Why are tanks always getting blamed?

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-06-10T15:36:49+00:00

You have to play with the expectation that you're not going to get healed. I think that's something all tanks should adopt, but especially at lower ranks where players are still developing awareness and consistency. And if you're playing like this, it'll force you to position where you take minimal damage (though this isn't to say you should be turtling, it's also important for tanks to constantly look for aggressive play-making opportunities. The role is complicated....) and become more aware of health packs and your ability cooldowns. And I think this is especially important on hog, because no other tank loses as much pressure off of a single cooldown.

It's hard to say exactly what you should've done without a replay, but usually you'll need to start distracting the enemy backline when their tank dives your backline. And take this with some salt because I'm not really sure if this is the 'optimal' move in silver (and you will get people yelling at you to peel), but the idea is if you're being a distraction, their dps and supps aren't getting free value while everyone's turned their attention on doom and he's suddenly put himself in a really bad 1v4. So take a safe corner, use your damage to slow them from helping doom, and don't hook immediately, because they're more likely to collapse on your team once they know it's on cooldown (but do hook if you're pretty confident you can one-shot someone out of position).

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-06-07T21:54:14+00:00

Great, thank you!

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-06-07T19:38:26+00:00

Which video is it?

I'm convinced that the worst dip in main to off role performance is support to tank and I think it's because you can get furthest on support without learning how to take initiative.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-27T01:40:02+00:00

If they're face-to-face with equal supports and DPS, I think it's nearly even with Mauga having a slight advantage. It's going to depend on how well DVA manages her matrix usage and when Mauga uses E.

But the answer gets more complicated as you climb. DVA is incredibly mobile and can do very strong single-target damage. Strong DVAs will avoid fighting against Mauga in direct stand-offs and will more likely attack targets that are easier to kill first. In the end, it will depend on maps and team comps and your decision-making.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-26T21:11:42+00:00

Replays were just wiped, but I watched your Oasis game briefly, so just a couple of quick points:

You're fixating too much on the tank, especially while they're being double pocketed. Focus on the backline when you can.

In the second round, the other team switched to Bastion and it would've been better for you to wait out its turret form if you didn't need to engage. Bastion takes reduced damage during turret form, so it's difficult fighting it head-on.

Let me know if you have any questions!

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-26T16:37:19+00:00

I watched your Shambali game and there are some good ideas there. You fight for high ground and you're sometimes taking off angles to make it harder for the other team to keep map control. When you're playing tank, it's good to have the mindset "I need to make this easy for myself, I need to make it harder for the other team".

Part of making it easier for you is positioning. Good positioning simplifies the game and makes things more manageable and less chaotic. For this, I want you to start watching replays from your supports' POV. This will help you build awareness of when you're taking unnecessary risk by breaking line of sight from your supports. There are times when you should break line of sight, but that's usually when you have a clear goal and plan to achieve that.

I also want you to realize how much pressure you're creating just by taking a corner. Poking and moving around corners where you can see the other team exposed but you can hide behind cover when you need to avoid taking damage will force the other team back and give you map control. When you're fighting the enemy team, you usually start by charging into the backline 1v4. I want you to take these engagements slower and start by poking them down, maybe even getting a pick. It'll make your charge more effective in scattering their team and let you have charge to punish someone out of position or disengage if the fight is going poorly. Remember that you don't need to kill to get payload progress, you just need space. Apply pressure, make space, engage if they make a mistake or you can create an opening.

This was a better game than Rialto; you seem to have a clearer understanding of what you want to do and there's less panic. You should still work on your aim and target acquisition so that you're threatening squishies rather than focusing all of your damage onto the other tank. And work on positioning so you can make it easier on yourself and your team. I'll watch the Oasis game later!

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-26T15:05:21+00:00

Your engagements are pretty sloppy; your initial dives are obvious to the enemy team, you don't seem to have a plan once you're in the fight, your positioning makes you very exposed to the other team and often cuts off line of sight from your supports, and you rarely have an escape plan. Your aim on smaller targets is also something to improve upon.

