“5v5 is a mistake": Community reacts to laziest way of Tank balancing in Overwatch 2

Since Overwatch 2 went live on servers in 2022, several players from the game’s previous iteration have been quite vocal regarding the Hero shooter being 5v5. From a dual-tank meta, the game became a single-tank meta, making it difficult for the Tank mains to take the whole responsibility of the team on their shoulders.

Earlier, with two Tank meta in play, one player was supposed to take main Tanks like Reinhardt, Orisa, and others. Meanwhile, the other Tank mains opted to play an Off Tank role like Winston, Wrecking Ball, and a few other characters. However, since the Tank balances have gone live, most of the Tank mains are having problems sustaining in the Overwatch 2 match.

In an X post, one Overwatch 2 gamer, @ow_havoc mentioned how the pick rates of Tank Heroes became only 12% because players tend to counter-swap the characters over and over during a match. Meanwhile, since the developers have implemented the 20% DPS passive feature in-game, it’s been hard for teams to sustain with a single Tank Hero.

On the other hand, the counter-picking concept prevents the Tank mains from building their ultimates faster. Hence, the Tank mains couldn’t get an upper hand on their opponent in the early rounds. The developers must realize that adding tonnes of Tank passives is just another “lazy way” to balance Overwatch 2. They mentioned:

"Tank has a 12% pick rate. It is unreal asf because you have to constantly counterswap the other tank over and over. You can’t solve counterpicking through balancing. It is a flawed format and anybody with a brain can see that. 5v5 is a mistake and we’re pushing 2 years into the game and it is still bad. When will the devs realize no matter how many tank passives you add into the game, it will not fix it. Address core issues in the game instead of looking at winrates and pickrates. That is the laziest way to balance a game."

Another Overwatch 2 fan @Summonbolt1 slammed the developers by explaining how bad the game’s current state is. They mentioned that despite going against the idea of the 5v5 implementation, some players from the community urged others to remain hopeful by giving Blizzard Entertainment “a chance” to reincarnate the Overwatch scene.

That said, after seeing them fail multiple times over two years, the same players have lost hope in the Hero shooter. The user commented:

"I've been against 5v5 since the day it was announced. “Give it a chance” they said. Its been over 2 years since the beta where i played my first game of 5v5. I've given it plenty of chances and its complete trash that does nothing but make the game awful and 6v6 is the only answer"

@OW_Zilla explained in a 5v5 scenario that making every Tank character almost similar in lethality will make the game lose its authenticity.

Additionally, according to the user, the day Reinhardt got its reworked ability was when they confirmed the downfall of Blizzard's Hero shooter. They commented:

"Staying with 5v5, homogenizing all Tanks to reduce counters will cause OW to lose its identity and be even more generic. The day Rein gets reworked to get some kind of AoE Sustain ability or vertical movement or whatever is the day OW dies 5v5 is ruining the Game"

@nvthewrld agreed with @ow_havoc and mentioned the Tank role was way more popular in the previous iteration of the game. Every Tank has their own set of pros and cons where players need to figure out the proper composition for different scenarios and maps.

While everyone mentioned the drawbacks of the 5v5 scene, @Timaso_Chomp wanted the devs to make it 6v6 so that players can actually start giving priority to the Tank role again. On the other hand, they also mentioned that if currently, 33% of the player base residing in every elo opt for the Tank role in competitive, this might fix the overall scene.

Be that as it may, that’s highly unlikely since being a solo Tank in the team puts a huge responsibility on anyone’s shoulder. Most of the players tend to avoid that.

Lastly, @kingofthestarss explained their honest opinion about the past 6v6 mode. They mentioned that the 6v6 scene in Overwatch also had its fair share of cons. The double-shield meta combination was really annoying for the non-Tank characters.

Moreover, they were of the opinion that if Blizzard intends to bring back the 6v6 Hero composition again, they must balance off all the new abilities.

One user providing honest opinions about the flaws of 6v6 mode in Overwatch 2 (Image via X)

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Should Blizzard bring back the 6v6 mode in Overwatch 2?

Considering the current pick rate scenario for the Tank role, Blizzard must think about implementing the 6v6 mode again in Overwatch 2. If not, they must come up with a unique idea to restore the Tank mains to their former glory. As mentioned earlier, the game's previous iteration featured two specific roles for Tank characters. One is a main Tank, while the other is an Off-tank.

That said, after introducing 5v5 mode in this version, players are more catered towards playing non-Tank roles to avoid the pressure of being the solo Tank in the team. Meanwhile, the remaining players showing interest in playing the Tank role tend to counter-pick every time they observe something odd in the opposition's team comp. In such a way, they aren't able to farm their ultimate in order to secure some crucial rounds and lose those end-round fights.

Despite Blizzard devs trying to balance it out by providing extreme changes to the Tanks to make them more similar, ultimately it's killing the game's originality. Basically, the devs are removing the concepts of Main and Off-tank from the Overwatch scene. However, this might offend the Tank mains, and Blizzard will most likely face a hard time keeping the player base intact.

Check out more content regarding Blizzard's 5v5 Hero shooter on Sportskeeda's official Overwatch 2 page.