Comps, hero choice and swaps
Dive, brawl and poke: how each comp fights, what it wants and what beats it, plus how many heroes to play and when a swap is worth it, by rank.
At every rank
Dive, brawl or poke
Most teams play one of three ways, set by how they want to fight: dive (jump one target together), brawl (walk in close together) or poke (wear them down from range). Your tank usually decides which one you are, and their tank which one they are.
Knowing both tells you where to stand, when to fight and what to save your cooldowns for. It matters more than any single hero matchup.
Dive
Fast heroes (a Winston, D.Va or Wrecking Ball with a Tracer or Genji, say) start on high ground or a side angle, jump one target at the same moment, kill it and get out before the enemy can turn on them. Fights are short bursts, then a reset.
- Wants: high ground, side angles, and a squishy (low-health) target away from their team.
- Beaten by: a team that stays together and turns on whoever lands, and by stuns and burst saved for the dive.
Brawl
Close-range heroes (a Reinhardt, Junker Queen or Mauga with a Lúcio for speed, say) move as one block, often through a choke, and fight face to face. They want the enemy in a small space where range doesn't help them.
- Wants: corners, short sight lines, and arriving together.
- Beaten by: poke that chips them on the long walk in, and by backing off so they never reach you.
Poke
Long-range heroes (a Sigma with an Ashe, Sojourn, Hanzo or Freja, say) hold long sight lines and high ground and win the fight before it starts, by wearing the enemy down as they walk up.
- Wants: long sight lines, high ground, and time.
- Beaten by: dive that reaches their backline, and brawl that closes the gap through cover instead of the open.
Reading theirs
- Into poke: close the gap through cover and tight angles. Trading shots in the open is the fight they want.
- Into dive: stay together, and keep your stuns and escapes for the diver, not for the fight in front of you.
- Into brawl: keep your distance, chip them on the walk in, and don't take the fight in a small room.
- Look at their tank first. A swap there usually changes how their whole team plays.
When to swap
Where you stand matters more than the matchup. A counter only has the edge head-on: with cover and good timing you can still win, so change your angle before you change your hero.
Swap when your hero can't do its job here: outranged on every sight line of the map, or the same player beating you fight after fight however you approach. Swap at a reset, not mid-fight, and remember a swap costs ult charge. If the fights turn against your team after a swap, ask what the old hero was doing that the new one isn't.
For how each hero does against each other hero, see the matchups in the hero guides.
Comps when you're solo
Most ranked games are five people who don't talk, so the comps that hold up are the ones whose plan everyone can see: brawl walking forward together, poke holding high ground and making them walk in, or standing together to punish a dive. Comps where everyone has to go in on one call, like a speed-boost rush or two flankers diving the same target, need a duo calling it or a group on voice.
At your rank
What matters changes as you climb. Pick your rank to open that section. We'll remember it next time.
Bronze and Silver2 tips
Keep your pool small
Pick two or three heroes in your role, one of them your main, and stay on them for weeks. Swapping a lot hides whether the problem is the hero or how you're playing it, and every hour on one hero teaches you more than an hour spread over six.
Fix the spot before the hero
- Most deaths at these ranks come from where you stand, not from the pick. Try a new angle before a new hero.
- Before you pick, check the map and their team: a short-range hero on a map of long sight lines starts every fight behind.
- Don't ask your tank to counter-swap if you won't change anything yourself.
Gold and Platinum3 tips
Mostly one hero
Play one hero most of the time and keep one more for bans and the matchups you can't play. Swapping every time a fight goes badly is a habit to drop: it puts your focus on the result, not on what you learned.
A counter means harder, not hopeless
A counter on their team doesn't change how you play your hero; it punishes your mistakes harder. Stay on it if it still does its job, and take your angles so that counter has to come to you.
Swap for the space, not the scoreboard
- A swap is right when the kind of fight is wrong for your hero: a short-range hero in long poke fights, or a tank with no way up on a high-ground attack.
- Make the swap at a reset, and know what your team loses with it.
Emerald and Diamond2 tips
Read how they play and play into it
- Into a poke team, close the gap through tight angles and cover so your supports have a safe path.
- Into a dive tank, don't dive their backline in return: hold your ground by your own backline and punish the diver when it lands.
- When they swap to a tank that has to commit to get value, punish the commit: walk up on it once its cooldowns are gone.
Learn a second hero like your first
Pick a second hero close to your main so the skills carry over, and don't learn a new kit in the same weeks you're working on a new habit. A second hero takes far less time than the first.
Master to Champion2 tips
Position beats the matchup
Facing a counter, your plan stays the same: lean on your teammates and change your angle, since the one-on-one isn't the whole fight. Don't blame a pick and try to do everything yourself.
Pick for the map, then play the comp's plan
- Choose between similar heroes by the map: one that rotates well where the fights move, one that holds pressure where they don't.
- Know your comp's win condition before the fight: who goes in, on what, and who holds the angle.
- Against a team built for picks, stay together and take space; against one that can't burst you down, look for picks of your own.
Find the habit in your own games
After every match, Hardstuck's match review points out matchups where the enemy has a counter to your hero, the enemy hero who killed you most and the swaps that turned the fights (yours, your team's or theirs), and links each one to this guide in the app, opened at your rank.