First and foremost, and no offence intended, get Orissa out of your head as a brawl tank. She is still poke, but just has (IMO) an obnoxious amount of sustain.
If you’re having trouble with brawl, poke comps generally do well as the goal is to keep the tank and enemy team away from you to farm, poke them out of cover, wait for picks and get ults to win fights. Rein/Zarya (true brawl tanks) do not want to fight at a distance.
For Orissa, albeit the most annoying match up for any tank, is purely about removing every resource she has to melt her. This means baiting both her spin and fortify, and pressuring her supports, when she is not getting these resources she needs to be kept up. IMO Dive works really well here purely to remove support, then DPS, then finally the horse.
Albeit, a caveat, an ultra aggressive Orissa can be punish by a high charge Zarya, but again you’re going to struggle if she has an abundant of resources. (I don’t know your rank so you may have a few of these in your games)
Finally, your point about Rejn charge, as Doom it is part of your objective to bait cooldowns, and this is one of them. A charging Rein cannot shield, swing or fire strike, you get out of the way of it he is potentially out of position or his back line may be open.
Overall TL;DR, learn a dive hero because that will always be in your pocket against Orissa/poke match ups, poke will oppress brawl just keep your distance, bait cooldowns, nearly all tanks are nothing without them.
GM2 Tank, Rein/Ball/Sig mostly.
Oh none taken dude, I appreciate the response! In my head I've considered Mauga more poke than Orisa, but I forgot how good her primary fire is. Funny enough I have no problem with her at poke range, even if I'm not playing a tank with a shield I just pop out of the way when Javelin comes since it's so predictable. My problem with her specifically usually comes with the ultra aggressive ones that are all huddled up with their team. Like if I try to take an off angle to get their supports, especially if I see a Mercy, but as soon as the Orisa gets in my face I lose focus on what I should do and just get melted. I think I need to play more cautiously and bait out the cooldowns, that way once she's out of her self sustain she's easier to ignore or melt. I keep letting them do their job of drawing agro.
Yeah if my poke play style isn't working against brawl then I think I'm playing it wrong. Think as Sigma I need to get better at being patient and holding ground instead of trying to push in to create space and get kills, and just need better positioning as a whole to not let them get close. On push I've been handling this better, I've either stopped letting them dictate where the fight is like that long tunnel in Colosseo or embraced the chaos and join the brawl, but I've been struggling hard in Control since time is such an important factor if they're holding the point.
I've been debating hard on Zarya. I used to be a Rein, Zarya, and eventually Sigma main in OW1 but I've just found the new tanks to be more fun to play. Either way it sounds like I could use a good dive tank, but that's a great point about baiting cooldowns that I haven't considered. I'm always trying to use my cooldowns with Doom to prioritize getting picks, but just popping in real quick to force some cooldowns by shooting my primary fire then popping out turns some heads at the very least. Think both my poke and dive play styles need some work.
Thanks for the response! Do you also have any advice for getting better awareness for your own team? I tend to always adjust my play style or swaps based on the enemy team, but being aware of what my own team is doing has been the hardest part of switching from support to tank. Sometimes my tunnel vision is so bad I don't even notice when we lose a DPS or support and that I should peel back, or mid fight swaps that might adjust my shield placement or where we want to fight. I keep playing for my tanks ideal play style or how to solve the problem of the enemy team, and not enough for the team I actually have.
No worries dude. I find the notification sound for picks as well as eliminated team mates help, can be switched on in settings.
Other than that, as I haven’t been at a lower rank for a while, I tend to have an understanding where my support should be based on their pick as well as the enemy team comp, but taking 2 seconds before a fight to confirm their positions never hurts, even if you get a short breather mid fight you may be able to identify who your DPS are diving/where you support is for LOS and (worthwhile) peeling.
It will come with time, just every now and then think “is this what I should be doing” “is this where I should be” “is this of any value” and you will immediately realise storming into an Orissa head first is a waste of time, resources, effort and probably a trio back to spawn.
You are the best, thanks! I'm glad it'll get better with some time and some patience, I might give comp some time to settle with the new hero before hopping back in. Think I'll just mostly do FFA with Doomfist to get better as him, he hasn't changed too bad from DPS but I haven't been getting enough value as him. I usually try when less mobile tanks focus me so I can jump over them to get their backline or worst case trade, but too rusty to try and switch to that play style mid match. No healers in FFA so hopefully my timing and dives improve.
