'Overwatch' Tanks Guide: How To Be A Front-Line Menace

Overwatch is a team-based shooter, with 25 characters as of right now. Because
it’s a team-based shooter, you’ll need a well-rounded group to get the upper
hand on opponents. This guide will highlight the tank heroes in Overwatch ,
noting each character’s strengths and weaknesses. Try all of the characters to
find the one that is perfect for your play style!

Tank Heroes

The tank heroes in Overwatch are the following:

• Winston

• Roadhog

• D.Va

• Reinhardt

• Zarya

Winston

Everyone’s favorite peanut butter eating gorilla, Winston, is a utility tank. His primary weapon is the Tesla Cannon, an electric coil that hits everything in front of him for a short distance. You won’t be able to kill tanks, but squishier targets should go down easily when you hit them with your juice. Shooting your blue coil into Roadhog’s face will only make him laugh. The tesla cannon cannot inflict headshot damage. The coil can also attack through shields like Reinhardt’s or other Winstons.

Winston’s Jump pack is a versatile tool that can either bring him into the fight or get him out of it. Every six seconds, Winston can propel himself forward, damaging enemies that get caught under him. You can use this ability to jump on an enemy backline, making short work of an enemy Mei or McCree. Be careful when you use this to engage though; once you are in there’s no escape route.

Energy Barrier can protect you for a short amount of time if you get caught. It has a slightly long cooldown at 13 seconds, so you don’t want to just waste it. The barrier lasts for five seconds, or until destroyed and your allies can shoot through it. It’s great for being on the defensive; throw down a shield on an objective or a payload and help your allies throw down some major damage. Keep in mind that high DPS heroes like Bastion or TorBjorn will completely annihilate your shield before it gets useful.

Primal Rage is Winston’s ultimate and causes the gorilla to go insane. He loses his gun but gains 500 extra health (for a total of 1000) and strong melee attacks that push enemies back. Pop this ultimate when you are low on health to restore yourself to full, hopefully catching an enemy off guard and punching them off the map. Primal Rage is a great ultimate for keeping your payload moving. If an enemy gets close, just punch him away so that your little truck is no longer contested.

Winston is all about positioning. Put yourself in a bad spot and the enemy can just destroy you before you even get a chance. He might look easy because he requires no aim, but take one wrong leap and your face first with the whole enemy team shooting you down.

Roadhog

My favorite one-man apocalypse, Roadhog is a high-damage tank that has no problem charging in on the front line. His basic gun has two attacks, one short-range AOE spread and a medium-range focused shot. The shotgun spread can do some serious damage in close range, easily ripping apart a squishy support like Symmetra. Keep in mind Roadhog’s low ammo when playing him; I’ve been caught in plenty of situations with enemies getting away with single-digit health because I had wasted my four rounds.

Chain Hook is a lot like the League of Legends champion Thresh’s main ability. It throws a chain out in front of you, pulling in whoever it hits. A good Chain Hook can promise you a kill, with enemies having no way to escape before blowing them into oblivion. When you hook an enemy, make sure to be quick on the trigger and to go for their head for double damage, securing you the kill.

To show you how truly crazy Roadhog is, Blizzard makes him sniff gas to make himself heal. Take A Breather heals Roadhog 300 HP for one second. Tank some shots to the face, duck for cover and sniff, then head back into the fight. The fat man in the gas mask has the highest health pool in the game, but lacks any form of shield, so making sure not to take too much burst damage is important when playing him. You can’t heal if you are already watching the death recap.

Whole Hog is Roadhog’s ultimate ability and it is game-changing. He upgrades his Scarp Gun for six seconds, turning it into a tommy gun that knocks enemies backwards. The sustained damage is no joke, you pretty much turn into a walking Bastion turret. Roadhog also knocks enemies backwards, so like Winston’s ultimate you want to knock them away from objectives or off the map.

If you like mayhem, you’ll love Roadhog. He’s a tank for those of us with a death wish and he couldn’t be more fun to play. Just don’t turn into mush before you get a chance to deal your own damage.

D.Va

D.Va is a former professional gamer who now pilots a mech for a living. Imagine if Reynad suddenly had to jump into a Gundam and defend his country. Like other tanks, D. VA’s job is to soak up damage while your allies deal it. Her damage output is relatively weak, but makes up for it with her high maneuverability and front line defense. When her robot takes too much damage, D.Va must eject and fight with a tiny Light Gun. If you get caught without your robot, consider yourself dead.

