Hello Everyone, i am a relative newbie, with just 6 months in the game (from date of purchase) and i have just started to get into Competitive Mode games a few days back.
So i have a question which i hope that the experts here can answer.
My Profile is public, disabled the “Private” function from day 1 of implementation. So feel free to have a look, if so inclined.
Please understand that i am not looking to “climb” especially at my “advanced” age of 42 years. I just looking to perform as well as i can in each and every game and i realised that i am drawn to Competitive Mode games because of its structure and rather meaningful nature. It really is the only mode whereby i can play Overwatch as i would basketball in real life.
So with this in mind, i am just wondering. Is it true that Tanks do not advance much in the ladder i.e. do not receive see much SR gain (and a lot of SR loss) when the team wins? This is comparative to DPS characters. Because i do see much of the advice given by experienced players in the forum, is to get good on a DPS and one would do well enough to climb.
I am asking so that i would know what to expect.
Thank you so much for reading and appreciate it if you can provide this old man with some advice.
P.S. Yes, i “main” Reinhardt because i am old and slow like him.
If you are bad, than it is likely. I’d focus on not dying if you don’t wanna lose a ton of SR, though in bronze it could be a whole nother league… It’s performances based, how much ya win or lose that is.
so PBSR (player based skill rating) exist, but it doesn’t award/take away very much SR. If 25 SR is awarded for a win, I’m under the impression that an extra 1 or 2 SR is awarded if you preformed exceptionally well.
with that being said, a pro tank can go from bronze to GM really fast, so that must answer your question.
But if you want to climb faster, go DPS they have a bigger impact. I wanted to play Mercy so bad but I was at the mercy (no pun intended) of my team. So I reluctantly picked up DPS and sure enough I climbed to silver.
There is no systematic bias against tanks. There may be a systematic bias against certain styles of tank play, but there haven’t been many complaints about that lately, so maybe that has been fixed. I’ve written a more complete explainer at How Competitive Skill Rating Works (Season 11).
P.S.
If a GM is smurfing in the lower ranks, he can get more of a stat bonus as dps than tank. This is because it is easier to blow the lid off the stats chart with a dps than a tank. This does not affect players that are at or near their proper rank, such as you or I.
In terms of your second, question, with respect to hero choice and climbing: I wrote a guide at Bronze - Sliver - Gold ranking guide that includes a section on the topic. But if you like Reinhardt, it may be good for you to play him, even though he isn’t the best carry hero. It is possible to rank up with any hero, just some are faster and easier than others, given equal skill.
I find it helpful to deconstruct what it takes to win or lose a competitive match.
Main factors:
Individual skill/decision making
Team synergy/comms
Hero choices for and against
If one is looking to climb, the main thing to work on is your individual skill as this is the biggest factor in influencing the outcomes of your games. This is also what you have the most control over. Learning how to swing your hamner properly on rein, knowing where to position, when to ult, when to shield, landing firestrikes, and shotcalling for your team will result in you climbing.
HOWEVER this does not mean you will win most of your games. There are 5 other people on your team and 6 people on the other team – theoretically able to provide equal impact.
You have limited control over the outcome of any game you play in. That’s the hard part to accept. If you practice and become very skilled at rein your team will have an advantage in every game you play in. Leading to you climbing.
If your trash genji feeds all game, your strong tank play may still result in a loss. The reason people often say it’s easier to climb on dps is because you have more carry potential. If you are much more skilled than the opposing dps the game feels very uneven. However, you can still dominate tank matchups as well.
The biggest thing is to focus on winning your matchup. Understand your role, your hero, and constantly work on strategy to outplay your matchups on the other team.
A game can be won or lost by a single firestrike, pin, or shatter, but not every game will be decided by you.
Performing exceptionally well and still losing was the most demoralizing hurdle for me. When you improve your skill above your SR it becomes this frustrating battle against your own teammates. Most of them are at their appropriate SR. They win 50% of their games. To climb you have to be the difference, because they are already at their proper SR. Much of the time these stagnant teammates will be toxic and unhelpful because they aren’t climbing themselves… mental resilience is key.
