Today, we're looking at Tanks. These are the big heavies that typically make up your front line, soaking up damage with their large health pools and defensive abilities.

Once again, they'll be listed by my personal preference of most to least useful.

REINHARDT

Breakdown: A Tank in the most traditional sense, Reinhardt is a must-have for most team compositions. He's the rare Hero with the ability to contribute on Attack or Defense, no matter the map or objective. His durability and generous shielding means he can either hold back an assault or push through a choke point with his friends, always threatening to maul anyone that gets too close. The fact that he's very easy to use is just icing on the armored cake.

His hammer swing is incredibly satisfying but has limited utility. It's mostly going to be used for taking out low health enemies or creating space. The only time you'll want to swing wildly is after stunning a group with your ultimate first, looking to take out everything in your sight.

A vast majority of your time with Reinhardt will be spent with your Barrier Field active. It's his greatest asset to a team and with 2000HP, can stay up for quite a while, though you'll want to drop it occasionally to recharge. The benefits are obvious, allowing your teammates a safe spot to retreat and shoot behind. It's also why Reinhardt shouldn't run alone, always a better option to soak up damage than one of your lighter teammates. The Field makes for a good combination with a Sentry mode Bastion, protecting him from frontal assault while also being there for the inevitable flank. It can also be used to push back a group of enemies into a trap, like Symmetra's turrets.

The Charge is a high risk move that can kill most targets when they impact a wall, but you have to choose when to use it wisely, as it's easy to see coming and will leave you wide open if it misses. It's best used when there's very little distance to close and you want to take out a high priority target. You can also use it as a form of Kamakaze attack, flying off of the map and taking someone with you. This is one of the only counters to D.Va's Ultimate, though obviously you'll sacrifice yourself in the process.

Fire Strike is his only projectile, good for taking out turrets or stationary Defense Heroes like snipers. It's easy to avoid, but you can actually cancel your primary attack into it for a nice fake out. It's his least used ability, but that also makes it one that your enemies will often forget about. In a rare moment you have the Barrier Field down, throw one out to keep everyone honest.

His Ultimate, Earthshatter, is best used on grouped enemies and in combination with another attacker. The stun doesn't do a lot of damage on its own, but is an excellent setup for something bigger.

The downside to playing as Reinhardt is that he's slow and not very flashy. Everyone knows his deal and will try to get behind him as quickly as possible. Aggressive Reinhardts exist, but you'll mostly want to stay back, since he's a big easy target and needs his Barrier Field active to benefit his teammates. He's no good to anyone by himself.

Heroes to Target: Anyone that gets a little too close. Otherwise, it's typically no one unless you're right on an objective and a Bastion or Torbjorn turret is giving the team trouble. He can withstand the assault long enough to get in and deal with the problem, since all it should take it one well-timed Charge.

Heroes to Avoid: Anyone that can get behind you, like Reaper and Tracer or someone with a weapon that ignores your Barrier Field, like Symmetra or Zenyatta.

D.VA

Breakdown: To call D.Va a Tank is a little misleading, since she functions differently than any of the other damage sponges in her category. She's more of a hybrid Attacker that can serve multiple roles on a team. Her ability to continue fighting after her mech has been destroyed can serve as both a blessing and a curse depending on the situation and she acts as a good Hero to switch to mid-match if you need to clear out a rather persistent grouping of enemies.

Her primary weapon, the Fusion Cannon, has infinite ammo at the expense of limited range. In very close quarters, they can take out most single enemies in no time, but positioning is key since she is slowed down significantly when firing. Most of the time, you'll want to be right on top of an enemy looking for the kill or offering suppressing fire when at a distance.

Her Boosters offer her movement options that other Tanks don't have, perfect for getting up on ledges to pick off helpless snipers or even let her flank in certain maps. It has the ability to knockback enemies at the expense of some minor damage. It's worth it if you can knock an enemy off of the map or even just off of the objective for a few seconds.

