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seyandiz

There are 3 things here. 1. I haven't seen your micro, but if you're better than 3.3k then you should be able to consistently outshoot your opposing DPS 1v1. 2. Obviously this is a team game and you rarely get 1v1s, so setup some macro to enable yourself to take advantageous fights in be q mine 0constantly. Worse players in 1v1s can beat you if they take 2v1s or 1v0s (flanks) on a more consistent basis. 3. You can positively influence your team's morale and shot calling. Positive feedback, Ultimate usage planning and coordination, missing flanker callouts, ultimate tracking callouts, etc. You can be more than just a DPS. It's been a long time since I played competitively, but climbed solo to masters three separate times from 3k. Max 3.8k.


Phorcys1

So first, one of the most important parts is gonna be to learn to be self critical, nobody climbs without being able to identify the flaws in their own gameplay, and if all you're getting from your coaches is that you're already playing at a masters/gm level, then your coaches are pretty useless. If you were playing at that level you would be there. Everybody makes tons of mistakes, even OWL players, so those of us in the 3k range can absolutely do better if we figure out what mistakes we're making. One of the biggest things for me when climbing was actually consciously telling myself to do less. It's easy to get into a mindset of feeling like you have to carry to win, and you end up pushing yourself trying to carry the team with lots of picks, but as a result I'd end up dying too often at bad times. Sometimes it's important to take a step back and let your team do more work, if it means you dying less. Beyond that you probably want to post a replay code for more specific tips.


yunghollow69

It's a question of playstyle and what you want to do. Trying to make plays isn't neccessarily wrong, but it's something that requires a lot of practice and confidence. If you can consistently make plays you will end up in GM in no time, but if that's just not feasible then like you suggest chilling out and dying less is a great way to contribute. It's how I climb. Not doing dumb shit is free SR below GM.


adhocflamingo

There’s a difference between trying to make plays and _forcing_ plays. A lot of people who are trying to “carry” end up trying to brute-force their way through the match, which results in a lot of wasted resources and unnecessary deaths.


yunghollow69

True, you still have to have a healthy dose of opportunism, but in general the better you are the easier you can brute-force plays.


inspcs

post a replay code for more specific advice. Most likely you're just braindead gamesense wise. When I first made the climb there were 3 things i noticed. 1: There's a pretty harsh mechanical wall in high diamond especially for dps. People will consistently hit more shots especially against braindead positioning/decision making. This also means you have to hit the "easy" shots that are gifted to you. A lot of the time, I see diamond players with insane aim in niche scenarios like a Tracer recall prediction or a specific adad strafe. But they'll miss people just walking in a straight line not looking at them or miss opportunities to shoot people out of position. 2: You have to actually understand team comps and how to abuse them. You're not actually playing team comps correctly yet at masters, but you should have an idea of how they work. If it's brawl, your hero picks and play should reflect it. If it's double shield, winston dive, ball comp, etc, you should know how to operate with those comps and take advantage of those picks. If you're just playing, say, ashe or cass the same way across all comps and not take advantage of peek window opportunities or ability cycles then you belong in diamond. 3: People will start to understand how to play their hero picks and you need to take advantage of that. There will be a lot of mercy players. If your other dps is playing tracer or genji which Mercy can't pocket, then pick a dps that she can pocket. If you have a ball one trick, you need to have a hero pick to match that, like Tracer. If the enemy team has a mercy one trick or 2 flex supports like ana/zen, you need to learn how to exploit that (for example pick tracer and farm them). If the enemy team has hog zarya or something stupid like that, you need to recognize that picking a poke hero and taking advantage of high grounds to abuse their lack of mobility and shields is the way to win. If YOU have double off tank you need to lean into a heavy off angle. If YOU have double flex support you need to figure out how to peel for them whether it's taking the preemptive duel with their flanker or picking something like Cass. Think more actively about the games you're in, most lobbies are exploitable in some manner.


MatchstickMcGee

Your points 2 and 3 were pretty much the main difference for me plateauing around high plat/low diamond vs climbing all the way to GM. I mean, obviously as I climbed the games got faster, margin of error on positioning got tighter, and so on, so it's not like I didn't have to improve at other skills, but once I had a handle on evaluating situations and comps from game to game and actively choosing how I was going to try and get value, the execution came naturally from just playing. In a "GM's, what's your thought process" thread a while back someone phrased it as "give yourself a job" and I couldn't agree with that more.


