Around the fight · fundamentals

Playing with your team

Playing as a team of five: fight when your tank fights, never go down alone, take angles your team can cover, and sync timing and ults as you climb.

At every rank

Your team sets your timing

Playing with your tank means engaging when they engage, not hanging back while they fight alone, and not running ahead. Your tank decides where and when the fight happens; line your damage and healing up with that.

Nobody goes down alone

A teammate who dies alone with nothing traded back loses the fight before it starts. Group up before you take space, and only take angles where your team can punish whoever comes to clear you. If three of them can dive you while your team is far back, you die for nothing; if your team is close, every one of them who comes for you gets punished.

Check where your team is

A quick look behind you, on every rotation and each time you reload or step into cover, tells you whether anyone will follow. You can't play off your team if you don't know where they are.

At your rank

What matters changes as you climb. Pick your rank to open that section. We'll remember it next time.

Bronze–Silver Gold–Plat Emerald–Diamond Master+
Bronze and Silver2 tips

Play off your tank

Don't be the furthest one forward. Play passive when your tank plays passive and go in when they go in.

Stay with them

  • Holding a spot far from your team gives them nothing: no damage on their fight, no healing, no help.
  • When your team makes a play, move up with it instead of staying where you were.

By role

  • TankMake space by drawing their attention. When you back off, go to cover near your team, not straight through them, which drags the fight onto your backline.
  • DamageGo in when your tank goes in, not before.
  • SupportStay with your team where your heals reach them.
Gold and Platinum2 tips

Angles your team can cover

Only take angles where your team can punish anyone who comes to clear you. Walking up alone, at a range you don't like, on a spot everyone is already looking at, is how you get picked off.

Start with your team

  • A flank takes you out of the fight while you walk around. Start each fight with your team, and flank only once the enemy is busy with them.
  • Fix your own spot before asking your tank to peel for you (come back and protect you). Some spots no tank can protect.

By role

  • TankTime your engage to your team arriving, not to a low-health target.
  • DamageTake angles where your team can punish anyone who comes for you.
  • SupportCheck your tank can see you before they commit.
Emerald and Diamond2 tips

Adapt to your tank

Read how your tank is playing (low ground and aggressive, or holding a corner) and change your play to fit it, straight away.

Stay where help can reach

  • Check you're in your supports' line of sight. If they can't see you, they can't heal you.
  • Supports: move with the teammate who gives you the most options, not the one standing safest.

By role

  • TankKeep your supports in line of sight when you charge in.
  • DamageFight with your tank first; flank once the fight has started.
  • SupportAdapt to your tank's style at once, and play the angle beside them.
Master to Champion2 tips

Sync timing, split pressure

  • Go in at the same moment as your teammates but from different angles, one high and one low, or left and right.
  • Match your backline's tempo: if they're waiting, wait with them; when they go, go all in. Faking an engage and backing off is the worst of both.
  • After you win a fight, stay near your team so the enemy can't trade back, instead of chasing one more kill.

Don't be alone

Split up or bunch together depending on the ultimates in play, but almost never be cut off: hold your angle where a teammate can reach you and protect you from divers.

By role

  • TankCheck where your backline is before every engage.
  • DamageSplit the enemy's attention with a teammate from a different angle.
  • SupportStand near someone who can peel divers off you.

Find the habit in your own games

After every match, Hardstuck's match review points out teammates going down alone with nothing traded back, and links each one to this guide in the app, opened at your rank.

Join the waitlist All fundamentals

For a hero's own matchups and counters, see the hero guides.