In this guide, I will go in-depth and explain the little things you should know about Dorado, including what points you should hold/attack, what routes attackers can take, and what routes you need to be aware off when you are defending against flankers.

The Market (Square)

The Market Square, Market or whatever you want to call it is the first real objective of Dorado. This point is important and can really dictate the flow of the game around the first checkpoint. If you control this area, you generally have the positional advantage and can easily defend the area or really drive the defending team into a corner and quickly wipe them. It is also one of the more complex sections of Dorado, so bear with me as I go through it in detail.

When defending, you want to stand near the edge of the market that is close to the bridge where the payload pushes through. This leaves enough room to back up and potentially escape an enemy’s offensive while also being rather aggressive and giving the enemy less room to work with. Your backline (consisting of some ranged DPS hero [McCree, Soldier] and your supports [Zenyatta, Ana, Mercy]) will be positioned further back to dish out as much damage as possible while receiving the least amount of threat from any frontline damage the enemy might have, while your Tanks (Reinhardt, Zarya, Roadhog) will stay on the very front edge of the market and adjust their position according to the enemy. For example, if the enemy moves in aggressively, you can give them a few meters as a tank in order for you not to die.

Good Heroes to have in this scenario on Defense are Junkrat (to just spam the entrance to the market and dish out as much damage as possible), McCree or Soldier for some long-range DPS, Zenyatta as a DPS/Support, Ana or Mercy as an additional support and a Reinhardt and either a Zarya or Roadhog for the frontline tanks. For the attacking side not much changes here, except instead of a Junkrat you might want to pick up a Flanker (Genji or Reaper) and instead of the Reinhardt or Zarya, you can always pick up a Winston.

The main objective of the attacking side is gaining control of the market. There are multiple ways to do it.

You pretty much have 2 options with an additional option for flankers or heroes that can easily get over walls (Genji, Reaper, D.Va, Winston, Pharah) or you can also use a Mei to get over the wall on the right side (although a Mei is not necessarily something I would recommend to pick).

I will go over the most straightforward option first: Straight ahead. This option pretty much means just rush in through the chokepoint and try to gain control over the market square. It is the simplest but at the same time hardest tactic to execute correctly or with much success. It basically requires your whole team to do their best, your DPS Heroes to get kills, your Tank heroes to do their best to shield your DPS and Support players or deal additional damage and act as a solid frontline, and of course your supports have to not die and continue to keep everyone alive. There is not much more to it, however it could mean that you have to try this tactic multiple times until it works or wait until you have a definite advantage where you either outnumber the enemy or you have more ultimates up than they do.

However, you also have your second option: Go to the right, up the stairs and continue from there.

This route is a good one for several reasons:
1. You are coming from a slightly elevated position, giving you a slight advantage. It is nothing major but has its advantages for sure
2. You are avoiding a big and long chokepoint and have almost direct access to the Market. The chokepoint here is slightly bigger and also a little bit shorter and you pretty much have free space once you go down the stairs and have the decision to go either right or left.

Once you decide to push in, your main objective is to gain control over the majority of the market and force your enemies into a corner. From there, they have very little room to escape and they are easy prey. If you have done that there is nothing between you and the first checkpoint, which leads us to the 2nd topic I want to talk about.

The High ground

High ground is a really important factor in most FPS games and is especially important in Overwatch. Controlling the high ground area almost always gives you an advantage and it gives you one important thing: The decision of when to engage. And this is what we will use on the defending side on the 2nd and 3rd checkpoints.

On Dorado, high ground is what decides the game. It gives you a certain cover, shielding you from some shoots that the enemy takes at you. It also leaves almost no cover for the enemy, since you can look over most walls and little covers that you would normally not be able to if you were just standing on the ground. After the first checkpoint, everything else revolves around High Ground and the control of it. If your team controls it: good. If your team doesn’t control it: bad, or at the very least worse than how it would be if you would control it.

Now is the time you dictate the game flow, by deciding when to engage and when to fight. There are no real in-depth strategies on how to control high ground, all you need to know is that high ground is your friend. Generally, try to be aware that you can use high mobility heroes to contest high ground areas (if you are attacking) and be aware that the enemy can use those to contest the high ground control. Popular heroes to contest said high ground are usually Genji, Winston, D.Va, Reaper and Pharah. Pretty much all heroes that have an easy time getting some altitude relatively quickly.

In the illustrations above, you can see what areas you generally need to hold and what flanking routes you can take to contest the enemy team on the high ground if you are attacking.

In the end, the most important part of Dorado is the first area, it is also the area most teams need improvement on. Once you take the first checkpoint, the most important thing is to take the momentum with you and try to stagger the enemy over and over again.

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