Questions about Comp from a Bronze-Ranked Flex Player! (VOD posted, even though it's kinda crappy!)

Competitive Discussion
1

Hey hey everyone! PyroPanda here.

So, for the past (I-forgot-how-many-seasons) Competitive Seasons, I’ve been stuck on Bronze. And no, I’m not afraid to admit that because I know I can do better, and that starts by asking our lovely people on the Forums some questions for suggestions.

For reference, I main Soldier: 76, Mei, Orisa, and Ana, but I can also fill in as Pharah, Junkrat, Winston, and Zenyatta. I’m usually a Frontline-DPS, a Main Tank/Secondary Tank, or a Main-Healer/Secondary-Healer.

Nonetheless, here I go!

  1. What roles should you shotcall from the most? For example, if you’re a Main Tank, should you shotcall a lot, for example.
  2. What should you shotcall for each role? If you’re a Zen, for example, what exactly should you be calling out?
  3. How do you handle being the only one on comms? Which is…mildly frustrating when no one else seems to communicate too.
  4. Is it bad to flex too much? I know how important it is to be adaptable, but what’s the point if not even your team can follow up with you?
  5. Final question! Should I post a VOD of my next Completive game and post it on the Forums for critique?

Thanks for reading everyone, and as promised, all participants get a free cookie! Yay! :cookie: …Wait, I never promised that, ohhhh take the dang cookie anyways!

Have a great day everyone, and I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!

Cheers,
~ PyroPanda

3 Likes
2

  1. Main tank and off support

  2. Off support: Target calling, facts
    Main support: Facts
    Main tank: Strats, facts
    Off tank: facts
    DPS: Facts

  3. Do your call outs and hope they listen.

  4. Yes. Specializing is better.

  5. Yes

6 Likes
3

I’m bookmarking and coming back later when I’m on my computer so I can go in depth with this.

1 Like
4

Take your time, Fritz! :>

1 Like
5

in bronze - to silver really

the best way to climb is not flex
play dps lock it, and don’t swap unless you yourself are hard countered

look at heropickerdotcom
and familiarize yourself with the hero counters

a lot of games in bronze - silver - gold elo are lost due to lack of swapping to counter

like a runaway sym. Winston,widow or phara can all absolutely reek havoc in your rank

learn the counters to those heros to shut down the players playing them forcing them to switch again to be effective

really at that elo it’s lack of willingness to switch that costs games

also

STAY ALIVE

the worst thing u can do for your team is dying

work on your macro and positioning a lot

watch positiong videos for solider

and i’m sure you will climb

good luck

5 Likes
6

I am going to give you the best advice on how to get out of bronze.

STOP and i mean STOP playing dps. Dont waste your time it’s super contested and everyone and their mother wants to play dps especially in lower elo.

DO NOT play main healer support down there dont waste your time. Support is the LAST role you want to play down there outside of zen. If you insist on flexing learn zen and moira. Both will carry you out of moira. The skill floor for carrying on moira is lower but you have more carry potential on zen.

you HAVE to carry yourself out of that pit not that silver is much better mind you.

If you want out of bronze learn an off tank. Dva and zarya can do such ridiculous carrying in bronze its not even funny. Keep your KDR 5-1 on an off tank and I promise you you will get out of bronze.

Dont be another one of those auto lock dpsers that leave the tank role unfilled. Tanks are so damn important in this game. If you insist on flexing go moira,zen,dva,zarya those are your picks. Orisa isnt too bad if you can actually aim somewhat. dont waste your time on rein down there.

3 Likes
7

In my first season (season 5), I was Bronze. I legit hit the >500 rating for a couple games. So don’t let your low rank discourage you. Everyone can improve.

It’s not roles, it’s heroes. Some heroes have kits that benefit more from shot calling (usually utility abilities/ultimates that benefit from team follow up).

Examples of Shotcalling Heroes are Sombra, Lucio, Zen, Zarya, Reinhardt, Mei, Symmetra and Winston.

Brig and Mercy are honorable mentions because they don’t require shotcalling to be played well but they’re good heroes to shotcall with because Mercy has an aerial view of the fight and Brig has a third person view.

Again, it’s hero specific not role specific.

But general tips are

  1. Ultimates
  • Call out what ultimates your team has after each fight (press Tab to check)
  • Call out what ultimates the enemies used after each fight
  • Call out what ultimates you think the enemies might have (ult tracking)
  1. Cooldowns
  • call out when enemies use big cooldowns like Recall, Wrait, Immortality Field, Bio Nade etc.
  1. Ally/Enemy health
  • Call out if allies are getting dove or low health so your team can bail them out if possible.
  • Call out low health targets, or in the event no one’s particularly low, call out an enemy with an ultimate and try to pressure them with focus fire.

Make basic calls like

  • Zen’s low
  • Hanzo behind
  • Rein has shatter watch out

try to not say more than one sentence at a time because it can get distracting. even if no one else is talking, your teammates are gonna absorb that information so it’s still useful.

