So, I want to start playing multiplayer, but am too anxious to do so

I first played WC3 back in 2005 when my age was still in the single digits, in fact it was the first game I ever played. Since then I’ve played the campaigns and custom games vs bots more times than I can count.

The problem is that in those 14 years since I first played I’ve never actually played multiplayer and still struggle to beat the bots in the custom games that I make. I’ve played plenty of different RTS games before (starcraft 2 being the most relevant, although I didn’t play the multiplayer for that either. I also don’t think that all of the hundreds of hours that I’ve sunk into Total War games count for much here.) and I watch all of the championships, grubby’s twitch and other replays on youtube on a pretty much daily basis.

My quandry is, I’m anxious about being completely stomped repeatedly with no end, so how do I get good enough to reach a stage where I can actually compete with the current veteran players. Am I better off waiting for the release of reforged in order to have some players that might be my skill level to verse, or should I just find some guides, fight a few more bots and throw myself into the fray right now?

I should also mention that I’m playing from Australia and I mostly want to play as the Humans, but I’m not sure how important that either of those factors would be.

TL;DR: I want to know whether it’s worth trying to play multiplayer right now in order to git gud (suggestions for improving are totally welcome), without worrying about the humiliation that I’m likely to face from losing a bunch - OR - Should I wait for reforged to release so I might have some more equal foes to work my way up against.

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If you’re worried about games not being even close enough to enjoy, win or lose, then waiting for Reforged to pull in a larger playerbase and even out the skill level of the “average” player might not be a terrible idea. If it doesn’t bother you or you want to just smash your head into the wall, diving into the deep end isn’t a bad idea either though it’s a lot steeper of a learning process. It might make things harder to see where you’re going wrong or can improve if the losses are much more immediate or harder.

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I played this game on and off since I was super young also. For many years, I was exactly how you describe. Playing a standard “melee” game was too difficult and my family and friends who I played with had a lot more fun when we broke the melee games by adding cheat super units or infinite resources. I remember many games building dozens and dozens of night elf ancients as though I had created a “forest” of trees. I was playing the game not how Grubby would, not in a way that wins, but just for fun.

I went on like that for years. I am still not skilled in melee but I have won games when playing with other humans who I met face to face because they are often less skilled than the filtered subset of people who are willing to play online. The reason I can win is really interesting to me. I learned the techtrees the wrong way, through a laborious process that is not what is recommended to become skilled quickly. Basically, I learned what units existed because they were “the colors with which to paint a picture” you might say. They were the objects available to me in the World Editor.

But some of the greatest contributors to my melee skillset apart from modding and learning by experiencing the units and abilities in complex custom game environments was actually by playing 2v2 online alongside my cousin back around probably 2008 or 2010 or so. So, do not overlook the possible benefit of a solid friendship in this area. To be honest I have played thousands of hours of Warcraft III in general, and when I think about these games with my cousin they are a tiny subset of the games I have played on the Warcraft III engine, but they are probably the only games where I significantly cared about the outcome of a melee game, because he and I were trying to unlock the first tier Human icon.

So, that’s probably one of the keys. Realize that we are all human and find a buddy or two you can play with who motivate you to really care about the outcome of the games. Once you have that kind of pressure, if you’re like me, each game becomes a learning opportunity and you start improving every time that you play.

But it might be that if winning online is too hard, you could exploit the custom game world to learn things about the stats and abilities in an environment where you never feel like you lose. As a kid I really enjoyed running a single player map with 500 custom nonsense characters I invented just to brood over them and mess around and have them fight each other. Since they all inherited from the melee game, I would start to learn things: “Why cant this unit attack something magic immune? What ability can I use to dispel cheesy custom spell effects that last forever? Which race can get me access to the ability to take over control of enemy units?” The answers to these questions can be learned by experiences in custom maps where I cannot “lose.”

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Try playing 4v4, you have a lot more freedom, and a lot more room for error. It will help you learn the game and will help build up skills for 1v1 in the future.

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Try to find someone of similar skill to practice against. Maybe a friend who is also anticipating WC3R release, or someone on these forums or from another game you play. Playing against bots isn’t helping you though if you already know all the units and basics of the game play. Good luck friend!

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Alas, not a single one of my friends will even pick up an RTS game no matter how hard I beg them to, but I might look around to see if I can find someone else.