Defense Matrix will protect from any projectiles directly in front of her line of sight for a few seconds, best against burst fire from a turret or machine gun. It's not as good as Reinhardt's Barrier Field, obviously, but can help in a pinch. Since D.Va is usually a high-risk Hero to play, this is easily her most underused ability and, if well timed, could save you from having to walk around without your suit due to easily avoidable damage.

The Self-Destruct Ultimate is arguably one of the best in the game, always a huge threat to anyone caught in its generous range. The damage is enough to kill anyone at full health and your allies are immune to it. You, however, are not and can get killed by your own attack if not careful. A move you need to practice is a quick hit of the Boosters before you activate it. This will fling your mech forward, making it much easier for you to avoid the blast. You can also do this to fling the mech straight up into the air, making the fuse even shorter when it hits the ground. It's insanely fun to watch everyone scatter when a giant explosive gets dropped right in the middle of the objective. The threat of her Ultimate alone is why a team with multiple D.Vas can be incredibly frustrating to deal with.

Outside of her suit, she is a very fragile, yet reasonably mobile attacker. Her out-of-mech blaster is ironically better than her primary Fusion Cannon and she's less of a huge target in this mode. It's essentially like having a second life, albeit a very delicate one. You'll want to charge another Ultimate to get back into your suit as quickly as possible. It also may be to your benefit to simply die and respawn with the charge so you have another Self-Destruct to play with.

The disadvantages to D.Va are her generally low damage output, range, and risky play style. Mobility is key to using her, but she's also a big target, meaning that a large mech rocketing towards the enemy is still a large thing to focus your attack on. Despite her large health pool, her Mech always seems to go down a little too quickly, leaving you to play Zero Suit Samus until you can get another charge. Even if you're a good shot, absolutely no one is scared of a mech-less D.Va. They're scared of the one thing you can't access in that mode - your Self-Destruct.

Heroes to Target: You will be the bane of any poor Widowmaker or Hanzo on the enemy team. You can reach any high ground they may want to hide in and mow them down without much resistance.

Heroes to Avoid: Zenyatta. You're going to see that name a lot. Just like with how snipers are deadly to Support Heroes, the Orb of Discord really really likes to stick to tanks. She also hates Mei. Everyone hates Mei, but D.Va really really hates Mei, since your most effective range is exactly where she wants you.

WINSTON

Breakdown: Winston is a great choice for anyone that wants a Tank that's easy to use, can soak up damage for the team and be more proactive than some of the other options. He's a good middle ground between the defensive abilities of Reinhardt and the mobility of D.Va and is effective on Attack or Defence, though I feel he generally leans towards the latter. If you're looking for a starter Tank and holding up a barrier the entire match seems lame, then you may want to get up to some monkey business.

Sorry.

The Tesla Cannon is on perpetual easy mode, always firing out a beam for as long as you hold down the button. It has a generous auto-aim that will catch pretty much anyone silly enough to get near you, though the range is somewhat lacking. It's also useful for taking out any Symmetra turrets that my be hiding nearby.

His ability close a distance is reliant on his Jump Pack, which flings him forward in whatever direction he's facing. Like with D.Va's Boosters, this can be used to access enemies up on perches, but will mainly be used to rush towards objectives where you can immediately throw down a shield. The landing will actually damage anyone caught underneath, so try to make a habit of aiming for a body on the way down.

Another habit that you need to get into with Winston is throwing down a Barrier Projector the moment he lands, since you'll typically be aiming for a control point or a payload. It forms a decent sized bubble shield around Winston and is his greatest asset to a team. A common strategy is to stand on the payload and throw down a Barrier, turning it into a traveling shield for a few seconds. It's also good to keep in mind that it generates a full sphere, so you'll also be protected on bridges or ledges from shots below. If using him more offensively, a fun trick is to throw a Barrier Projector at a turret or an enemy in the middle of an AOE Ultimate. They will be unable to shoot outside of the sphere and allow safe passage for your team.

