Overwatch: What are the best team comps for role lock, assuming you can convince your Hanzo to try one?

Update: This is live in game now!

With Overwatch’s role lock on its way, you’ll have to start considering how best to work with your team within a 2-2-2 composition. There’s no more flexing to a different role. You’ll have to pick a hero that synergizes with your team and stick with it.

Overwatch already has a lot of natural hero combinations that make a 2-2-2 team composition work well. Everyone remembers the popularity of Dive and how strong a D.Va and Winston tank line could be with a Genji and Tracer behind. Some heroes just naturally compliment each other, so you should try to learn how to match your team’s choices if you want to make the match more manageable.

Let’s talk about dive. Dive is a classic team composition that emphasizes speed and efficiency above all else. This team comp primarily consists of D.Va and Winston tanks, Genji and Tracer Damage heroes, and Lucio as one of the supports. With the addition of all the new heroes and hero changes, the comp gets a little fuzzy. You can safely swap in a Wrecking Ball into a Tank slot, and there’s a fair amount of heroes like Doomfist or even Sombra that could work as your Damage heroes. You also could get away with either a Lucio and a Zenyatta, a Lucio and an Ana, or even a Mercy or Moira for supports. Lucio is important for his speed boost and his Sound Barrier ultimate.

Bunker is the other popular 2-2-2 composition. As we’ve explained before, the bunker composition works because it’s nearly impenetrable. It focuses on having an Orisa and a Roadhog or a D.Va as the Tanks to maintain a strong, dangerous front line. From there you can fill in the Damage roles with heroes like Bastion and Hanzo or Junkrat. You’ll do best with any Damage heroes that can spam damage from the shield. For Support, you’ll want a Baptiste for his Immortality Field and possible a Mercy for the resurrections.

Another popular comp these days revolves around a Mei. Similar to Bunker, the team comp has an Orisa and a Roadhog has tanks. This works well because Orisa’s Halt ability can line people up for a good Chain Hook by the Roadhog. The Mei on top of all of this helps control enemies even more. Mei has the ability to wall people off from escaping and to freeze them so that Orisa and Roadhog can deal massive damage to them. You usually want to drop in a Baptiste and an Ana for Supports. Both of them can easily save one of these heroes with their abilities, protecting this team from falling apart.

If you stick to these team compositions — or at least do your best to stay as close as possible to them — you’ll likely find a lot of success as everyone gets used to role lock. While it may feel limiting at first, role lock actually encourages heroes to work together more. You can’t stack three Damage heroes to measure up to a tanky defense; you have to find equal power within just two. Over time, people will learn to flex to different heroes with their roles and role lock should start to become less of a restriction and more of a guide for success.