only a single tank role to fill and a fairly toxic player base, outside of playing against AI and mucking about in the firing range, that opportunity has been taken away.

They aren't the only Tank player who feels this way. "As a Tank main, it's really no more fun playing her at this point than it is fighting her," says Eefy_deefy "In Competitive it literally feels like I'm throwing if I don't choose her because she can damn near carry a te

Kiriko is the newest Support character, which probably conjures in your mind the image of a squishy healer who hides in the backline and keeps the team healthy. But Kiriko is not a passive Support by any stretch, and healing is only one small part of her role. She has incredible mobility thanks to her passive walk climbing ability and teleport, which allows her to pass through solid objects to instantly appear next to her team. Her weapon, a set of 12 kunai knives, deal bonus damage to crit spots, giving her the damage output potential of a sniper. She can also heal using her Ofuda and cleanse allies with her Protection Suzu. She is a healer, but she’s also a lethal assassin who can backline almost as well as Genji, Tracer, or Sombra. There is a breaking down of rigid roles happening in Overwatch 2 that completely reshapes how we are supposed to approach team p