Anyone looking to attack Winston will have to step through the shield, which is exactly the range you want them to be at for your Tesla Cannon or a well-timed Ultimate. Primal Rage, as it's known, allows Winston to go, well, apeshit, wildly flinging his arms at anything in front of him and causing significant knockback. It's not as much of a kill move as it is a way to clear an area and/or separate the enemy team, as the visual of a giant red beast running around is usually enough to get them to scatter, even if you don't actually hit. While it's possible to kill him in this mode, it's pretty difficult and not really worth the effort. It's best used when Winston is near-death, since it refills all of his health on activation.

Like most Tanks, Winston isn't much of a damage dealer and has very limited options if caught with his abilities on cooldown. He's a Hero that's all about positioning, not just for his own survivability, but for the benefit of his team. Because of his big face, he's also very easy to headshot and will not do well if isolated from his team for too long.

Heroes to Target: Snipers and Support, generally anyone that you can jump and bully that can't defend themselves up close. Genji is also one to seek out since the Tesla Cannon is one of the few weapons that he can't Deflect.

Heroes to Avoid: Anyone that's much deadlier at close range than you, like a Reaper or McCree. Zenyatta, again, is also an issue.

ROADHOG

Breakdown: Roadhog is easily the most offensive-minded Tank, able to dish out a hefty amount of damage with or without the help of his team. He's one of the biggest one-on-one threats in the game, the anti-thesis of what you'd normally imagine a Tank would be, as he can survive and often excel when by himself. With the highest HP pool in the game, he can be very hard to move off of an objective and the fear of his Chain Hook will generally keep enemies running the other way.

His gun has two fire modes; the primary working as a close range blast and the alt sending out a medium range ball of scrap that sort of acts like a grenade launcher. Roadhog is actually the only Hero in the game that will likely spend more time firing his alt weapon than his primary, sending out shots to pester anyone you're too slow to reach.

The primary fire is highly damaging but only useful from very up close, which is where you want your targets to be. To aid in this goal, he has the Chain Hook, which will pull the enemy towards you, Scorpion style. This can not be stressed enough - the Chain Hook is everything to Roadhog. His entire gameplan revolves around being able to use it effectively, so spend time in the practice range getting a feel for the spacing and timing. Once you've gotten the hang of that, you need to master the Hook-Fire-Melee combo, which will kill most enemies and severely damage everyone else. Another thing to keep in mind with the Chain Hook is that it can interrupt someone in the middle of an Ultimate, making it one of the very few defensive applications that he has.

If you do find yourself in trouble, Roadhog can regen health with his Take A Breather ability. It leaves him stationary, so you'll want to be in cover whenever you use it. The cooldown is relatively fast and Roadhog has a lot of HP, so he can wander ahead and even flank without worrying about hunting down health packs.

Roadhog's Ultimate, Whole Hog is... the worst Ultimate in the game. There's really no sugarcoating it. It's a minigun that's often very hard to hit with and is really only effective against groups that you need to knock back. It still has its uses, especially when trying to keep the enemy team from the objective, but no one is scared when Roadhog activates his Ult. They're only afraid of the Hook.

Though he can heal himself, Roadhog is still a big slow target that's likely going to take a lot of damage. Unlike the other Tanks, he has no shield ability to speak of, so he can't do much to protect his teammates and the enemy team knows that you will have a long run back if you end up respawning. Missing with the Chain Hook will also announce to them that you pose no threat for several seconds, which is another reason why you should practice with it. Without his Hook, he's nothing.

Heroes to Target: Support heroes, especially Mercy. If you want a big practice dummy to try out your Chain Hook on, go for Reinhardt, though you'll want to attack from the side since it can go through his shield. You probably won't kill him but can be used to pull him out of position. Once you've gotten the aiming down, try pulling a Pharrah out of the sky. On the ground and up close, she's useless.

Heroes to Avoid: Though you can pull Snipers from their perch, chances are they'll be too far out of range for you to connect. Most of the Offense heroes are poor choices to pick a fight with since they either have better mobility options or better damage up close than you. Also, have I mentioned Zenyatta?