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I’m the same, I don’t like playing 1vs1 or 2vs2 because I get my 4ss handed to me, even be insane AI.

Start playing RT 4vs4 the ones called noob only. you will enjoy it.
I have won 4 and lost 1 :smiley:

it’s a way to start loosing that “oh sh1t I’m so bad, I’m gonna get raped by EVERYONE feeling”

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Best thing you can do is to learn to not be bothered by losses, regardless of the game. This would also improve you as person irl aswell imo.

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While I agree with this in principle, I also find it annoying when you just constantly lose, which is why I hate most competitive games where you have to start with nothing and just lose constantly until you can finally buy an upgrade or something. I know that isn’t an issue here, but the fact is that even if you can handle losses, losing every time really isn’t fun.

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if you want to practice with me some i can show you a few tricks to help get you started, let me know when your online and meet me on the uswest server

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What you’re describing is a personality flaw that many people share, it may not always manifest itself in video games but this flaw stops people from trying new things and being better people.

Playing against bots isn’t playing ladder; a person who has never played the game could benefit from the campaigns and a couple customs against bots to get to know the game, units, how to start. But the micro and macro skills developed and practiced in multiplayer don’t exist against bots.

It’s a game.
Play it, get stomped.
The match making will kick in and you’ll get better games, watch your replays and improve. If you’re already watching Grubby you already know the things you need to do, but actually doing them is completely different.

The first step to being good at something is sucking at something. Don’t fall for the lies about “natural talent”, do things, fail at them, and keep trying. That’s the only way you’ll do well.

And finally, it’s a game. Remember when you were a child? It’s a game.
When you did silly sh!t as a kid you knew it could easily lead to your loss, but you did it to have fun.

Play some multiplayer to have fun.

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It’s ok to be with 20% win rate or even lower. Just chill out, you’re gonna lose a lot anyways. This game is hard and it’s even harder in ladder so relax and just play. Use the time and practice to improve in ladder games. Then discard the account and create another to get that 95% win rate in the new account with all the battle hardened skin you got. Better learn now than getting embarassed in reforged.

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I don’t think it’s the win rate stat on some epeen increasing sheet that bothers people. It’s simply that when you get stomped every game, it really just isn’t fun. I also don’t think anyone is saying “I should be able to jump in and just win” what we are saying is when you are always playing against better players there is no room to get better because they just steamroll you in 5 mins. Every. Single. Game. And again that just isn’t fun. I have always just played with friends for this reason. None of us are very good and we’re at about the same skill level, which makes for more fun games and still gives us a chance to improve together.

Edit: Oh and we don’t have to deal with the elitists either. Those people are just toxic as hell and also make the experience that much worse.

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You guys think too much, just search ladder games and play. I guarantee that you won’t be stomped in every game. Some games you’ll play even, some games you’ll be stomped and some you’ll win. Just that. The more you play, watch your replays, pro replays, and keep playing the less you’ll lose.

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Hey mate, for the start try 2vs2 or 4vs4 matches, as more often you play as btter you will get… but take care… in 4vs4 is extremely toxity, raging, flaming and teamkillers/leavers, if you can ignore this it is good or basic training

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2v2 is the best. 3v3 isn’t bad. I honestly don’t have much experience in 1v1, never really cared for it.

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4v4 and perhaps 3v3 Random team is usually a chaotic mess and a lot of fun.
Unless you have team killers in the game :confused:

1v1 is kinda rough at this moment because even 50% win rate players can get matched against 80+% win rate players.
There is a LOT of map and race specific knowledge you need to be at least decent in 1v1.
If you lack that knowledge you are at a massive disadvantage and to obtain enough of that knowledge you need to spend a lot of time watching pros play and then trying to understand and learn what they know.

Honestly i would recommend sticking to 4v4 and perhaps 3v3 because 1v1 requires waaaay too much effort before you can start having decent matches.

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and why are you afraid of that? I mean it doesn’t hurt you, and noone will care about your stats unless you’re a pro/semipro anyway.

It’s not like people will spam with with “MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA NOOOB” all the time, and those people who harraas, will harras you anyway even if you had like 60-70% winrate.

So just stop worrying and start playing?

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Pro tip - auto-concede 20 games in a row to get right to the ocean floor.