YES. Find heroes that you’re good at and try to stick with them. Not one tricking, but having maybe a 4-5 hero pool that you’re comfortable with

Yes but try to find a game where you’re not flexing. I’d want to see you on a hero you have more experience with. I can’t really help you if your problems stem from the fact that you have no playtime on a hero.

3 Likes
8

Since you’re in bronze its probably about you not using your hero in the most effective way, I’d focus on this first.
But in order to know what you actually can improve and even more importantly how, its best to post a VOD of a couple of matches.

The how is usually the crucial part as its either that or a lack of realization that prevents you from noticing a mistake, something that ultimately decreases your chance of winning.

1 Like
9

I love your positive attitude man! You’ve done the right thing by coming to the forums for help.

The advice may be harsh, and your skills maligned, but sometimes harsh truths are the only ones that matter.

  1. Best way to get good advice is to post a video of a game for review. It’s a guarantee that no matter how well you think you did that better players will point out dozens of issues for you to work on.

  2. assess which hero is best for you. I found a great website that showed me why I was winnign so many more games with Lucio than Moira last season. It gives the raw metrics per minute on major performance indicators. Maybe Moira would be a good pick? Work on your healing though…
    https://www.omnicmeta.com/stats/player.html?username=PyroPanda-11808&platform=pc

  3. DPS instalock can work, but only if you’re good. Your dps stats aren’t great tbh. I climbed to gold with an 80% win rate once I 2 tricked Lucio and Moira from 1700 to 2000. Super easy wins. Again Moira might be an option.

Can’t say much more until we see a video.

Good luck.

3 Likes
10

Just 1-trick pharah. Even people in plat can’t shoot her down most of the time so you should be able to be gold in no time with her.

1 Like
11

Out of your mains, ana and soldier are the two most consistent heroes. Their toolkits are pretty basic and versatile, so i would recommend practicing them the most.

Zen is a great flex pick for you i think, Because Ana, zen, and soldier are all very similar in terms of playstyle and positioning. It makes your life a lot easier if you dont have to adjust playstyle between games/rounds.

In terms of comms, dont worry about others, and keep it simple. If you have to ask yourself whether or not your team mate will understand or if its valuable to them, its too complex. Stick to basic info that pertains directly to moment to moment action. Ex: “Mercy discorded” “zarya anti, no bubble”, “zen has trance”, “genji slept behind” etc. And for whos the best? If you’re using a mic, you should always be calling your shots. But again, keep it simple

And, flexing too much isnt bad. Flexing wrong is though. Going from mei, to soldier, to orisa, probably isnt the smartest idea. They all have vastly different playstyles. It would throw you off too much. I used to think i could go from rein, to ana, to lucio to winston and be fine. But the skills of each dont translate, and brain farts insue.

Hope this helps

1 Like
12

Hey hey everyone! PyroPanda here with a quick update on this Thread so far. First off, thank you all so much for the thorough responses and tips, I’m definitely keep them in mind.

I’m also compiling those tips and some self-analysis on myself into a Google Doc, which I’ll post later. It’s still in its baby stages, so yeah, the format is bleh.

Just also wanted to respond to some of the tips here. Here we go!

Specializing…I’ve kinda established three roles for me I would like to specialize on if that counts:

  • Frontline-DPS
  • Main Tank
  • Main Healer

I know people are also suggested to learn an Off-Tank and Off-Healer, which means those roles may change if needed. Tbh, I’m leaning to probably be an Off-Tank as Zarya. Like I said, that could change anytime, no promises.

”Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees starts playing. I know that’s pretty damn important…it’s just my positioning, tbh. Also maybe my aim? I know my aim needs a ton of work.

But DPS is fun. ;-; I don’t want to focus on an entire class entirely and I actually find being a DPS pretty fun. I know my stats say otherwise, but that just means I need to practice.

I’m currently trying to make a list right now. Thank you for being so comprehensive with your responses, Fritz!

That’s…sadly true. I’m not a tracking master or a projectile-aim god, so by practicing, I’ll be more effective, right?

Thanks for being honest, man. It’s a wake-up call to keep learning then.

I’d rather not one-trick.

Also true. I just happen to love their playstyles and possible synergies with other Heroes. To me, they’re versatile, and I love versatile Heroes.

I’ll post the Google Doc in a bit, in the meantime, share your tips and help out a Bronzie!

Cheers,
~ PyroPanda

1 Like
13

It doesn’t mean you have to be a 1-trick all the time. Use pharah to get yourself out of bronze first and try to spot the difference between bronze and silver play. Than you can decide to play some other hero(TBH. If you play rein in silver and gold you can basically solo carry every game because people do really dumb stuff there and rein is a perfect hero to exploit their stupidity) Ofc different things work for different people, but you seem like you have some time in game already so just try to focus on what seems pretty fun and impactful for you. I had to spend over 1000 hours to learn all tanks and supports to a point where i can confidently pick them, and my zarya is still very weak in comparison to all the other tanks. If you don’t have that kind of time and dedication on your hands i would suggest sticking to a few characters.