ZARYA

Breakdown: Like Zenyatta, Zarya sits at the bottom of my list despite being the most damaging Hero in her category, mostly because of how difficult she can be for new players. If she were a fighting game character, we'd define her as "high execution", a very dangerous weapon that many will find themselves unable to use effectively, since there can be a lot to keep track of.

Zarya's Particle Beam acts like a stronger variation on Winston's Tesla Cannon, having the same easy aim, but with two modes of fire. The Alt fire is a weaker grenade launcher that does splash damage at a greater distance. The primary fire is your main threat, as it gets stronger as you gather energy. Like the Tesla Cannon, it also can't be stopped by Genji's Deflect or D.Va's Defense Matrix.

Energy is stored by her Particle Barriers, which can be activated on herself and one teammate. All of the damage absorbed by the Barriers will convert to Energy for her weapon, increasing in strength the more you have absorbed. A fully powered Zarya is a death machine, able to take down even the heaviest tanks with relative ease. You'll generally want to throw Barriers onto easy targets like your Supports. Also keep in mind that your personal Barrier doesn't last as long and has more of a cooldown, so it should be used with a bit more discretion.

Her Ultimate is Graviton Surge, a very good utility move that essentially works like a black hole, pulling all nearby enemies into a nice vulnerable grouping. As you'd imagine, it's best for setting up another Ultimate or simply bombarding an area. On some maps, it will even pull enemies off the map or into a pit, though certain shields, like those from the other Tanks, can block it.

The thing with Zarya is that either she's an absolute beast or nearly ineffectual, depending on the player and the coordination of her team. There is very little middle ground with her and she relies on timing and pressure to make any progress, since her damage counter decreases quickly and her shields don't stay up for very long. She lacks mobility and is also not very good as a primary tank, better paired with a Reinhardt or a Winston.

Heroes to Target: Sentry Bastions and turrets are easy damage to absord with your Barriers. Finding a Junkrat or a Mei is like Christmas, since all of the spam they want to throw at you will only make you stronger. Also, that Zenyatta that's been bothering all of your other Tanks? Zarya's Barrier removes his Orb of Discord.

Heroes to Avoid: Zarya has significant trouble with snipers like Widowmaker. You simply don't have the range or mobility to do much when caught in her sights. Faster heroes like Tracer and Reaper can also be difficult to hit, no matter how much Energy you've stored up.

Friday, I'll be back to cover the Defense Heroes.

Zarya's gun doesn't have any aim assist

@itwongo: I believe I used the wrong term there. Hitscan? Either way. Corrected.

Think you value self-destruct a bit much, it's thwarted by line of sight and there are a million ways to break it without even having to abandon your objectives.

@efesell: I think I overrate D.Va in general, since I use her a lot. I know most people would swap her and Winston, at least.

@xerseslives: I wanna like her so much more and kinda use her anyway despite complaining a lot. It's still a lot fun. Airborne shots with the mech still feel good if you can aim em' right.

I would argue that Winston is much more effective when on the attack rather than defence. Likewise, I think Roadhog is better on defence.

Because Roadhog is my boy I have to defend the opinion that his ult is the "worst in the game". No his ult isn't a one-hit kill, like a lot of other characters, but it still does a lot of sustained damage.

Used in the right situations it can completely negate other ultimates and keep champions away who like to get close- Genji and especially Winston. You can pin Winston against a wall and he's helpless until he dies or his ult runs out. It's also great at chewing through and knocking back Reinhardt.

Another great breakdown. I'm having a lot of trouble getting the hang of Winston. I'll try again tonight with this new knowledge.

One note about Zarya is the psychological aspect. Her bubbles and her regular shielded HP lead mean she's very survivable and can severely punish attacks that don't seal the deal. The funny thing is that, when playing as Zarya, you'll see two kinds of enemies: Those that know what's up with her, and those that don't.

