Staying alive
Dying less at every rank: get to cover when you first take damage, know your danger health, don't get traded when ahead, and set up without taking hits.
At every rank
Every death leaves your team a player down
Each time you die, your team plays the next fight four against five until you're back. The fewer deaths you have, the more fights your team starts at full strength. Not dying often matters more than getting a kill.
Get out early
The moment to leave is when you first take real damage, not when you're nearly dead. Walls don't run out of health: step behind cover, use your escape if you need it, and let healing reach you. When you're chased, go along your own side and away, not back through the middle of the fight.
Know your danger health
Every hero has a health below which one ability or a couple of shots kills them. Learn yours. Below it, don't peek or dive: back off to cover, a health pack or your supports, and come back at full.
At your rank
What matters changes as you climb. Pick your rank to open that section. We'll remember it next time.
Bronze and Silver1 tip
Leave when it goes wrong
- When you take unexpected damage or lose half your health, get to cover straight away. Make it a habit you don't have to think about.
- Don't walk into their whole team at low health hoping your supports will keep up.
- If you're chased, keep running back along your side of the map. Even if they catch you, you've pulled them out of the fight.
Gold and Platinum2 tips
Back off to your supports
With your abilities used, back up to a spot by your team where your supports can see you, not into a doorway next to the enemy. Then come back once you're healed and your abilities are ready.
It's fine to wait for health
Low on health, with no healing coming, stand behind cover and let your health come back. A few quiet seconds cost much less than a death.
Emerald and Diamond2 tips
Don't get traded once you're ahead
After you win your duel, don't chase one more kill on your own. Push the advantage with your team, not ahead of it: a pick you trade straight back for is a pick you didn't get.
Get out as soon as something goes wrong
Don't stay to see how a bad fight ends. Tuck into a corner, use what you have on whoever is chasing you, and leave.
Master to Champion2 tips
Take less damage while you set up
Damage you take before a fight costs your supports' cooldowns and your health going in. Staging (waiting together just out of the fight), poking and taking space without being hit is one of the hardest things to learn here, and it's worth more than a little extra damage dealt.
Engage at full health
- Respect what can kill you at low health; go in at full, not at a third.
- When the fight is lost, trade what you can, then stall or regroup with the respawning team rather than going in alone.
Find the habit in your own games
After every match, Hardstuck's match review points out matches where you died more than the rest of your team, and links each one to this guide in the app, opened at your rank.