Although I'm not high plat or a pro league player, all I play is anchor. I have 55 hours on Doc, 34 hours on Mira, 15 on Rook and 12 on Echo. Literally every game I anchor, although occasionally I play some pulse or jager to roam for fun.

When you anchor, you must have a certain mindset. You are not a top fragger. I may get 2 kills in ranked because my roamers just destroy their push. You must be ready to clutch. If the roam fails and it's suddenly 1/2 versus 3 , you must be ready and calm to land as many kills as possible. Finally, you must be patient. Do not anchor if you enjoy running around the map knifing a twitch on her drone. Patience wins you the vast majority of your fights.

Pixel Peeking & Holding Angles

Holding angles is literally your job. If your roamers did their job, the enemy will be down numbers or forced into a quick, rushed push. They will not have time to out peek you if you do this right.

To hold angles, you must lean and position yourself so that as little of you is showing as possible. This is pixel peeking, where you barely see the window or door you are holding. This is an advantage to you because you can see them move while you hide behind a wall or shield, making it difficult for them to flick and land a headshot.

If you take away one thing from this guide, pixel peeking is it. That Ash main that runs and guns won't know what hit her because you held that angle for 2 minutes until she ran into it. Off of that, don't be afraid to change angles. Hold the angles hat are most important, set up cross fires with your other anchors that cover your backs so two or three entry ways are blocked off.

You will learn good peeks. For example, whenever my team picks Office 2F on Theme Park, I get my Doc with his trust deplorable shield and put it in the door way inside the adjacent bathroom facing the window into train room. I know this window well enough that this almost gaurunteed to have an enemy peek it. When you drop a shield, put it in the middle of the doorway. With one side complete against the frame and the other one open with the door way so you have a slight peek to peek the enemy with. You will learn these at each location. I've won countless games by taking out their hard breach or top dragged on a greedy peek when I'm holding that office window. These picks win games.

Who can anchor?

Almost any operator can anchor. With the exception of caveira, any op can hold sight lines. Should they? No, some ops are better suited for roaming as everyone cannot camp objective. I think operators are just inherently better anchors than others. I give these 3 types, peek potential, kill potential, and utility.

Peek potential operators are those with acogs, Doc, Rook, and Echo. These operators rival the sight and accuracy of attackers. Because of this, they can peek even smaller angles at greater distances and nail heads all day long. If you want one of these, pick Doc or Rook to start. Their MP5 is the best gun to anchor with in my opinion because the acog and easy recoil control allows you to head shot enemies from anywhere on objective.

The other type is kill potential. These are good anchors not because of their potential to hold super small gaps at long ranges, they can just shred through whoever comes by. Mira is my favorite by far. I also consider bandit (who can roam, but can also anchor) to be effective as his MP7 does well. Although these operators can roam (Mira can anchor off site to slow attacks), they can sit in objective or by a black mirror and take out enemies who try to come in. Mira's vector has a high rate of fire allowing even 3 armor atatckers to be torn down in one second. Combined with well placed Mira's (you'll learn the spots that fit your style through time), she can take down enemies not only on objective, but in adjacent rooms with a black mirror by an unreinforced wall.

The last type is utitlity. This is smoke. Tachanka also fits but I recommend you never use him as 99% of the time you'll just die and be useless. Smoke MUST stay on objective because his gadget is purely used to stop last minute pushes. If you play smoke and die before the last 30 seconds, you have wasted yourself and possibly the game.

Types of peeking

I like to peek in 2 ways, cover peeks and vault peeks.

A cover peek is when you simply sit behind a wall or a shield and wait for an enemy to rush by and get headshot and taken out. Be aware of possible flanks from above, below, and behind. Fuze, Sledge, and Buck must be constantly in your mind as then can open up a large portion of the floor easily and very fast (Fuze can kill anchor in a corner wit ease.

When you place a deplorable shield, do not sit in a corner. Operators with frags can easily frag you (unless jäger has you covered) along with fuze and ops prone to play vertically (use floors or ceilings to get angles of defenders).

The other type of peek is a vault peek. Besides frost traps, and good anchor can punish a vault over a window or shield. If I do not have a good spot to anchor with a shield, I place it on a high traffic doorway. Your roamers might flame you, but honestly forget them as they can use another door. This shield is used for one thing, vaulting. When an enemy vaults, they are in constant motion and cannot stop or change velocity. They are predictable and easy to kill. This is super effective at stopping rushers or those who wait until the last minute to push objective. Ash, Zofia, and frags counter this by blowing the shield up. This strategy goes very well with frost because they either kill you and get frost trapped, you kill them, or they get trapped and then you kill them. They cannot shoot the trap and you before they die, keep this in mind.

Finally, be proud of your job. Don't get upset when your roamers die, your other anchor peeks too far and dies, and you lose a 1v5 situation. Sometimes your team will fail you and occasionally you can pull it off and brag about it. My best clutches have been with doc due to his study's ability with his stim.

Don't get upset that you are the bottom in kills. If your roamers do they're job excellently you won't need to see an single enemy. The sad fact is that they will fail and you must be there to cover for them. That's what you are, the bastion that stops the rush. You're 3 armor for a reason, you take more hits and can fish high damage at long range or short time.

Just remember, don't die, rotate if you get droned out. Dying early hits you at a severe disadvantage as roamers may have to flank back and lose their roam game.

TLDR: Pixel peek, be patient. Patience will win you games.