The OverThinker: Deconstructing Dive

Amongst the many compositions that have been meta in Overwatch in its nearly-five years of existence, none is quite as challenging albeit thrilling to play as Dive. Its high tempo, constant action, and split-second decision-making create fun and exciting team fights for everyone involved...provided they're playing the comp right, which brings us to today's topic: Deconstructing Dive.

After experiencing Dive on ladder, or at least what players perceive to be Dive, it's clear that despite loving the composition to death, our community for the most part doesn't know how to play it. I've seen players that simply pick Dive characters but don't coordinate their engages, or pick poorly around teammates that are trying to play it correctly, or heck, even play willingly into heroes that clearly counter their composition. All this stems from a lack of awareness or lack of information about what exactly Dive is and how you should play it, so I'm going to attempt to change that in this post.

Before we get into the details, please remember that my suggestions are primarily directed towards ranked play. Pro play is a whole different ballgame in which some of this advice will certainly not stick, so please keep that in mind while you're going through the following information.

WHAT IS DIVE?

A Dive composition is one that consists of highly-mobile heroes that seek to collectively engage a single target at a time and pick them off. Dive is usually great on points with a lot of high ground, since the comp's natural mobility is useful at contesting or maintaining control of elevated spaces. Not all heroes have this kind of mobility or can enable those that do, so let's talk a bit about which heroes you should actually play in your Dive comp.

DIVE HEROES

TANK

Winston: The quintessential Dive (main) tank, Winston is great at jumping on isolated squishies (heroes with 200HP or below) and blocking their team's abilities with his bubble. If you're playing Winston, you must lead the charge in a Dive comp and call out whom you want your team to focus down as you're diving them.

This may look competitive in the picture, but please, please don't solo-dive Roadhog

Wrecking Ball: Another solid Dive hero, Ball is the most mobile tank in Overwatch. Although he lacks a barrier, he is a main tank due to the amount of space he can buy by constantly disrupting the enemy team with his crowd-control abilities. You can pick him instead of or even alongside Winston, provided the enemy team (ironically) can't CC you too much. The more crowd-control abilities the enemy team has, the more you should be discouraged from picking Ball.

D.Va: A great off-tank to pair with either Winston or Hammond, D.Va, with her Defence Matrix, is great at preventing ranged damage/abilities from hitting her main tank, enabling them to be nice and healthy during their engagement, which increases their chances of getting a kill. D.Va's Boosters also enable her to quickly switch between supporting her main tank and peeling for her backline, which can be quite annoying for the enemy team.

Zarya: Although not a conventional Dive tank, Zarya fits well into this high-tempo composition. She works especially well with Winston and Hammond, whom she can bubble during engagements to block enemy damage/cooldowns. She can also stay by her supports, making it harder for enemy divers/flankers to pick them off.

I'd say you can run any pair of the above tanks except D.Va-Zarya and have an effective Dive tank duo; Just make sure you assess the enemy comp and make appropriate switches before it's too late.

DAMAGE

Doomfist: A character with a high skill ceiling, mobility and burst damage, Doom is a great DPS to incorporate into your dive comp. He can pull off some very creative engages/rollouts with his cooldowns and has the tools to escape if the need be. A well-timed initiation with Doomfist can cause you to get a kill nigh-instantly.

A skilled Doomfist can be extremely frightening to play against by himself, let alone in a full Dive comp

Genji: Another hero with a high skill ceiling, Genji is the most vertically-mobile Dive DPS due to his Cyber-Agility. In a Dive comp, Genji is responsible for cleaning up the fight and confirming kills, which is easy for him because of his dash resets.

Sombra: A character whose true value comes from the player controlling her, Sombra is one of the best team-based heroes in the entire game. If you're playing Sombra in Dive, you should use your Stealth to scout enemy positions and relay that information to your team, all before setting up a Hack on an enemy squishy and getting everyone to Dive them. Hack-centric Dives are usually the cleanest, since your target has no tools to escape, and will likely fall without putting up much of a fight.

Tracer: The Dive DPS with the least amount of vertical mobility, Tracer is still a fantastic all-round diver/flanker. She is great at engaging as well as cleaning up fights thanks to her Blinks, and has Recall as an escape tool. If you can't get to a high ground spot as Tracer, position yourself below your opponents, and wait for your tanks to engage them. Some of your foes will likely drop down after taking some damage, in which case you can finish them off.

