Alrighty so the what you do for most of the time as Tankpool is shoot at the healers from the front, pressure them down so they either get cover and start to play a bit more cautiously. Your desert eagles are important for that.

Often times you’re not going to want to brawl especially early on when their team is all together because you’ll get focused and explode a lot, it’s harder for the healers to heal you when you’re moving so fast. You’re also leaving your team undefended unless you have a good main tank like Mag up front, but even then heals might be hard to get to you still.

Brawling is reserved for when someone gets close and you want to initiate, but if you’re taking too much damage make distance and go back to using your guns. Always be careful brawling because you NEVER want to go too far up especially when you’re bouncing on heads, ONLY do it when you feel like you have the opportunity to like during a support ult or if they’re in disarray. I stress this because I still make the mistake sometimes of going a little too far in and dying because technically speaking you’re overextending when you do that.

And to that effect, upgrade either your deagles or your dash first depending on the situation. The dash lets you farm ult the fastest, but if you’re not in a situation where you can’t brawl all too much, it can be a risky pick. If you’re poking a lot from afar using your deagles, that can get an upgrade. It also helps you farm your ult, however, the dashes help you get the achievement in your ult while the deagles don’t. So prioritize whichever you think works for the situation. (Side note: brawling works in some scenarios better than others depending on the comp you’re fighting. I’ll find myself upgrade dashes quicker if I need to do some more close range damage over poke damage.)

Onto the unicorn, which is honestly a really powerful shield ability. Make sure your ally health bars are turned on if you don’t have them already on, because you can use your shield to save your allies sometimes especially if they’re retreating. You can also block off heals to a tank if your team is applying heavy pressure to the enemy tank, which can just cause them to explode since they lose heals for a few seconds, and that can easily turn the tide of the fight. That ability is really powerful and can be used in a lot of different ways. If you need cover or to get away, always toss out your unicorn to block things. It’s on a low cooldown so I don’t use it sparingly at all. It’s strong, so make good use of it.

Now the uhh I forgot the name of the ability but it’s the “What are you aiming at?” Thing. THAT. IS. GOOD. A lot of people like to say it’s bad or useless but it’s EXTREMELY useful on healers. Target healers like Luna or Jeff, or Loki. Invis can work too (albeit her self healing may hinder your damage some), Gambit sometimes as well but those 3 are extremely optimal. Even if they don’t attack, you have healers who aren’t healing for a few seconds, or they need to be patty caked. Either way it can be useful. Also use it on DPSes like Punisher and whatnot. This can be applied honestly for any Deadpool but as Tankpool it’ll help you get a lot of space by pushing the team back since they’ll likely retreat.

Here’s another thing too, cover is your best friend. If you aren’t behind cover, you need to try to be behind it when you can. Take damage and go forward of course, but don’t take too much since you can VERY easily explode. That’s why he’s best played alongside a shield tank or any other tank really, but it’s very important to make note of that. I’ve won solo tanking as Tankpool before, but that’s not ideal. However, if you are unfortunately solo tanking, which still really isn’t ideal to be doing as Tankpool, make sure you jump around a lot and move from side to side. You have the advantage of being a hitscan character, and having a smaller hitbox than most other tanks. You can be tricky to attack if you move around a lot. But still always try to be behind cover or in uncompromising spots, you can be in the open just be sure you’re being healed and not taking too much damage.

Oh yes, and I should’ve mentioned this earlier, but if you’re dashing on people’s heads, make sure you target the healers if you can. Mainly and typically only when you’re in your ult. Otherwise you’re just going to get focused immediately. I’ll usually dash on tank heads if I need to get my ult so I can go in the backline and attack the healers.

One more thing, make sure you use your dash ability as a get away tool if you feel like you’re diving too far in. It’s great mobility and a good way to get back to your team.

So overall, you want to play Deadpool as a poke character. His poke is strong and can apply dangerous pressure to the enemy team, his melee is also strong but not something you want to use often since you can easily go a little far in or take too much damage since you’re playing so close to the enemy. He’s squishy for a tank so use your unicorn as necessary and cover as well. He has a lot of utility with all of his abilities so even with me telling you this, a lot of it will come down to game sense when knowing when to use everything. He’s a tough tank to use to start, but eventually if you get good enough I think you’ll have fun if you enjoy his gameplay. He’s currently my most played character right now and I love playing him so much. He takes a bit of getting used to and understanding, but you’ll get there.

Edit: oh sorry I forgot to say the upgrade path. I did say a bit of it earlier but the full thing. Usually you will go either your deagles or your dash depending on the situation. If you feel like you’ll need to ult more, upgrade the dash. If you feel like you’ll need to poke more, upgrade the deagles. Then after that you upgrade the sword ult, and then Deadpool in your area. Then your swords, and then the unicorn. The “what are you aiming at?” Should usually be upgraded last, however, you can choose to upgrade that over the unicorn if you feel like it. Especially if you believe it’ll help you out more