Apart from issues with Mercy's Res, the Overwatch World Cup also showcased how strong and versatile the current tanking meta is. We already know that Reinhardt and Zarya have made a huge comeback, and that Winston and D.Va are still top tier, but Orisa and Roadhog crawled out from obscurity at BlizzCon in a big way. Whether it was providing shields for Bastion cheese or disrupting slippery DPS, the World Cup teams were making high-impact plays that should be proof enough that Orisa and Roadhog are worthy of being on the frontlines.
Orisa is showing flashes of shielding superiority
When Orisa was released in the heart of the dive meta, it was difficult to see her as much more than a liability. If she wasn't completely feeding, her only real value was in trying to score environmental kills with her Halt! ability. After some buffs to her attack speed and deployable shield, however, Orisa has been seeing more play time both in competitive queue and in professional settings.
Much like Reinhardt, Orisa works best when the team is fighting around her. I know it sounds obvious, but we've all seen how that turns out sometimes. The difference between her and Reinhardt is that she can poke from afar, making her a better pick sometimes if you're going to roll out with Bastion, Torbjorn, or any other character that can be effective at range.
As always, maps are also important to take into consideration. Canada used quite a bit of Orisa during their run at the world cup, often choosing to anchor her down on the high ground when it was an option. They also used her a little on maps with chokes, as her steady stream of projectiles adds constant pressure to a team's advance. On the flipside, she can be quite good at whittling down Reinhardt's shield if left uncontested on attack.
All of this is great and all, but Orisa still shines most brightly on Escort maps. She has a bit of an advantage over Reinhardt because she doesn't have to worry as much about shield management since she can just toss another one out every eight seconds. Orisa can also pull enemy DPS off of high ledges or bunch them up with Halt!, making her ideal on maps like Numbani and King's Row. Last, but not least, Orisa is the go-to choice for quality cheese. We've already seen her with Bastion thanks to Knoxxx and France, but how does she pair with Torbjorn?
xQc does something subtle here that might go unappreciated. After the payload passes his last shield, he jumps in front of the turret in an attempt to body-block incoming damage. If your Fortify ability is up, you shouldn't shy away from using your huge hitbox to block damage if your shield is on cooldown. You might feed a little, but hey, you're there to tank damage.
One funny bit of trivia about Canada's push on Numbani is that Mangachu actually killed someone with Torb's hammer. As far as I know, that's the first time that's happened in a professional match.
Roadhog rides again
In the tank meta last year, many teams used Roadhog as the third of fourth tank. His hook and left-click combo was a guaranteed kill that added damage spikes to an otherwise stale meta. For whatever reason, Blizzard then decided that a kill was no longer the reward for landing a hook, and a subsequent nerf landed Hog on the bench at all levels of play. Now that he can take less damage and move faster while self-healing, he has returned in a big way.
The way Roadhog works as a tank is a little funny. He's very durable and has a ton of HP, but without a shield, he can often turn into an "ult farm" for the enemy team. It's for this reason that professional teams usually have a DPS or Zarya player flex to Hog. If your hook accuracy is garbage, that ult economy tradeoff is absolutely not worth it. Lucky for fans watching the World Cup, we were treated to some excellent hooks and deadly Roadhog setups.
Once again, we'll look to the Grand Finals between Canada and South Korea to show us what Hog is all about. Canada's Agilities is best known for his Genji, but the DPS star has been a phenomenal Roadhog offtank throughout his career with Immortals, now known as the Los Angeles Valiant for Overwatch League. He had 58% hook accuracy in the Grand Finals which is excellent in professional play. Meanwhile, South Korea looked to Zunba for their Roadhog needs, and the world-renowned Zarya star delivered. The team actually used an Orisa defense on Hanamura to keep Canada out at one point:
There are a couple of important things to take note of on this kill, starting with the shielding. As I said before, you want to set your team up around Orisa. For Hog on Hanamura, this translates to less feeding and more successful hooks from targets that are forced to come in one of two ways. Next, of course, we see Zunba land the hook on an overzealous Agilities. Roadhog was once the bane of flankers everywhere, and it looks like he's back to his old antics. Even in competitive queue last night, I was able to stop a couple of Dragonblades with Roadhog. If you have the patience to learn him, Roadhog is a great hero have in your pool.
Be careful against Junkrat
As we saw when the USA played South Korea, Junkrat is one of the best picks against Orisa and Roadhog. I mean, he's really strong against everything these days, but he can take down shields and build ult faster than most heroes against a turtle defense. Even when South Korea opted for a high ground defense with Orisa and Hog against the USA, JAKE just lobbed bombs from afar and then mine-jumped in once Orisa's shields were down for a couple of quick kills. It took him less than a minute to build his first Rip-Tire, to give you an idea of how much of a threat Junkrat can be to your defenses.