I’d recommend actually learning all of the tanks. There aren’t too many of them, and all of them have specifically strong maps and comps to go with. All of the tanks have carry potential, so it’s more about figuring out what will be the most effective in any given situation.
Thanks to everyone for taking the time out to reply my n00b question and apologies for replying to everyone so late. Also apologies for this singularly long post. Forum rules states that i cannot post more within my own thread until someone else replies and courtesy as well as etiquette dictates that one should always acknowledge with a reply when one is responded to, at least back in my day.
As mentioned, work (i work 7 days a week, 361 days a year); family (1 teen and 1 adolescent + 2 dogs) and my Dungeons and Dragons campaign had taken up my entire weekend until today.
Sad to say, i was unable to join any Competitive games and of course, Season 11 is now over, i think. Nevertheless, the information which you all had kindly provided has been taken note of and is definitely useful for reference in the future.
I hope that all of you have had a great Season 11.
Thanks for the reply and feedback, Kornmeal.
I have heard of people losing different amounts of SR for losses i.e. it is not consistent across the board. So i guess that that does confuse the Competitive mode beginners such as myself.
Thanks for your reply, Tactician. I noticed that you have been playing Competitive mode for some time because i have come across some of your posts in the old forums.
Yes, it does answer my question albeit indirectly.
This answers directly to my query and i would say that based on your opinion, which reinforces the fact that DPS characters may garner more PBSR because of their greater influence and ability to impact the outcome of a game.
As a sidenote, i am not actively looking to climb the SR ladder.
I am 42 years old, working 7 days a week and i run my own business and DM a D&D campaign for 8 friends with 2 children in tow.
Much i dislike being considered the “worst of the worst” in this game because of personal pride and my innate perfectionist nature, all things considered; Overwatch is (unfortunately) a footnote in my list of (leisure) activities and if i do rise above the lowest of Tiers, i guess that it would happen organically. =)
Kaawumba, thank you very much for your replies. I have read (and +1) your articles. They were indeed very informative and well complied. Thank you very much for the effort it must have took you to compose the posts.
Yes, this does much a lot of sense because i can say for sure the in Bronze Tiers, many player are not the best at aiming. I witnessed that myself in one of my placement games where a Pharah totally won the game for the Red Team while on defense on the Hollywood map. Our Soldier 76 & Ana player could not take Pharah out at all while the Blue Team died continuously at the first choke after capturing the point…for over 5 minutes…
I did the best i could and wondered if i should have abandoned shielding my team and went Widowmaker to try and take out that Pharah. However, i was the only Tank and Ana was the only healer. Even if we got through the choke, we would still die because no Tank. I did point out that Pharah was the issue and the “Shotcaller” on the team kept blaming Soldier and Ana for not taking out Pharah instead of him dropping Reaper or at least switching to another Healer to allow Ana to snipe. Ah well… ha ha! Everyone is culpable. Heh.
Thank you, this was very useful as well and i would say that your conclusion is very apt. That some characters are innately easier to influence a game more directly than others. Which i think, i can understand why DPS may appear to be the popular choice because no one can argue how much impact Profit had when he won the point as Tracer and Hanzo in that epic Volskaya map fight whereas the impact of Gesture is questionable even when he is the one who always sets up the opposite team to be hit by a Dragonstrike with an Orisa orb.
I have been learning to utilise Reinhardt, D.Va, Orisa and Zarya over the past few months and obviously, i can play Lucio and Mercy. Maybe i should start considering and trying out a DPS character (other than Torbjorn) to have in my hat of tricks.
However, as i mentioned, although it gulls me sometimes to be seen as a “loser” being is the last Tier, i am perfectly aware that this is where i should belong and if i do improve. That would show organically.
i make no distinction between “high” Bronze nor “low” Bronze. Bronze is Bronze, Diamond is Diamond. Calling oneself “high” or “low” is simply hubris. The only high and low is the Top 500 for obviously reasons.
