Positioning is key to being a great player in most competitive games and Overwatch is no exception. Heading into a skirmish with no awareness of your surroundings is likely to get you flanked, outmaneuvered, and killed. So what do you do? How do make sure you're in the right spot to do your job well without leaving yourself open to attack? Well, that depends on your class:

Tank

As a tank, your primary objective is to soak damage, protect your allies and cause disruption amongst enemy ranks. To accomplish all three at once, you'll need to place yourself close to the other team, near the front. How close exactly is on a character by character basis. For example, Reinhardt wants to be between the two teams, absorbing damage with his shield and poking at the enemy with his hammer wave. An aggressive position will also help him knock enemies down with his ult and pin them with his charge.

An aggressive, flanking position can be the perfect setup to Reinhardt's ult.

A more disruptive character like Winston likes to jump into the immobile backline of a team. Getting in the face of a Bastion, Torbjorn or Widowmaker can easily ruin their day with knockbacks and heavy damage. Going deep has its risks though, as you leave your own backline open to attack. A great way to supplement this is with another tank or with a more 'hit-and-run' style of play.

Offense

Offense offers a few different styles of play, so I'm going to split this into two different categories. The first category is your standard, midline DPS character. These are the guys that are going to hang around at a respectable distance firing off shots and generally making healthbars go down. These are characters like Soldier: 76, Pharah, and to a degree McCree. These guys are going to be around the middle of your team, getting healing and buffs from the supports while being defended by the tanks. Breaking from this formation is useful in cases, but you will want to avoid being isolated.

Midrange damage dealers like Soldier: 76 like to take their foes head on.

The second category are characters who want to take the enemy by surprise with aggressive flanking maneuvers. Heroes like Tracer, Reaper, and again to a degree McCree all like to blindside their foes. Back corridors, cramped choke points and hectic teamfights are where these guys shine, picking off unsuspecting players who are distracted by your teammates. Something to look out for as one of these characters is your healthbar, as a solid offensive player can easily shred you if they catch you trying to flank.

Support

Where support players need to be is largely dependent on your allies. You aren't much use to them off on your own, and you aren't much use to full health heroes. So for the most part, you'll be bouncing around the battlefield trying to help out whoever needs it. This playstyle is most enforced by Mercy. Mercy is the 'classic' support. She's amazing at keeping her allies up, but not much else. She will be all over the place, flying around healing her team, increasing their damage, and even rising them from the dead.

Mercy is amazing at keeping a single target (namely offensive characters) alive.

The other supports play similarly, but with a few nuances. You can play Zenyatta almost like a standard offensive character, sticking to the middle of your pack and launching out debuffs, damage and the occasional heal. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Symmetra plays almost like a defensive character. You'll be tucked into choke points setting up small turrets, teleporters and shielding your friends. Lucio will want to be in the dead center of the team, able to buff everyone with his healing or speed auras.

Defense

Defense characters are your fallback. These are the guys that are going to hold a point at all costs. Loaded with abilities that force repositioning from your opponents, defense characters are masters of zoning. Of the heroes that have been revealed so far, Defense can be split into mobile and immobile characters. Mobile defense characters like Hanzo, Widowmaker, and Junkrat are incredibly punishing to out of position characters. Hanzo and Widowmaker can instantly kill people with their primary attacks if they're good enough and they both have powerful zone tools in their poison mine and dragon ult respectively. Junkrat is in the same boat with zoning, but his primary attack is much more focused on keeping people at bay than killing them outright.

A well placed Riptire can easily ruin your day.

The immobile defense characters are incredible for preventing objectives. If you're trying to capture a control point out in the open, you're a huge target. A well placed Torbjorn turret or a set up Bastion can see and target you much easier than you can them. To be able to get a good shot on them, you leave yourself incredibly open to offensive characters. Nobody puts your position skills to the test like these guys do.

So before you rush out to greet your foes, make sure you pay close attention to your surroundings. If you're alone as a support, that's probably bad. If you're in front of everyone as Torbjorn, that's probably bad. If you're sitting in the back as a tank, that's definitely bad. Positioning may be subtle, but it can easily decide the outcome of a game.


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