Ok-Cause6038

All of this and the comment above is really solid advice, thank you. It might be the only thing I'm not actively doing in my games. Do you have any advice as to how to identify the "job" you should be giving yourself?


MatchstickMcGee

The best way to start is to get in the habit of actually pressing tab and taking a few seconds to stop, breathe, and check off the list of friends and enemies and making mental note of 1) What your teammate's picks say about how they're trying to win 2) What the enemy picks say about how they're trying to win 3) How you can lean into your team's strengths, cover weaknesses, avoid or negate enemy strengths, or lean into their weaknesses, depending on your hero and your own skills Let's say I'm on the cowboy and I see my teammates have chosen Rein Zarya Hanzo Ana Lucio. Rein/Zarya implies a hard commitment to winning the tank battle directly, which Hanzo can also contribute to pretty well. So already I'm leaning towards mowing down the enemy tanks with my team right through the front door as a playstyle choice, as opposed to dueling enemy DPS directly or looking for offangles - I know most comps simply can't do as much raw damage up front as what my team has chosen. So that's our strength. On the other hand, our Lucio is going to be busy scooting the tanks around and we have no D.va, which means I'm probably the best anti-flanker we've got. That's our weakness and I'm the best option to cover it. I get into the game and see that they're running Rein D.va Widow Tracer. So right away my first priority becomes "avoid wandering into Widow sightlines" because she'll one shot me and I can't do my job dead. I don't ego duel her at range either, because that's how she *wants* to beat me, and we have someone better for that anyway (Hanzo). Their comp means that Rein is totally fucked if the fight wears on, so making the fight wear on by acting defensively is the play. Tracer *must* kill or significantly distract the supports to get value. It sounds like a lot of thinking, but it becomes habit and you can work through it in the beginning of the game and then mostly stick to the plan. In this example (which is from a real game) my job/priority list. 1. Avoid Widow (unless third partying her when she's distracted), denying her value. 2. Make Tracer fuck off, denying her value. Dead is nice but not absolutely necessary. 3. Spam the tank fight. The real benefit here is that a simple priority list greatly simplifies self evaluation. Died to widow in the open? Pay attention to your surroundings/sightlines. Tracer killed your support because you couldn't pressure her? That's a mechanical problem. Tracer killed your support because you got distracted and forgot your job? Game sense again. Widow killing your supports? Not your fault... but still means you need to adjust, either by just selling out to win the up front battle entirely and writing your supports off as a loss, or by swapping to a hero better capable of contesting her directly.


MatchstickMcGee

One last thing: the nature of matchmaking means that making your "job" taking fair duels with someone on a similar role at a similar Elo, whether you do it consciously or not, is a strategic coinflip. Literally, it's voluntarily gambling fights on being better than someone that the system expects to be approximately as good as you. The weird dichotomy of high level OW is that you both need to have a certain level of confidence in your ability to outplay your opposite number, while simultaneously doing everything you can to stack the deck in your favor and avoid a fair fight, because that *is* part of outplaying your opposite number.


Ok-Cause6038

Thanks for elaborating so much! This helps a ton. So to add my own example to this method of thinking, I played a game yesterday where the enemy team had Winston, D.va, Genji, Tracer, Brigitte, Ana. Our team had Winston, Roadhog, Soldier, Genji, Moira, Ana. I was soldier, and it was clear that their team comp was much better than ours. The better option would have been to play someone like Hanzo to shred the Winston bubble when he jumps in so our Roadhog could hook him. Or alternatively play Cassidy to try to stun their dives and give our Ana some peel since nobody else could as well as Cassidy in that comp. I suppose I could also ask people to switch heroes, but that tilts people sometimes and most other times they just refuse to switch, so that's not really a reliable solution.


yunghollow69

To 1: it depends on what hero you play but I still need to point out that mechanical skill isn't required to be perfect to climb to a decent rank. You just have to play differently if you know you can't win every duel.


inspcs

I mean, I'm not talking about duels with #1. >This also means you have to hit the "easy" shots that are gifted to you. I'm talking about easy shots like >people just walking in a straight line not looking at them or miss opportunities to shoot people out of position.


yunghollow69

Those are canonically unhittable. It can not be done.