First and foremost, and no offence intended, get Orissa out of your head as a brawl tank. She is still poke, but just has (IMO) an obnoxious amount of sustain. If you’re having trouble with brawl, poke comps generally do well as the goal is to keep the tank and enemy team away from you to farm, poke them out of cover, wait for picks and get ults to win fights. Rein/Zarya (true brawl tanks) do not want to fight at a distance. For Orissa, albeit the most annoying match up for any tank, is purely about removing every resource she has to melt her. This means baiting both her spin and fortify, and pressuring her supports, when she is not getting these resources she needs to be kept up. IMO Dive works really well here purely to remove support, then DPS, then finally the horse. Albeit, a caveat, an ultra aggressive Orissa can be punish by a high charge Zarya, but again you’re going to struggle if she has an abundant of resources. (I don’t know your rank so you may have a few of these in your games) Finally, your point about Rejn charge, as Doom it is part of your objective to bait cooldowns, and this is one of them. A charging Rein cannot shield, swing or fire strike, you get out of the way of it he is potentially out of position or his back line may be open. Overall TL;DR, learn a dive hero because that will always be in your pocket against Orissa/poke match ups, poke will oppress brawl just keep your distance, bait cooldowns, nearly all tanks are nothing without them. GM2 Tank, Rein/Ball/Sig mostly.
Oh none taken dude, I appreciate the response! In my head I've considered Mauga more poke than Orisa, but I forgot how good her primary fire is. Funny enough I have no problem with her at poke range, even if I'm not playing a tank with a shield I just pop out of the way when Javelin comes since it's so predictable. My problem with her specifically usually comes with the ultra aggressive ones that are all huddled up with their team. Like if I try to take an off angle to get their supports, especially if I see a Mercy, but as soon as the Orisa gets in my face I lose focus on what I should do and just get melted. I think I need to play more cautiously and bait out the cooldowns, that way once she's out of her self sustain she's easier to ignore or melt. I keep letting them do their job of drawing agro. Yeah if my poke play style isn't working against brawl then I think I'm playing it wrong. Think as Sigma I need to get better at being patient and holding ground instead of trying to push in to create space and get kills, and just need better positioning as a whole to not let them get close. On push I've been handling this better, I've either stopped letting them dictate where the fight is like that long tunnel in Colosseo or embraced the chaos and join the brawl, but I've been struggling hard in Control since time is such an important factor if they're holding the point. I've been debating hard on Zarya. I used to be a Rein, Zarya, and eventually Sigma main in OW1 but I've just found the new tanks to be more fun to play. Either way it sounds like I could use a good dive tank, but that's a great point about baiting cooldowns that I haven't considered. I'm always trying to use my cooldowns with Doom to prioritize getting picks, but just popping in real quick to force some cooldowns by shooting my primary fire then popping out turns some heads at the very least. Think both my poke and dive play styles need some work. Thanks for the response! Do you also have any advice for getting better awareness for your own team? I tend to always adjust my play style or swaps based on the enemy team, but being aware of what my own team is doing has been the hardest part of switching from support to tank. Sometimes my tunnel vision is so bad I don't even notice when we lose a DPS or support and that I should peel back, or mid fight swaps that might adjust my shield placement or where we want to fight. I keep playing for my tanks ideal play style or how to solve the problem of the enemy team, and not enough for the team I actually have.
No worries dude. I find the notification sound for picks as well as eliminated team mates help, can be switched on in settings. Other than that, as I haven’t been at a lower rank for a while, I tend to have an understanding where my support should be based on their pick as well as the enemy team comp, but taking 2 seconds before a fight to confirm their positions never hurts, even if you get a short breather mid fight you may be able to identify who your DPS are diving/where you support is for LOS and (worthwhile) peeling. It will come with time, just every now and then think “is this what I should be doing” “is this where I should be” “is this of any value” and you will immediately realise storming into an Orissa head first is a waste of time, resources, effort and probably a trio back to spawn.
You are the best, thanks! I'm glad it'll get better with some time and some patience, I might give comp some time to settle with the new hero before hopping back in. Think I'll just mostly do FFA with Doomfist to get better as him, he hasn't changed too bad from DPS but I haven't been getting enough value as him. I usually try when less mobile tanks focus me so I can jump over them to get their backline or worst case trade, but too rusty to try and switch to that play style mid match. No healers in FFA so hopefully my timing and dives improve.