The Pirate Ship Evolved - Ultimate Guide To Counter Bunker

A new meta has transpired in Overwatch, currently being referred to as, "Bunker Comp". This meta has been around for quite a while being used as only a strategy on certain maps. Originating on Junker Town this used to consist of Orisa, Bastion, and Mercy while on attack setting up these characters used to resemble a pirate ship giving it its infamous name.

Another name you've probably heard your teammates call this composition if you actively participate in the game chat feature is "Cheese Comp". Playing VS this comp can get tiresome and even toxic, that's why I'll teach you how to handle it. Let's dig in, shall we?

What is Bunker Comp Exactly?

With the release of Baptiste and the death of the goats' meta, a new revolutionary age for Overwatch has transpired. What most people think of as, the age where you cannot walk forward. A lot of players unfamiliar with the ways to counter this strategy and meta become frustrated with the game and its developers for enlisting in making the game a nightmare to play rather than a fun game to enjoy with yourself or with friends. With the release of Baptiste the bunker comp has been strengthened, due to the immortality field, the character can place making all the players on their team invulnerable while standing in its radius. It essentially makes it easier to bait players into a swift and quick death by allowing them to assume that the Bastion or any other valuable character in this comp if you're not playing against the traditional bunker comp (such as the Orisa or Baptiste themselves), is low and can die.

Seeing a valuable player low you, or your team might think that this is an opportunity to break the bunker and force them to reset on other characters, this is where the Baptiste places the dreaded immortality field. Making his team impossible to kill you must destroy the field as quickly as you can before the Bastion kills off members of your team forcing you to reset and try again.

If you’re not facing against the traditional bunker composition that includes a Bastion, you may be facing off against one with high damage dealing targets such as Torbjorn and Ashe, or Torbjorn, Ashe, Sombra with Orisa, Baptiste, Mercy. The damage dealt to you by the damage boosted Ashe and Torbjorn when your Reinhardt is hacked by the Sombra is enough to wipe your team almost as fast as the traditional bunker composition.

Alas as frustrating and irritating that this composition might be, it is also simply counter-able with a bit of teamwork and various strategies. While this bunker comp used to be played mainly on hybrid/escort maps you can now find this on most maps, with the less frequently seen being on King of the Hill. The maps and sides most viable with this composition are below.

Maps That Work For Bunker Comp

Escort

• Dorado (attack mainly occasionally on defense)
• Route: 66 (attack and defense)
• Watchpoint Gibraltar (attack and defense)
• Rialto (attack mainly occasionally on defense)
• Junkertown (attack mainly occasionally on defense)

Hybrid

• Blizzard World (defense first point)
• Kings row (defense first point, attack after payload is released)
• Hollywood (defense first point)
• Numbani (defense first point)
• Eichenwalde (defense first point, attack after the payload is captured)

Assault/Two Cp

• Hanamura (defense both points)
• Volskaya (defense both points)
• Anubis (defense first point)
• Horizon Lunar Colony (defense both points)


• Paris (defense both points)

While you will stumble across Bunker Comp on these maps it’s crucial to not panic and immediately assume the game is over and there is nothing you can do. Even though it is possible to destroy the bunker with a few lucky picks on the enemy team, as long as the core carries of the team composition remain (one being the Orisa) the odds of you being able to remove the bunker still remains low. Do not fret! As there are specific compositions and strategies that were composed and founded to remove bunker comps.

Comps That Are Effective VS Bunker Comp

1. Reinhardt, Orisa, D.va, Bastion, Baptiste, Ana - Outbunker them!

One of the greatest ways to counter bunker is to out bunker it! In competitive play, there are not many situations where the enemy team will run the comp above as the only main damage output is the Bastion. However, the way this comp works, your Bastion is almost invincible and will never die as long as you shield rotate correctly.

The way you shield rotate with this Bastion comp is as follows; Orisa throws her first shield until it gets destroyed. Then Reinhardt stands in front until his shield is destroyed. Then Orisa should have enough time to throw another shield, if not fortify in front of the Bastion and soak some damage until she can. Upon your Orisa barrier-breaking, communicate with your D.va and have her matrix the Bastion, at this point almost every enemy bunker comp on any map would've been eradicated by now.

If not, next place down your Baptiste immortality field and your new Orisa shield. As soon as they run out, you use your Reinhardt shield again and repeat the same process mentioned above with shield rotation, you will have all of your cooldowns back and ready to use. If the enemy team is running the same comp and is doing it as effectively as you are this prolongs the fight it's time to utilize your Ana. If you see an optimal position for a nano boost, use it on the Bastion and watch the entire enemy teams health points drop.