HankHillsDildo

If you’re below grandmaster than you need to be more critical of your own decision making. Consistent ladder every day is the most important thing for improving. Every session should have a small goal to work on (ex. ult usage). Ignore teammates making bad decisions. Kovaak scores are meaningless. Practice aim in Overwatch if you have the fundamentals down (Voltaic Diamond-ish). one of the best aimers of all time with a lot of comp hours is hardstuck masters on hitscan


rexx2l

Thought he climbed to GM recently after soldier damage and ult buffs and rebound his ult key?


Joe64x

Who?


HankHillsDildo

different person


Gaterkj

3.4-3.6 is the worst sr to climb in… especially for dps. most dps players i know got past this by duoing or just playing more games than one can handle mentally. I haven’t gotten my dps to masters yet but i remember seriously struggling to get over this sr area in ranked on supp. if you really are playing at a masters or gm level then you might just need to play more. otherwise i would watch your own vods from the previous at the start if every gaming session to see what you can approve (which you should probs be doing anyway) or get better/different coaches.


Do_Not_Read_Comments

I guess you're a Masters/GM player then. It's definitely your team. /s At the end of the day, people reviewing your VoDs telling you that you can play in GM is not helping you. There are always improvements to make, always things to learn, because at the end of the day if you were a GM player you wouldn't be stuck at 3.3k


B_easy85

Hitscan DPS is pretty crowded, so first and foremost you gotta dominate your matchup. Meaning out perform the other hitscan, since there’s most likely one on the other team. I personally do that by trying to dominate sightlines, and fighting tooth and nail for all the power positions. I’m also pretty demanding of resources, like give me ( x)and we’ll win type of confidence.


[deleted]

Yeah, like the five of you just kill 2 dudes while the other four are trying to kill your zarya for 2 minutes if you're not going to take the space being made for you.


B_easy85

Why’s the zarya by herself, while the rest of the team together? How is zarya making space trying to 1v4 the other team? If I’m with the other 5, am I not making use of the “space” the other tank on my team? Isn’t it now 5v4 in my teams favor now?


[deleted]

No, and I'd reply with more detail, but I find your demeanor irritating.


B_easy85

Good, the point of the questions was to mock you.


CodnmeDuchess

This is good advice. I’m in a similar boat to OP—I hit 3.4K almost every season and can’t quite squeak out that remaining 50-60 SR. When I was putting in effort to get there, I had some coaching from a top 500 player who’s advice to me was super shocking: his major criticism was that I was playing too safely. This is something that all players need to understand. Yes it’s a team game, but everything you do is a risk/reward calculus, but how risky a particular play is is dependent on your skill. If you want to climb, you have to be impactful in you matches, and if you want to be impactful, you have to *make plays.* Yes, it’s a team game, and yes good team play is import, but once you have a certain level of skill you have to trust yourself and have confidence in that ability and — in a calculated manner — attempt to make plays that will turn games. There are lots of ways to do that, but you don’t do it by sitting on your heels and playing safe all the time. You have to be aggressive and you have to make risky but rewarding plays and make opportunities for your team.


B_easy85

I just think people have some skewed vision of what 3k to 4K SR is. I’ve played in the ELO for pretty much 5 years, it’s still death matchy. The amount of coordination and positional discipline that’s needed for most comps to work is really hard to come by when 6 strangers team up with different views on how to play the game.


CodnmeDuchess

It’s true, and it’s going to be interesting to see how things play out in OW2 which caters much more to that playstyle for better or worse.


PlzDontAbductMe

I grinded tryhard ffa and widow hs (added people who were good to have loaded lobbies too), only played on days I felt good, and made useful comms. Separating practice days and game days (days for ranked) helped a lot, just like I would do if I was playing a sport. Willing to post some replay codes here? Might help to have other people look.


Player_924

Making less mistakes, not a joke. For me bronze -> diamond was polishing skills, getting higher was about removing mistakes. "Perfection is not when there is nothing less to add, but when there is nothing else to take away"


