Whether I bother in competitive with support is up in the air right now. It’s still a headache dealing with angry and ungrateful teammates who splinter across the map and somehow expect to get healed all at once, but at least now I’m enjoying the role again. The rush of scrambling to a critical marker to fill up their health bar while fighting back enemies is exhilarating in a way you just don’t feel with DPS, and the key role you play in ensuring your team’s survival is a wholly unique responsibility. I doubt I’ll ever be a Mercy main again or voluntarily choose healer with my friends when Roadhog and Orisa are right there for the taking, but at least I know that if I gotta pick healer, I have someone I’ll actually enjoy play
Failing to do so consistently will lead to a constant stream of deaths or a lack of focus, because without a tank to move alongside, all your teammates can do is flounder around and hope for the best. I’ve been on the other end of this conundrum constantly since launch. So many matches have been lost because a dipshit tank doesn’t play the objective, or charges in before immediately complaining that I wasn’t around to heal him despite jumping into the fray being impossible. Bad tanks are the worst, and I don’t want to take on that reputation because I end up making a silly mistake. Anxiety is one hell of a thing.
My old mains just aren’t fun anymore. Playing Mercy with well over 15,000 healing in lower ranks, keeping the team alive, resurrecting vital players, and helping push the payload, all while avoiding the focus of the entire enemy team, only to get a Cassidy spamming "I need healing" halfway across the map, is annoying ; __ Lucio is fun but doesn’t always work on defence maps, and Bridgette depends on the synergy with the rest of your squad. Kiriko, however, lets me stand on my own two legs in fights, easily jump to my allies with her teleport ability so I can catch Cassidy being a prick and save him, and heal as standard. The versatility is unlike any other hea
The question is whether or not this is better. Losing double shields and excessive CC has definitely curbed some of the most oppressive comps and helped increase the pace, but there are times when Overwatch 2 feels like playing deathmatch instead of a tactical team game. I have seen, and have been, the one player that utterly dominates the entire enemy team, eliminating targets on site in a way that just wasn’t possible when there were two tanks on the field. It will be interesting to see how the next few new heroes fit into the meta, but I suspect they’ll be multi-function killing machines just like Kir
And then you get her cleanse ability which is perfect for tight spots where your healing just isn’t enough anymore. The amount of tanks I’ve saved in clutch moments in quick play with it is amazing and keeps the action going rather than leaving me helpless and doomed to sit in spectate while the overtime ticks down. Chuck in her ult that makes not only you heal and attack faster but your allies too, and she’s solidified as the best healer since Ana, but without the barrier to entry of using a sniper. I’m not very good at sniping, never mind juggling that and healing, so Kiriko is the perfect alternat
Being a tank is scary. You need to lead the way, make the decisions, and be the driving force for your team that encourages them to push forward and claim victory. I’ve written about the role in Final Fantasy 14 and how it will never be for me, but Overwatch was an exception.
Junker Queen also has some ‘all-rounder’ qualities. Though she’s classified as a Tank, she doesn’t have the bulk of heroes like Reinhardt and Orisa, and her shotgun deals damage like a DPS. Her commanding shout is an AoE that heals allies around her - something no other tank can do - and her Carnage and Rampage abilities that apply debuffs on enemies just like Ana, who is a supp
Playing support in Overwatch 2 Achievements|https://overwatch2tactics.com/ is like crawling through mousetraps to help your little brother up after he’s fallen, only for him to kick you in the face and call you a twat. It’s a thankless job, no matter how much you heal, and if you’re playing with randoms, you’ll often be hung out to dry in front of an ulting Moira and a hook-happy Roadhog. I swore off the role a couple of years ago, but Kiriko has roped me right back in, angry chat messages and thanks-spamming teammates be dam
It’s going to take awhile before we really understand what all of the changes in Overwatch 2 add up to. Even as someone with more than 600 hours played, I’m still trying to figure out what the transition to 5v5 actually means. Right away it was clear that Overwatch 2 is a much faster game. Fewer shields and abilities that CC means more movement, more big plays, and more snowballs. Skilled players have a much better chance of carrying games now, which means heroes with low TTK are even more valuable than ever before. This is the sense I got right away, but what solidified this belief was the design of the three new characters. Sojourn, Junker Queen, and especially Kiriko represent a commitment Overwatch 2 has to independence and personal performance. I’m still undecided on whether that will be better or worse for the game in the long run, but it’s clear Blizzard has rebuilt the game with a focus on the individual over the t