Hi all, as most of us know that it is very hard working your way out of the lowest of the low rank tiers. Dealing with trolls, the person who just picks who they want to pick, not what the comp needs, we can go on and on right?
We all feel the increasing frustration and it just seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Basically no hope and you want to just quit the game because it just seems like your being punished severely even if you are playing well individually.
I did some testing for a while now and wanted to give some feedback to hopefully give others in the same situation some hope and encouragement.
DISCLAIMER: I am still Bronze on my main account / Gold on my alt account, but found ways through changing things that drastically improved my win rates.
On my main account i had since release, I had no clue that ranked play took into account your unranked / QM mmr’s. I decided to not rank play till i had most of the toons to get to know them well and find out how they counter and be countered. Well this messed up my placement as we all know and got put into Bronze because I had lost tons of matches as well as winning to get to know the toons.
I’ve been struggling for almost a year now to get out of bronze. Most who get placed there will probably never get out due to a few reasons.
- mechanical skill
- map awareness
- map knowledge ( yes that is still a very real thing at these lvls. )
- macro knowledge
Like most i got tired of just not seeing the results even tho I myself felt like I was a better player that was caged up and not given a fair way out, so i did what most do and started and alt account to prove to myself and others I really was better. After placements, I was Plat 4. i screamed SEEEE I WAS RIGHT BLIZZ!!! . Even tho it felt great to achieve Plat, I also felt the weightiness of having to unlock all the toons again, get all the skins … basically everything that was on my main account. it became to much to fast. So I quit playing my alt account very discouraged.
Well this last couple months I have changed a lot of what I do that had dramatically had positive impact on my ranked games and I wanted to share them with you.
First thing. I had to stop doing the RIGHT THING. At this level of play most dont know about when to take camps at the right time. they are off on a killing spree somewhere and they need you to make it happen so the obj that is about to spawn is a freebie. I know this sounds dumb, but leave the camp and just stay with them, because great you did the right thing, you got the camp , but now your team wiped without you there and obj is gone , one or two keeps are gone… enemy team has a 2lvl lead on your team. ext.
Positioning- If your a tank, restrain yourself from over extending. If you do you are putting your healer in a bad position as well just to get you healed. You will die, healer could die and you just gave the other team lots of XP for free. If your ranged find spots to engage that dont put yourself in range of trouble. Getting a bit to close is easy to do when the other team is pushing in and learning to side step is key and always moving to a safer distance. Healers dont follow your tank if he goes balls deep into their group, it will just kill you as well. Bruisers, dont just engage. Let the tank engage and when they use their CC, now engage and burn the team down.
Another key thing is look at your mini map every couple of seconds if your not already. Knowing where the enemy team is is crucial if your a solo laner. When its safe to push in the lane and when to get out of dodge will keep you alive and your team will have you at objective time. If your not a tank dont face check bushes or bosses… let your tank do this.
A big mistake is the misconception at bronze / silver is just kill the healer. Well i changed that and started calling out who is closest and pinged them… guess what their healer cant heal through that amount of damage. If you can focus anyone your team will win the fight. If you have divers and can kill the healer great, but that is not true for most of the team fights in general… always focus together on one person first.
In Draft, I used to pick the roll - BRUISER because its my best. Then what would happen is no one would select a tank, so we would have me a bruiser be the tank, and now I cant solo lane/ camps ext. complete waste. What I have found to work incredibly well that changed from many losses in a row to many more wins is tell the grp "hey bruiser is my best, we need a main tank. " If that doesnt work I pick last and what our comp really needs at that moment, whether tank, healer, auto attacker, whatever. This one thing alone has dramatically increased my win rate. Dont be stubborn and just stick to your best toon, that doesnt work, trust me!
I know you have heard this way to much and wanted to address it.
JUST GET BETTER !!!
Ok fist, there is truth in this, but most have no clue what it means or how to achieve it , so most just shrug it off like I did for 3 yrs.
Truth is , is if you can apply some of the things I learned above, you will and can be better and not just saying that…
You will see better results…
It took a lot of inner reflection and admitting to myself if I dont change how I do things I will never see the results change. I always felt like i was a decent player and that belief trapped me for ages and ages. Letting go of ego and learn to adapt some new things fundamentally will take you huge strides to where you want to be in ranked.
This wasnt easy… Trust me it took me 3 yrs to change…
Hope this can help other who are frustrated in Bronz/Silver