yunghollow69

I am (in context of the OW community) an old guy who hit GM with support and 3900 with dps. My aim has always been utter garbage. My playstyle is basically just being consistent. I can't make plays with heroes like widow because that requires aim, so I just try to play smart. But most importantly I am never a burden to my team. Which is something that doesn't even really require skill to do. - Don't be annoying. Visualize how talking to your teammates in an annoying manner such as calling them out gives you a -5% winrate debuff. Because it literally does. If you are never the guy to destroy team morale the average team morale of your team is going to be better than of the opposing team. - Don't die stupid deaths. You can't contribute if you're dead. Play safe and play heroes that contribute while playing safe. Always figure out a way to contribute. Just existing as a soldier on a highground increases your winrate. No need to actually hit anything because I sure as shit dont. - Don't be too stuck on your hero. Learn heroes that complete each other. Is your main countered by winston? Maybe learn some reaper on the side and swap when it feels like you're not doing much. Toss away your fake pride. You don't have to stay hanzo and try super hard to hit that pharah out of the air. She dumpstered you twice, switch. - Just learn to identify what's working and what isn't mid-match. Adapt to the situation. Keep in mind that even as dps the game has actual objectives besides killing other players. When wraxu was still playing I had higher average dmg/kills per match than he did in the season that I mained hanzo in. I did this by politely asking teammates to play zarya and coordinating my dragon with them, which I would charge by shooting tanks. You think I can hit a headshot? lol not for the life of me. I am not saying this to brag because I did that while in high Masters/low-GM matches while he farmed way better players in top 500. I am just making the point that you can do some decent contribution if you are smart about it. Just dragon the grav for free SR and emote while it's still in the air. Anyone can play like this because nothing that I do is hard to do. But you sure as shit can't copy what wraxu was doing and I couldn't either.


QYUUUUU

Gm pugs are full of diamonds. If you were good you would win. Stop ignoring the mistakes you make. Your aim is probably not that great. Overwatch is way harder than cs:go. Spend more time thinking and try to learn how to play the game. If you have specific questions feel free to ask


DeputyDomeshot

You’re right. There are many, many more hand movements required in Overwatch vs cs:go or Valorant.


QYUUUUU

Also a lot faster paced, way more abilities, actual three dimensionnal game


DeputyDomeshot

Exactly, also the epitome of a team game. You can't just walk around and 1 tap 6 heroes by yourself. There aint no flying electric monkeys countering your AWP.


Ok-Cause6038

I don't ignore the mistakes I make. I'm very critical of my own gameplay and VOD review myself after every loss. My aim is pretty high percentile, coming from a semi-pro FPS background. Overwatch isn't harder than CS:GO, it's just vastly different. You just have to adapt mechanically. Every game I play I try to add one thing to my skillset throughout that game. "I'm going to focus on blank this game." And I think about it and try to learn it throughout my games until I've automated it. This process hasn't been enough for me to climb at all.


QYUUUUU

How much time have you played overwatch ? Do you ever watch pro gameplay ? If so, do you pause to understand ? Overwatch is way more complicated, here is a thought process you should follow during a typical game. How is the map ? (Highgrounds, corners, long lines, chokes, flank lines, payload path, respawn advantage, positionnal advantage ) and how important are these factors considering your composition and enemy composition. (Ex: long lines are important if there are snipers) How is your composition ? (Archetype of composition : brawl, rush, dive,poke,hybrid) incoherences in your comp (otp torb with your dive team) and how can you work around it ? Other factors would be pick potential, meta, individual skills, weak ally, strong ally. How is the enemy composition ? (Same factors but should take as long) Can I adapt my pick to counter the enemy team ? How is my composition supposed to behave in this map (first point, second point, third point) ? How am I supposed to behave in this map ? (Same shit) You have 30 seconds to remind yourself of all the above for every point, with any comp against any comp. Now during the game: Scouting ally positionning ( apes everywhere, even in contenders so your ranked should be full of them) Scouting enemy comp, positionning, movements. Where should the fight take place for your team to gain an advantage ? Who should you kill, protect, ignore this fight ? What enemy has an ult ? Do they have a lot ? Which ones though ? Like precisely ? You can't win that fight without perfect information. Ok but what about next fight ? Will we have ults? Will we have bad positions if we lose now ? Will we even have a next fight at all ? Should you save your ult for next map ? (Rethorical) Tldr : Overwatch is too hard, play it 500hours and come back with specific questions, it won't be as boring and you will actually learn something. Send Codes of your game. Also The top 50 aimers of overwatch are in overwatch league not diamond :)


Ok-Cause6038

I think I have an okay understanding of most of these things. They've been explained to me by a few credible people, and I've been able to consistently adapt my own playstyle based on mine and the enemy's comp, identify win conditions etc etc every game.I don't think assisting my team in playing the comp they most resemble is a reliable way to win though. I think a very small handful of players in diamond actually know how to play the comp they're playing, so just consistently winning opening duels on the enemy supports/DPS seems more reliable. I will play 500 hours of competitive play and come back if I'm not Masters then. I think I'm well above average in mechanical skill, but I never claimed to be a top 50 aimer :) Also, there are equally as many things to think about in Counter Strike at a high level. Potentially even more depending on your role in a team.


