The role of Tank is perhaps the most pivotal in Overwatch 2. Learning how to play tank in Overwatch 2 means understanding how to control space, protect your allies, and secure front-line eliminations, making you an essential part of every match.
Whether you’re a Reinhardt main who shields your team from damage, a Winston main who picks off the enemy’s supports or a Doomfist main who revels in disruption, this guide will help you understand overwatch 2 tanks, and how to make the most out of them.
Here are the tips to help you learn how to play tank in Overwatch 2.
- Understand Your Role and Responsibilities
Chances are, you already main a certain hero or two and if not, real our guide for beginners. Whoever you pick, it’s essential you understand your role and responsibilities as that tank. Because not all tanks are built to do the same job.
For example, tanks like Sigma, Reinhardt and Orisa are great for controlling space in the front line. Pushing forward with your team.
While heroes like Mauga, Ramattra and Hazard can control space, but take less front-line pressure.
Different still, Dva, Doomfist and Winston thrive when mobile. Putting pressure on the enemy support and peeling to defend your support.
While I can’t cover the intricacies of each hero here, it’s important to remember that the tank you pick will dictate when and where you engage in the battlefield.
- Control Space
Space is the keyword when it comes to tanks. Thanks to their presence, hardiness and damage potential almost everyone in Overwatch 2 is intimidated by tanks. Therein lies the main role of any tank: to use that intimidation to make space for your team.
In other words, your key role as a tank isn’t to be directly securing elims or even dealing damage, its to push your opponents into an unfavourable position, which can help your damage and supports take them out.
This conceptual reframe will help you make the most of tanks, doing the heavy lifting to enable your team to land the final blows.
- Master Map Awareness
To control space, you need to understand maps. That is, understand positions that favour your team versus their team. Think: how can you block their team’s escape route? How can you deny their access to the point? How can you create an opportunity for you DPS?
These answers will vary map to map, but having an awareness of your options at any one time is super important. So be sure to study each map for your many options!
- Communicate with Your Team
Love it or hate it, Tanks are perhaps the biggest team players in an Overwatch 2 comp. This means that communication is key to succeed. Whether that’s using voice chat or quick comms, you need to be calling out what you’re doing and when.
This will help your team to anticipate your moves, allowing them to take advantage of the space you create.
- Manage Cooldowns Wisely
Tank abilities can be incredibly powerful but often come with significant cooldowns. Make sure to time your abilities meaningfully, so your abilities are around when you need them.
This is important for both defensive heroes, such as ensuring you have Rein or Sigma’s shield available when you need it, and dive heroes, such as timing Winston’s jump in or out of an attack.
- Balance Aggression and Defence
While all tanks are about controlling space, it is also your job to defend your other teammates from damage. Whether that be by holding up a shield or by asserting dominance at your backline.
This means it’s your job as a tank to be aware of when you should be pressing the attack, and when you should be peeling to defend your supports.
- Know When to Ult
Most tank ultimates won’t be game changers, but they can make a big impact when used correctly. More often than not, tank ultimates are best used to claim more space, whether by denying a dive or disrupting the enemy’s formation.
That means, again, you should be using your ult as a way to enable your teammates. Don’t focus on getting those elims yourself!
- Adapt to Enemy Strategies, and Know When to Switch
Like any hero, tanks all can be punished by certain counter-picks. Whether you’re being thrown around, your dives being denied or simply you’re not receiving enough healing due to your team’s support picks, it’s worth knowing when to switch to a different type of tank in order to minimise your weaknesses.
So if you find yourself dying early in team fights, it may be time to consider a change.
- Leverage Environmental Advantages
Most tanks have the ability to capitalise on map geography. This can be directly via boops, pulls, pushes, or more indirectly through the open sight-lines, small corridors and more.
Ultimately, you’ll want to analyze the map’s environment as you play to maximize your tank’s abilities and, if necessary, switch to a more suitable hero.
- Synergize with Other Heroes
Overwatch 2 is undeniably a team game. While tanks act as the glue holding the team together, you still need to collaborate with your teammates and work within the constraints of their hero picks.
This most often means picking heroes which fit with your wider comp. But it also comes in the form of communicating abilities and ults, in order to unleash powerful synergies which can turn the tide of battle.
It’s Time to Tank
You’ll learn how to play tank in Overwatch 2, opening up space on the battlefield, protecting your team, and getting more eliminations. Improvement takes time, but our Overwatch 2 boosting services can help you rank up faster and see what high-level gameplay looks like. This can make it easier to improve and climb the ranks on your own.