Had a nice premade I’d play with; we’d have several people cycle in and out. Some were good, some were okay but we always did well until one day where the group accidentally invited a not so great player.
After a few losses, I get tired of it and go solo. What I failed to account for was during this period all of the heroes were free for all modes. This in turn lead to a double whammy of 1) stacked teams being a bigger thing in Diamond and 2) People experimenting with heroes they didn’t know in ranked instead of doing it in QM, ARAM or vs AI.
After a few days of this; I became desperate, trying desperately to get back my lost MMR by playing game after game after game - only making things worse till I bottom’d out in Bronze 5. At that point I was so demoralized I literally uninstalled the game and took a 4 months break, only coming back after the ‘all heroes are free for all modes’ Covid event ended and now I’m finally starting to climb out of Bronze hell ever so slowly.
Tl;DR I never, ever, ever want to see another ‘all heroes are free’ event if those heroes are free in Ranked. It’s awesome if they’re free for QM and vs AI…but ranked play shouldn’t be for experimenting with heroes you don’t own which that event encouraged.
It was terrible and I am still moderately demoralized that it’s going to take me a good year to climb out of Bronze hell due to time constraints despite my above average performance and getting consistent wins.
The argument made is flawed. If people are picking heroes that are free and that they play poorly in ranked then chances are it applies to both your team and more so the enemy team. The enemy team has 5 players so that is an additional chance for them to have a lower skilled player in it than your team, since you have full control over your own skill and what you pick.
The fact you kept falling to Bronze 5 generally points towards you being over reliant on allies playing in a specific way that does not normally happen in random matches. For example your team was built around 1 or more combos to win decisive fights, or relied on overall strong macro for a level advantage. Now that you are solo you no longer can rely on those happening, especially once you started to fall to lower ranks where players generally play poorly.
Especially at lower ranks you want “hyper carry” heroes which can lane clear, sustain themselves and deal good damage/self combo. If anyone helps it is a bonus, but you must rely only on yourself. Once you get back up to higher ranks you can start to rely on other players more, but even then be cautions.
Good examples of hyper carry would be Hogger or Imperius. Both have AoE options, deal good damage, can self heal and are tough. Good examples of heroes you want to avoid are Morales or Lucio. These heroes have among the lowest damage of all heroes, have limited CC options, cannot lane efficiently and rely on allies to get value.
Playing the game with friends lets you play the game with skill and strategy. Playing the game solo is just a clownfiest of chance where nothing ever makes any strategic or tactical sense. It has nothing to do with “skill” when played solo except in those rare games where you manage to the matched with teammates that know what they are doing and why. Every other game is just a coin toss.
It’s not flawed at all; when every hero was free in ranked; people started using that mode to test out heroes. If you solo queue you’re less likely to have a stacked team which at least in Diamond was less likely to try a new hero out in ranked since they’re working together as a stack.
I had an 80% WR Deathwing in Diamond and would frequently top in stats at the time and I find it very unlikely that all of a sudden I started sucking so badly that my DW dropped down to a 44% WR.
In Bronze hell; I’m having the best results by playing Deckard. A healer main is rare in Bronze so I get to fill a needed role while also providing some crazy zoning that often times completely enables my team to dominate because I pre-cast everything based on where I think the enemy will be in 5-10 seconds.
And currently; I’m winning the majority of my games now that the event is done. Perhaps you’re right but I find it much more likely that making all heroes F2P in ranked was the catalyst for this nonsense to happen. Players rarely drop that many leagues based entirely on their performance; like…to go from slightly above middle of the road to bottom of the barrel is a statistical anomaly. That’s how unlikely my case is and it was likely spurred by a poorly thought through event.
I don’t entirely agree with this - but you do have a point nonetheless.
I’ve had a few great games with randoms - but for me at least; Deckard is one of the only heroes I can reliably count on to bring value to a random team in Ranked.
You do not instantly fall from Diamond to Bronze. You go through Platinum, Gold and then Silver to get there. By the time you get to those ranks pre-made teams start to matter less since if they were taking advantage of team play they would likely be a higher rank. You should have stopped losing streaks somewhere around Gold.
Maybe it was due to the time of year? The event coincided with the summer holidays I think, so it is possible a lot of new or less active players were playing again. Large changes in the population can mess up the rankings, especially if a returning player who is Diamond skilled is initially placed in a lower rank for the season or that last time the person played the skill floor requirement for high ranks was lower.
Yeh I guess Deckard Cain would work. He is a pretty powerful mage as well as a healer.
But through all those ranks; at the time every hero was still free - and the lower down in rank you went the more people would derp around in ranked with heroes they didn’t own.
I think you might have some merit with the what time of year was it question. I believe it was summer as well - but I also think the event had a huge impact on things as well. Heroes really, really shouldn’t be free in Ranked because that barrier of entry acts as a safeguard to prevent people from ruining games with heroes they don’t know in a ranked format. If you remove that safeguard things are likely to get pretty screwy. I mean I am literally a statistical anomaly; what I went through isn’t supposed to happen unless you do it purposely.
Deckard is the only way I can put up with people in Bronze; not that all of them are bad, I’ve seen some people who will climb out pretty fast if they have the time to…but I dunno; it’s too dicey to play as a hyper carry and carry the team. one mistake you you went from carrying to game to throwing the game…I don’t like those odds…but Deckard? You can make some mistakes and be fine.