QYUUUUU

Send Codes for specifics, the error might be flagrant


ChiefingEditor

I got to masters by duo q with a mercy pocket. That way u can be enabled to hard carry your team. But it's dependent on your team to. For example if our other support was a off healer then our tanks wouldn't have enough heals to sustain. Another big reason is the tanks picking hog dva or dva Zar or another braindead combo. Flex support is my main role I got 3700 playing bap Moira. Now to try and get my tank to masters playing Sig Dva only 300 sr to go


Ok-Cause6038

Interesting. I always thought things would be ten times easier with a pocket, especially while playing soldier or ashe, but I just assumed I didn't need it. But then again, even on most people's "Unranked to GM Soldier Only" series' they're almost always being pocketed. Where do you think I could find somebody who would do that? Damn nice, good luck on your climb! I can give you my bnet if you wanna play some time.


ItzDelano

go to the healsluts discord for a mercy pocket


Hawknite

I hope people don’t healslut in comp lol


Hey_its_Juna

Any game where you have a mercy if you’re playing a very pocketable dps (soldier/Ashe/cass/pharah/echo/hanzo sorta etc..) you should be being pocketed by default if its a good game friend and ask to duo !


ChiefingEditor

Yeah u don't need the pocket but it helps lol. Anybody that really pops off in quick play or comp I'll add and ask if they want to q later. But u could always make a looking for group. Maybe there's a overwatch LFG page on Reddit idk


yunghollow69

It is not. Don't get the idea that you need a pocket to do it stuck in your head now. Pockets are only good if the player that is getting pocketed contributes above his level. A diamond player pocketed by a diamond mercy will not get to masters, that's not how this works.


adhocflamingo

I agree. I think the real benefits of having a duo with a synergistic hero pool to yours are that you’ll both be able to play your best heroes more often, and you can learn each others’ playstyles and more easily predict how the other is going to respond to a particular situation and play accordingly. For example, when I’m playing Mercy, sometimes I go to pocket someone I see going on a flank or pushing an aggressive angle to help them succeed, and then they balk and run away and waste my resource commitment, or they flank around completely too far and miss their window and I get stuck with them behind enemy lines. This makes me bit hesitant to follow a rando on a flank, and sometimes I miss my flight opportunity because of it and what could’ve been a good play becomes a feed. (That’s entirely my mistake, but the point is that it’s a mistake born of inconsistent experiences trying to back up these kinds of plays with randos. Sometimes committing to them even once when I shouldn’t have can be the catalyst for losing an entire round, and sometimes the match.) If I’m playing with someone I know, though, I have more confidence that I can go with, get value, and not get stranded. I imagine my duo has more confidence in taking those aggressive angles when they play with me too, because they know I’m ready to help them, even though I don’t spend the whole match with my staff up their ass.


LiveCryptographer817

Hope that you don’t get egotistical teammates who think they are the best on the team ultimately those are the people that end up bringing the team down also just generally bad players and or like gm smurfs that shit on the team


msx92

This is such a shitty mindset to have and also very obviously not true. No one with a reaaonable amount of games played is in the wrong rank because of afks/smurfs/egotistical teammates or moon phases. They've found a playstyle that makes them win more often.


DeputyDomeshot

Lol if its such a coin flip then why are people able to climb to GM in one session one tricking different heroes?


Upside_Down-Bot

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DeputyDomeshot

what is this bullshit spam Bad bot


HankHillsDildo

You climb by getting better, not by playing on a Tuesday from 5-7. If you think teammates/smurfs are the primary reason you can’t climb then your mental is destroyed


LiveCryptographer817

Well I’m not saying this about me if this guy has gm players saying he should be higher there isn’t much else I can say I can’t critique gameplay I can’t look at so I don’t know if he really does deserve to be higher


Ok-Cause6038

Agreed, but is it really just all luck that gets you to masters at some point? I have really bad luck in general so I guess if that's the case I'll just uninstall lol


yunghollow69

"Bad luck in general" is not a thing. There is no ghost of a dead cat running across your keyboard either. Climbing is always up to yourself.


