#dive meta

Dive comp or Dive meta in Overwatch is basically this composition that got popular in Season 5 where high mobility heroes are used to mow down the enemy team. Because mobility is a powerful tool in OW, Dive was often the strongest sort of comp you could have. 

Dive usually had D.Va, Winston, Genji, Ana, Lucio, Tracer, and a smattering of heroes here and there that had high mobility. 

Dive comp is a good comp, don’t get me wrong, but the TOXICITY of Overwatch came to an all time high since everybody seems to want Dive and NOTHING ELSE

Over and over in games, if you don’t pick dive, people will throw games, throw tantrums, just be general assholes because they don’t think skill or having fun are things that exist in the game, that only specific heroes will get you a win. 

So with Korea mostly just scoffing at dive comp and sticking to what they’re good at, we’re starting to see less toxicity about hero picks (not gone, but less than before when dive comp was worshiped like a religion) because people are suddenly remembering that dive comp doesn’t matter when you have actual skill and play heroes you’re good at, while still maintaining hero balance. 

I’ve been trying to figure out the history of overwatch’s metas over time, and here are what I’ve discovered. The metas are chronological and with each one I explain how it worked and why it fell.

BETA - The Buff Meta How it worked: Zen’s orbs didn’t require LoS, Sym gave 50 shields and Torb gave armour. Two Zens, Tracer, Genji, Sym, Torb. The flankers would be unkillable and could do w/e they wanted. Why it ended: LoS Zen Orbs introduced, Symmetra nerf to 25 shields. - Hide and Seek Meta How it worked: Mercy’s ultimate range was 40m. Whichever mercy could A. Build ult the fastest and B. Hide the best would let their team win the fight. Finding and killing mercy was often the only way to win. Why it ended: Mercy range nerfed to 15m. - Widowmeta How it worked: Widowmaker was incredibly strong. Whoever had the better widow won. Why it ended: Widowmaker got nerfed so her role was less dominating.

Release - 2/2/2 Meta featuring McCree How it worked: 2 tanks, 2 healers, 2 dps Inc McCree. McCree was a litteral powerhouse and games were won off the back of a good McCree. Why it ended: Kind of did and kind of didn’t. McCree went to shit tier after a bunch of nerfs, but 2/2/2 has hung around in various forms ever since.

Season 1 - Godcomp How it worked: 2 Winstons, 2 Tracers, 2 Lucios. Winstons exchanged barrier duty and Tracer fucked everything over because one Lucio would constantly heal and the other constantly speed boost making her OP. Why it ended: Lucio healing got nerfed, Winston barrier got nerfed to only going on CD once destroyed (this was reverted a few patches later) and hero stacking got removed. - Orbs of Destruction How it worked: Zen got Buff AF. Why it ended: Zen got his balls nerfed. - MADA MADA How it worked: Genji OP. Why it ended: Genji no longer OP.

Season 2 - Meta Boogaloo! No meta dominated at the start of S2. However… - Beyblade How it worked: Ana introduced to the game. Ultimate charged fast and granted +30% speed in addition to other affects. Build up ult, Nano a Reaper and let em rip! Why it ended: Nanoboost nerfed in charge rate and no longer gave speed boost.

Season 3 - Beyblade at the beginning, but once Ana got nerfed, we hit the dreaded…

- TRIPLE TANK META How it worked: Ana OP. D.Va OP. Roadhog OP. Lucio OP. S76 OP. Rein… Balanced, but still necessary. Every match consisted of standing at the choke waiting for Roadhog to get a pick before speedboosting in. Any damage you took would immediately be healed up by Lucio’s massive aura and Ana’s 100% healing boosting grenade. Any pick bar the 6 was a throw pick. Quad tank was also a thing at one point which was even worse. Games were unbelievably slow. Why it ended: Hoo boy. A lot of reasons. Ana ‘nade healing got nerfed and so did her damage eventually, making her less powerful overall. Roadhog went from Hook 1.0 to 2.0 to 2.1 to 3.0 to 4.0, each one making his hook less powerful. (completely broken hook 1.0 to 2.0 broken LoS checks, fixed LoS checks making hook even stronger, 3.0 increasing distance from hog and target when hooked from 2m to 3.5m, and finally 4.0 with the Cooldown going from 6a to 8s). D.va got armour and health switched around and her damage got a minor nerf. Later on, after these nerfs ended TT, Lucio got reworked making speed boost less impactful and S76… remained as a solid pick to the present day, despite a minor nerf to his damage. Regardless, all the changes made TT much less powerful, but it's never gone away completely. Season 3 ended with the meta in a state of flux.

Season 4 - KING META, aka “El Presidente” How it worked: Bastion reworked, completely broken and OP… Why it ended: …For two days, until Blizzard nerfed Bastion’s ironclad passive from 35% to 20%. He’s back in shit tier, the poor robot. - Meta Boogaloo Part 2: Anything goes! Litterally anything goes. The weirdest compositions worked. 2/2/2 was standard but litterally anything was good somehow.

Season 5 - Dive Meta How it works: 6 top heroes but not as rigid as TT - Winston, D.va, Zen, Lucio, Tracer, Genji. Winston got a small buff to his Hitbox , D.va got what seemed like a small small buff to DM but ended being the most impactful change to her kit ever, both are divers, Lucio is the fastest support and can keep up with the tanks/DPS and can actually fight with his increased damage output, Zen has range & discord, Genji & Tracer are fast and bursty. Focused on diving in and focusing down targets in order of importance (Healers, DPS, tanks). Other heroes that worked particularly well in this meta were Pharah, S.76, Sombra, Zarya, Mercy. (Particularly pharmercy.) Widowmaker/Hanzo occasionally find their way in too, having the range to support the divers from afar. The biggest loosers in this Meta were definitely the immobile tanks (Rein, Orisa, Hog(especially since he was shit tier)) who couldn't find a place in many compositions.

Why it ended: as of writing this (3rd September), Dive Meta has 'ended' but Dive compositions are still strong. A few notable changes make dive less viable - Junkrat has been buffed, as has Orisa, Zarya, and Roadhog, all of who have somewhat effective anti-dive tools. In addition, people are more wary of playing Dive with a D.va because of her incoming changes. Season 6: Meta Candidates: Spam Meta & Barrierwatch How they work: Spam has Orisa, Junkrat, Zenyatta, Soldier, and two other heroes. The composition is still forming, but spam looks like it could be a viable strat. Barrierwatch has Rein, Orisa, and 4 other heroes. Again, still a forming composition that is still being developed. But importantly it looks like Orisa could be defining the Meta this season. Stay tuned!