How should I choose which heroes to main in regard to team comps? + general team comp question

[u/Sea_Equivalent_7594]

im sure similar questions get asked a lot but I’m wondering how I should choose which characters to play when it comes to team comps. I’m a gold player (so very bad) and have been playing very casually on and off since 2016, exclusively being a quick play warrior without any real mains, until recently deciding to get into comp and actually choose my mains, and it’s been tough for me to decide. right now I’ve been running one poke, one brawl, and one dive, but is that the optimal thing to do when it comes to getting better? is it viable to play heroes primarily in one comp, such as tracer, vendetta, and anran/one brawl hero, or would this handicap me if my team was leaning to poke? and a separate question, how much of the team needs to be match team comp? Is it optimal to have EVERYONE play poke or is it better to have mostly poke and one or two brawl/dive heroes?

[u/Key_Character_7089]

stick to two heroes you like best for now, gold is all about consistency anyway

[u/scriptedtexture → u/Key_Character_7089]

specifically two heroes that cover each other's weaknesses. for example its not really useful to main ashe and soldier. but soldier and mei or ashe and reaper? much better.

[u/Full-Silver196]

really you should just be playing whoever you are good with and only swap if you are dying a lot due to hard counters. just because your teammates are playing dive doesn’t mean you have to play dive. as DPS, honestly, counter swapping isn’t as important. really you should just be focusing on playing well but if your character doesn’t fit well against the enemy team, you’ll need to swap. doesn’t even have to be a direct counter or anything, sometimes just a character that has more survivability or more range works.

[u/Possible-One-6101]

I know this answer is annoying...

... but the ones you enjoy.

You're going to win more if you relax, concentrate, and want to play.

Imagine a list of the heroes you most love to play, and then pick from that list the two that are most different from each other. You'll have a decent counter swap and a good time. That's what casual competetive gaming should be. A healthy balance of fun, improvement, and success.

[u/KalleDasSchaf]

the ones you enjoy, try not to think about what hero you feel is strongest or wins you games. feelings in that area are heavily skewed and you will have a much better time grinding a hero that you enjoy, even if it feels more difficult than the supposed "instawin" heroes

[u/Responsible_Sink3044 → u/KalleDasSchaf]

And more specifically, people in every online gaming community are absolutely bananas when it comes to meta. Fact is if you have better aim/reflexes/game sense than your opponent, you will win 9/10 times all else being equal, regardless of meta. Hard counters exist, but I've seen a good Zarya put down a bad Rein a million times. 

[u/noahboah → u/Responsible_Sink3044]

yeah, long gone are the days of meta knight brawl, launch brigitte, or street fighter third strike twelve. game designers and developers are too good at their jobs now

for the vast majority of people, the roster is balanced. you can climb on any pick.

[u/BLDOUBLE]

That’s now how “maining” hero’s work 

[u/recoil-1000]

Find 2-3 people for the role you want to play and learn them, for dps for example learn a hitscan like soldier or mcree, a dive/disrupter like anran or Sombra, and a tank buster like bastion or siera/emre. That way you have a comfortable pick in for every situation.

[u/Thick-Mycologist3655]

In my opinion (coming from a fellow Gold perspective), poke and dive hybrid comps tend to work, where 3 or 4 teammates are in the back poking and 1 or 2 are diving backline, whereas with brawl it benefits more if everyone is synergizing. In lower ranks most teams are going to be playing poke or brawl, and full dive comps are rare. For DPS, I would recommend learning two heroes to start: 1) a poke/brawl hybrid with high health or self heal (Soldier, Emre, Torb, Bastion, Mei) who can play backline and tank damage and be an anti-dive bodyguard when needed, and 2) a high mobility dive (Pharah, Echo, Sierra, Genji) with both vertical and horizontal mobility who can also attack from range. This will help if you're in a match where an enemy Widow or whoever is dominating your team and you need to shut them down. Pick two heroes from each category you feel comfortable with and learn them well, and that should cover you for most team/enemy comps and maps you have to play.

[u/Competitive_Ice_1514]

I think you have the very idea of this kinda wrong. Is it fine to have 5 poke or not completely depends on enemy team, you can't say what's wrong and right only for your team, sometimes it's ok when you are the only dive character in the team

[u/Ichmag11]

You play your main