'/%3e%3cpath%20d='M32%2042%20L46%2088%20L64%2050%20L82%2088%20L96%2042'%20fill='none'%20stroke='%23ffffff'%20stroke-width='9'%20stroke-linecap='round'%20stroke-linejoin='round'/%3e%3c/svg%3e){kind=small}
Dive, brawl and poke: how your team wins fights
The short answer
Every team fights one of three ways. Dive jumps one target together, wins the fight fast, then resets. Brawl fights up close as a group, behind and around its tanks. Poke wears the enemy down from range before they reach it. Your tank usually sets the plan, so pick heroes that fit the same one.
In this lesson: 7 parts
Why it works
A plan is what your heroes are built to do together.
WinCon rates every hero for each plan: Natural is built for it, Conditional can play it with help or in the right spots, and Poor pulls against it.
Each plan needs different jobs.
Every plan needs space creation, kill conversion, team sustain, ally protection, peel and disengage / reset. Dive adds initiation, brawl adds initiation and close pressure, and poke adds ranged pressure. The Coach's team shape shows each job as covered, partly covered or missing.
The tank sets the plan.
In 5v5 there is one tank, so the Coach counts the tank's plan twice. A 2026 guide calls tanks “the main anchor for your team”.
Mixed plans pull apart.
Orisa's teammates page puts it plainly: Genji “needs a dive tank to go in with; she holds the front”.
The triangle is a lean, not a rule.
Guides teach that brawl beats dive, dive beats poke and poke beats brawl, “like Rock, Paper, and Scissors”. Heroes matter more: the Coach weighs a hero against the enemy's plan at about a fifth of its direct counters.
Tonight's example
One tank per plan: for each plan, tonight's most-picked tank that fits only that plan naturally, with what its counters page says against the other two.
| Plan | Tank tonight | Pick rate | Against the other plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dive | Winston | 8.4%, 4th of 15 tanks | Weak into brawl: “high-damage close brawlers out-trade him”. Good into poke: “jumps snipers and static backliners”. |
| Brawl | Reinhardt | 12.0%, 2nd of 15 tanks | Weak into dive: “divers go over and around his shield to the backline”. Weak into poke: “kited and shot over or around his shield”. |
| Poke | Sigma | 8.9%, 3rd of 15 tanks | Weak into dive: “divers go around a placed barrier and he has no escape”. Good into brawl: “kites slow brawlers and blocks their approach”. |
Winston and Sigma follow the triangle. Reinhardt doesn't: a brawl tank, yet Reinhardt's kit is weak into dive. Orisa, picked most of all, is Natural at both brawl and poke, so the table leaves Orisa out.
Try it
Predict, then see the coach
A 5v5 team from the Coach's example teams, set so the tank and two others lean one plan. Your slot is open, and you get three heroes from your role: one Natural for the plan, one Conditional, one Poor.
- Map
- Nepal
- Tank
- Roadhog
- Damage 1
- Cassidy
- Damage 2
- Bastion
- You · Support
- Open
- Support 2
- Lúcio
Your team leans brawl. Which support would you play?
In your games
- Look at your tank first. The plan usually starts there.
- On tank, you choose the plan. Pick one your team's heroes can follow.
- A Conditional pick can still work well. Each hero page shows how to play the hero in every plan.
Orisa tonight
Next
How we know
- WinCon's hero facts: Plan fits, jobs, and good and weak into each plan, reasoned from abilities, not measured.
- The Coach: The jobs each plan needs, the tank's plan counted twice in 5v5, and the weight of the enemy's plan (coach 6.0.1).
- Blizzard's numbers: Pick rates, Competitive, every rank, fetched Nov 10.
- A guide: ProSettings, “Overwatch team comps explained”, 6 May 2026 (the triangle; tanks as the anchor).