Couldn’t climb higher than gold 4 in previous season. This season however, made it to plat 3 and still at 59% win rate and climbing. Win rate dropped by like 1% going from gold 5 to plat 3, so I’m sure I’ll make it into mid diamond at the least, and probably higher.
Here is some info on how the matchmaking/ranking system works and what worked for me personally. Also some advice on how to work with/around the enormous flaws of the ranking/matchmaking system.
Quick backstory - I probably don’t belong in GM ranks, but definitely
low/mid diamond (diamond 4-3) at the least, based on the performance of other players I play with/against. Played my placement matches this season. Had very good games, successfully carried 2/3 games. 1 loss with an uncarriable team and 2 wins. Long story short, got placed in like bronze 2 (which again proves the ranking system to be incredibly flawed).
Now, the crucial part of success for me in climbing ranks - I made it all about myself.
- All of the ‘play a support/tank role’ advice you’re getting = pure trash, as it only works in a premade of 5 where you are 100% sure you won’t have noobs on the team.
Always take Valeera instead. She worked wonders for me. Never played her before this season. She’s off meta, yet a very strong duelist and can 1v1 the majority of heroes (including tanks, should such a situation present itself) which are often picked in ranked draft. Also she’s decent at camps and all around a great hero as her wide array of talents allow her to adapt to majority of team comps. In short, if you want to climb - carry yourself. Others won’t/can’t do it for you either cuz they’re bad or just not good enough to win vs the enemy.
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In Draft, always prepick Valeera. Never pick her first however, as enemy team will tend to counter her with a very beefy team or 2 healers. Wait to pick 4th or last. As she’s played extremely rarely (I’ve only seen like 2 other Valeeras in ranked this season) this gives 2 advantages - a) your team constantly has gank threat and great roam. Enemies never know where you’ll pop up b) your team has a stun+blind/silence/armor reduction, all of which can be game changers if used correctly.
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Always go for Valeera. As you should be doing all of the carrying, if you are handing out bans, make sure to ban characters that counter Valeera easily, for example Lunara as she’s very hard to lock down, has high damage, a ward that reveals stealth and will over all smash you if she’s half decent. Also a good greymane can be a pain in the butt, johanna and so on. So make sure you’re giving YOURSELF maximum advantage in the game.
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When roaming from lane to lane, don’t forget to soak the XP while you’re on the lane. Even if your gank was not successful, you will at least soak some valuable XP, before heading off to the next lane/camp/gank or even attempting to gank the same lane again if the enemy player thinks you have left and overextends (this happens more often than you’d think)
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Camps. DO NOT do camps randomly. Camps should almost universally be done just before an objective starts. The exception is if you have huge lane pressure and need to releave some of that pressure from your lanes OR if you can manage to steal/take an enemy camp.
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Assume all of your team mates are bad. As with anybody, who has a high win rate, which deviates too far from the enforced 50/50 system, the majority of your teammates (for me it was about 75%-80ish%) will tend to have a negative win rate, which means that they are losing ranks and don’t belong at the current tier. In other words, be prepared to be teamed up with teammates, the majority of whom are dropping ranks (not climbing). You won’t believe the amount of times I asked myself “why is this guy with a negative win rate of 40%, 2 ranks above me? How did he even end up in gold 1 if his win rate dictates he should be in the depths of bronze?”. Answer is simply - flawed ranking system.
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STAY ON VALEERA. You will constantly be asked to repick/not take valeera etc. Don’t listen to this advice (as most people on your team are negative win rate, you can understand why you shouldn’t take their advice). Most people play her incorrectly and/or do not see her in ranked, so they assume that everyone else is bad with this hero/the hero is weak. While she is not meta, as mentioned above, she actually has a very high skill ceiling and is a very strong hero. I currently have a 62% win rate on Valeera in plat 3 and I’ve got close to 300 ranked games with her this season. So, she’s obviously not that bad of a hero.
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After finishing a ranked game, DO NOT start another game immediately. Why? Well, if you start a game immediately, you will most likely be paired up with the worst players from the game you just played, as you will tend to have a very high win rate (this was the case for me, at least). This is done by the matchmaking system intentionally, to "even out’ the playing field. Pair somebody good with somebody bad and boom - you get an average score. This is the main role of the matchmaking system - an even average team score. However the way of achieving this is fundamentally flawed. As this is a team game, 5 average players will almost universally outplay a team of 1 -2 decent players and 3-4 baddies.
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Don’t focus on stats. Focus on being USEFUL. Soak lanes, gank, do camps, be annoying to the enemy team. Switch up your approach to teamfights. Try to down the healer when possible. After awhile though, enemies will start to expect you in ther backline. When this happens switch it up. Pop up on their tank/bruiser/assasin for an unexpected kill. Keep the enemy team wondering where you will attack from.
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Always go Cloak of shadows. This ult has a low cooldown, provides crazy survivability and allows you to avoid/bait important stuns/cc from enemies, while also providing damage reduction when dealing with strong mages.
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Bronze, Silve and Gold 5-2 are all virtually the same. I noticed virtually no difference in the skills of players while going from bronze to Gold 2. In fact, up until like plat 4, a few of the best teams I had were in low low silver (Silver 5-4ish). At Gold 2 I remember that I had started to notice that atleast enemy teams were getting better at some aspects, for example they didn’t randomly do camps just because, but started timing them. Nothing super major, but still noticeable.
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IF you do decide to play healer for a particular game, take morales/lili. At low ranks, and even in platinum where I’m at right now, many people do not know how to deal with these 2 healers. Morales does not have mana, and provides great damage reduction via armor and a reliable constant heal. This means that you’ll mange to outheal the enemy healer most fights, and enemy will generally not be coordinated enough to take you out successfully without wiping. As for Lili, she provides an annoying blind and also has good consistent healing. Also her passive makes her hard to lock down, which is why most enemies will tend to struggle with taking her out. Generally you should be sticking to valeera almost 100% of the time, though. However, if you played with a good zul jin/Valla/Varian for example, and they end up on your team next game, you could opt out to take morales and just pocket heal them to a great win. In such cases however, make sure to focus heal on this player and always prioritize them over another players who is worse. In other words, be very logical in such games. If somebody is bad - heal them last as they will be the least useful.
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Don’t spend too much time in clusterf#ck fights if you are not able to kill someone. This is a waste of time and XP. Go to another lane a soak/push, or take a camp if necessary.
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AVOID RANKED ON WEEKENDS. NEVER go ranked on weekends. On Friday, after school/work is over, kids and the ‘2 games per week’ players will log into the game, and you’ll get the worst of the worst, given that your win rate is currently high. You’ll de-rank faster than you can close the game. Avoid playing Friday from mid day to Monday if you don’t want to drop 2 ranks in within several games.
Anyways, this is what seems to have worked the best for me so far and what has helped me personally overcome some of the disadvantages of a flawed matchmaking system. Will update if I can think of anything else that has worked succesfully for me and my approach to climbing
