Gain rating as solo queue,even possible?

[Deleted]

I finally, through solo queue, got to platinum. Mercy only.

I only did it because people in quickplay can be just the worst types of people.

"Nice gold bruh"

"You suck as Mercy"

"You suck as Mei"

You can block and report these kinds of people but when it comes down to it, tossing out such a lowblow is just petty. I really do wish "Avoid this Player" was a thing but nope, had to be removed because of *one* Widowmaker player complaining about it.

And the silver lining out of all this was I got motivated enough to earn ~350 SR to get platinum. And it got my interest in getting a better rank, but every single "pro" guide told me to not play support.

What the fuck kind of advice is that? Some people enjoy healing or playing supportive roles. I also learned how stupid the SR gain/loss system is.

During my road to platinum, I went from 2442 to 2438 and it stayed there for four losses. I lost nothing and gained nothing in the process. What? That makes no sense. Just earlier in S4 I did my placement matches and was at 2498, and lost 17 times in a row, went down to 2375 where it was stuck there up until recently when I got motivated by some trash talker and his two butt buddies to get a better rating.

This SR thing is very strange, confusing, and very inconsistent.

Last little bit is a friend of mine who is in Master ranking tells me it's hell for solo queue, namely support, in high platinum and low diamond rating and it's dubbed elo hell by many.

That comment was supported by several others with a quick google search. It killed my motivation to bother really anymore with comp. I will do my placements next season, hope I get platinum again, get my comp points, buy my gold weapon for Mercy, and be done with competitive for good until some of the factors of the game are addressed.

High play/low diamond is annoying because there's actually insanely different kind of players in there. There are Junkrat mains who are naturally next to useless in attack, but are very good in defense resulting in them winning some of their games even tho they "main" a kinda silly hero, which is enough to keep them floating at that rank. Then there's also some players who occasionally play incredibly well, but it's not consistent. They have some very good days, and then some very bad days. There's a lot of otherwise decent players who just completely lack the ability to play as a team and communicate, which keeps them at that rating probably forever. There's also ton of people who basically just got placed there 3 seasons ago and they keep floating there playing 20 games a season (there's actually surprisingly much of these).

Tbh, it's much easier to climb out of gold than it is to climb out from plat when playing solo. At least gold players are mostly just bad, so when you personally play better, you WILL get out of there. In platinum you have to rely a lot more on your team. But don't get me wrong, it's still possible to climb out of there. Just probably takes more time, so the trolls and whatnot get evened out.

[Deleted]

i'll just go out of my comfort zone and try pharah. thanks to Marweinicus, i might try that fierce pharah game play. i'll rot in my elo if i stick with reinhardt/zarya with random teammates who either support you or not.

Well thanks, but don't expect to just climb the ranks. Pharah is one of the hardest DPS heroes to play because most counter picks, you encounter very frequently. You very often see Soldier and McCree (More McCree at higher ranks) and Widow every now and then. There's also some indirect counters, most commonly Roadhog and Dva. And then there's Torbjorn, very annoying to deal with when you play dive, but not a problem when you're part of the 95% Pharah's who just stay in the back dealing trash damage). And other DPS Heroes like Tracer and Genji are hard to kill because they're dodgy. They're not counters, but not easy to kill, even more so if they're really experienced. Tracers tend to stay away from Pharah's, but Genji can still win a duel versus a Pharah, so he's usually more aggressive to you.

Now I'm playing the dive, lurk & pounce Pharah. I am up close. I deal with Soldiers and McCrees at close range. Get the drop on them. Get the first hit in, and you know you can win. I also focus mainly on the backline, kill the healers and squishies, which means I'm alone most of the time (Most KotH maps are best for Pharah, atleast, for my playstyle). Have the majority of the team go in, let them be focused by the enemy, then I go in and harass the enemy backline while they're busy. I get the picks, DPS heroes who get the picks, are the ones you want on your team.

There's only a few exceptions where I stay at long range and my only focus is to harass, deal damage, but not kill (But appreciate a kill when it happens ofc!). A good example is attacking first point Hanamura, I knockback myself up past the gate and get on that little rooftop where Soldiers like to go. From there I just spam missiles on the choke, or try and deal random damage to the healers. If you get damage, it's fine, there's a big medkit on the edge anyway, can get back in 1 second.

I'm around 400h in now and I've almost at 3700 (I don't do comp that frequently) and I'm almost at 90% winrate still.

Pharah best hero

Here's my stats if you're interested.

https://www.overbuff.com/players/pc/...de=competitive

Ranked ~1600 right now. And still climbing the ranks where I don't have much issues with the enemy team.

[Orangetai420]

I've been gaining back rank that I lost playing with my cousin. I was mid plat, he was high silver - we both ended up in low/mid gold after about 25 games. Since then I have been climbing out of gold and nearing plat again Solo Q.

