Where to stand
Where to stand in a fight at every rank: cover, angles, range and high ground, from not dying first in Bronze to owning a lane in Master.
At every rank
Why it matters most
Where you stand matters more than anything else in a fight, at every rank. It decides who can shoot you, who you can shoot back, and how you get out when it goes wrong. Good aim from a bad spot still loses the fight.
The advice changes as you climb. Low ranks are about not dying first. The middle is about standing in the right place next to your team. The top is about holding a lane and making the enemy pay to move you.
Four questions before every fight
- Can I hit them from here? Stand inside your hero's range. A safe spot you can't do damage from is no threat, so the enemy ignores it.
- Who can hit me? Pick a spot where cover blocks most of their team, so only one or two of them can see you at a time.
- Where do I go when it goes wrong? Know your way back to cover before you need it, ideally one that doesn't cost a cooldown.
- Where's my team? A spot is only good if your team can fight with you there.
Cover is a free shield
Stand next to a corner, a wall or the payload. Peek, deal damage, step back behind it when you're hurt, get healed, and peek again. Open ground in the middle of the map is where most needless deaths happen.
Moving up, go from cover to cover rather than straight across the open, and peek one enemy at a time instead of showing yourself to all five.
Angles
An off angle is a spot to the side of your team, shooting from a different line. Each enemy can only aim one way: if they turn to you, your team hits them for free, and if they keep shooting your team, you do. An angle only works if a teammate is shooting from another line too.
When the fight moves or you get pushed off an angle, take the next one or go back to the same one. Standing in the open between angles is how you die for nothing.
Range and reach
Every hero has a range they win at. Long-range heroes want long sight lines; short-range heroes want rooms, corners and tight hallways where the enemy has to come to them.
Reach is that range plus how far a hero can jump, dash or fly in. Damage heroes and supports want to stay just outside the enemy's reach and close enough to their own team that anyone who dives them gets punished.
At your rank
What matters changes as you climb. Pick your rank to open that section. We'll remember it next time.
Bronze and Silver3 tips
Don't be the furthest one forward
The player in front gets shot by all five enemies. Let your tank take the choke, then follow, and fight from beside them, not ahead. Stay out of the middle of the enemy team unless one of them is nearly dead.
Start every fight from cover
- Before the fight, pick a spot next to a corner or wall with a way out behind it.
- Ask yourself: if I stand here, can I get killed before I can react? If yes, move.
- When you're pushed back, retreat along the side you're on, to cover, not across the middle.
Take the high ground, in range
High ground lets you see more and take less damage, and the enemy has to spend cooldowns to reach you. Few players at these ranks bother, which makes it an easy edge. Pick high ground close enough to the fight to do damage from, and know how you'll get down safely.
By role
- TankYou're the front, so don't hang back behind your team. But don't walk into all five at low health: hug a corner, block or back off, then go again.
- DamageFight from the side inside your hero's range, never from the open middle.
- SupportStand where your heals reach your team, with cover between you and their damage.
Gold and Platinum3 tips
Take an off angle your team can see
Stand a little to the side of your team, on a side the enemy has to turn to look at, but still in your team's line of sight so they can help you. Too far off and you're fighting alone; on top of them and one ability hits everyone.
Stand as far from the enemy as your team does
Before a fight, match your team's distance from the enemy. Closer and you're the first target, cleared before your team can help. Further and you're late, your team fights four against five, and then the enemy clears you too.
Play your range, then rotate
- Pick spaces that suit your hero's range, not the nicest-looking cover. An angle too far away to hurt anyone does nothing.
- Do your homework before the fight: decide the spot you'll take and the one you'll move to next (your rotation).
- If two teammates are already on the payload or the main route (the obvious path down the middle), take a different spot, even if it means a little less healing or damage for a moment.
Emerald and Diamond3 tips
Judge a spot by the ground it wins
A good spot makes the enemy give up ground or spend cooldowns to move you, even if you get no kills from it. If they burn two heroes' abilities pushing you off one angle, that's a good trade for your team.
Value your angle
- If you're the only one pressuring from your side, leaving it lets their backline walk forward freely. Hold the angle you took.
- Don't drop back to the main route from a safe angle just because nothing is happening.
- Don't share an angle with your other damage player. Two lines of fire deny the enemy cover; one doesn't.
Hold fallback spots
Pick a spot out of the enemy backline's sight but in your team's. Hold it, fall back to it when you take damage, and decide which spot comes next instead of walking back and forth.
Master to Champion3 tips
Pick one lane and take all of it
Choose your lane early, take the deepest spot on it you can hold, and stay there. Taking a lane first also stops the enemy using it for their own off angles. Let the lane decide your play, not the other way around.
Don't cross lanes
- Hit the closest target in your lane, not one across the map.
- When you back off, fall back to a nearby angle you can hold, not all the way to the middle with your team. Regrouping in the middle means paying again for the spot you just held.
- Don't get dragged to every fight on the map.
Take less damage while you set up
- While the fight builds, stay outside the enemy's reach and close enough for your team to help.
- Arrive with full health and cooldowns, not after trading poke you didn't need to take.
- If an angle has stopped giving you damage, or they've worked out where you are, move on to the next angle, not back to the main route.
By role
- TankCheck where your backline is before every engage, and lean to one side so only one or two angles can hit you.
- DamageBack off to a nearby angle, not all the way to your team, and go in when your team can follow.
- SupportHigh ground or cover first, on a spot that sees the whole approach and has a way back.
Find the habit in your own games
After every match, Hardstuck's match review points out the fights you were first to die in, and links each one to this guide in the app, opened at your rank.