Mei could be turning into Overwatch’s newest tank

Ever since the introduction of hero pools last month, the Overwatch community has been looking for creative ways to shift the game’s meta. Perhaps transitioning Mei, a longtime DPS character, into a tank role could be a step in that transitional direction.

Between her built-in sustain from Cryo-Freeze, as well as her strong blocking potential from Ice Wall, Mei already has a solid amount of protective tools at her disposal.

“She’d need to be tweaked a little bit. For [Mei] to be a proper tank, she’d need an armored health pool and increased hitbox,” said Reddit user BoisterousBiddy in a proposal post yesterday.

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As the game currently stands, the diversity of tanks in Overwatch is limited mainly to shield users and crowd control-focused heroes, so adding a sustainable zoner like Mei to that lineup would certainly provide some intrigue and diversity.

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Additionally, with a kit that focuses on zoning and sustainability, her days as a dedicated damage dealer might be coming to an end.

However, there’s definitely a few obstacles standing in Mei’s way when it comes to transitioning into a more experimental role.

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Of course, a full rework of a character – especially one that shifts that hero from one role to another – would take a lengthy developmental process.

Also, with Overwatch 2 releasing in the near future, most likely next year, a complete overhaul of one of the roster’s main characters might have to wait until the second installment in the franchise hits live servers.

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Of course, Overwatch has had its fair share of reworks throughout its near-four year history. Characters like Mercy, Torbjorn, and Symmetra have all been reworked since launching with the game back in 2016.

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Bringing significant changes to Mei might be exactly what Overwatch is looking for in terms of its tank pool, as the game has the chance to diversify both the DPS and Tank pools with one fell swoop.

However, these changes are purely theoretical, and likely wouldn’t hit live servers until Overwatch 2 drops sometime in the distant future.