Overwatch Torbjorn Good Turret Positioning Strategy Guide

by PyroSSBM

Hello everyone, it’s PyroSSBM; Your Torbjorn Sensei; and I noticed a lot of players watch montage youtube videos of Turret Placements but do not know why those turrets work, when those turrets do not work, as well as recognizing alternatives spots for your turret when it not working. So here is my Guide on Good Turret Positioning!

What Makes a Good Turret?

There are 3 Steps to a good Turret:

1. The Turret has a good line of sight on the enemy team
2. It does enough damage that it creates enough pressure to shift focus from main fight
3. It is Hard to obtain a direct line of sight on, therefore, the Turret can’t be easily destroyed.

What are the 3 types of Turrets you can use?

3 Types of Turrets:

Firstly lets go over an Old Torb Strategy that some low level players are still using. The Early Game Spawn Turret. Previously you could place a Turret near the spawn for extra ult charge in the beginning of the match. After the rework, this has become a terrible strategy that can lead to your team being snowballed. Not only do you immediately let the enemy team know that your team is playing a Torb based composition, you will not gain a lot of ult charge, and your turret will be destroyed immediately at the cost of a high 10 second cooldown, enough to push your team without being able to place a new one in time.  

1. Frontline Choke Turret: This Turret is placed near your tanks behind a shield. This Turret’s job is to assist in putting out enough damage to prevent the enemy team from easily going through the choke. A bad Frontline Choke Turret is when it is not behind a shield. Without a shield, Frontline Choke Turrets are very easily destroyed from the large amounts of damage coming in. This Turret can be effective against Slow moving comps that push through the choke with shields and/or large health pools.
2. Backline Peel Turret: Backline Peel Turrets are very good at helping your supports in that they put pressure on potential flankers attempting to single out a lonely support. This Turret is effective against Dive and/or comps with flankers. A Bad Backline Peel Turret only covers one Flank Route and does not provide Peel if the support moves.
3. Point Control Turret: Point Control Turrets are Turrets that hold the objective, It is either pointed towards the objective/payload or on a the objective/payload. These Turrets are effective against Dive, last ditch efforts from a team running a Lucio, and during Overtime. Keeping This Turret pointed at the objective from a far distance, is extremely powerful during Overtime because the enemy team is too busy fighting on point to deal with the far away turret. A bad Point Control Turret only has a line of sight on a partial amount of the objective. During Overtime, your turret is very unlikely to be destroyed immediately, you want it to harass from far away but be able to shoot as much as the objective as possible, or else u run into problems where the enemy team hugs walls and corners to avoid being shot on the objective.

An Amazing Turret position is one that covers all 3 Categories. These Turrets are the most commonly used ones by High Level Torb players. Watching your favorite Torb Streamer is a great way to find out the best Turret Spots rather than watching youtube compilations of highly specific spots on trees or robots. Highly specific spots can work but are often super exposed and very noticable. High Level Torb players know what is most reliable, however the turret spots we use are not always the best for every occasion. For instance let’s take the popular Hanamura Point A Turret on the stairs shooting through the window. This Turret is very strong because it covers all 3 categories and is difficult to destroy. But the enemy team is running a widow and an Ashe. Who can aim at the Turret from a safe distance and destroy it. That Turret spot is no longer an amazing spot because of the enemy team’s composition.

Before placing your turret down, consider what the enemy team is running, how hard can you make it for the enemy team to take down your turret, and how effective will this turret spot be against the enemy comp.

Let’s look at how the enemy team could attack your turret at the individual level and how you could combat it with good turret positioning.

The most basic way to have a good turret is to place your turret behind a shield like an Orisa, this works against many heroes, but many times you can place your turret in a more useful position.

Before placing your turret down, weigh your options based off which heroes the enemy is running and who might focus your turret the most

Against these heroes most of the time placing a frontline turret behind a shield is your ideal choice:

• Ana
• Brigitte
• Zen
• Moira
• Lucio (if he plays with his team)
• Mercy
• Mccree
• Soldier 76
• Widowmaker
• Ashe
• Mei
• Orisa (lf you can win the shield war)
• Reinhardt
• Roadhog
• Sombra (If you don’t have any supports with good movement options)
• Symmetra (although be aware she can pressure shields really well at level 3)
• Torbjorn (Another Torb player will know your sneaky turrets call it out and destroy)

Against these heroes it might be more ideal to place a Backline peel turret near your supports/snipers to protect against flankers:

• Winston
• Lucio (if he’s on reddit)
• Wrecking ball
• Doomfist
• Genji
• Reaper (on the Flank)
• Sombra (if you have ana/zen)
• Tracer
• Dva
• Junkrat
• Bastion (Too much damage)
• Hanzo (behind a shield will only make him focus your shield even more)

What if you don’t have a shield

Against these heroes you could try placing it high ground

• Junkrat (really difficult for junkrat to hit reliably)
• Zarya
• Winston
• Reinhardt
• Roadhog
• Reaper
• Dva
• Tracer

For these heroes, having a point control turret out of line of sight can be more effective:

• Widowmaker
• Bastion
• Hanzo
• Ashe
• Mei
• Zen
• Soldier 76
• Orisa
• Mccree
• Pharah (Placing the turret in a spot where there is a low ceiling and farther back, makes it very difficult for pharah to take destroy a turret without risking themselves by hovering lower than usual; for ex: On the mega health pack of Volskaya Point A)

Thank you for reading my guide on bettering your turret positioning!