Advice from Supports who've climbed to Gold?

Competitive Discussion
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I’m a Mercy main, and I’ve been playing for a few months. I was placed in high silver, fell to low bronze, and then rose to gold (2108) by finding teams in the LFG function. I also watched lots of videos (I love Niandra), and I’d look at replays of my games and try to figure out what I was missing or messing up.

After a really bad experience, I went back to going solo. I’ve been maintaining silver. I write notes on every match of things I notice… a team comp my team couldn’t beat (usually pharmercy/double shield bastion), any toxicity/blame/tilt I see, and any smurfs present. I never blame anyone, I don’t trash the enemy team, and sometimes I compliment the enemy on good plays/good job with a hero, just trying to keep it positive and think about progressing.

I had a series of smurf games tonight and I feel horrible. Once it was the same smurf stack twice. It’s usually a Hanzo/Widow/Genji, spamming us with insults, telling us we’re worthless trash, and a mile above our skill level. The last one, our tanks and other support were blaming our dps for not focusing the smurf (a Genji), and the dps apologized and said they were trying their best. I felt so bad for them, I told them not to take it so hard, that they’re fighting an enemy that is way beyond them, just ‘gg go next’. They thanked me for being nice to them and understanding, but once it was over, I just felt so horrible.

How did you make it past this? I’m not saying every game has a smurf, but the SR lost against them is so steep if you do get out there and try (the death ratio, the drastically lower heals, etc)… I was so close to Gold and I’ve been knocked back down to Bronze. (I’m still Silver technically, but my SR is sitting at Bronze range.) I feel very discouraged and hopeless. I don’t want to be considered worthless at this game, which is what everyone says bronze and silver are. I’ve never played an FPS before. I’d like to reach ‘average’, which I understand to be Gold.

I dunno, I’m just hoping someone out there has been in my shoes and has some advice or positive vibes or something. Maybe a video? Please don’t troll me.

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There is one skill you should stress as Mercy above all else. Awareness. Yes, everybody needs it, but Mercy lives off it.

  • Be aware of where your team is & who is best to enable at every given second
  • Be aware of those alive & dead on each time, especially when it comes to rezzing
  • Be aware of intricate interactions between individual heroes on both sides
  • Be aware of everything you can

Mercy plays near exclusively with information, she’s essentially a spectator, so you should be ‘spectating’ as much as possible. Another thing that can help a bit is to not play Mercy. I’m not saying stop maining her, but I spent a few seasons learning all the other supports & my flexibility increased greatly as well as my understanding of the other heroes (which is important, because again, Mercy plays exclusively with said information).

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Hey, dont lose hope, we all have bad games against smurfs, keep being positive, dont mind negative and toxic players. It is not your fault.

If you want to help, I can check one of your replay codes from comp and give you some tips.

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Stop taking notes about your team and focus on watching your own gameplay your teammates gameplay matter after the loss bad teammates are real but a bad mindset is also real

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Sorry if it’s so long, lol this exact same thing just happened to me, and I just had to give my best advice.

I was recently stuck in silver for 5 months straight. It was a hell hole and I know exactly what you mean. I’m now in high diamond for support, almost masters.

Appreciate your experience right now, it will help you excel at becoming a better player, it’s clear you really don’t belong in silver so (from what I assume because it seems your extremely aware of what’s going on around you) being in a rank you partially don’t belong in can help you so much more than you know. Continue to spread positivity no matter how hard it may seem. Listening to toxic teammates won’t help you climb, nor will you likely ever see them in an match again. Most importantly be patient. No matter how long your stuck in Elo, don’t give it up. I know you’ve heard this many times, but with hard work and dedication you will get out.

Gameplay wise, as a fellow mercy main, you should definitely learn how to super jump. It helps a lot, for example in situations like when your being dived you can easily escape, or avoiding enemy shots.

Damage boost your damage dealers constantly, but if you where to choose between let’s say a Junkrat and a Mccree definitely choose the hitscan. (Mccree)
But it all depends on positioning sometimes. Like if your Junkrat is running around trying to find a good spot, but your Mccree is on high ground and firing bullets, you should definitely go for the Mccree.

Damage boost ultimates ALWAYS. I cannot emphasize enough how much it can help. Turn up your volume if possible to watch out for your teams ulting voicelines.

When using valk never stay midair. Use cover when ulting. I know it sounds like a waste but it helps so much and makes you a lot more mobile, you’d be surprised just how much your killed while ulting midair in gold-plat, so It’d be best to make this a habit.

Resurrect a teammate with an ultimate, your 2nd healer, or a tank. Don’t just resurrect anyone. Definitely make sure to not res without a shield or cover in front of you!

And lastly, try to have basic game awareness ( if you already don’t) figure out maps, good spots, and health pack locations. Don’t be afraid to go for one, I know you have regeneration but health packs will work wonders.

Good luck! I’ll be rooting for you every day! Watch plenty of YouTube videos and site other forum posts similar to this. : )

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Ngl these tips are like super basic you gave no in-depth tips that will actually help her improve

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Oof did you just have a losing streak or something? Chill out and learn how to not be so grumpy lol (anyway I’m sure my advice is better than you saying your bad git good nothing we can do about it noob)

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Nah top 2 bastion today :sunglasses: I’m chillin you can’t always be nice you gotta give it to em

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So why you dont it instead of smart talk?

