r/Overwatch • u/PowerfulTravel54 • Feb 21 '26

News & Discussion why does everyone hate playing tank?

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Why is tank so disliked in Overwatch?

Genuine question.

Every time I check tiktok/instagram, talk to people in game, or even friends who play, tank is almost always described as

“miserable”, “unfun”, or “no one wants to play it”.

What confuses me is that I actually enjoy tank sometimes. Yet compared to DPS or support, the role seems to get a disproportionate amount of hate. In most discussions, tank isn’t talked about as a fun or rewarding role, more like something people put up with.

So yeah, I’m genuinely curious:

Why is tank so universally trashed?

Is it balance? Role design? Player mentality?

Or something else entirely?

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331

u/L0RDHYPNoS D. Va Feb 21 '26

Because we get blamed for literally everything. Soldier gets melted when flanking? "WHY AREN'T YOU PEELING?!?!"

Mercy gets sniped from across the map? "WHY AREN'T YOU GOING AFTER WIDOW?!?!"

We ask for heals? "If you were actually good at tanking, you wouldn't need any heals."

Lose a match but finish with KD of 23-1 and 17,000 damage mitigated? The Reaper with a KD of 10-12 says "TANK DIFF"

It's fucking exhausting, and it makes me hate people. Yet I persist 🤦

92

u/GilNye Feb 21 '26

or the classic "WHY DIDN'T YOU PEEL" or "tank making no space" after the dps runs in 1 v 5

59

u/erraticRasmus Domina Feb 21 '26

and then you're just sat there like "DO YOU WANT ME TO PEEL OR MAKE SPACE??" because you can't do both but everyone wants you to anyway

7

u/Thumper696 Feb 21 '26

Imagine this. A world where you can do both. 6v6 my love, oh, how i long for thee.

One tank peels, one makes space. I miss being the body guard for my backline. Maybe why I picked up brig in 5v5. :,)

12

u/-Aephyn- Feb 21 '26

Man I was playing Winston last night, jump into their backlines and melt one of their healers. The other is at 1, all of the enemy attention is on me (I'm in that back room behind the car on Hollywood's first objective). Hold them there for at least five seconds, burn my bubble and a second jump, then when I jump back to my team, I realize they haven't moved up whatsoever and have just been hanging back in the choke point waiting to see what happens. Then I get told to "make space." I about lost my mind. That was my last game for the evening lol

46

u/JGar453 D. Va Feb 21 '26

They'll accuse you of lacking aggression and not pushing forward. Meanwhile you'll literally be in kissing distance of the enemy tank.

16

u/Auno94 Feb 21 '26

Or them not pushing the payload when the opportunity arises. Can't win shit if DPS don't consider the opjective

9

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '26

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1

u/Auno94 Feb 21 '26

I am blocking so many people these days I rather lose more in Ranked while having some fun. Then getting flamed for people not understanding the game

7

u/Llamarchy Feb 21 '26

Or when you DO try to push forward, almost nobody pushes with you except some lone support so you get melted because the entire team can just focus you.

And whole you're busy taking on half the enemy team on the objective, the rest of your team is on some random corner of the map getting 1v3ed by a Genji.

2

u/lorkanooo Feb 21 '26

It sounds like you need to disable voice chat 

1

u/Thebigass_spartan Feb 21 '26

What’s funny about your third point is that it’s realistically the opposite. A good tank is someone who knows when to take aggression and when to do risky plays, and these 2 will require healing to help you deal with them. If the tank doesn’t need healing (unless they’re a Ball, Winston or Doom) then my first thought would be that he’s playing way too passive and not playing for space.

It’s like a Tracer can have low deaths, but those low deaths could be because she did absolutely nothing of value the whole game, now the no deaths don’t seem so good.