I am definitely enjoying this game and it is very fun looking to improve my personal game play in each and every game, be it Competitive, QP or Arcade.
It is like learning chess, right? Just play, and enjoy getting better. =)
Thank you for your succinct yet detailed reply, Hitstick. It is a very good summary and answers my queries directly. It is obvious that you have considered all the factors including that of game play and external factors such as team mates.
Yes, as i mentioned, i am learning to be as versatile as i can when it comes to Tank game play. I do not see myself as necessarily a Reinhardt “main” and more of a player who plays Tanks and prefers Reinhardt although i am gravitating towards Orisa and also Winston. In fact, in arcade, my POTGs are all Winston and Orisa, for what it is worth.
Thanks also, jacqui for your direct answers with reference points to my queries. Very organised. =)
If you read this, one question which i have is highlighted in Bold and italicized above. This comparison to other players who use the same character(s) is from the larger player population as whole, correct? And not just within the specific game itself. IMHO, it makes logical sense to compare to the entire Competitive mode population.
Also i literally laughed and chuckled when i read your statement (highlighted in italics). That was a good one. XD
this is not what I was saying.
1.) PBSR accounts for very little in the grand scheme of things
2.) Most people agree that choosing DPS to climb is the way to go. (instead of tank/support)
With such a busy schedule, you might be interested in my team. Are you available to play Overwatch around 5pm on Mondays EST?
Welcome, mr bronze! I too started my overwatch career in bronze. There is no shame in being bronze, the only shame is if you are delusional enough to think that you are actually a great player that is stuck in bronze due to your teammates.
The reason I started in bronze is because I was playing on a horrifically bad setup (played on a laptop with my hdtv as an external monitor, a wireless mouse with way too high sensitivity, sitting on my couch instead of in a computer chair [i still do this though, lul], and wireless internet that would stay around single digit mbps). But I somehow didn’t realize those were my problems, I thought I was just really bad at the game. But I didn’t care, because I still had fun! Actually had a lot more fun with the game than I do now . So many bad changes to the game from where it started
But anyway, no one can rank shame you if you don’t care that you are in a shameful rank thumbs up
ironically, while the General Topics sub-forum is always saying how “toxic” Competitive mode is, here in this sub-forum; everyone is chill, polite, respectful, helpful and mostly positive.
Thanks for clarifying, Tactcian. Apologies for misunderstanding.
Nonetheless, after reading through, i believe that i should have one DPS character which i can play competently, that is not Torbjorn.
Thank you very very much for your invitation. It really is very much appreciated.
2 things:
I am 1469 SR as of today and you are higher than me (pardon me for checking). Wouldn’t i bring down you and your group?
I am from Singapore and although i am also on the Americas server, Monday 5pm EST would be 5am, Monday and i am in my factory at that time working.
However, i am always ok with just having a good time fragging with you in the Arcade whenever it is possible.
Hello and thank you for the welcome, Mr. EnTaroJames =)
Thank you for sharing. Much appreciated. It is great that the Competitive sub-forum is populated by great guys such as yourself and all who had taken the time to reply me.
I am ashamed to admit that my PC is ok and was considered as above average spec 6 years ago, i have a decent 60mhz monitor, gaming mouse and keyboard with a low latency of 20ms on most days… so no excuses there. Ha ha!
I am just old, i guess with almost zero experience in FPS based games.
Nah, coming from over 2 decades of playing basketball and a decade in amateur leagues; blaming one’s team mates is totally constructively in sports. Actually, the same can be applied to corporate work as well.
“It is not what others can do for you but what you can do to make things better.
If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”
I was placed Silver after Season 10 placements and then Bronze in season 11’s so it was kind of demoralising but it did reaffirm to me that Bronze is where i should be at. The Silver placement was some kind of fluke.
. So many bad changes to the game from where it started