Strategist tips for dealing with divers

Hello everybody! I made a comment and thought it would be a good post idea for people to chime in on. For my background, I’m a strategist main (GM2 on season 0, currently plat 1 climbing back up). Below is the comment I made and just want to share some tips for strats struggling against divers or if you see your strats struggling.

Edit: I did not discuss ults in this post because ults are so powerful that they change your plans and plays. There is a building phase and ult phase and this post mostly covers dealing with divers during the building phase. Just a quick tip that I will say because this happens way too often: if you get ulted, you need to make a decision if you should use your healing out to save yourself or let yourself die and save your ult for next push. Healing ults are so incredibly powerful that a Luna in the back burning her ult to save herself from a Psylocke ult makes me cringe a bit. A diver ult successfully baiting healer ults sets their team up for success because you now have 1 less fight deciding ult against their next push. Diver ults baiting a healing ult is an incredible trade off that you need to be sure it is the right decision to use it to save yourself or the back line group and push with it

Some basic tips:

Divers love separated teammates. Your best defense against divers is to always be alert of their position. Stay close to teammates if they are coming back. Keep a mental idea of when their ults should be up.

Divers rarely stay after their combo. If you can’t kill the diver, your duty is to survive their attack and they will scurry off again. Keep in mind the divers goal is to kill a healer or critical dps player. A single pick (kill) alone is enough to win and push a team fight.

Every strategist has a method to deal with divers. Don’t be afraid to be selfish with your abilities if you aren’t getting support, which brings me to my next point.

DIVERS KILLING THE BACK LINE STRATEGISTS IS A TEAM PROBLEM, NOT A STRATEGIST PROBLEM. When you play against really good divers, you can only do so much yourself and your team needs to be helping. “No peels = no heals”. Some strategists rely on teammates more than other strategists.

Edit: good clarification from panthers: there is a difference between staying with your group and “holding hands on top of eachother” grouped. When I say stay grouped in this text, I mean within reaching distance/ help of your teammates. Many of your diver enemies have aoe abilities and they would love nothing more than a clump of juicy strategists. Use your terrain, your elevation. What you don’t want is to be 10 yards behind the main group that your teammates can’t help without leaving their main spots. Don’t let your positioning be a burden to your team

For character specifics:

Cloak and dagger: you can save your bubble heal for when you get dove or during dps times. When you get dove on, place the bubble at your feet and go into cloak and fight back. Most of the time they won’t have the dps to kill you through your heal and you put them at risk of dying by draining them back. You also have the option to stealth away towards your teammates if you aren’t ready for a fight or if your bubble is on cooldown.

Rocket Racoon: hardest to deal with divers (imo). does not have a lot of fighting back potential since he can’t heal and shoot at the same time. Rocket does have 3 escapes (2 dashes and wall climbing ability). Your best bet as rocket is to shoot healing balls forward and dash into them so they heal you while you dash towards your teammate for help. Rocket relies on the above tip, divers often leave when their combo fails. Rely on your teammates but try and keep at least one dash ready and available.

Jeff: Jeff is a fucking menace. He can be played as dps and harass their backline and they will be cursing him by the end of the game. If you get dove as Jeff then they assume you suck or they are dumb dumb. For Jeff you have your bubbles that you can place on your feet that give you speed boost as well. Jeff can also “swim” underground which gives you speed and heals over time. Jeff is hard to hit in that form and you can climb walls with it too. But your right click (ranged attack for controller players) deals surprisingly good damage. Get good as Jeff by using your range attack and go right into your swim mode and strafe around. You are very fast and deal damage as Jeff and a good Jeff should win 99% of the fights against divers.

Loki: my season 0 main and favorite. Loki is all about his clones. His clones heal the same and deal as much damage as main Loki. Always try and keep your clones up. Remember, with no clones up you are only healing/dealing damage at 33% efficiency. If you are getting repeatedly dove, keep a clone further away that you can teleport to. You also have a stealth but don’t just use that to try and run. A melee diver will hit you out of stealth. Your stealth will also drop a clone, which is huge for getting your clones out. Easiest tip for Loki is to use your aoe heal when you get dove. If that is on cd you will probably die so you will need to have your teleport ready. Loki is at his weakest when both your stealth and teleport is on cooldown. Try and have at least one option up. If you have 2 clones up you can do 120 damage per hit if all 3 of you hit if you are able to stay and fight inside your aoe heal. I could go on and on about Loki but this post is about countering divers so I’ll leave it there.

Adam Warlock: 2nd hardest to deal with divers (imo). A good diver knows you have 2 charges of your chain heal and your shift (damage link/slow heal ability for controller players) and they can try and bait your heals and burn you down. Warlock lacks any movement ability to get away from divers. Your best tip for dealing with divers as warlock is don’t put yourself in a position to get dove. This means play closer to your team if you have a diver problem. My other advice for warlock is fight, and by that I mean don’t miss. Your charged attack as warlock can often combo a dps from full health if you hit with each blast. If I see a diver coming to flank me often I’ll have it charged and blast them as they charge into me. Your charge blast cannot hit headshots but your basic shots can. Your charged blast is slower projectile speed so keep that in mind, while your left click is barely shy of hitscan and can headshot. If you get dove without a charged attack ready, then you want to make your way to teammates while attacking with basic attacks and timing your heals to prevent as much overheal as possible and get the most out of your charges. Often times a diver will leave once you land a couple shots on them and fight back. Adam warlock and Rocket Racoon heavily rely on teammates not ignore your cries for help.

Invisible woman (Sue cause it’s shorter to type): my new main this season (about 400 points or so from Lord) and is so much fun. Divers are rough to deal with as Sue if you are caught without your cds. Your best defense against a diver is your double jump into stealth. If that’s on cd, you can use your aoe ball on your feet to deal constant damage to them while you attack with left click. Your third option is to use your push to push them towards your group. If you push them behind you, you fucked up. All you did was delay the inevitable unless your teammates are here or your double jump comes off cd. The problem with the push away is, from per sonal experience, they dive right back in and mess you up. Sues big weakness is self heals so proper positioning is key for your survivals here. Often times I will place the shield towards the back so I can use it as a self heal if I am having trouble with divers. I would place Sue in the middle ground of self sufficient against divers and needing team help. Best defense for Sue, double jump and run away.

Luna snow: easy counter to divers due to basic attack damage and freeze. If you get a diver in you as Luna, freeze them and then either leave them frozen and run to teammates or line it up for easy headshots. If you aren’t confident in your ability to duel divers as a strategist your best option is to run after you freeze them. They won’t dive you again if you are in your group unless they have ult. If you miss your freeze, you can burn your shift (powered up attacks for controller players) ability because it also heals you over time to help fight back.

Mantis: another easy counter to divers due to basic attacks, self buff and sleep. You have a few options here. You can sleep the diver and run to your group, alerting your teammates of the sleeping diver. After you sleep them you can buff yourself to deal more damage and line up headshots. Mantis basic attacks do very good damage (comparable to dps damage if you don’t miss your shots). Mantis lacks mobility abilities (besides basic movement speed buff) and burst self healing. Mantis self heals by consuming your life orbs (when you put a heal or damage buff on someone, or buff yourself). The worst time to get caught off guard is when you have no heals going out so you have no heals coming in. Always try and have your heals up if you are dealing with divers and don’t get caught unprepared. Mantis is a very easy counter to divers as long as you are staying prepared for it.

Please post your tips you have learned below and let me know your thoughts! I am not an expert on all things strategist so please let me know if I was wrong or missed something!