Since Overwatch 2 was released almost two years ago, the tank role has struggled to find its place on the battlefield. From being reduced from two per team to just one in the sequel, it has been difficult for Blizzard to find an even balance at times. Lately, the player base has been extra vocal in complaining that the role has been weakened far too much, and in a new "Director's Take" the Overwatch 2 developers address the issue. Unsurprisingly, they agree with the players.
Blizzard:
[the] problem now is that most of them just don't feel as 'tanky' as they should. Many times, both Support heroes need to focus solely on the tank just to keep them alive. In this scenario both the Tank and Supports can feel like they have limited options in their gameplay, as they are essentially tied to each other.
How are the developers going to catch and tackle the problem? Well, they've invented a concept they call "tankiness"; a measure of how much a tank "feels" like a tank.
We've come up with a new metric since Season 9 that we simply call "tankiness." It's roughly the number of deaths a hero experiences compared to how many deaths they ought to experience. There are a lot of stats that go into determining what an expected death is, and I'm not able to go into that level of detail here. The point is that your experience and our data are aligned.
Here's what they say about working towards increased tankiness, in practical terms:
[what] we're currently discussing is whether the path forward from here should be centered around broad, systemic changes, or per hero changes. We're discussing limited versions of the former, for instance we're looking at reduced versions of the Damage role passive. However, we'd like to do more of the latter. Individual buffs or nerfs to heroes can have a dramatic impact on their effectiveness compared to a broad change that targets all heroes or a role. Additionally, it further reinforces the differences between heroes. For example, one of the reasons Reinhardt ought to feel tanky is through his shield.
Read the post in full here.