The D.Va must NOT use matrix for anything other than the grace period where both main tanks will NOT have a shield in place, therefore exposing the Bastion and possibly leading to his death.

#2 Wrecking Ball, Tracer, Genji, Pharah, Sombra, Mercy - Quad DPS

One of the most prominent strategies right now, and I’m sure you have seen if you are an avid follower of the Overwatch League, is Quad DPS. It involves your Wrecking Ball flying in and slamming down on as many enemies as possible, lifting them all up in the air and slightly reducing their health, allowing all your DPS to converge and completely burn everyone affected down. The most troublesome thing about quad DPS is that there are so many small characters that you must track that require precise aim to hit, making it difficult to burst them all down one by one. Especially when there is going to be a multitude of high damage dealing and ability disrupting characters it’s almost impossible to survive.

Now to run quad DPS effectively into bunker comp, you should do this. Either Genji or Pharah, with a Mercy pocket, causes a slight distraction to the Bastion on the enemy team. Just enough to where you do not die, allowing your Wrecking Ball to use his grapple ability and swing past and behind the enemy team. Then Sombra, during this time, must be set up behind the enemy team. Making sure to hack either the: Bastion, Baptiste or any off-tank, and have a translocator set up on a hacked health pack in case you take too much damage and need to get out.

As a Tracer, use your blinks to get into a safe position to where you can almost just watch the Bastion and his team without taking damage. You need to have an overview of the fight as you are simply there to destroy the immortality field. With Genji and Pharah, they both have movement abilities that allow them to get to the Bastion easily. Genji has his Dash and Pharah has her concussive blast. Use these to engage the bastion ASAP as soon as your wrecking ball has gone in.

The Mercy during this time should be pocketing either the Pharah or healing the Wrecking Ball once he is in the fight through as much damage as possible.

Knowing the role and function of every character in this composition, get ready to coordinate with your Wrecking Ball who should be behind enemy lines, and instruct him to go into the enemy team and boop them up using the slam ability. As soon as he has, the Baptiste will almost immediately place down his immortality field. This is where the hiding Tracer comes in. She must only target the immortality field. It is required that your Tracer does this as otherwise nobody will die on the enemy team and you will have to re-do the strat all over again.

Bastion, if in turret form will sit firmly and start to melt the Wrecking Ball, he has about 5-8 seconds before he dies, so you must act quick. As soon as he is in and Tracer is ready for the immortality field, the Sombra must look for a hack on the preferred targets mentioned above. The Genji and Pharah along with the mercy at this time must be using their abilities to fly in and converge on the bastion himself.

Using every character's abilities, this should lead to an easy wipe of the enemy bunker comp. Then, next fight if you are still facing the bunker, you repeat the exact same strategies but this time with any ultimate's built up. Sombra's EMP is one of the strongest ultimates in the game and can make for an easy wipe, so combo with your team and do the same as before and the bunker comp will be eradicated.

#3 Wrecking ball, Pharah, Soldier, Sombra, Ashe, Mercy - Quad DPS #2

This is another Quad DPS strategy that is particularly effective against the untraditional bunker, triple DPS. This untraditional bunker comp can consist of Orisa, Torbjorn, Ashe, Sombra, Mercy, Baptiste. This composition may not seem as threatening as the traditional Bastion bunker comp, but the damage from the 3 DPS is almost if not as equivalent as a Bastion, although it's run a bit differently.

The goal of this comp is to hack your Reinhardt, while the Ashe is damage boosted by the Mercy that will melt him and the rest of your team down, making it impossible for you to get onto the point without being obliterated. This is best counter-able with the composition listed above. Your Sombra's main priority is to hack the Orisa, while hacked, your Wrecking Ball is behind enemy lines disrupting and pile driving through the enemy team if they are on high ground, knocking them down.

If they are not on the high ground his objective is to slam and boop them up, disrupting them that way allowing your Ashe to get some sneaky headshots. While this is going on your Soldier:76 is meant to be burning down the shield.

The Pharmercy should be tactically positioned either above the enemies or behind them, blasting them with rockets prioritizing any hitscans that can possibly become a threat to her. Collectively as all this damage is being done you should have removed a couple of the enemy team as a result, cleaning up the rest and proceeding to capture the objective.