Now about those few characters. It is best when you main characters that counter eachother counters. For example if you play a lot of soldier it is good to also learn a character like mccree or sombra because they counter doomfist which is main soldier counter.

1 Like
14

Pick two or three heroes to practice and focus only on them. I spent about 130 hours practicing Hog/Junk in S3 and climbed from silver to diamond.

One tricking might be a quicker climb, but you’ll find yourself dragging your team down every time someone counters or steals your hero. They don’t even need to be from different classes. Team comp is basically meaningless in bronze/silver.

Don’t worry about what role/hero you are for shot calling (and also don’t worry about voice chat. It’s a nice, quick way to let your teammates know what’s going on, but it’s definitely not a necessity). Just try to keep your shot calling to important, concise things; call out flankers, call out low-hp enemies and tell people when you’re getting ready to ult (if it’s comboable)

Definitely upload a vid

1 Like
15
  1. What roles should you shotcall from the most? Answer:Main tank or Healer. Usually, if the healer shot calls the tank tracks enemy ultimates or vice versa depending on how a team wants to run it.
  2. What should you shotcall for each role? Answer:If Rhine is shot calling he needs to be communicating where he’s going, what he needs, and why to look out for as well as target priorities. If the healer is ultimate tracking you need to be calling it, zarya has grav diva be ready to eat her ult, don’t stay grouped up etc etc. All other hero’s can just give very basic short call outs like diva out of mech, zarya one, mercy out of position etc. You don’t want the comms over crowded with call outs it can get hard to hear when everyone talking over each other.
  3. How do you handle being the only one on comms? Answer:You do the best you can. There’s no magical answer for this. Ideally everyone would be on comms.
  4. Is it bad to flex too much? As low of a rank as you are I would focus more on trying to master two hero’s than trying to play a bunch at a subpar level. You can worry about being more adaptable later.
  5. Final question! Answer: It certainly wouldn’t hurt you.
1 Like
16

1: for shotcalling, you can do it from any role… although TBH even in Plat some teams don’t know what to do with that info. Don’t expect it to have a huge impact on your games. If you’re in Bronze, you should just focus on your own gameplay and what you can do to improve the odds of claiming objectives. (it’s good to practice shotcalling though, if you intend to hit gold and beyond.)
2: Zen shotcalls, would be telling people if your discord is on a key target, and that everyone should be focus-firing them down. When to group up and push with Trans offensively, or predicting what ults you need to save your trans for and how your team should position in anticipation of it.
3. Once again, Comms is hardly seen in my games, until i reached high gold/plat. Just focus on your own gameplan.
4. I would say focus on one role for now, and within that role know the options available and when to swap to them. IMHO, i think playing a good tank play is what gets people out of bronze, which is why it feels like such a DPS-fest as all the tanks have climbed out.
5. Absolutely. Having your VODs reviewed is one of the best way to learn other playstyles/tips for the heroes you’re playing.

Some tips for VODs though, get us a losing game and one that you feel you shouldn’t have lost. I feel that being able to identify those really close games and tip the scales in your favour is what would produce tangible results

1 Like
17

[quote=“IfYouHogIDva-2332, post:13, topic:338394”]
It doesn’t mean you have to be a 1-trick all the time. Use pharah to get yourself out of bronze first and try to spot the difference between bronze and silver play
[/quote]

Ah, alrighty…if I ever do plan on that, I’ll OTP Pharah and move on to Soldier or Mei next.

Problem with that though, is that I’ll always stick with Heroes to be of my preference, so I might find that a bit hard. :confused:

Am doing that.

But yet again, the need to fill and flex always overcomes me…I just don’t have enough leeway to play the Heroes I actually want to play sometimes. If someone needs a Tank, I will Tank, even if I wanted to play a DPS. It just becomes routine after a while…

Duly noted. I feel that as a Tank, I’m a “captain” for the team sometimes.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

Cheers,
~ PyroPanda

18

Narrow your hero pool to 3 heroes.
Can be in one role or multiple, I’d also suggest not playing both projectile (Pharah) and hitscan (soldier) it can push your aim off.

Soldiers a good pick if you can find a Bap/Mercy duo, their damage boosts combo super well with him! If you got a baptiste don’t be afraid to ask if you two can combo Ults!

1 Like
19

Hey man, glad you’re interested in improving! I hired a professional coach (ioStux) and he taught me a few things - the most important of which is, play what you enjoy. You’ll improve (and as a by product, climb) faster. Team composition doesn’t often matter before GM (and often not even then) and voice comms in pickup groups are usually the blind leading the blind. Have fun, work on improving yourself, and a good coach can definitely help if you have trouble identifying problems in your VoDs.

3 Likes
20

The main thing to keep in mind is that calls imply action.

If you call something out, it should be because you want someone to do something with that information. Calling out where a Zarya is isn’t very useful, but calling out where a Widow is implies you want someone to deal with her.

1 Like