Teach me how to climb

What you do as a induvidual player to climb
What tricks you discouvered to become better at climbing the ladder or what made you climb to the top! (not smurfing/boosting)
Any tip is welcome :slight_smile:

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Recognizing that i cannot play sonya

*cries in 16% winrate

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Focus a lot more on macro than you ever thought necessary. Constant wave clearing, timing camps just before an objective, prioritizing clearing a big enemy minion/merc wave over practically everything else to spare your structures.

That also means playing heroes with good wave clear and camp taking.

I had to learn this hard lesson from GM streams, I did know the importance of XP and soaking but I didn’t realize how important it was. Your team will have a really hard time feeding when they’re constantly up 1-2 levels.

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One way to play sonya:
Dont think just go for it :sunglasses:

Ow yes. I agree getting those globes till lvl 10 might be more important then doing camps (best if we have teammates that do both)

To quote Grubby (the twitch.tv guy), “instead of running around the map like a headless chicken, get exp and push the wave forward”.

I can’t stress enough how much these pros and top players just soak all damn game. They’re not out there doing flashy stuff and killing all the bronzes and silvers. They’re killing all the minions.

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leap is your friend. just jump right in.

i have picked up sylvanas recently as a main pick. it was a little rough at first but now i am winning a lot. syl is really good if you can play her.

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Get over the “this is his lane” mentality and fill in where ever is needed.
Soak some xp there , depush there, kill that guy.
Kill/Wound the enemy solo laner so ours gets the upperhand

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Disclaimer: I climbed from silver 5 to plat 3 purely solo without help, I am by no means a pro

  • I started looking at the minimap, before I ignored it completely and I also got ganked all game
  • I stopped doing what I was doing if 4 of my teammates were fighting nearby and went to help them
  • I stopped brawling in the middle lane for 5 minutes while missing 5 waves of experience
  • I stopped allowing the enemy’s siege camp to take down our entire fort, if nobody else would do it, I traveled to the other side of the map to clear that camp
  • I started getting a lot more experience as usual, sometimes laning for multiple minutes at a time (before, I got bored after one or two waves and went back to fight).
  • Did I already mention I started soaking a ton more experience?
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As a healer, I had to learn the opposite and what macro means for a healer. It’s something you have to be aware of, but it can not be the thing you solely focus on. The more you help your allies live and kill stuff, the easier is for them to by extension soak for you. Get as much XP as you can, but your priority should be to prevent deaths, rotating to keep lanes topped off, and if possible exploit opportunities.

I love Grubby, but I feel like this is very much without context to what he said and stupid in a vacuum. You watch these players and they actually don’t just soak, they do lots of different things in addition to soaking, and sometimes outright abandoning soak because there are more important things they need to attend to. That is the thing that separates good players from mediocre ones.

People watch these videos and think that’s all they do because it’s the easiest thing to grasp conceptually, but they’re doing a helluva lot more than that. They ARE doing flashy things, they find openings, they kill people especially against bronzies and silvers. Yes, in bronze and silver, people don’t soak, but the ones who get stuck in plat, are the ones who are killing all the minions and forgetting this isn’t just a PVE game.

I just watch those account climbs (by other stream people too) and they are spending like 15 of 20 minutes basically laning and pushing. Ending many games with 0-1 kills.

Hell I know I couldn’t climb from bronze to grand master, I just watch these on youtube/twitch for entertainment.

The game seems purely winnable by pve stuff until like low to middle diamond. Nobody contests these guys. They don’t get counterpushed. They got 6 forts up while the enemy has 1. Mostly because that GM pushed down the 5.

LoL, I don’t know what videos you’re watching where they only get 0-1 kills, but that is just downright negligence with their skill level and also frankly boring for their viewers. I’m not saying these games don’t exist, but the many I have seen have never been like that.

With their skill, they could basically walk in 1v3 sometimes and still come out alive and soaking might as well be an afterthought. It’s still super important, but it has to be taken in as one important component in a larger picture, not just the only piece in the puzzle.

I think it can be interesting, like when he refuses to damage the enemy bronzes or silvers at all. And he still wins just by better macro skills. It proves hero damage doesn’t decide stuff at this low tier of play.

(Grubby rarely streams hots now so it’s harder to find his vids…)

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LoL, I mean if he’s artificially imposing rules just for fun in one game, that’s not demonstrative of how to play the game at large or even how he normally plays. He could have easily went commando mode like he does in most of his other videos and still won.

The point of that unique scenario is to hopefully show the importance of soaking, not that you should be doing it at the exclusion of everything else.

That’s true, tunnel visioning on one thing can be awful. Most players would just be better off knowing the power of soak and PvE rather than constant fighting. At least it helped a clueless pleb like me to rank up from the depths of bronze several leagues upwards.

Naturally there’s a lot more to HotS than just that. Like winning objective and teamfights too. That matters too. Anything that gets you closer to enemy core is worth fighting over.

Find at least one person you can play with and feel good when you spend time with him/her.
Then build your playstyle around him/her to cover as many weak spots as you can.
Win.

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Mute someone as soon as they say something illogical. There’s no point even trying to reason with them, And your game will get better from that point.

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You add the player who did good and start premade forming. You will not climb as a solo player in this game. Way too many trolls and throwers.

I started this game in Gold and climbed to Masters solo (HL, and also with team: TL, and since SL it’s a mix of both).

I obviously got better overtime, but mostly passively.
I didn’t know where I had to improve. I didn’t actively improve myself in certain aspects.

I just tried to win.

I think what helped me the most was my quest to try out everyone.
I played every Hero. Almost all with a fair amount of games.
I experienced all their limits, all their ideal or worst scenarios, strengths and weaknesses.

And thus I filled. Flexed. Always trying to counter key targets, or cover the weaknesses of my team.
I still do mostly this (but nowadays ppl just screw around with the draft, or I’m just unlucky more often and get the worst of them).

So tldr: what helped me imo was my game knowledge.

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I used to play a ton of healer in ranked. Got up to diamond 2 and probably could have pushed to masters if i diddnt decide to stop focusing on it so much.

Macro and utility are key. Make sure your team has them. If it dosent, fill those roles your self. Focus on getting exp and try not to fight unless your fighting over something like obj or a camp.

Dont salt. Your ultimate goal is to beat up red team, not blue team. I know this is hard for some people but just remember that any loss in your current game can just ne made up later. People play poorly when they are unhappy so try not to let that happen. The mute button is also your friend. Protect your self from salt so that ypu dont tilt.

Make sure you are collecting exp from all lanes at most stages of the game. Take towers and especially forts early if the opportunity presents its self as they can provide huge exp benefits later in the game. A hero is worth about the same exp as a minion wave so keep that in mind when you decide to leave lane. Early camps are very good if your not missing out of to mych exp to get them and a camp just before obj can be devastating if not delt with. Experience should be a factor in all of your decision making.

Boss after a team wipe is not always a hood idea unless your team has the damage to take it in like 10 seconds or so.

Draft is not the end all be all in a match. Countering key heroes can be a big help but its more important to have a well rounded team who can clear a wave at any given moment.

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Remember, in your life you will always be ruined by someone’s decision who is dumb

RIP Teddy

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