#4 Orisa, Roadhog, Symmetra, Pharah, Lucio, Mercy - Mobility

This strategy isn’t commonly used in competitive but is extremely effective. One of the bunker's disadvantages is its lack of mobility. It takes a while to move or rotate when it is set up. The Bastion must come out of turret form making him susceptible to damage and also reduces the amount he can output by hundreds giving you time, to set up your own team comp. Upon leaving spawn, make sure your team has the ‘INTERACT’ setting bound, this allows you to use Symmetra’s teleporter. I'd recommend letting your team know to bound their interact key before time, as when you place your teleporter there is always one person who does not have an interact key bound.

Upon approaching the enemy team, see where they are positioned and find the most ideal place to set up your Teleporter. The whole point of Symmetra is to teleport to the point making the other team move positions. It takes them so long, that by the time they are set up again, they would have given you a tick or two of the capture point. To get a good place entire of the teleporter, using one of your Orisa’s shields to protect the teleporter from being destroyed, or one of your teammates dying and a speed boost from Lucio to get Symmetra in an ideal spot to place down the Teleporter.

As soon as it's placed everyone should run through it as fast as possible. If you do not, the entire strategy is a bust, and you will most likely lose the fight. When your entire team has teleported to the point, heal up any damage taken and get ready to set up quickly, this is what each hero must be doing.

Orisa, Hog, and Lucio must be situated with a shield underneath where the Bastion is about to set up. This gives you an advantage point as the Bastion cannot shoot you properly from where he is positioned in turret form and the Hog has a good chance of comboing his hook with the Orisa’s ‘Halt’ ability for an easy pick. Pharah must be either above or flanking the Bastion with the Mercy, the amount of damage she outputs and how fast she will build up her ultimate ability is astonishing and will lead to a quick wipe of the enemy team.

Symmetra must be next to your Orisa and should be placing her turrets on the point in positions where they cannot be destroyed unless the enemy team jumps on the point. The Bastion will be susceptible if he jumps down from high ground as the whole team can jump him; the turrets will also slow everyone down and cause huge amounts of damage to the enemy team. If all goes to plan and the enemy team is forced to the point, which will always happen or otherwise the enemy team will gift you the point for free, the overall damage and almost ‘trap’ setup will converge on the enemy bunker comp and completely eradicate it, making it for an easy wipe and first point capture.

NOTE: This strategy is primarily for first point escort maps or 2CP maps.

#5 Orisa, Roadhog, Ashe, Mei, Mercy, Zenyatta - Stop The Pirates

This comp is specifically designed to stop any form of ‘Pirate ship’ strategy (Where a Bastion is set up on a payload and protected). This comp is very simple and requires only a small amount of thinking to pull off, and here’s how!

As the Bastion begins to leave spawn and get set up on the payload with its team, your team should be setting itself up in a position to where it can survive. You don't even have to be looking at the Bastion or doing any damage to it, you just need to be ready to collapse on him.

As the Mei in this comp, you have a very important role in choosing where to hide behind the enemy team. Your job here is to use your Ice Wall ability and lift the Bastion up from where he, is making it an easy target for your hog to hook or making him vulnerable for your Ashe to shoot and melt as he will not have a shield. Ideally, you want to wall the Bastion up as he is approaching your team who is hiding from the damage and ready to converge on him. Once pulled off successfully, the enemy team will have no Bastion and the place that he would've died it would be too dangerous for Mercy to resurrect. This reduces the enemy teams overall damage by so much that it leads to an easy push and wipe from your team.

If the enemy team proceeds to run bunker just repeat the process wiping them until they switch.

Closing Words

These strategies are important to learn, as over the seasons while the name of the "Bunker Comp" might change, the whole idea and principal will remain relatively the same. If you are annoyed at this, instead of leaving the game, following these detailed guides and comps you will be able to make any enemy team switch off of bunker unless they want to just simply lose with it.

Though you might face different bunker compositions one of these will easily counter the various types there are. The thing about going against bunker is that you can also run it as well if you're trying to climb the ladder and gain SR.

You will come across people who don’t know how to counter any form of the bunker and will just keep trying to walk through hoping they get a lucky pick on a valuable Target and possibly break the bunker. If you saw that your bunker was destroyed because of an easy pick, communicate to your team and ask them to watch their positioning, not to leave themselves susceptible to being picked off, and try again if possible, on the second point.

Hopefully, this went in-depth enough for everyone to understand the importance of strategy in defeating bunker. Game-sense, teamwork, and strategy are the basics of defeating bunker comp and enjoying the rest of your overwatch experience being able to walk forward and do as you please. If you're still struggling, hop on over to our Overwatch boosting page and order some Duo Queue boosting where we'll play together and I'll show you myself. Good luck and feel free to leave a comment!