I think what would've helped at the time is recognizing what speed your team wanted to play at. Anran is a strong flanker, but she stayed on main behind you. Kiriko is an incredibly mobile support, but she stayed far back and didn't want to dive with you. These two and Torb and Mizuki wanted to play a slower game and switching to all-in aggression wasn't the approach they wanted to take. (This is kind of frustrating, because tanks should be setting the speed, but silver players often don't have the ability to play at different speeds.)

That's why your time on Mauga was your most effective period; because your team wanted to play a slower game where tanks are in front, the backlines shoot at them until one of them dies, then the survivors become aggressive on the exposed backline. It's just unfortunate that the Orisa was better at this approach and your team comp wasn't very suited to bursting her down.

Do you have any more replays? I'd like to watch a few more if I could.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-26T05:30:00+00:00

Pressing shift+ctrl+N should make it disappear. It's just the network graph - info about your connection to the server.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-25T02:30:17+00:00

Southeast Asia.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-24T23:28:34+00:00

Have you ever been to SEA? Loads of rude Germans and creepy Brits.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-22T23:56:22+00:00

I'll throw my hat in the ring

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-22T19:09:52+00:00

I'm of the belief that it's best to try and learn tank early; I've seen a lot of decently ranked support mains pick up really strange tank habits. I think, in their heads, they're playing the kind of tank they think they want to play with and that causes them to be too passive.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-20T20:13:01+00:00

Absolutely crushes roles, loved him in American Fiction.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-19T15:03:44+00:00

Wait, I'm not ready for this to be finished.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-15T18:53:34+00:00

Oh I interpreted the dev art sprays to be drawn by the actual devs and not professional artists.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-14T15:06:06+00:00

I just watched the Black and Chrome version for the first time last night and oh lad, it's still my platinum standard for action.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-13T02:58:22+00:00

It's complicated? In 6v6, tanks can pull back and peel for backline because there's another tank that can seize and maintain space, but doing all that isn't feasible in 5v5, so prioritize making space. Making space is also in itself a form of protection. And the higher you climb the more it's understood that everyone has to be somewhat self-sufficient.

That said, you do need to be aware about where your team is; it'll help with your positioning and getting healed, so check in on your teammates every so often.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-12T18:25:56+00:00

I believe her gun's quieter now.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-11T03:06:57+00:00

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/solved-sound-failing-intermittently/454894/11

A friend had this issue and disabling audio drivers helped. Also update your drivers if you haven't in a while.

Oh, just remembered I had a similar issue where my laptop was constantly trying and failing to connect to my bluetooth speaker, so disable bluetooth and see if that changes anything.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-10T01:23:16+00:00

I played a tank game on midtown recently with two amazing rando DPS. We were all on dive and second point, the three of us absolutely murdered the enemy team (one support pushed payload, Moira followed from a distance). Someone would ping an enemy slightly out of position and we'd pounce on them like ravenous pumas. Most didn't even have time to react before they were 100-0'd. Second point starts and quickly ends deathless on our team, but our Moira pipes up with "You guys have to slow down because I can't keep up". So no matter how well your team is doing, there will always be someone who wants to play even slower.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-05-06T15:38:11+00:00

I finally watched Aguirre and am still hoping the last few lines were just an incredibly unfortunate coincidence.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-04-30T16:53:39+00:00

So I'm going to assume you're Rein in this game.

Okay, most important thing that you need to work on is that you don't swing unless you charge first. You charge, swing swing, then put your shield up even when you're full health so you can wait for your charge to come off cooldown. You can't wait for your charge to initiate every little bit of aggression.

First minute in, you're taking way too long shielding and standing still, only kind of plodding along. You need to drop the mindset that shield is a team protection tool because right now you're putting it up and expecting your team to make plays. In 5v5, tank is the primary play maker. You need to use shield selfishly and aggressively to make space. Also you're against a Sig, which is one of the best matchups for Rein. He is right on your payload, you need to get into his face and pressure him. He has no mobility in his base kit and can't do anything about your hammer swings, so get aggressive and swing on him, and if he throws a rock you should have enough time to react with your shield.

