Overwatch How To Run GOATS Comp and Best Counters Guide

by wackygonz

With the inception of Brigitte into the meta, and the Open Division team, Goats, popularizing their comp, the meta in Overwatch has changed drastically as compared to previous seasons. If you are not familiar with the comp, the heroes played are usually Reinhardt, Zarya, Dva, Brigitte, Lucio, and Moira with some variants depending on the team. In this guide, I will be explaining the proper way to run Goats comp, the different variations of it, as well as the best ways to counter the Goats comp. Keep in mind that I consider Goats comp to be a cheese comp, meaning that this comp is very good at one thing but when countered falls flat on its heels. I understand that a lot of what I’m going to say will be harder to execute in ranked as people don’t listen, do their own thing, and just generally don’t know what the hell is going on. Do your best to be patient, make basic callouts for your team, and not to overcomplicate things. This will not work all the time but it’s the best thing you can do when playing as Goats or against Goats.

GOATS COMP

1. The Strengths: Goats comp is very good at rushing down an enemy position and overwhelming them or holding a point with large health pools and massive amounts of healing. Goats comp is also very easy to run, as it doesn’t require a lot of coordination but following the Reinhardt and calling a target. Ultimates, especially support ultimates tend to build up very quickly if the enemy team is really feeding into the comp. So, it’s good to use ultimates as much as you can…within reason. Goats comp also has a lot of damage prevention with Reinhardt’s shield, Brigitte’s shield, Defense Matrix, and Zarya bubbles, so timing these abilities correctly will make the comp feel unstoppable.
2. The Weaknesses: With the exception to Dva, the comps lacks vertical mobility. At the same time, there isn’t a lot of range characters in Goats comp as the comp is meant to rely on brawling on objectives and rushing down teams. There also isn’t a lot of damage from the Goats comp, there may be a lot of unblockable damage with Reinhardt, and Brigitte but looking at the numbers 3 tanks would never have more damage than 2 DPS heroes on the other team. The problem is they make up for lack of damage with large amounts of health, barriers and healing. So burst damage is the best option against Goats as they can only heal over time.
3. How to Run It: First thing you want to do as a Goats comp is NEVER spread apart. You are a ball of death and that doesn’t work very well when everyone is doing their own thing. Next thing you do is choose a route, sometimes you might need to go main, left alley, onto high ground, whatever it is, choose a route to attack first. Then you generally want your Reinhardt to target call, and when he calls everyone should respect the call and attack what he’s attacking. Once that target is dead then you want to move on to the next target and the next, so on and so forth. You generally want your Lucio to be on speed boost most of the time as you will most likely rely on the Moira for healing. Use Moira healing orbs when your team passes through high damage areas as to not waste resources until brawling. Your Dva should use Defense Matrix to eat key abilities like Ana’s Nade, Pharah’s Concussion Mine, Junkrat’s mines, etc. Your Zarya should generally be bubbling the Reinhardt as to enable him to do more damage and prevent him from getting CC’ed. Your Brigitte should be calling her stuns so that the comp can burst down a target that comes into stun range. Once the comp starts rolling and getting ultimates then you want to think about how to combo them. So combining Shatter + Dva bomb is a good way to win fights. Combining Grav + Dva bomb as well and then your Rein pinning the enemy Rein out of the grav so Dva bomb gets value is also very good. You never want to combo Grav + Shatter as that will set back the ultimate economy of the team. The 3 supports should talk about what ultimates to use in a fight as the team never wants to stack all of the support ultimates in 1 team fight.
4. Variations: There have been some variations of the Goats comp that have evolved over time depending on what the team comp wants. The heroes that almost never change are Reinhardt, Dva, Brigitte, and Lucio.
   1. So, instead of a Moira some teams run Ana, and this is a way to soft counter an enemy goats comp with Ana being able to land sleeps onto tanks, providing nano to one of the tanks to keep them alive and ad extra damage, but most importantly, it’s to land an anti-nade on the enemy team. Remember what I said about Goats comp relying on large amounts of healing? Well for a brief time, if an Ana can land an anti-nade on 2 or 3 targets then that can completely stop an enemy team from pushing.
   2. Another variation of Goats is having a Zenyatta instead of a Moira. Now with this your team doesn’t have a lot of healing but instead makes up for it with Discord and adding that extra firepower to the goats comp. So with this comp you want to be hyper aggressive in rushing down enemies who are discorded and killing targets quickly. Trans provides a more powerful defensive ultimate as compared to Moira as the comp can now prevent more impactful tam wiping ultimates from the enemy team.
   3. My personal favorite variation of Goats is actually replacing Zarya with Sombra. You’re probably tilting your head and wondering,”Wtf is Sombra supposed to do?” Well, with Zarya having a smaller radius to her ultimate, if the enemy team plays around her ultimate starts to become less impactful. Sombra’s EMP can provide better value, as the team can actually win team fights with only EMP, but EMP also combos better with the other 2 tanks ultimates. Bomb + EMP and Shatter + EMP are generally more reliable. Your team would never want to combo Shatter and Grav and a Reinhardt can block a Dva bomb in a Grav. Sombra can also negate enemy heroes abilities, as well as, completely shutting down Lucio’s beat.