Her fusion cannons have unlimited ammo, but slow her down whenever she uses them. Try to keep enemies pinned down with these, keeping them from securing objectives or moving forward. D.Va is only as good as the mech she’s piloting, and this robot has some great moves. Her Boosters allow her to fly through the air for a few seconds, and can travel really far. Use this to get back from base or to try and push for objectives. She also has a Defense Matrix, which blocks all projectiles in front of her. That means AOE sprays won’t get blocked, like Mei’s, Winston’s and Zarya’s.

Her ultimate, Call:Mech or Self-destruct either calls a mech for her in human form, or blows up the one she’s currently in for insane damage. A well placed exploding mech can destroy a whole team, easily. If you activate Boosters right before the mech self-destructs it will actually fly forward before exploding. If you are smart you can send your mech into a defending enemy team, either forcing them to scatter and securing you the objective or killing them all.

D.Va is not the hardest hero in Overwatch , but like everyone she gets some time getting used to. Try not to waste her mech suit, because a professional gamer without protection on the fields of battle is kind of useless.

Reinhardt

Reinhardt is the most unique hero, he’s the only melee playable character in Overwatch . In a game filled with guns, grenade launchers and tesla cannons, how can a hammer keep up? Surprisingly well, actually; he’s a support tank whose job is to make sure your team gets wherever they are going in one piece. His main weapon is a rocket hammer he swings in an arc in front of himself. If an enemy gets close enough to Reinhardt to take a few full swings to their face, they are going down.

Reinhardt has one ranged ability, Fire Strike, throws a flaming projectile that can pass through any shield. It’s not nearly as useful as his Charge, which propels him forward until he hits any terrain or reaches the max range. If an enemy is caught while he is charging, they will be dragged along for the ride and be pinned if they hit terrain. Reinhardt can also throw enemies off of the map with Charge, though its main use is for pinning enemies to take them out of a fight. Getting pinned does 300 damage, which kills most squishy heroes. Avoiding Reinhardt’s Charge is essential for survival.

Like Winston, Reinhardt gets a shield, though the hammer bro’s works slightly differently. Barrier Field is a large rectangle that blocks all projectiles, except for Winston’s Tesla Cannon and Fire Strike. What a lot of people don’t realize is that you can shoot through the shield. It has 2000 HP, so it might take a while to chop through the whole thing, but it can be done. Bastion can destroy a Reinhardt shield in seconds.

Earthshatter is Reinhardt’s ultimate, and it’s another crowd control ability. He slams his hammer on the ground, knocking down all enemies in front of him. It stuns them for 2.5 seconds, which is plenty of time to kill whoever gets caught. Charge it up with your Fire Strike, because most of the time you won’t be able to get close enough to deal actual damage.

Knowing when to engage with Reinhardt can be difficult. Charging into an enemy frontline with no backup is guaranteed suicide, so picking your fights is just as important as who you want to pick off. Try not to leave your allies alone to go rushing in like a rhino; your shield is one of the best abilities to move payloads forward or defend objectives. When charging, aim for the enemy Reinhardt, then their supports and then finally their damage dealers.

Zarya

Everyone’s favorite pink-haired Russian, Zarya, is a support tank who works best when she is getting damaged. The more damage her shields take, the more damage she does with her primary weapon Particle Weapon. It can either fire a straight energy beam or lob small grenades at the enemy with knock them aside. Without any shield charging, her weapon does very little damage and tickles most enemies.

Zarya can throw down a Particle Barrier on herself or a Projected Barrier on an ally. They each soak up 200 damage or one full powerful ability. One shield can only increase her damage by 50 percent, but if you use both shields in tandem to charge her, she will deal double damage. That’s when Zarya starts hurting and can take down pretty much anyone.

All of Overwatch’s characters have unique ultimates, but Zarya’s might be the strangest. Gravity Well throws down a grenade and when it lands it creates an area that sucks enemies in towards its center for four seconds. Enemies caught in the well can still attack and defend themselves, but will be clumped together. Combine some Junkrat grenades or Pharah rockets with Gravity Well and you can kill a whole team with little effort.

Out of all the tanks, Zaryah is the one I have the least experience with. I find her clunky and her shields are more gimmicky than useful. I’d try out any of the other tanks before picking up this Vi lookalike; the rest are much easier to play and very straightforward. Still, she is a strong hero and if you want someone to speak with a Russian accent, she’s your girl.