I came back because I was installing Skyrim mods and needed something to do while the installation completed. Then for one reason or another I decided I wanted to play Deckard…turns out I’m pretty good with him and kept playing…now…seems I’m back?
Climbing out of Bronze is going to take a long, long time. If I had to guess; it’ll take around 100 games. Not sure I’ll hang in there for 100 games…but I’ll try!
I don’t want free heroes in SL either (that includes free rotation) but it isn’t going to be the cause of someone falling from dia to literal bronze 5…
The more likely cause was deteriation of skill or tilt, but I would place money on tilt.
I know I have deteriorated earlier (back in 2018) right back to silver despite hitting plat earlier because I hadn’t played enough matches in a long while. I just didn’t cut it anymore vs plat opponents.
If it was tilt or deteriorating; my performance per game would have seen a noticeable dip in my stats…but frequently; as DW since at the time DW was my main; I was top hero damage with 1 death or lower.
If I’m not dying (or barely dying) and I’m dealing large amounts of damage while my allies are all dying 5+ times per game…dunno man…pretty sure I’m not the weakest link.
I watch my performance because I like to improve my skills; I’ll even watch my replays to see if there were areas where I screwed up so I don’t make the same mistake later on.
This situation was a statistical anomaly that happened in all likelihood because of a poorly planned event the devs probably thought was a good idea - but much like most of their non-hero ideas; it backfired, caused problems and now here I am; a small sized shark in a bathtub; playing with tuna - and my stats/WR support that claim, lol.
The devs have always had this problem. Anomalies, the reporting system, all heroes being free in ranked…these were horrible implementations that were half baked. Good ideas but sloppy implementation that fails to account for the most predictable variable; the human variable.
I’ve had 10+ loss streaks with top stats and low deaths… I mean, it happens to people. Killing the enemy core is ultimately the only stat that matters.
But if you drop down 5 full leagues, it’s impossible to just blame free rotation heroes. Tons of people played during that time, and tons of people also ranked up during that time.
big contribution to your winrate earlier was most likely due to team synergy. The ability to communicate with your team without being toxic and playing in a cohesive way is the biggest edge in this game. The game is a COMPLETE different game playing solo.
It’s a Casino of who has more of the AFK/Trolls/Bads, along with team comp(QM) that will determine 90% of your matches.
is this QM or ranked? sorry if you have stated earlier. I had a theory when i mentioned in other threads, you get better matches when you have a fresh account with decent players and as you play more and more, the more trolls/afks/bad end up on your team.
Could just be in my head though because eventhough it feels like ive been losing 90% of my games lately, it seems I have won more than half.
When you have the best stats; then you’re no longer the lowest common denominator. In my case; when I’m dying 0-1 times a game, maybe 2 compared to people dying 5-15 times a game and you tell your allies to play safe…yet they keep making the same bad mistakes over and over…yeah, no. That’s on them. I am pretty objective about my performance which makes sense since before HotS I was a sc2 player in the top 20th percentile of people; I’m self aware when it comes to mistakes and how to train myself to be better.
Sure lots of people ranked up, lots of people ranked down too. I was just unlucky in the sense that my allies on average were so bad that I’d prefer bots on my team - and my stats support that. I went from an 80% WR (and that’s lowballing, pretty sure it was high 80s) to a 44% WR without performing worse than normal. I attribute that to every hero being on free rotation and what that meant to ranked play because it’s logical. When my performance doesn’t suffer and yet my allies keep doing worse and worse things, to the point of feeding…something that has never happened in all my years of playing this game (since 2016 I believe?) except that period of time…I’m going to go with the logical deduction that the issue was people screwing around with free rotation heroes in ranked.
Even in Bronze 5; right now; I’m seeing significantly better play than during those few ‘all heroes are free’ months.
I am simply a statistical anomaly brought about by a mix of terrible luck, my choice in main (DW isn’t always a good pick) and an event which was particularly egregious to the health of ranked play.
Ranked; no worries, there’s no such thing as a dumb question!
It really is like that sometimes; I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel here and maaaan; some of these people…lol. If it’s not bad plays it’s chat turned off. If it’s not chat turned off it’s someone who keeps dying blaming everyone else. If it’s not someone blaming everyone for their misplays it’s someone being mean to the person who made the mistakes. There’s always something derpy happening, lol.
Except for when I’m Deckard because there’s no problem in Bronze 5 that Deckard can’t fix!
There are always outside factors, but if you felt and felt and felt, it was on you.
You admit you relied heavily on 4-5stacks, losing (or never having) what takes to actually carry.
You also indicate you get tilted and frustrated, which doesn’t help.
Enemy 5stacks happen, but rare. Allies picking free Heroes in ranked happens, but at least uncommon.
Now that you’re more focused, and maybe getting back(?) the knowledge of solocarrying, you climb… from bronze, which is nice, good for you, but not the biggest achievement (by that I mean it is not an indication of skill, you’re not Bronze but you maybe aren’t Diamond either).
You prob not a bad DW, but not a great one either. Not knowing how to gain enough value, or when not to lock him when you can’t rely on your allies.
If “all Heroes are free” is a catalyst for falling in ranks, it would be more common. A ton of ppl would fall deep down. But they didn’t, some probably due to stacks, but those are statistically proven to be rare. So the fact they didn’t fall is probably due to them being able to hold their own (or even carry).