Making the final push to diamond from plat (support) tips?

hi!

i’ve been playing for about 3 years now. making the climb from bronze to plat was relatively easy for me in the beginning and i managed to do it in 2 seasons (didn’t start playing comp until i was about lvl 150), but it’s been roughly 12 seasons now of just maintaining plat. i’m so skill capped it’s unreal.

of course i have unlucky loss streaks, lucky win streaks and such. plat is a really giant cesspool and you really never know what you’re going to get. i’ll be in an avg sr of 2400 lobby and the next game it avgs 3k. i feel it’s hard to break through plat skill cap because of how wildly inconsistent the matches are.

i’ve made the climb to diamond on other accounts (NOT new ones so no it wasn’t mmr abuse, i always had to claw my way out of plat on those over the course of 50-200 games lol) but my main just always stays stagnant anywhere from 25xx to 29xx.

i’m currently sitting at 29xx and getting MASTER players in my lobbies. given, i play at pretty dead times so the matchmaker struggles.

i personally think i’m having a mental battle here. i get really nervous once i get close to diamond, especially when there are master players prone to getting toxic right off the bat when they see a plat rank icon on their team, and especially when i’m on my main account where i care the most about winning.

do you guys have any tips for handling that anxiety? i’m a consistent player when i’m in a good mindset and not offset by any toxicity/scapegoating/even the “threat” of smurfs (seeing low bronze borders with tags like xXDOOMFISTERXx sets my nerves on FIRE)/personal life influences/etc. i really need to learn how to enter a zen mental mode so i can make this push.

thank you x

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If people are toxic in voice chat, mute those individuals and continue to work with the rest of the team members who aren’t toxic (even if that means muting 3 or 4 people :slight_smile:).

My favorite part about this approach is, you can still talk, make callouts, and comment on the lack luster performance of the toxic player and they can hear you the entire time. But you can’t hear a word they say and it tilts the ever loving shizzle out of them.

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Supports and tanks never play in their proper elo. I dont use to play comp in this acc, but started playing rein this season. Well, got to 2900 with ease, but then, sr jumps start. One game 2600 sr, then one game 3400sr, then 2900 sr. Its just too many different playstyles. Rough to adapt.

I do understand and accept that game population is at its lowest, but those jumps on sr games don’t feel good.

This can only be solved by increasing the player base, which without real content is unlikely. Or make dps queues longer. Wich i dont care. Not gonna wait more than 5 min for a game ngl.

I do hope we have real content the next two months… And real content is not an experimental card, thats content for the current player base, not to atract users imho.

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good idea thank you!

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everyone deals with anxiety differently so you’ll have to find what works for you. for me it’s queuing with friends (even if just 1). music also helps me. like rhainsict said, muting people as soon as they get toxic and not giving them the time of day makes the games smoother

it helps a bit to reflect back on your past image… like if you used to be scared of gold or plat players, think about how silly that seems now that you’ve climbed past that. you’ll probably think you were pretty silly for being nervous of masters players once you climb further. your biggest enemy is you :sweat_smile:

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very true lol. thank you!!

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Almost like that’s where your SR is saying you belong… :thinking:

Ultimately, it’s about the stats you push out vs other players at your rank (noticed you mostly Mercy in comp):

  • total healing per game
  • dmg boost per game
  • eliminations
  • deaths (downtime)
  • rez per game

Improve those stats and your rank improves, it’s that simple. :upside_down_face:

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yes, plat is where i belong right now! but in order to improve enough to BE diamond, i think i need to overcome my mental battles first, which is why that’s what i’m asking for tips on and not my gameplay. i can’t improve my mechanics if my mechanics are so dependent on my mental state.

this account is a smurf that i use to play with my sister. it’s what this site auto logged me in to when i clicked log in so this is what i posted on. i do play mercy, but i also play other heroes just as much. i flex between bap/ana/mercy for the most part.

if you’re someone that thinks stats matter i’m hesitant to take any advice from you tbh lol

thanks anyway i guess?

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A lot of players worry too much about rank, they’re putting the cart before the horse so to speak.

Confidence (positive mental state) comes from improving your abilities at the task your attempting to perform.

Improve your stats (accuracy, etc) and you’ll naturally feel better in your games.

If you’re asking people to tell you to have a cup of herbal tea and put on some inspirational music before each game it’s not going to help you improve… :rofl: :upside_down_face:

Best tip I can give as a gm… Don’t think about your rank and just deal damage, for the love of god just shoot the damn enemy’s when you’re playing support. It’s the best and only way to carry a game. It really doesnt matter how much healing you do.

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This feels awful.

Something that I think is universally helpful is when you can’t LOS/support your assigned tanks, that you call it out.

In the heat of engagement, LOS to the backline is hard to keep track of; and sometimes a support player’s playstyle is wildly different than what the tank may expect.

Nothing feels worse as a tank than when the opposing team is down one or two and the team should push-in, but half the team and especially the supports can’t help with the engagement because the supports are further back than the tank expected.

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i’m glad you got to have this moment of dishing out passive aggressive, condescending advice nobody asked for. i’m sure it was very important to you. thank you for your time <3

You can’t make this up… :rofl: :upside_down_face: :wink:

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Pay some special attention to your other healer and your synergy with them when you’re able to.

Be sure to prioritize healing and peeling for them in order to make your job easier. If you have that much less healing to do, you can focus that much more on doing whatever other thing your hero does - damage boosting as Mercy, speed boosting as Lucio, discord/DPS-ing as Zen, anti-nading as Ana, DPS orbing as Moira, etc.

Pay attention to what hero they’re playing and frequently check on their ult charge. You can slack on the healing when it’s safe, if you notice that they need ult charge more than you do (because you’re close to ult, or you already have your ult, or their ult is more important, etc.). When it’s safe, you can also slack on healing to do something else that’s useful, if you’re confident that the other healer can take care of it - after all, utility such as damage/speed boost can help get a kill and secure a number advantage as well as reduce the overall amount of damage coming towards your team. Enough offense can be a good defense. Because of this, kills/pressure can be a lot more important than survivability/defense in a low-healing comp such as Mercy/Zen. The higher in rank you go, the lower TTK becomes, and the more important this rule of thumb becomes.

If they have less healing output than you, then prioritize healing tanks. If they have more healing output than you, then prioritize healing squishies. If they have a specific range requirement, or an aim/LoS requirement, prioritize healing whoever might be more difficult for them to heal - e.g. if they’re playing Ana, prioritize whoever is out of her line-of-sight/moving erratically, or if they’re playing Moira, prioritize whoever is too far away from her.

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thank you! these are very good tips. it’s easy to forget you do damage too when you’re on high healing output heroes like moira and ana.

update: i’ve made it to diamond! given, i’m JUST over the cusp at 3005 lol but it’s proven to me that i CAN get this account out of plat and that’s enough to keep me wanting to play and improve. thank you all x

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