We rank each Overwatch tank from least to most fun

There’s nothing more important to the success of a team than a big, bulky front line who are capable of holding down the fort and protecting the weakest members of the team from harm’s way. In fact, every tank on the roster has some tools that allow them to survive, protect, murder the DPS who’s coming for their allied DPS, or some combination of the above. While they are all armed with an assortment of useful tools, Ryan and Cass wondered which tanks were the most fun. After the support ranking yesterday, they got down to work and came up with the authoritative Heroes Never Die ranking for which tank heroes are the most (and least) fun.

6. Zarya

Cass: Zarya’s super strong—especially now that Doomfist is on the scene—but she’s not the most fun character to play. One of the best moments on her kit is throwing down the ult, and then having a teammate clean up with a Rocket Barrage or a Self Destruct... and that’s you just setting up the chessboard. Your teammate is the one who gets the Play of the Game and the glory!

The rest of Zarya’s kit is based around putting up tactically timed shields, protecting teammates, and soaking up damage that translates into primary fire power. Zarya’s constantly making decisions and forced to time her abilities perfectly, but those abilities don’t feel satisfying. There’s a fun center deep within my primal, lizard brain, and Zarya just doesn’t trigger it like the other tanks.

5. Winston

Ryan: Winston is a funny character, because while everything about his look and voice and character is awesome, something about playing him just feels weird as hell. Don’t get me wrong, I have had fun with Winston in the past, but I’ll be damned if I don’t have some questions about why Winston is the way he is.

His ultimate feels bizarre and helpful in most circumstances but not all and his lightning gun feels unfair in a lot of situations. Winston is a weird mix of awesome and frustrating, something that the Overwatch community isn’t used to. Winston is a great pick for a rainy day, but I have never wanted to pick him over the other fun tanks, and that is something I would like to see change.

4. Orisa

Cass: Orisa has an awesome fantasy of helpful, friendly robot there to protect her allies. Her primary fire feels pretty fantastic, and her shield has more flexibility than Reinhardt’s. Unfortunately, the rest of her kit feels a little low impact to the average player. Halt! is tough to pull off, and it’s hard to tell just how effective Supercharger is.

It’s unfortunate that I don’t enjoy Orisa more, because I very much want to like her. So much of her power is under the hood, and it can feel a little clunky. That being said, she just received a pretty solid round of buffs, so maybe it’s time to give her another shot and see if she clicks for me this time.

Blizzard Entertainment

3. D.Va

Cass: D.Va is interesting because she’s a perfect mix between function and flash. If you took her exact same kit and put it on a totally new, less aesthetically over the top hero, I don’t know if I’d find her as fun. But the whole Korean gamer pop star audacious teenage girl thing makes her abilities work so well. I get real, genuine joy out of launching my MEKA into the enemy team and hearing Hana crow NERF THIS!

I love that she has unique taunts when she eats enemy ults with her Defense Matrix, like answering “JUSTICE RAINS FROM ABOVE!” with “Good thing I brought an umbrella.” I love rocketing around and bumping people off ledges with my MEKA.

Her pilot form also gives an awesome contrast, and there’s nothing more tense than firing your gun at an enemy hoping you can get your ult charged up enough to get back into the fight. The upcoming D.Va rework should make all of these elements more fun and remove her current over-reliance on Defense Matrix.

2. Reinhardt

Ryan: There are probably plenty of people out there who are already mad that Rein is number two. He is so iconic and fun and useful that who could blame anyone for being upset. Everything about Reinhardt is big, from his hammer to his shield to his personality. Rein is the living embodiment of what makes Overwatch characters so successful and lovable.

While all that stuff is great, Reinhardt’s ability to remain a staple in the Overwatch cast for over a year now makes him so familiar to all of us. Everyone has had fun playing as and against Reinhardts, trying to get that perfect charge or push against a great shield positioning. There are few situations where picking Rein is anything but a “hell yeah,” and that is a hard quality to find in a game like Overwatch.

1. Roadhog

Ryan: I have written a lot of stuff about Roadhog in the past several months. While this has certainly been a result of the piles of nerfs and buffs and nerfs and buffs that he has received, it also stems for a place of passion. I love Roadhog. Not because he is a perfect tank or an awesome damage dealer, but because he is just fun as hell to play all the time.

Roadhog fits into this weird state where he is utility (being able to pull enemies into you/remove a threat), he is tank (self-healing/lot’s of health/big ole’ body) and he is damage (able to kill most squishy characters very quickly. He is a big mess of roles that someone finds him in the tank space. But that is OK because you will forget all about his weird identity the moment that you hit a hook, one of the most satisfying feelings in the current gameplay landscape.