ult tracking is very important, but there is also CD tracking, for instance, lamp has a 25 second cooldown, timing engagements around usage of lamp is valuable as well.
you play tracer some, so an example for her would be engaging a mcree when flash has already been used which gives you a 10 second window of opportunity to confirm a kill.
using tracers own CD effectively also helps. knowing that using recall will give you a full clip provides tracer with 80 bullets within a time span that even bastion and orisa cant match.
This is a big part of the problem. If you don’t know why you’re losing, you know less about the game than you need to. If you don’t know the implicit rules of Overwatch well enough to understand when they’re being violated, and how often, such that you can’t understand why you lost, then you’re not absorbing the studying you mentioned above. It’s not sticking, you can’t apply it. So study more. And when you know what’s going wrong, then it’s just a matter of brute forcing the hours needed to ingrain it in your thinking, which then flows to your actions.
4 months isn’t much time to get a hang of the game really. Why not just stick with QP and see if your game sense and aim improve somewhat?
And even if you are hardstuck that low, you’re not missing out on much by avoiding comp. If anything you’ll probably just come to hate the fact that you aren’t allowed to leave matches that are clearly lost causes.
Bottom line, play whatever you think you’ll have more fun with. It’s a video game: they’re meant to be played for fun.
I don’t have any trouble studying. I never have. I’ll spare you the credentials, GPA, so on and so forth. Studying and retaining information is not the problem. I actually never said “I didn’t know why I was losing”. Those were your words because maybe you didn’t retain or misunderstood my original commentary. My main gripe is that the overall skill level is so much higher in ranked, which leaves me as one the the least skilled players on the map. It’s confusing because these appear to be the same level players I face in QP, but they are so much better.
Sorry, just had to clarify… I mean, your advice is that I shouldn’t even be playing because I didn’t study well enough, I can’t understand, information doesn’t absorb in my brain, it doesn’t stick, I need to go study more, stop playing, and once I’ve studied enough, I’m allowed to play again? Not an exact quote, but that’s pretty much what it sounds like. But that’s an exaggeration, I know. It’s not you in particular. It’s just the toxicity of ranked play that I’ve endured for the last 24-48 hours.
I’ve noticed this pattern a lot with OW players, not necessarily you. But in the OW player pool, everyone, generally, is pretty experienced. The game is 5 years old, so that’s only natural. But for some reason, the general consensus is that actual noobs struggle, not because they are new at this game, but just because they’re stupid. Noobs are simply stupid people. Again, those were not your words. Your comment just sort of struck that cord because it’s been nonstop for me that last 2 days of playing…
I have to vent, so not directed at you, and stop reading if you like, but I have to vent.
It’s amazing to me, like literally every match I play in, you hear this sentiment from players… Commenting in text and game chat about how “unbelievably stupid” other players are, newer players. They get on chat and say things like “well, DPS, if no one’s gonna counter the Pharah, we’re not gonna win… it’s not that hard… do you know what hitscan means?” and then a DPS will choose a hitscan hero but it doesn’t stop the commentary… “If you can’t aim, you shouldn’t be playing DPS, just admit it to yourself, you have no business aiming anything ever again”… meanwhile, what’s actually happening is the enemy Hog is spawn-trapping the hell out of the DPS and he’s having a hard time getting a shot off at all… BECAUSE HE’S NEW. He was playing Tracer because then he could at least escape the spawn area… He asked for help, he called out the spawn trap, he is trying to play his best, it’s just not as easy for newer players to do simple things like avoid an experienced Hog picking on him, on a map he doesn’t know as well as others, etc. etc. Who’s the not so bright person in that situation? The experienced player who may be good at OW, but has no clue how to put himself in the shoes of another person. The inability to see anything from any perspective but his own… That’s a defining characteristic of intelligence completely absent, and this arrogant moron thinks he’s the smart one… It’s nonstop in the OW community… this faux-intelligence, unjustifiably inflated ego nonsense. NOT everyone, not even close… but prevalent. At least 2-4 in any match of 12 players.
PS: The mystery as to why things are so different in ranked is, indeed, unfolding. As mentioned, I’ve been playing almost nonstop for the last day and a half. The new season, along with the recent low-priced sales of OW has driven a gigantic surge in alt accounts, being used in both ranked in QP. It’s worse in ranked right now than it was last season 10x over. Bronze Ranked is saturated with players that belong in Silver, Gold, Diamond, Plat, GM. How do I know? Hell, I just started asking everyone. I asked every person on my team in chat, every match, over and over and over. They aren’t hiding it, so it doesn’t take much detective work.
Mystery solved. Do I need to improve? Oh hell yes. I’m horrible compared to most. I’m new. But the assumption that intelligence is the issue is a false one that get’s old, I hear a lot, I have to hear literally every single match… It’s just people stroking their own ego because they are better at something than someone else, and so they stretch it into pretending it means they are “smarter than someone else”, all the while unaware that their own intellect is enslaved by the needs of their ego. It’s a lack of self-awareness, knowledge and insight, but they think it’s simply that others are stupid. Ironic, isn’t it?
If you are in rank from bronze to plat, you do not have to play meta characters, just play what you’re best at because in lower ranks most people will play the characters that are the most popular and don’t worry about your teammate, improve your own gameplay. My biggest tip for low rank is to focus on your own gameplay and don’t worry about your teammates, in low rank you can’t expect them to do anything. Focus on carrying them instead of the other way around. Feel free to post your replay code of your ranked game so I can review your mistakes.
