Guide: How to play as a tank in Overwatch 2

Ever since Overwatch 2 was released, teams have had one less player and with only one tank on each team, any mistakes from the tank player could ruin everything since they’d be the only defensive frontline on the team.

That’s why it’s critical to master this class, which can easily mean winning or losing a match. And with this in mind, Um Gamer has put together a great guide for you to learn how to play as a tank in OW2!

Tanks have the main role of protecting the team and with the most health points and defensive abilities (such as shields), they’re the ones who identify as the team’s frontline.

This means that the player who chooses this class will have a great responsibility not only because they’ll need to know the right moment to advance, but also because the tank player is the one who takes the most damage during a match so if you make any mistakes and die, you might give the opposing team a huge advantage.

Do not overestimate your health points

Although one of this class’ main characteristics is having high health, you are not immortal! So be prepared to deal with a lot of enemy pressure.

You should know how to manage your abilities to not lack any extra defensive measures. Avoid using D.Va’s mech boosters to advance while your defense matrix ability is still on cooldown because if you take too much damage, you’ll be left without a shield or boosters to escape and defend yourself, which could lead to an unnecessary death.

The map can be your ally in times of need, so prioritize being close to walls or house doorways where you can easily dodge enemy shots if necessary.

Know where your supports are located

It’s important to keep in mind that your supports’ healing is essential for you to stay alive during battle so always try to stay close and in their line of sight where they can see you.

Staying too close for longer periods of time isn’t recommended since they are fragile heroes and could get eliminated in the frontline, but try to keep them far enough from the action where they can quickly heal you when needed.

While you need them, they also need you. Knowing the location of your supports is crucial in case they are threatened. It’ll be your duty to protect them with your shield or even with your own body!

Know the different types of tanks

Basically, there are those with mobility and those without it. The ones who do have it are more aggressive and usually advance, attack, and then retreat before they are taken down. The slower ones offer more defensive resources and need to know the right moment to pick a fight, since they wouldn’t be able to escape as easily without an escape ability in case something goes wrong.

Your evolution occurs by understanding these two types of tanks and knowing how this changes your teammate’s gameplay. For example, I played a competitive match as Sigma with two damage players; Reaper and Sojourn and my supports were Moira and Mercy.

Sigma is one of those supports without mobility while all the other four heroes on the team had mobility, so when I’d advance, they’d use their abilities to also advance, and they’d get to the fight before me and die since they didn’t have my protection.

I soon understood that that team needed a faster tank with mobility, so I chose D.Va and from that moment on we started winning. That doesn’t mean that tanks with less mobility are bad. The opposite could have happened if I were playing D.Va with a slow team without mobility since they wouldn’t be able to keep up, resulting in me advancing too quickly towards the enemy team on my own and risking being taken down fairly easily.

Another important criterion for choosing which hero to play is the map. Some maps offer many high grounds where opponents can shoot safely from and in these cases, a tank with mobility would be able to reach them. On the other hand, more enclosed areas favor slower heroes, as do payload game modes, since your team is required to stay close to the objective with little need for mobility.

Finally, we’ll see which tanks are the easiest to play as. I’m not taking their positioning in the meta into account since that changes with new balancing and updates. The goal here is to mention those which are easier to use to help beginners who are learning how to play as a tank.

D.Va

As already mentioned here, D.Va is a hero with a lot of mobility and offensive potential with simple abilities. She deals significant amounts of damage and can even take out more fragile enemies all at once with her Ultimate!

Reinhardt

Reinhardt has a very different approach from the previous tank we mentioned because he’s best known for his defensive abilities. His skills focus on stunning enemies, not to mention a large shield that he can use.

Roadhog

Roadhog may be the hardest Tank to use among these three mentions. Roadhog has a hook that can create easy kill opportunities by pulling enemies towards his team, which is similar to Blitzcrank from League of Legends.

He also has a strong healing ability as well as his Ultimate, which grants you a machine gun that pushes enemies away with its shots, giving you extra safety overall.

I hope this article has given you the necessary fundamental information to increase your ranking as a tank! It may be a bit difficult to grasp all the nuances of when to pick one type of tank or another or to understand the best moment to pick a fight, but don’t give up! Playing the tank role well can carry some matches for your team!

Feel free to leave any questions or suggestions in the comments.