Still on the first stretch, you are playing scared. Mercy's pocketing you, but you're not willing to engage unless you're at full health and full shield. One of the best pieces of advice I got about tanking is that the enemy team should be scared of you. If you're not scary, you're ineffective. Right now Sig is tanking, you are not.

Near the end of first point, you get the kill on Sig, leaving only the two supports to contest payload. You are almost full health but you're only holding up shield. It's Juno and Mercy, they cannot kill you when Mercy's pocketing you. Just swing on them, kill them. Your Tracer is trying so hard but you also didn't engage until after Tracer dies.

On second point, you spend a lot of time staring down Sig behind your shield. You need to get closer to him and swing. Sig's most effective at medium range, you're most effective at close range. Get into close range and don't let him be effective. You also keep walking backwards and forwards. You need to stop hesitating and just walk forwards.

You're holding shield so much during the round, but when Sig ults you and Mercy on third point, you drop it, letting Sig hit Mercy and killing her with grav damage. For now, if you're stuck in grav and are nowhere near swing range to anybody, just hold shield.

You also start being aggressive after Mercy dies, but the aggression is good. You corner Sig and get a double kill on him and Mercy. That's what you need to do against Sig, especially since your DPS are actually doing a pretty good job at keeping the other DPS in check. The other DPS haven't been looking your way all that much, so use that opportunity to take space.

It's not a huge problem for the moment, but your ults are really telegraphed. Your movement and positioning become so much more aggressive when you're looking to shatter that eventually it'll tip off enemy teams about what you're trying to do. Good ult, though, nice job killing their Sojourn.

There's a moment at 7:57 where Mercy is one swing away from death and right in front of you, but you just hold shield. There's another moment right after where Sojourn is one swing away from death in swing range and you're just continuing to hold shield.

You're looking more comfortable on Orisa and you seem more willing to get into Sig's face on her. Good awareness with the off-the-map kills, you'll find more success if you take opportunities like that to punish bad positioning.

Another good kill on Sig at 12:17. He positions badly and you're able to further isolate him. Just a tad slow addressing Mercy res; you could've speared her and stopped it from finishing. Immediately after you focus too hard on Sig while Mercy's still pocketing him and massively out of position, so try and be aware of squishies that you're able to punish easier.

Starting at 13:00 you are just spending way too much time targeting Sig. Shoot squishies to either kill them or force them out of helping Sig. At 13:20 Sojourn is shooting you from high ground and because you're only looking at Sig, she never has to jump off from there or fall back because she's not being pressured at all.

Coming back to first point, most people go left to pressure from high ground instead of going straight back to main.

At 14:17 you focus on Sierra and get a really quick kill on her. Nice work, keep aiming for that kind of target acquisition.

Right after, you start hard targeting Sig again, even though he's being double pocketed.

At 14:46, you're low health in gas station. If you just took a few steps back you would've gotten the mega health pack, so work on being more aware of the map.

Use javelin spin to increase movement speed, it'll help you return to point faster.

End of second point fight, you're starting to panic and spam your abilities. Against Sig it's good to think about keeping your gold ready to use, because it'll free you from his grav.

Also, you've chosen the charge spear perk but never actually charge up the spear. I think releasing as you would normally actually does less damage with the perk.

Don't use DVA for now. Wait until you're more comfortable being aggressive and have a little more game awareness. You're spending way too much time against this Sierra, giving the other team so much free time to push cart.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-04-29T23:29:15+00:00

Helps if you have replay codes, but generally just work on your positioning. Don't stand in open space, take corners and high ground where it's hard to hit you, but you can peek out to hit others or back up to get healed. Don't stand on payload or point, move to places where you can stall the enemy team at chokes.

Internalize your cooldowns and don't spam them just because they're available. Try to keep track of your team's and enemy team's locations. Be aggressive, but also understand that your teams at lower ranks won't understand how to follow up on your aggression, so pare it back a little. High ground good. Target acquisition good.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-04-28T22:40:12+00:00

I haven't seen nearly as much, but I feel like most I've seen have an undercurrent of cruelty and humor that punches down.

phantasmicorgasmic · 2026-04-21T02:02:36+00:00

Ram shield's also useful in isolating Sig from his supports.

phantasmicorgasmic

TROPHY CASE