To be completely honest, this part even extends all the way to Masters/GM and even Top 500, what matters is you play the hero you are best at, that will provide 100x more value than playing a Meta hero you are only average on.
Well in higher ranks most people will fill and play meta characters, there is some one trick but they normally won’t get too far. People who are playing off meta character don’t climb very much unless they are cracked at it.
If you really want to get better play more and study. You have free time watch some OW vids, ask for a VOD, play every match with the intent to win and play the hero that will give you the best chance not the most fun.
Try and learn about game IQ not just about positioning but why that position is important. Think about if you do certain action what it will cause
Other players to do. For instance if you pressure the enemy zen that may cause them to panic and use his ult or you may cause the front line to peel making it easier for your front line. Their is a lot you can do just gotta actually put in work
My friend you need to stop studying, and just go into competitive and grind a hero that you enjoy, as well as mute your comms so that you don’t get distracted or discouraged. Duo with someone else when you get to those “barrier” games for the next rank.
then you are clearly playing wrong, if you are constantly being told what to do, it means the team see’s your weakness and is pointing it out. whether you like it or not, thats not up for debate, thats whats happening.
you being a n00b doesnt excuse you from ruining the game for 5 other people, the reason they are telling you these things is so you can adjust on the fly.
Late reply here, but just wanted to say thanks. Yeah, I’ve been just turning chat off the second I catch a hint of the toxic stuff. And yeah, I’d much rather lose because of other players and try to carry them. I never get bothered by that as long as they try. Anyway, thanks for the advice and I’ll find some codes to post soon.
Totally, totally, that’s what I’m doing… Good advice… Just playing ranked a lot, stopping when I’m struggling and not letting nutbags get to me as much… thanks brotha, cheers.
Nope, not what I said. Never said I was constantly being told what to do… I’m not even referring to people talking to me in particular anymore than any other noob on my team, or the opposing team for that matter. And I’m not saying basic criticism is bad… If someone says to a noob tank “dude, stop backing up, stay at the payload” and sound frustrated, I would listen to that and do it and not be bothered at all. That’s not what I’m talking about at all. Sorry. You must have read a different post on the forum and then came to this one and replied or something. Telling someone they are a f-ing idiot when they’re trying and just dying a lot bc they’re a noob, that’s not “criticism”, it’s just someone who treats other people like sht, period. And sorry, noobs do have a right to play, we may cause teams to lose sometimes, or a lot of times, that’s how it works with everything, everywhere in life, in case you haven’t been paying attention to a single thing in your entire life whatsoever.
you misinterpret what i said, you being new means that there are nuances that veteran players understand more than you. sie: dva DM’ing in front of their own soldier/mcree when they ult. which you might not have picked up if no one mentioned it.
The system has obviously placed you too high. Once your SR goes down you will begin having a 50% win ratio.
I have so many accounts on this game, most of them are in Masters and above, I have coached 2 of my friends from Platinum to Masters. I could go into a lot of detail but I don’t feel like writing a book when there are so many amazing guides out there. Go on YouTube and find a guide/coaching for the characters you play. I would suggest Jayne or you can watch high level play of characters you play, such as Flats (main tank), Emongg (off tank), KarlQ (support), ML7 (support), Jay3 (DPS).
Watch what they do, how they engage, where they position themselves on each map, when and why they counter pick (sometimes you can’t play the character you want depending on what the enemy has or because of the map).
If you want to climb and put the time and effort in researching you will climb! This goes for everyone.
I am very happy that a bronze player wants help to improve, since it’s usually arrogant plat players asking. I was in the same boat about a year ago, bronze tank and dps, and now I’m diamond tank/plat dps. Not high at all, but I did solo queue 99% of my games (not exaggerating).
I do want to help, but it does look like a lot of others have already offered to help. Good luck!
EDIT: Don’t ever swap because someone tells you to. That applies Bronze-Masters. Play who you like and swap when YOU think it’s necessary. If you get “countered” change your playstyle.
Example:
They have pharmercy and youre playing Reaper. Instead of just swapping, you can change your playstyle as Reaper to force the Pharah to come close to you so you can kill her. If she maintains her distance from you, then you can easily dodge her rockets since it’s a slow projectile. If she comes close to you and you can’t kill her, you’ve done your job as distracting the Pharah and you’ve given your team space to go ahead without worrying about the Pharah. It’s not as simple as this in every Overwatch game because there’s a lot more involved like timing, how far you should go into the backline, etc, but it should you provide you with a basic understanding of game sense in OW and how to change your playstyle.
That’s why Winston is strong, not because of how much damage he does, but because of his disruptive abilities. If he forces the healers to focus on him instead of their team, now their team doesn’t have heals and they have to deal with the Winston. If the Winston sees his bubble’s about to be destroyed or he’s attracted too much attention of the other team, he just jumps out and has done his job of being a distraction without dying.
Just remember to never die because YOU are the carry. That is the mindset of climbing. You belong in a higher rank? Then you are the smurf in that game and if you die, the fight/game’s lost.
One more great thing about Winston is that he is a “finisher”. I laugh when I play Winston and I have Gold elims on 1K damage. Let your team burn the enemy down to close to 1 health, then jump in, drop the shield and turn on the Tesla. Take a pick or two, then jump back out. Gold.
