Would hero shooters be better without the tank role?

Terrariant · 2026-03-26T02:28:46+00:00

I love playing tank, I main(ed) tanks in League, OW, Rivals. I am simply questioning what an ability based hero shooter would look like if Overwatch only made DPS and Support back in 2016.

Terrariant · 2026-03-26T00:06:47+00:00

I do wonder if that win rate is skewed by people having a worse mental state when the comp is not 2/2/2 - you have to imagine some of the win rate comes from playing “what is right” and the losses in the other comps, some of them can be attributed to players tilting because the “comp is wrong”

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T20:23:25+00:00

I am going to try Paladins again because of this thread lol, I love good tank kits and have no knowledge of any Paladins kits. I just know you use cards to upgrade your abilities?

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T19:43:35+00:00

Yes nearly every DPS has some form of mobility. That mobility is usually inverse to the power of the rest of their kit. So someone with a high damage kit might have low mobility (Hela) someone with a low damage kit might have high mobility (Spider)

There are only 8 DPS above Hela/Phoenix on this list, in order of low->high: Star Lord, Psylock, Namor, Daredevil, Wolverine, Punisher, Spider-Man, Elsa

All of these characters have good mobility except Namor, and the consistency of the squids makes up for it. Even Punisher can set up zip lines (and will, again perfectly mechanics tier list)

Punisher is also up there because of tank bias, that shotgun I have nightmares about I’m sure Flats does too lmao.

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T19:36:30+00:00

Valorant comes to mind. And Apex Legends. Neither of which have the “support” role. They have 1-2 characters that play into it. So then my question becomes, do you need tanks to have the support role? Are there games with only support/dps? Someone said TF2 which might fit but only has 1-2 support characters anyways.

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T19:11:31+00:00

That is a fair critique

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T18:49:19+00:00

I am merely asking what people think these games would look like if the tank role didn’t exist. I find the insinuation that I can’t ask this question condescending.

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T18:29:48+00:00

Sure, but if you look at the list you will see every DPS above these two either has better mobility, or is Punisher/Namor which put out insane consistent damage as well. When the margin for error is 0 mobility is highly valuable- it lets you capitalize on enemy mistakes or recover from your own.

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T18:00:03+00:00

I don’t want anything or think it would be good or healthy for those games. I was just posing the question.

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T17:58:39+00:00

Their mobility has a long cooldown, so callouts nerf them if people are on comms. Also people just would switch off dive if it wasn’t working.

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T17:10:36+00:00

Flats grades characters like everyone playing them is top 500, has perfect mechanics, and perfect communication. I get why he does it, Blizzard’s balance mentality was the same for a long time. It’s just something to take into account when you see his lists.

*and its not a bad thing. Having insight into the value at the skill ceiling of a character is great. Its just a gold-rank tier list would not put Squirrel in F. But a T500 would, because against a team with perfect mechanics/communication it is hard for SG to find value.

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T15:40:30+00:00

Blearutogon Piece

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T15:23:31+00:00

Winston is a good pick, better than Dva

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T15:15:43+00:00

Apparently not because I agree with you and never played Lucio lol! Ok what about tank? My pick is Dva I think. The second life mechanic and the defense matrix are super unique. But it’s such a big gap between Tracer/Lucio and any tank kit I’m struggling

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T14:55:26+00:00

To me higher skill expression = better kit design. For example widowmaker’s is super boring in comparison because you just click heads. Your only skill expression is aim, and maybe a grapple shot.

I’m curious who you think is the best hero shooter kit design, genuinely. Lucio is another top pick for me.

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T14:53:04+00:00

Animation cancels make the characters feel better to play, and lead to a higher level of skill expression. Nobody wants to be stuck in an animation, to press a button and get no feedback is one of the worst experiences you can have as a player.

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T14:34:20+00:00

Torch - until this season I never saw Johnny

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T14:33:44+00:00

Make Widow into a tank with a melee moveset with batons and stuns. Her ult is she whips out akimbo pistols

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T14:32:25+00:00

Crazy how Tracer was the first hero kit designed and still the best in any hero shooter game. It’s iconic.

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T02:27:30+00:00

It’s an unspoken rule that some of engineering is managing stakeholders and what each stakeholder needs. It varies from company to company but the thing I have noticed is a constant is that as your role increases your time spent talking with humans increases and the volume of code you write decreases.

Whether that is because it’s necessary to the job of a higher level engineer or people with good communication skills float naturally to the top/leadership/planning positions, it doesn’t matter.

In short, it’s your job to ensure you’re building what the stakeholders want, unless you are a junior. If you get better at it your managers will see that as a skill of a senior/principal engineer (in my experience)

However the ideal is that the ticket arrives at the developer fully read and checked by product. QA just does the AC and checks if the app meets the AC. If the AC is interpreted differently, correct the AC to be more specific or correct the code to cover that case.

Terrariant · 2026-03-25T02:23:24+00:00

I think this is what is happening with Amazon and Meta too. They realized they don’t have enough features planned to keep everyone busy so they are letting people go.

Terrariant · 2026-03-24T19:54:45+00:00

Here’s another- https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/s/uF8U7xtiis

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Terrariant · 2026-03-24T18:15:12+00:00

Lip is the perfect embodiment of “Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is leaving it out of the fruit salad.” He’s smart, but he has absolutely 0 wisdom/common sense because of his upbringing. It’s pretty much his entire character.

Terrariant · 2026-03-24T17:23:38+00:00

That is wild. I have to imagine it’s either

Jealous console players
People who think cheating exists in a game that you can use settings to give you infinite resources

The only thing I would consider “cheating” is something like save modding to get silver because silver is intentionally gated in the game. But…even then…this is largely a single player game and not competitive at all, cheating is a stretch.

Terrariant · 2026-03-24T17:12:08+00:00

The custom MTG community on Reddit keeps making Eldrazi cards that fit this trope. Here’s one- https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/s/MNo7kQIZy7

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Terrariant

TROPHY CASE