• People who understand her functionality will see the bubble and visibly hit the brakes to make sure they've got enough team firepower or other situational advantage.
• Others will charge in, plink away at her and lend her extra damage for their troubles.

I had a spectacular showdown with a McCree in the side corridor while defending the final point on Hollywood (I think). He had the range advantage, but I was holding the doorway and once his support left, he lost his resolve to try to advance--kept just feinting forward toward the health pack. He never made it through, even when he had a Mercy back him up.

Another potential disadvantage of Roadhog is, with no shield abilities to speak off and a massive character model that gives him probably one of the largest hurtboxes in the game, played poorly he is little more than a massive walking ult generator for the enemy team.

D.VA is my girl.

Pharah is really good at getting behind Reinhardt quickly with her jump jet. Bastion can take his shield down really fast too.

D.Va's Defense Matrix can soak up Hanzo's ult if she catches the arrow before it turns into a Dragon. Also good for soaking up Pharah's ult.

I like to use Roadhoggs healing whilst tanking damage, because your Regen is so huge that you can distract multiple members of the team by sponging all the offense and this allows the rest if your team to flank them. Using it in cover is nice but healing whilst tanking damage is the most effective way of using that ability in a well coordinated team.

Pretty good duder. Funny thing is that I found supports and tanks to have been the easiest ones to get good with. Looking forward to a write up on assaults and defenders because other than maybe Pharah and Soldier 67, I'm having a hard time getting truly good with the rest of them.

Agreed. In the beta I was able to nail her ult more consistently because people weren't used to it, but since the release I get 1 or 2 people if I am lucky. Usually I kill no one.

I feel you are really overrating D.VA. She is probably the least useful hero in the game IMO.

Unless you're really close up, the damage output is abysmal, and at that point Roadhog is just better in general. The defense matrix is less useful than both Reinhart and Winston's shields, and it's actually quite easy to get of the way of her ultimate, as long as you pay attention. At high level play I feel like it's better for zoning around an objective than actually killing anybody.

At trying to hate here, because I generally feel these are pretty great and you put a lot of good work into them. Just needed to get that off my chest.

@dragon_puncher: I recognize that. I certainly think there are workarounds to her Ult's predictability and other shortcomings, but just about all of the others Tanks are much lower risk options. If I were focusing on high level play, the story would likely be a lot different, though I'd also argue that I'm probably not the one to tell it.

Like I said, it's just one dude's opinion.

I think Winston needs to be rebalanced. Outside of just being a nuisance he doesn't offer much of value and I'd always take Reinhardt, D.va, or Roadhog over him (and even Zarya). Reinhardt is great and can really spoil a defensive teams line if the player has good timing and understanding of their kills. Roadhog is my favorite character in the game. With his damage output, chain, and sustain he can not only harass teams but effectively eliminate threats. D.va might not have the high DPS as other units but she can also harass and has high sustain. I've gotten to where I consistently have at least 70% + chain accuracy as Roadhog.

I've tried using Zarya a few times. I really want to like her but I'm not good with her at all. I feel like her barrier is too short. You have to time it perfectly or its kind of useless. It would be better if it had a little shorter cool down or lasted 4-5 seconds instead of 2. I think I need to be better at anticipating when to activate it and also when to put the barrier on teammates. She seems cool but I haven't had good success with her yet.

@williamflattener: here's the deal with Winston. You want to play him on attack. You want to get on top of that payload. You're probably going to get a gold medal for objective time (unless you have a really good Lucio on team), which is great because you ain't going to be getting many for kills. Sit on top of the payload and keep it moving, you're an ideal hero for it because your gun is such a short range and you're not going to be hunting the enemy down unlike a Reaper or Tracer.