HOW THE HELL TO COUNTER GOATS COMP

1. Be Patient: You can’t take the Goats comp head on unless you’re running the comp yourself. Sometimes that means giving up a tick, or 2 ticks of the objective in order to do so. If your teams tries to force yourself against the Goats comp your comp will lose every time because that’s what the Goats comp excels at.
2. Attacking from Multiple Angles: The Reinhardt shield can only face one direction. With any experienced Rein player knows, they become useless when they are flanked from multiple sides. This can also apply to high ground and setting up kill boxes against the Goats comp. Remember, goats comp struggles when it comes to vertical mobility. Yeah, they could send their Dva but how long will she last against 2 or 3 heroes on high ground.
3. Keeping Distance: Easier said then done, I know, but your team wants to avoid getting into the faces of a goats comp and having heroes that want to play in range can be effective ways to do that.

HEROES TO PLAY AGAINST GOATS

Remember that the heroes that will be listed below have to work in the context of the map and the synergies with the team comp. Don’t just randomly pick heroes from this list and expect your team to counter Goats comp. In the context of ranked it will always be harder to counter goats than it is to run it.

1. Tanks
   1. Winston: Well what the hell is Winston going to do against Goats comp, isn’t he just going to get destroyed? Well, if he jumps into the middle of them like an idiot, then yes. The goal of Winston here isn’t to do damage, but to buy as much time for the DPS or supports to land damage and abilities against the goats comp. With his mobility he can go in, jump out, go onto high ground, distract the enemy team, then go back in when he gets healed. You wanna use Winston in a map with open space as much as possible. Primal is very good to disrupt the enemy team and separating the supports from the tanks
   2. Dva: Same principe as Winston but she also adds value by being able to eat Moira orbs, firestrikes, and Zarya’s grav, if your Dva is good enough and manages her Defense Matrix and boosters correctly. Dva’s bomb when used correctly can either buy more time or if combined with EMP can completely wipe the enemy team.
   3. Wrecking Ball: Very underrated pick against Goats, because remember, a Goats comp wants to death ball and Wrecking Ball does a very good job of disrupting and splitting the enemy team. He also has the adaptive shield, which allows him to go in, get max shields, disrupt the enemy team, and not feed any ultimate charge. Hopefully with time as more players becomes used to Wrecking Ball they will be able to get full value out of him.
   4. Orisa: Not a bad tank to play in maps where your team can set up a defensive high ground position and can attack from range. Think, first point King’s Row, first point Horizon, First point Volskaya, essentially any high ground positions that will make it difficult for the enemy team to rush you down. Remember, Orisa struggles against teams that rush her down and if a goats comp rushes down on the Orisa’s face she’s almost certainly dead even with fortify. Her bongo is also good at just enabling her team to do so much more damage and ripping through Rein’s shield.
2. DPS
   1. Junkrat/Pharah: I put these 2 heroes together because a lot of people believe that these 2 are generally the best counters to Goats. In some cases, yes, with their high amounts of damage these 2 heroes can stop goats. However, the problem with these two heroes is that they struggle to confirm kills and charge the enemy support ultimates very quickly. If the supports can get the ultimates faster than the Junkrat or Pharah it can almost be game over unless Rip-Tire and Barrage can get 2/3/4 kills. Until Pharah gets her new changes she might still struggle to confirm kills against goats comp.
