Tanks in games Role Design Discussion #1

When it comes to the roles of tanks that often you have to think about the mobility, how fast they move and how they're getting into a fight. That with many gameplay mechanics designed around stopping and or taking a tank head on, you have it where tanks are going to be stuck in a position of being the team's shield or hold down of fire power.

Only as of recent are tanks less focused on being only hold down fire power to deal with in fights but rather also defensive lines with shields and barriers. However, because of this role change up you have it where crowd control affects tanks more.

A solution would be to do an old Doomfist style gameplay where in Overwatch 2 at one point Doomfist (a tank mind you) had an insane amount of mobility options making the class fun to play and get into a fight.

However, that level of dedication of balancing a high skill ceiling hero would be a nightmare for a more simple game so bringing down the level of skill for Doomfist players.

When it comes to high levels of play for tanks, having them do less with more being the whole goal; when tanks are given a high level of skill and a high level of doing more you have it where players are given in depth tools to their kits.

The role of a tank is often split between a defender in some games.

Not to get off topic from a tank and a defender difference; however to simply define a defender, a defender is meant to be a hold position, hold the line and stop incoming pressure. A tank is meant to take hits and put pressure, some tanks have more defender elements while other defenders have more tank elements.

Think of it as the difference between a literal tank and a shield. What makes a tank and a defender so different as well is that a defender can have utility, a tank can't have utility without breaking the class being played in question.

Just imagine Heavy in TF2 setting up teleporters or Reinhart in Overwatch 2 setting up a teleporter, it'd be a nightmare to deal with and ruin the balance of the game.

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