So keep on the payload, when the enemy make a stand, drop your shield on it allowing you to keep going unharmed. As it breaks pick out a hurt enemy trying to retreat or one of the weaker supports and jump at them. They should be dead before they even realise what's happening. And this is where Winston excels. As you jump into the enemy back lines it gives your allies like Reaper and Solider 76 to take care of business. To handle their shit. It takes the attention off them, off the payload allowing you to push it further. After your jump is available again (6 secobds) get the hell out of there and let your supports heal you up, then back to the payload.

People seem to like Reinhardt, and with good reason. But for my money Winston is the king of pushing. As long as you have good attack hero's on your team that realise when Winston jumps in that it's time to push hard then you can make some real progress. This is how I've been using him and it's been working great so far, I hope this helps.

Generally I avoid playing tanks as I am rather bad doing so.

That's probably why I like Reinhardt the least - unfortunate as I am German and the only flashy skin I got so far is the German military Reinhardt one.

When it comes to my personal preference it's D.VA > Zarya > Winston > Roadhog > Reinhardt, however I agree with your ranking by and large in terms of overall usefulness.

You're totally right, her ult is not typically used to score kills, but always good at disrupting a line of defense/offense, great for taking down turrets/traps and always good to get a team off of a point. I think Roadhog's lack of mobility makes him an easy target for any long range hero whereas D.Va is a solid counter to long range heroes so long as you know where they are and can get the jump on them.

I feel like when I see D.Va played by most other people they don't use her to flank or disrupt and instead play her like a typically tank, which she's not at all built for.

I also love her out of the mech as well. Folks always underestimate her but that pistol can be deadly and she's typically a tough target to kill with her size and mobility.

I think she's very useful but I'm also not at any high level of play or anything. I can totally see solid teams knowing exactly how to counter her and shutting her out, but in my experience people often don't know how to deal when I pop in, isolate a weaker character, take them out, pop defense matrix and zip on out of there only to pop back in and flank them once they're distracted again.

Spoken like somebody who's bad with Winston. Have you never been playing support and had a Winston jump in, murder you, and then jump back out? His jump pack is on a 6 second cooldown and the timer starts when he leaves the ground, meaning he can jump in, do his job, and leave by the time you're dead. If the other team is running double support or Genji or just a bunch of squishy characters in general, Winston is an auto-pick. There's a reason double Winston has been run in pro teams since forever (cause you can both jump on, say, a Widowmaker, dealing 100 damage if you land on her, and then kill her in 1 second with double Tesla).You are right in that he's a nuisance, but he's a nuisance that, with ult, has an effective health pool of around 2000 (500 + 600 from barrier + up to 1000 from ult depending on how low you are when you pop it) and has consistent DPS that requires no aiming and can hit multiple targets at once. Oh, and when his ult is almost over, you can jump pack away and then do it again once you're out of ult, at which point you've just tanked an obscene amount of damage and left. He's notably better than D.Va and even Roadhog, since if Roadhog doesn't get a hook kill to start a snowball he's just feeding the other team ults. Also lmao at saying D.Va has high sustain, even a good one is way easier to kill than a decent Winston.

Speaking of D.Va, this guide is a good starting point for these tanks but D.Va is definitely being overvalued here. There's a reason she's the first character Blizzard are looking to buff (the reason is that she's the worst character in the game because her damage falls off way too quickly, she's super slow while firing and her headshot hitbox is gigantic). She's so bad that characters like Hanzo and Widow that she should counter can blow her up by hitting her huge cockpit before she even gets to them. Her ult has potential when somebody goes into the lab and finds all the different angles you can send it over things to blow up right when it gets over so that they can't run away, but right now it sucks.

Also worth noting for Roadhog that when you hook, if you hold left-click once you've landed the hook you'll fire as soon as the animation is over, which means less chance you'll miss (unless the janky hook mechanics send them flying above/behind/to the side of you). You can also cancel his reload into the heal to save a bit of time, which isn't very hard to do and is extremely useful.

@frodobaggins: Thanks--I'm going to take a crack at this. I keep dropping dead instantly when I play him so I'm clearly not playing him right. I really need to pay more attention to enemy positioning and ability cooldowns...