Now let's talk about the other DPS picks that can work with Dive. These are heroes that either (A) don't rely on their mobility to deal damage, (B) have moderate mobility but don't always 'Dive', (C) can play from extreme ranges, or a combination of the above.

Ashe: Long-range heroes in general tend to work well with Dive since they can capitalise on the attention their tanks draw from the enemy team and try to get picks independently, and Ashe is no exception to that. Her consistent damage output and deadly headshots can yield her team a pick, after which it's all about the cleanup.

Echo: Ever since her release, Echo has been a popular character used in many versions of Dive comps. I know I've marked her yellow, but just because she's not a full-fledged diver. Other than that, she's a solid pick because of her utility as well as playstyle options. Her spam is great at baiting out defensive cooldowns, 

which makes it easier to execute successful dives; her mobility permits her to go on flanks, during which she can secure solo opening kills; her beam is great at bursting down already-dove enemies once they go below 50% HP; there are so many possibilities!

Hanzo: Another long-range hero with tremendous pick-potential, Hanzo is an off-beat but good option for those looking to play Dive but can't play a conventional diver. Keeping up with the philosophy behind this comp (getting a quick first kill), Hanzo's focus should be to get a pick rather than just deal damage. A sneaky approach often works well in this scenario, since Hanzo can land an arrow more easily if his opponents are unaware of his position.

Playing Hanzo with Dive warrants a sneaky approach

Pharah: Another hero that can be played with Dive, Pharah's primary purpose is to pressure and try to pick off the enemy backline. If she gets that early kill there's nothing like it, but even if she doesn't, she'll draw out her opponents' defensive cooldowns, after which they'll be easier to dive. Pharah's tanks must deal with the enemy hitscan(s) so that their aerial ally has all the space she needs. If there's no major threat to Pharah on the enemy team, she can even use her Concussive Blast as a pseudo-dive tool and go all-in with her tanks.

Soldier:76: Although he can't jump onto a target with his team, Soldier is a solid pick in Dive due to his ability to reposition quickly and heal himself up. His consistent damage output is great at pressuring his opponents, forcing them to be more passive and away from his supports. This also enables his off-tank to be more aggressive since they don't need to peel so much for their backline.

Widowmaker: I've got Ashe and Hanzo on this list, so it should be fairly clear why Widow's here as well. The Queen of solo picks, Widowmaker can confirm kills and reduce enemy numbers like no other, all while being safe and far away from the fight. Not much else to say.

It's worth mentioning that the DPS marked yellow benefit greatly from a Mercy pocket, which increases their already-high damage output as well as effective HP. This too enables their off-tank to be more aggressive and spend less time peeling!

SUPPORT

Ana: A well-rounded main healer, Ana can easily support teammates at a variety of ranges, which is very crucial when you're playing Dive. Her Sleep Dart and Biotic Grenade also enable her to look after herself in case she is dove, at least until her teammates can peel for her. Nano-boost also pairs well with multiple Dive heroes, causing Ana's synergy with the comp to stand out even more.

Nano-boost works incredibly well with Dive heroes like Winston and Genji

Brigitte: Someone who acts as both sunshine and kryptonite when it comes to Dive comps, Brig holds a unique position in this discussion. It's no secret that the flail-wielding support counters Dive because of her natural tankiness, crowd-control, and armour-generating ultimate, so it's no surprise that she's a fantastic pick in Dive mirrors. Not only can she protect her other support from divers/flankers, but can also supply repair packs to her tanks and DPS over long ranges, making her incredibly useful both offensively and defensively. If you're playing Brig in a Dive mirror, your primary job is to protect your other support (which is ideally Ana or Zen), so you must stay as close to them as possible.

Mercy: No surprise here I'm guessing. Mercy has been a staple of Dive comps for years now. Her Guardian Angel ability allows her to reposition along with her team and accompany them during dives, making her a very active and hands-on support; not to mention the immense value her damage boost and Resurrect abilities bring to the table.

