Hi, I am average player and only play casually. I recently play again after 3 years stop playing. I warm myself up by playing vs A.I for 2 weeks(while doing streak of event quests). Then I begin playing Quick Matches, and I kinda enjoy it even if I dont get a lot of wins from it.
I have enough heroes to participate in Ranked games, though heroes that I can play is very limited to: D.Va, Kerrigan, Whitemane, Tyrande, Sylvanas, Valla, Lunara and Johanna. Some ppl told me to play ranked to get more “real” play and to avoid random+clueless players because QMs is not really random with weird comps.
So in your opinion, can I play Ranked casually or I should just keep playing Quick Matches while practicing for other heroes ?
Play ranked if you want to get better. You will learn a lot about other heroes/comps, soaking, engaging/disengaging. I only play QM if I wanna practice a new hero. Only play ranked with heroes that you feel comfortable.
Depends on you. If you don’t care and have fun with both mods, play ranked if you want. If you want real competetiv play with succes than you have to change things drastically. Learn the meta , play heroes that are considered good, pick a role ( which I advise heavily), learn to constantly look at map, try to get better every game… So all depends on your mindset in the end. With the same mindset as in QM you wont be very succesful, which could lead to much frustration in the end because of the inability to climb. When you gonna climb through ranks, not only your skill will improve but the one of your teammates, making the games more fun tho but it all depends on you getting better first.
like i said i highly recommend to pick a role first(in my opinion tank is the best way to go, thats how i got from gold to master in just two seasons) . This way you would need only 3 to 4 heroes at max which are considerd good and that you can play. For example my top picks for tanks are: Johanna(absolutely love her), Malganis, ETC, Mura. If im correct than this ads up to only 18k gold. So you dont have necessary to farm for gold. Before going into ranked you can set up a goal, like mastering 4 heroes of the same role by playing them to lvl 15. If you already have johanna for example, just playing her to lvl 15 would earn you enough gold to buy another top tank(maybe not the one that costs 10k but still). You can do this until you have a team of 3/4 heroes you are confident playing with. Two things are important in ranked, know your heroe and know your role.
All heroes are balanced ± well as long as you stay off the very niche ones (unless you understand when they can actually work).
Play heroes that you feel confident and won’t feel helpless on and that’s all you need (then you can shrug off any blame that comes at you; while if you actually underperform heavily, then it may be harder to take in the blame, when you know it’s justified).
As for your heroes:
Don’t play dva in ranked, even if you’re good on her. Nobody will like that pick and however you perform, you’ll be blamed for every loss (she’s not bad, but niche and nobody understands how she works = “bad”). Other examples of such “bad rep” heroes: probius, nova, chogall.
Kerrigan and tyrande are hard heroes with some really hard counters, so you may have some really tough losses on those.
Sylvanas and valla are very strong assassins you could fit in pretty much every draft, but they also die easily, so somewhat on the hard side. Lunara, if you learn the different builds, you could easily just one-trick her and not ever play anything else until at least high diamond. And for Johanna - you can never go wrong with her, a tank that fits every draft and counters half the other tanks. Whitemane is a niche healer (and hard, so if you’re not going to main healers, maybe just get something easier to start from), but nobody will complain about you playing her. You may want to add a more universal easy healer (e.g., lili or rehgar) if you’re going to be the good guy who fills the healer when nobody wants to (I wouldn’t). Maybe add a strong melee solo laner to your roster too, so that you can fill that to not make the draft too awkward (e.g., sonya, thrall or ragnaros).
Anyway, you don’t need any special prerequisites to play ranked. After 20-50 games you’ll get to a rank that’s up to your current level where you can win half of your games with how you currently play. You’ll raise that rank as you get better.
I mean unranked is gonna be the same really. I would play unranked to just get used to the team comps and drafting and such but if you are gonna play ranked and wanna try to do good. I highly suggest making a party of at least 3 players.
Honestly quickmatch is pretty cancerous. Play unranked or ranked and the more consistent teamcomps will dramatically improve the game. Don’t be afraid to play ranked though, makes quests a breeze as teammates picks count for them. You’ll also end up in whatever ranks appropriate for your skill so after a few games you should be facing appropriate players. I thoroughly prefer my ranked matches to anything quick match can slam together
Ranked is fun but dont go into it with any thoughts on where you belong. You’ll probably end up in silver/gold. If you’re actually a gold player and in silver itll take a while to get there so unless youre willing to grind just try to win the games you can.
Go in, get camp/xp when you can, try to stay with your team when you’re even or ahead on xp and leave to soak if you’re behind a talent tier.
Stay in QM there is no diff between the two. Your games will not be more fair nor balance. People wont fill nor do they care more about how the game ends.
You think this wouldn’t be true but its all the same