Hot Roadhog scoops! I'm going to try both of those.

@williamflattener:For Winston I'm not sure I'd sit on the payload as much as he suggested (I feel like Winston should mostly be disrupting the enemy team and taking out their supports/Genji/Widowmaker before leaping out at low health), but you certainly can, and you should always go back once your job is done as it heals you and you don't need to keep pushing the enemy to engage them since you always leap in there anyway. Even when you know there's a Winston on the other team, the leap is still surprising. Also, landing on somebody with it does 50 damage, and his gun does I believe 54 DPS, so with jump it should take 3 seconds to kill most of your targets. By that time, it'll almost be off cooldown so you can jump back out or jump onto another target. He also benefits greatly from map awareness (good escape routes when you can jump, knowing where health packs are since it's not always possible to get back to a healer/they may be dead). Also, it's fine to pop your ult just as a heal even if you're only fighting one opponent. A good Winston is a healthy Winston.

Oh, and just to touch on the barrier, you need to dance in and out of it, as the enemy can't shoot through it at all and so will have to come inside, which is your optimal range. Then you can back out of it while still hitting them since you can still shoot through it. It's extremely good.

Reconsider playing him if the other team has more than one of Reaper/McCree/Roadhog, and definitely don't play him if they have even one Bastion (the absolute hardest Winston counter).

@xerseslives: One detail about Reinhardt's Fire Strike that you overlooked: it pierces barriers & continues through enemies. If the enemy team is hiding behind their Reinhardt, a good Fire Strike can soften most of them up.

@seinenfeld:

Spoken like somebody who's bad with Winston.

lol

Have you never been playing support and had a Winston jump in, murder you, and then jump back out?

Before I can murder him or cause him to panic? No.Only time 99% of Winston players harass anywhere near effectively (in the PC/PS4 games I've played) is when they ult and if the team is actually talking you can clean him up fast.

since if Roadhog doesn't get a hook kill to start a snowball he's just feeding the other team ults

You basically just said something that goes for nearly every up front champion in the game. "If you're screwing up and not playing well you're just helping the other team." :|

@drflapjack Yeah, Roadhog's ult is not useless or "the worst in the game".

@rockyraccoon37 Yeah, people see "tank" and think you're suppose to play each one in the exact same cookie cutter role, which isn't the case. With these guys you do kind of have to think of their roles in something similar to a moba. Roadhog might be a "warrior" and considered a "tank" but he's also an assassin. D.va can also fit this fit this role with her harass and the fact her guns don't heat up means that if someone isn't paying attention to her in a team fight or small area she can clean up or at least cause the person to have to clear out.

It also does 100 damage and is on a 6s CD. You should be flinging that thing at the enemy every chance you have.

@rockyraccoon37: I agree that D.VA. out of her suit is surprisingly good. When I play her from time to time I usually score more kills on foot, than in the suit. That might just be because I main Tracer though.

And all in all I don't think D.VA. is useless, but she is just the weakest character of a pretty balanced rooster and the one most in need of a buff.

What is with your weird antagonism and hilariously sad elitism? Chill out.

@rockyraccoon37: Don't you get it, man? This dude IS e-sports.

It saddens me that this game I love playing has inspired some really crappy behavior in its community. People need to respect other people's opinions based on their experiences. It could be different from your own based how a character was played, their particular skill level, etc. I don't think the game has been out long enough for the meta to be chiseled in stone yet.

This is because I forgot to mention putting down the torches this time, isn't it.

That one's on me.

Another good guide. But really I think Reinhardt is the only tank you can play as a new player, maybe Roadhog with a little practice at snap hooking players. The rest are either fairly difficult to get the hang of (Winston and especially Zarya) or severely underpowered to the point of frustration (D.Va). I think almost anyone besides Mercy can beat D.Va one on one with how bad her guns are. Reinhardt is another guy that can easily be a team MVP, even if you're new, just by staying up front and leading pushes. It also helps coordinate teams since people will naturally use your shield and group up if you're playing pub games with no chat. The only caveat is Reinhardt needs at least some backup. So if nobody has picked a tank, but you have a bunch of offensive teammates who are not going to want to hang out behind a shield (Reaper/Tracer/etc.) then you might be better picking a disruptive tank to get attention like Roadhog.

