A team composition, often shortened to team comp, is a term frequently used in Overwatch 2 to describe what heroes an in-game team is made up of.

Overview

A team composition is the makeup of a team's hero selections in each role. Successful team compositions utilize different heroes' strengths together, ultimately resulting in cohesi strategies and good flow between teammates to secure a victory.

In Role Queue, each team is made up of one Tank hero, two Damage heroes, and two Support heroes. In order to create a team that works well together, players consider how different heroes and their abilities compliment each other, often choosing those who have similar playstyles or utility.

Overwatch 2 does not provide a tutorial on how to make a successful team composition, but some of the tips in-game recommend certain aspects of a successful one. While this article does provide objective insight into how team compositions are chosen, it is not all-encompassing, and there are many ways to create a successful composition.

Metas

Throughout Overwatch and Overwatch 2, different team compositions and strategies have been generally agreed upon by the community as being effective. This is referred to as a "meta." The ongoing meta shifts as heroes are changed and balanced, and can vary between ranks, platforms, and regions. Players will often give a nickname to each meta that refers to heroes in the meta.

For example, in Overwatch, there was a popular meta by the name of "GOATS," (its name taken from the Contenders team that first made it popular). This meta was a brawl composition consisting of three Tank heroes and three Support heroes; it was incredibly powerful because of its ability to trample the enemy team when played well.^[1]

Some metas do not encompass entire team compositions, and can be based around one or two heroes that are referred to as "meta picks." When a hero is considered a meta pick, it causes the hero's "pick rate," or their overall rate of play, to increase. For instance, when Zenyatta was buffed alongside the Season 9 patch, it caused his pick rate on all platforms to increase from 2.60% in Season 8 to nearly 4% in Season 9.^[2][3]

Players will often build a team composition around a meta pick, and choose heroes that work well with their abilities. An example of this is the "Moth Meta," named after its dominant support, Mercy. After her 2017 rework, Mercy was extremely powerful in a few different compositions, and players would build their team around her utility with heroes that benefitted from damage boost.^[4]

Popular compositions

There are infinite ways to create a successful composition, but three popular categories have emerged over time: Dive, Brawl (or "Rush"), and Poke. These are the base for many hero combinations. Hero choices shift depending on balance patches and changes, but the overall strategy remains the same throughout.^[5]

Dive

A dive composition uses a high-risk, high-reward strategy to disrupt the enemy and pick off key targets to collapse in on them. Dive compositions are most often made up of heroes with movement abilities and close-range attacks, who are able to do significant damage before giving enemies the opportunity to react. The ultimate goal of dive is to take multiple different angles on the enemy to surround them, then rejoin at the same time and pick off key targets together.

Dive heroes

Tank: Doomfist, Winston, Wrecking Ball, D.Va, Hazard

• Tank heroes useful for dive are those that have movement abilities, which makes them ideal for engaging and disengaging quickly. These abilities also do additional damage and have knockback, meaning that once they dive a hero, they are automatically damaged and displaced.

Damage: Genji, Tracer, Sojourn, Sombra, Echo, Pharah, Venture, Freja, Reaper, Junkrat, Vendetta, Anran, Sierra

• Useful Damage heroes are ones with movement utility, close-range attacks, and high damage output. A Damage hero can go in, do a significant amount of damage, disengage quickly, then call for their team to move in while the enemy is still recovering.

Support: Lúcio, Kiriko, Ana, Brigitte, Moira, Mercy, Juno, Wuyang, Mizuki, Jetpack Cat

• Ideal Support heroes are those who are able to defend themselves effectively, either with movement, crowd control, or damage. Additionally, Supports with area of effect healing are great for fast-paced fights in which the entire team needs to be sustained at once.

Brawl

Brawl is a widely used composition and is based on a team's ability to do major damage, or "brawl," the enemy team together. Unlike dive, brawl compositions do not take multiple angles, and instead fight at the front lines together. They move in a straight line as one unit, using raw firepower to deal high damage and quickly trample the enemy team.

Brawl is sometimes called "Rush" when you engage quickly without jostling for positioning (usually with Lucio/Moira).^[6]

Brawl heroes

• Tank: Reinhardt, Junker Queen, Zarya, Mauga, Orisa, Roadhog, Ramattra, Hazard
  • Tank heroes that are ideal for brawl compositions are those that can do massive damage at close range. Their ability to soak up damage and deal equal amounts makes them excellent for frontline play.

• Damage: Venture, Symmetra, Mei, Reaper, Torbjörn, Bastion, Junkrat, Cassidy, Soldier: 76, Vendetta, Emre, Sierra
  • Similar to brawl Tanks, Damage heroes that excel in brawl compositions with close-range damage capability. They are able to break the enemy team's defenses by overwhelming them with burst and/or consistent damage, leaving them vulnerable.

• Support: Ana, Baptiste, Brigitte, Lúcio, Moira, Lifeweaver, Juno, Wuyang, Kiriko, Mizuki, Jetpack Cat
  • Support heroes for brawl include heroes that have consistent healing, either through an area of effect, or just having a high primary healing output. They can heal their tanks through large amounts of damage, and provide utility ultimates for engaging in team fights.

Poke

A poke composition is one that utilizes ranged damage, or "poking," to put pressure on the enemy from multiple angles in order to limit how they can play. It uses heroes with ranged damage to pick off key targets and create an opening for the rest of the team to move in.

Poke heroes

• Tank: Sigma, Ramattra, Roadhog, Orisa, Mauga, Domina
  • Tank heroes seen in poke compositions can do damage from multiple angles, and have some range to their attacks. Tanks that are able to play from the sides have more utility in this composition than those that are better at the front lines.

• Damage: Sojourn, Hanzo, Soldier: 76, Ashe, Pharah, Widowmaker, Mei, Torbjörn, Cassidy, Freja, Emre, Sierra
  • As stated, Damage heroes appropriate for poke are those with ranged attacks. They do not need to do massive damage, but just enough to pressure the enemy into playing into their allies' attack.

• Support: Kiriko, Zenyatta, Mercy, Illari, Ana, Baptiste, Lifeweaver, Juno, Wuyang
  • In a poke composition, Support heroes have less pressure to sustain their team consistently. Ideal supports for a poke composition are those who can contribute damage and help secure kills on key targets.

References