I feel like I'm just gaining back rank instead of truly climbing, I'm hoping I can stabilize around mid plat and eventually make the climb to diamond as a solo Q.

Formerly a support main, I've picked up more of a flex role. I used to mainly play Zen, Lucio, Ana, Zarya and S76. I took some time off from comp to learn Roadhog, Torb, Reaper and Pharah and have been working them into my game. My current goal is to master these heroes and then add another tank - probably Rein but I enjoy Orisa too.

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This. I saw a Lucio only GM making fun of other people for being so low rank. Shit like this makes me want to punch those people in the face.

As much as I prefer to be healed by GM Ana's or hell, even Mercy. It doesn't come close to getting my respect when I see people climb to GM using Tracer or McCree or something.

Interesting, I feel exactly the opposite. DPS heroes have a huge impact on the game, it seems easier to "carry" with them. One tricking Lucio to GM is really impressive as you rely so much more on your teammates - getting that high as a support isn't a fluke - it means you really know your stuff and not only can you play mechanically, you are probably a good shot caller and leader.

[Deleted]

I
Interesting, I feel exactly the opposite. DPS heroes have a huge impact on the game, it seems easier to "carry" with them. One tricking Lucio to GM is really impressive as you rely so much more on your teammates - getting that high as a support isn't a fluke - it means you really know your stuff and not only can you play mechanically, you are probably a good shot caller and leader.

Oh don't get me wrong man. I value good support, you don't want to know. I can't do my job as well as I like if my heals aren't on point. But an Ana or Lucio are good in 95% of the situations. I like Zen and Mercy aswell, but they are harder to stay alive as. But I still value them no matter what.

DPS on the other hand aren't good in every situation. For me, it's very common to be up against multi hitscan. To outperform your 'counters' is what makes you a good DPS. And you have to protect your own healers, so they stop getting killed by that annoying Tracer or Genji. Obviously, it's a teamgame, one role can't perform when the other role isn't performing. I'm probably gonna suck when I'm not getting any heals. But to me, playing the DPS role is the hardest, because everything rests upon your shoulders (I mean, as a Pharah, I don't need my tanks, to a small degree I don't need healers 100% of the time either since I usually stick close to medkits).

I'm a bit spoiled though when it comes to healers. I have 2 GM healer main friends who are really good at what they do. It's very noticeable when you get focused on by your healers compared to when someone is forced to pick healer because every other slot is taken.

[Woobels]

I've started to put more and more hours in practicing my Tracer play and it's paying off, pretty confident that she's the best character to climb with (solo or in a stack) if you have the mechanical skill to pull it off.

GM might be pretty achievable if I keep it up.

[Deleted]

One tricking Lucio to GM is really impressive as you rely so much more on your teammates - getting that high as a support isn't a fluke - it means you really know your stuff and not only can you play mechanically, you are probably a good shot caller and leader.

True, if that Lucio one tricker is actually doing the things you said. Way too many of them barely say a word during the matches, even though they play the champion that's most suitable for the job by far.

[Endus]

True, if that Lucio one tricker is actually doing the things you said. Way too many of them barely say a word during the matches, even though they play the champion that's most suitable for the job by far.

When I'm playing Lucio (which is most of the time, since his buffs), I don't see how I'm the one "most suitable" for making calls.

I've got to be in the thick of the teamfights or I can't heal people. While I'm in there, I'm not just healing, I'm aggressively hitting, dodging, weaving, and booping everyone.

Any other healer is likely to be paying more attention to side routes and such, if we're under pressure. If we DON'T have a teamfight going on, then sure, I'm patrolling and using that speed boost and wall ride for everything I can, and I'll call stuff out then, but I just see Zenyatta or Ana being a "better" shotcaller than Lucio.

Plus, with the new boop, you have a LOT of potential to utterly ruin enemy advances. I've knocked their tanks off bridges (into Hanamura Point B, for example), I've booped people as they ult (Reinhardt Earthshatter, leaving him unable to capitalize, or D.va mech bombs, or even Reaper ults if I get the timing perfectly enough to not-die), and this is without getting into instant-death pits. I've won rounds by keeping people off the point, or clearing it for those vital seconds we need to get the cap.

I'm not a master-class player, by any means, but I'm already getting way better at this stuff, and keep finding new things to abuse.

[Advent]

True, if that Lucio one tricker is actually doing the things you said. Way too many of them barely say a word during the matches, even though they play the champion that's most suitable for the job by far.

I'm not sure that's true, but in any case, what's to say that person is even willing to, or comfortable with making calls? I know I wouldn't be, because I generally don't like talking to strangers on voice chat, even if it is for the benefit of a so-called "team".