I’ve played a fair amount of games in all roles between silver and gold. Just thought I would list the most common mistakes and tips I see over and over. Maybe, hopefully, it will help some people who want to improve. I’m not professing to be an amazing player, but I do think I have some quality insight to share.
I think that lower ranks tend to believe that mechanical skill is the most important factor, like if you are good enough you will just run in and 1v5 and make crazy game winning plays and that is what you should be focusing on. In my opinion, mechanical skill is less important to success than the following.
These will be focusing on what I refer to as game sense. Which are concepts not related to mechanical skill, and go a very long way towards being successful. Things even people in the lowest ranks can implement and don’t really require “practice” so to speak.
Using cover - This goes for any role, but imo it’s most noticeable and impactful with tanks. Many tanks at these ranks think they should just be able to take infinite hits and the healers should outheal it. Often times people will just stay in the fight, even try to push forward when they are low health, rather than taking cover and healing up before re-engaging. You will absolutely die, frequently, if you are taking too much damage and not using cover in this game. Keep an eye on your HP bar and back up if you need to.
Staggering / Drip feeding / Fighting without numbers - This again is something all roles should be mindful of. These are all similar / related. The core concept here is trying to fight an even fight as often as possible. In my observations, at these ranks people are very reluctant to fall back / wait / regroup and instead run in with 1-3 people against 4-5 trying to make plays. Sometimes this works, most of the time, it doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to take a few seconds out of combat to fall back / wait for your team if you are down on numbers. It will help prevent staggering which is when 1 or more of your team members are dead at any given time due to continually engaging when you are missing people. As much as everyone wants to be the hero, you are probably not going to 1 or 2 v 3,4,5 and turn the game around.
Overextending - You see this often. You win a fight, it’s going well, you are pushing them back. One or more people on your team get overzealous and push to far, get taken out, enemy team counters and you lose all that ground / progress. If you are winning team fights consistently, there is no need to do this. Just fall back, stay as a group, keep winning.
Positioning / LOS to supports - People can’t help you if you are wandering too far off and out of LOS. Ask yourself if it’s worth it to go for these flanks etc. If you are winning team fights, it’s usually not. Unless you are very confident you will get a pick and escape, you are usually trading 1 for 1 at best, often times just dying and putting your team at a disadvantage. I know everyone wants to make these sick solo plays but in reality, at least at these ranks, you are usually better off sticking with your team so you can help eachother. You can’t expect your team to move into a bad position / suicide to save you from bad positioning.
These are the things I see win or lose games over and over at these ranks. I myself am not the most mechanically skilled player. But my stats are consistently above average in my games simply because I keep these game sense concepts in mind. Your games will always feel better, even on a loss, if you are just getting outclassed in even fights than if you are always at a disadvantage due to making these mistakes.