Zenyatta: Another staple of Dive comps, Zenyatta's orbs bring a ton of value to this highly-mobile playstyle. The Orb of Harmony provides reliable sustained healing to Zen's teammates at a variety of ranges, whereas the Orb of Discord reduces the time-to-kill on targeted enemies a fair bit. Zen players should ideally call out their Discord targets so that their teammates can engage them together and finish them off.

Lucio: Although he's not as popular now as he used to be, you can still run Lucio successfully in Dive compositions. His speed and wall-riding capabilities permit him to switch between aggressive and protective playstyles quite easily. When his co-support needs help, he can stay beside them and boop away all threats, but if there's no flanker/diver targeting them, he can be more aggressive and engage targets with his tanks and DPS.

I've prepared a small table to indicate which pairs of these supports you should or should not run in Dive comps. 'Y' = 'Yes', 'N' = 'No'.

Needless to say, these are just my recommendations; what works and what doesn't will ultimately depend on your comfort picks and how well you play them.

COMP STRUCTURE

A well-executed Dive comp can get you quick and easy team fight wins

Now that we're done looking at the elements of a Dive comp, we can move on to the execution.

Since Dive requires a ton of quick decision-making, it's hard for me to break down the general approach to it without lengthening this post a fair bit, which is why I've created this flowchart for you guys to study (same as below):

Although this exact flow will be hard to follow in a traditional ranked environment, try your best to emulate it, keeping the following points in mind:

• Never engage without your teammates; otherwise you might get focused down and killed quite easily.
• Make sure to call out your targets so that your team knows whom to attack.
• Always prioritise squishies over tankier targets since they're easier to focus down. Another reason for this is that Dive tanks don't have a ton of burst damage, which makes it hard for them to win duels against more brawly tanks like Reinhardt, Orisa and Roadhog.
• Do not engage targets that are right next to their teammates since they'll be well-protected and you'll probably die instead.
• Try to engage with no or minimal movement cooldowns so that you have the means to escape if things go out of hand. For instance if you're playing Winston, try to engage your target without using your jump. This is easier if you position yourself on high ground before the fight begins, so that you can simply drop onto your target and save your jump for a disengagement.

MATCHUPS

This is going to be a fairly short section, simply because to understand Dive matchups, you only need to understand the composition's strengths and weaknesses.

• As discussed before, Dive comps are highly-mobile, and are therefore great at picking off isolated targets as well as contesting high ground. This puts them at an advantage against long-range comps like Double Sniper, which are generally played split-up.
• Dive is also a great answer to itself since neither team is grouped up, making it lucrative for both sides to go for quick and clean engages on the enemy backline.
• Any kind of Deathball Comp is difficult to play Dive against since all the players are grouped up and generally have loads of close-range burst damage, making it very risky especially for tanks like Winston and D.Va to play into. Add the possibility of having anti-dive heroes like Mei, Reaper or Brig in there and you're in for a lot of pain.

If you apply these basic concepts of mobility and grouping to any composition, you should be able to tell whether or not Dive will be effective against it.

BEST DIVE MAPS/POINTS

The following are, in my opinion, the best Dive maps/points in Overwatch (in no particular order of preference):

• Ilios (all points)
• Eichenwalde (B)
• Hollywood (B)
• Lijiang Tower (Gardens)
• Gibraltar (A and B)
• Oasis (City Centre)
• Busan (Downtown & Sanctuary)
• Numbani (A)
• Dorado (B)
• Volskaya (A, especially for attackers)
• Anubis (A, for attackers)

These maps/points are generally great for Dive on ladder, so if you don't know what your opponents are going to be playing, it's a safe bet to go the high-mobility route. Also, there are certainly other points in the game where Dive is viable, but since I wanted to mention only my top picks, I've done just that.

On that note, I'm going to wind up my attempt at Deconstructing Dive. Hope you all learnt something new in this post, and if you have any questions regarding it, feel free to post them in the comments!

I'd also like to share a couple of links with all of you. The first is to my Discord server; it's a small but growing community of players that are really eager to improve at the game and have fun while doing it. I also host weekly educational PUGs aimed at training all participants in many different aspects of Overwatch such as counterpicking, mirroring, leadership, communication, map metas, and so on!

You can also check out my YouTube channel, where I post VOD reviews, footage of our educational PUGs, and Overwatch League content!

There are more posts like this on the way, so do subscribe if you'd like to continue learning about Overwatch! Cheers, and have a great day!