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To abuse space and always use it instead of staying in a singular spot and not just spamming super jump and using it for positional advantages and as well using it to avoid ults and abilities always make the most out of space a mercy without space can’t get any value she’s an enabler type supports by enabling your teammates to get a big play off playing her as an main healer even tho that’s the class theoretically she is supposed to be in even tho her burst healing is significantly lower than most main healers the main strength is how she can easily get out off sticky situations and that’s why playing back and around cover at all times and never letting your self be in enemy sift lines many mercys fail to use her mobility for positioning value and rather just fly to targets that need healing or Rez when it’s super risky for that 2 seconds your vulnerable and whine pushing in already have your plan to know where to position next and think if you have any even a bit of your hit box visible and always think of the enemy flanks and if they have to use any abilities to expend to even reach you because if your position forces them to use an ability you gain more value out of that position and makes it more risky to reach you and always know where your SUPPORT is positioned even if you can give them some ability which cancels the push onto the support you should always have an visual on your support do you can fly to them and assist them while they’re fighting the enemy it’s a term known as “peeling” which can be done by any Rome but it should be your job to peel for your support most of the times depending on comps and knowing when to move from your position, yes it might sound basic but even in diamond elo people still struggle to reposition because of their bad decisions making always have insight on the fight so you can reposition earlier and not get stuck in a pinch when your on the other side of the fight from your supports and especially rezzing yhe other girl didn’t go in-depth on what she said, your Rez is a game changer don’t use it just because someone is down use it that you can certify value and not Rez when the fight is lost and both of you guys die, I’m not saying only Rez tanks and supports since that’s stupid and rather think of the value you can get don’t just wait for your short to die so you can use it use it so you can turn the fight like if your Zarya is down and your genji is down but you guys have nano blade which will get more value and make the fight winnable since you just ENABLED one of the best combos in the game think ahead of what which target can accomplish and get value and Rez the person you think can get the most value on the current stage of the fight

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Damn dude, maybe try use “.” and “,” and big letters at start of the sentence :smile: . Its nice that you try to give good advice but it is super hard reading as wall of text like this?

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Mercy is concedered to be a low skill Hero, but she needs a lot of gamesense. Here are tips for the abillitys:
Damage boost: Press Tab. The pocketed Hero will get Ult much faster. Decide wich ults you need now. Example: Your Zen has 80% Ult and the enemy team is close to Nanoblade. You can pockrt him so he gets his ult fast

GA: GA is mechanically much more intense then many think. Learn things like Superjump and Superjump rez and if you are crazy you can try to do the backwards GA.
Healing:
You can be out of range for a while before the beam cuts off. You can GA in range, but then instantly go back until it would break and repeat. This allows you to stay further back if you need to. Also prio DPS, you need 3 seconds to make a DPS full life but 9 to make a tank full life, your flex support is better for this and focus tanks already and of you keep DPs alive Ana can conzentrate on the Tanks.

2.: Heal for value, not to to make them full HP. Example: A Doomfist who just used all abillity to go in amd out wont be in fight for the next seconds. You can ignore him if someone else needs healing and heal him if others dont need it.
Example 2: You have a widow in your team and the enemy team has only close range dps. Your widow is on 70hp, but you can ignore her becauce she doesnt get more value if she is full HP. Just think "if I heal xxx, would he get more Value? If your Reaper is low he cant go in until he is full, a Ash cant peak the enemy ash and has to play passive, the torb has to play further away and will hit less shots… . All this gamesense stuff is what makes a support good, expecially Mercy.

Rez: Dont think “can i rez”, think “should i rez”. Rez is a 30s CD, wasting it can even effect the next fight. Sometimes saving it is better, even if the rez is save.
Example: One time I played on Anubis it was round 4, we attacked and we only had 30seconds left, the enemy team 2 min. Our Ana peeked and got killed (at the 1. choke). She was a save rez, but i decided go wait becauce we had only 1 fight left anyway. After we waited for Ana to come back we pushed through, but our hog overexz
tended and got killed by the enemy hog after trying to reach a medkit. I was able to rez hog, we killed the enemy hig and won the fight very close and ended up winning the game and without the decision to save rez it wouldve been lost.
Hope the tips help you^^

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And be active in voice channel too to give some value to team outside of her limited mechanical carry potential.

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She’s asking to get to gold, not top 500. I don’t need to give that in depth tips…

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Find a player who is competent at a counter, hard pocket them, don’t die EVER. That should help.

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It’s better than saying the basics which she probably knows and after she reaches her desired rank she’ll only wanna go up more it’s what keeps the game alive the hunger for reaching the higher rank

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That’s called getting boosted by a good player

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I meant when dealing with smurfs, pick the person on your team who might be able to compete with extra help and pocket them. It’s not really being boosted IMO, just identifying win conditions. If you shut down their carry you can get into a good position.

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If the person is in the same elo as her and there’s a smurf who’s probably 2 ranks higher than her the smurf would win both ways the only way to counter a smurf is with a smurf who’s higher elo

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Or with a lot of teamplay.