Silver 5 to Master

General Discussion
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Recently dinged 100 on Valeera and decided to play competitive for the first time after my 3 games I placed Silver 5, 216 games later - 150 wins 66 loses, Im at masters.

If anyone was curious on the stats of my most played 4 heroes. Valeera 114 games with 76.3% winrate, Johanna 11 games at 63.6%, Jaina 10 games 80%, and thrall 9 games at 66.7%.

Had a lot of fun playing with people along the way.

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Nice and congratulations! Well done.

I’d really love to see your stats as a screenshot, showing your winrate with Valeera in the season you got Master’s (which I would presume would be the current season)

And while you’re at it; typical build, strategies, advised draft for the party? What allowed you to excel with Valeera, compared to the average valeera that doesn’t understand her as much as you do?

There are certain people who are under the impression that “Valeera simply doesn’t work at all on any level” and your story could really invigorate them and motivate them regarding Valeera.

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Sorry for the late reply, yeah it was this season. I love going the ambush build which is sub,relentless,mut,cloak or smoke, death, assassinate, elusive.

This build works well for single target burst dmg so mostly for finishing kills or killing people solo because of that I’ll usually be soloing or roaming.

Good team comps are usually those that pump out a lot of dmg so Valeera can finish or can lockdown/slow so I can hit my qs easier.

My best advice for Valeera players is hitting your q if you miss that then there goes all your dmg, knowing when to engage is also very important, can I get a kill and get out without dying?, and finally the only thing Valeera has to go back to base for is hp so try and stay out and soak as much as possible if you get a level lead deleting heroes becomes easier.
https://imgur.com/gallery/7HVXUp7
Heres 3 games kinda to demonstrate
Solo - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mozs9Un8AAouGItZVccXF_YLR8YcQWAF/view?usp=sharing
Finishing Kills - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1anpluHhUmX8uYMn-32j1gsfOLtFKmBkc/view?usp=sharing
Roaming - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_4sExzSgEEFE55BvolHTSC2jgNO_xiur/view?usp=sharing

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These win rates should not come as a surprise seeing how you clearly were well below your MMR at season start, hence why you are now Masters. You will find them falling towards 50% if you keep playing at masters.

This is why win rates are not something to boast about. Your win rates for a season factor in all your games played even at lower ranks you were promoted out of. A 50% win rate at Masters is a lot more impressive than a 90% win rate at Silver.

Valeera is one of those heroes which you can hate to fight or hate to be. In CC bruiser heavy comps it is very hard for her to be impactful as someone like Kael or Diablo will have you incapacitated the instant you lose unstoppable. Throw in a dozy healer and her lack of health sustain can really make your blood boil. On the other hand if you have well spread out low CC squishy heroes it becomes a total slaughter for her as she has one of the highest burst damage in the game, and between silence, stun or just pure damage there is little lone heroes can do.

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You’re right, going through Silver was extremely easy, Gold I lost a few games, me and some guys I met in gold 1 went through plat together, my biggest win streak though was diamond 4 to diamond 1. Maybe just got lucky with the time I was playing.

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A few questions:

  1. How do people not tilt at your valeera pick?
  2. How did you not get target banned?
  3. Did you first pick or last pick? If first pick, how do you not get countered? If last pick, chances are you have to pick a support or tank since no one did. How do you avoid that?
  4. How do you play valeera on bad maps for valeera since it seems like you’re one-tricking valeera?

Thanks!

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  1. Some people said stuff like Valeera might not of been the best choice but most waited till they saw how I played before making any comments.
  2. I did get target banned after all only ~50% of games were played with her, I imagine if I stuck in one league they would of banned her a lot more.
  3. First picked in lower leagues, 2nd pick in higher leagues. Not a lot of people know how to counter Valeera especially when I play her like a solo laner. Never really last picked but I don’t mind tanking 1 in 10 games.
  4. Only map I had trouble on was Tomb of the Spider Queen I just played guldan or something, playing Val on tomb is not worth the effort for me.

Some Counters/Annoyances:
Reveal doesn’t really hard counter Valeera its more of an annoyance, best counter for her is staying together as a team and playing safe, and high hp heroes some of the worst heroes to face as Valeera are Blaze, Arthas, Stiches. Also really annoying are heroes that can safely poke and knock her out of stealth or deal dmg without getting hurt.

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Honestly this is the best way to play instead of going full tilt and start shouting in draft.

I have been spamming Lucio all the way from my starting point of Silver 3 to Gold 5 with 10/11 wins (the only loss was literally two players throwing the game intentionally), I had few odd picks to choose with Lucio but nonetheless anyone who picked those hereos picked as a sort of “a comfortable hero they know how to play” so it ended up just fine for everyone.

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Sami, I would like you to make your “silver to master” thread (I’m positive you will be master), I would like to follow your journey.

My deceased partners account - bronze 3 to Gold 2 as Sonya and Stukov isn’t quite as exciting!

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Seconded. I would love to see the Memes that Sami felt like each game necessitated! Or maybe I’m getting Sami to mixed up with DrLogan? I know the latter spams the memes, but I recall Sami also doing so.

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I love to play Valeera, second after Kerrigan. And what I found in lower leagues, that many players underestimate Valeera when see her in teamfights engaging unstealthed. But thats my beloved trick - since I always pick safe block talent at 1, I gain 3 combo stacks unstealthed, bruise some damage, then press D, immediately W or E depends what I’m countering and that pops up like biggest surprise for them.

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Great stuff man.

I started at Gold 5, went quickly to gold 1 until everything went to crap fast and went to Silver 2…

You know when you get those defeats and you think “another one to get the win and go to bed”…

Yeah those didnt go well for me at all. My fault for keep playing when already burned out and frustrated.

Without a proper Team, its just annoying as hell.

P.S: yeah im pretty sad about it :frowning:

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