   2. Sombra: This pick provides a lot more utility instead of raw damage. Sombra enables her supports to land key abilities, like discord and anti nades when she hacks tanks. It also allows heroes with one shot ability like Widowmake and Hanzo to kill the supports on the Goats comp. Most importantly, Sombra can build up EMP very quickly and when the entire team is grouped up it can be devastating to goats comp. Just remember to call it out, and make sure your team can follow up on the EMP. Don’t do it when the rest of your team is dead. Please.
   3. Widowmaker/Hanzo: If you trust yourself to hit the shots, and your team manages to give you windows, Widow and Hanzo can be decent counters. They have the ability to one shot any of the supports when given the opportunity. When damage boosted and given a discord they can almost one shot the tanks of a goats comp. But you have to be able to hit the shots and take advantage of them because the enemy team will only give you small openings to do so.
   4. Doomfist: This hero has the best chance of one shotting enemy heroes. Each ability he has, including his ultimate can disrupt and one shot any of the heroes. The things is, there aren’t a lot of good Doomfist players that can get full value out of his kit. In my opinion though, I’ve always thought Doomfist had the best capability of countering goats because of his ability to one shot, confirms kills, and get out…in the right hands.
   5. Bastion: Actually not a bad counter to goats, Bastion when damage boosted can rip through Goats comp when given the opportunity to. However, if the enemy team can rush down the Bastion’s positioning it can be very difficult to do so. Also, Bastion ends up becoming a cheese strat himself making the enemy team having the option to switch comps to now counter the Bastion…but I guess you’re here to find ways to counter goats so I guess you did your job.
   6. Mei: Very very good pick when put in the right map. Mei’s wall can devastate the goats comp when she is able to wall off the tanks from the supports. She also has such a powerful ultimate that will either freeze or disrupt goats comp and when shooting it against tanks can build it up almost every team fight. You want to use Mei in maps like Hanamura, or Lijiang Control center.
   7. Symmetra: A sleeper pick against goats. Symmetra can help reposition the team with her teleporter if they are playing a static comp. Think first point Numbani where the team can just reposition from high ground to the opposite high ground. She also does a decent amount of damage with her spam and can charge up very quickly against tanks. Her turrets can also disrupt the Goats comp by either slowing them down or making them use cool downs to destroy them.
3. Supports
   1. Ana: If you are playing Ana, your job is to be in a safe position where the enemy team can’t get to you and to land that anti-nade. With that cool down being on a 10 second cool down you can not afford to waste it on Rein’s barrier or allowing the Dva to eat it. This one ability can be the reason your team wins or loses a team fight. Nano is also such a great ability to put on your tanks, and to give them that extra sustainability to live and build their ultimates faster.
   2. Zenyatta: Having Discord orbs allows for your DPS to one shot enemy heroes, while doing damage yourself. If you are set up on a high ground position from goats, calling discords and basically being a 3rd DPS on your team can really help. Not to mention, trans can buy a lot of time for your team and countering the enemies tank ults.
   3. Mercy: Great for damage boosting your DPS like Hanzo, Widow, Junkrat Pharah, to allow them to hopefully one shot the enemy heroes. Having rez in the context of defense can provide a clutch ability as having that extra person can turn the team fight. Remember though, Mercy will never be able to out heal an ally as compared to goats comp.

These are only the ways that I’ve seen to be effective counters to goats. If you think you or your team have found a better way to counter goats then keep doing it. I’m still learning as well so please excuse me if I made any mistakes on this post.