Some other Roadhog tips - his knockback ultimate and hook pulls mean you can often get some environmental kills with him. The capture points near pits are great places to drop enemies, especially tanks who like to run up without a care. And you can push people off if you come at some from the right angle and ultimate. As far as his ultimate, even if the damage is low don't underrate its disruptive power. You send people flying with each hit, so they'll usually be just scrambling to get their bearings instead of firing back. As well as getting pushed off a point/payload. Combined with some other teammates with accuracy and you can mop up a ton of people or secure an objective with that alone. Finally don't be afraid to slam healing all the time with the quick cooldown. Even if you're exposed it's better to heal quickly than die, and the quick, substantial healing effect often means you can survive long enough to get help or make it out.

Alright, apologies for stirring up so much trouble, some irritation from elsewhere definitely came through in my posts when it shouldn't have. I didn't intend to sound like such a prick but reading them back, yeah, kinda shitty.

Let's just replace them with "in my opinion, Winston does not need a rework because he's good, actually".

@rockyraccoon37: I played a match last night as DVa where I was in the back line harassing 2 bastions and a torbjorn and not giving them a chance to set up on the point. I didn't get many kills but I had 3 people completely focused on me and they couldn't kill me because I was too fast out of my mech and kept rushing them with the mech before they set up. My team was easily able to take the point without those 3 idiots noticing lol.

Exactly! She's great in those situations where folks get distracted from the objective or playing their role for the team. I can see that being less successful a tactic on high level play with everyone communicating, but in pub matches she tends to work great.

Oh man, I love pulling Pharrahs down to the ground while they're doing their ult. Goddamn satisfying.

Good job, also.

As someone who feels like I'm as good with Zarya as any hero in the game (this is not saying much) I'll give you my 2 cents:

It's easy to mistake Zarya for the archetypal divine shield moba type character who makes herself invincible to force the enemy team to waste their fire. This might be somewhat true of her barrier other skill but it isn't at all true of her self-barrier, which should be used if you see a junkrat tire or Hanzo dragon coming, or a Reinhardt pin, or in general you're under a lot of fire already and you just need it to stop. You don't pop your self-barrier in anticipation of running into a firefight, because even if things go as you plan your barrier will mostly have been wasted by the time the enemy draws a bead on you.

Zarya is a pushing character. You move forward slowly but constantly, trusting her quickly regenerating shields to keep her in fighting shape and using your barriers to make it hard for the enemy to push back your team as they advance. They'll have to back off to stay out of range of your weapon (even if it's not doing much damage, chances are they aren't paying enough attention to know whether it is if it's hitting them) and that gives you and your team space to advance as well. One thing I want to disagree with the guide emphatically on is that she is weak against Reaper. Reaper is one of the best matchups for Zarya because they operate in the same range, but Zarya has greater survivability. If she has any charge on her weapon to speak of, she's one of the most ideal heroes to keep him from messing around in the middle of your team.

After 6o hours or so of game time, I'd say D.va is the tank I'm always the least afraid of, no matter who I'm playing. She just doesn't seem to have much going for her.

Zarya is fantastic but I would say she has a higher skill ceiling than the others.

Roadhog remains my favorite hero in the game. He's so dangerous able to 1v1 pretty much anybody. He already does so much damage that about ult that does more damage would be over the top IMHO, as it stands now it provides him with some good utility for pushing off the objective, disrupting the enemy when making a push yourself or easy kills on KoTH maps.

One important thing to do as Roadhog is to turn away from an enemy and look down while healing if you have to heal while engaged. You want to make it as hard as possible to get a headshot on you. You can heal through a lot that way, and then still reengage with a hook combo.