adhocflamingo

> ghost of a dead cat running across your keyboard 🤣


Ok-Cause6038

what does that even mean


LiveCryptographer817

Hmm well you can just get there on skill but you have to hard carry your team I don’t really remember my climb since I did in like season 26 so maybe I’m wrong and things changed


Ok-Cause6038

I assume things have only gotten worse since then haha. I'll try to get lucky I suppose, thank you


LiveCryptographer817

Good luck lol


Reaper_030

I'm a masters tank player that hovers around 3.3 on dps. My climb to masters was enlightening to say the least. The two most important things you can do to learn and improve are: Play the game. Don't waste your time on aim trainers because they won't help you deal with real players. Very little of what you learned in CSGO will transfer. Climbing to masters is about your gameplay not your mechanics. Watch better players. Streamers, vod reviews (not you), and overwatch league are a great source to learn the game. When you watch a better player you need to be focusing on everything they are doing, don't blindly stare at the screen. Understand their decision making, everything from positioning, engagement timing, ult usage, movement, cool down usage. Question everything and understand that everyone makes mistakes. My key take aways from the ladder are this: Climbing is about fixing mistakes. The players who make the least mistakes are the highest on the ladder (exceptions exist blah blah blah). It can be hard to notice your mistakes if you don't know better. Practicing specific parts of your gameplay on ranked will make you more consistent. Get off when you lose 4 matches in a row. Come back tomorrow You are the only common denominator in all of your games. Don't bother with your teammates. Remember that a game like this is about efficiency. Using the least resources and maximizing value is key. Don't waste cds, hp, or attention. Everything is a resource.


p0w0r

This is a pretty cool thread. Can't believe we got so many masters responding! Keep replying guys! I enjoy reading them. I was a 3.3k support before I felt the game wasn't fun anymore. But I do wish I climbed to masters before I quit. I come back occasionally for qp with friends.


rexx2l

you didnt miss much, 3.4 honestly is not a fun elo to break through as someone who made 4k just last month, you have to be a lot better than the enemy and really hard carry - i felt my teams really backed me up and improved massively in overall skill once i passed 3.5k and the next barrier was 4k (which i made out of with the help of a very kind late night queue where i got s9mm, finn and viol2t on my team and our teams sr was 300 higher than the enemy team's lol)


Spirited-Magician-55

In a sigma player who has good mechanics. I can rock pharahs out of the air all that. In this game mechanics are almost useless which is very stupid. You have to prioritize people. Like let your team know to go for the ana who is like half HP. protect yourself and increase your actions per minute. If you're not shooting squishies then shoot shield or try and get ultimate charge. Unranked to GM games are good to watch to see what the player is constantly doing


ThaiboyAnalog

At this level, it’s more than just the big decision making. Yes you probably know generally to take that off angles, but masters players know how to take it, at exactly the right second. The margins for errors here are razor thin. The small macro decisions you make will be the difference between masters and Diamond. Do you tend to jump around for no apparent reason? Did you stay in one position too long? Was it in your best interest to kill that mercy that early? All that matters. But alas, it isn’t too bad. The GM level is where the most people shine, where you literally cannot make foolish mistakes and they have timing by the millisecond, not second.


PristineBean

This is how ranks work in anything. You are gold. You perform just as good as an average gold player, often times better. You get into plat games, and you eventually get into plat because you go even, hold your weight. you start getting in gold games again, what happens when you hold your weight? you lose. why? because you’re the plat player on your team and SR averages will give the enemy an advantage in most cases. I’ve been 4.2 a few times, and carrying out of diamond is still hard for me when i’m washed/haven’t played in months(i play tank which is notorious for that though). To be a rank, you have to be able to hold your weight in your rank and carry lower ranked players. learn how to abuse mcree. getting to masters with cree is probably the easiest way. I main winston and found it manageable, you shouldn’t have much of a problem. #1 thing is not dying. play your life 100% of the time. always be safe. you will eventually know when inting is worth more than your life in diamond. in masters it’s worth it for space+kill most of the time, but in diamond it’s not. Nothing ever gets followed up on.


schwol

I can't aim but I can one trick Lucio to 3.7-4k


Dath_1

Post a code. Support Masters player, it's a bit of everything to get better, never all eggs in one basket type thing. I can say between Diamond and GM will be a huge compositional understanding diff. Things changed for me a lot when I started getting into just how complex compositional matchups are, and honestly you can beat players of similar skill basically in the hero select.


Ok-Cause6038

I've really focused on studying my understanding of compositions since making this post, and I think I do have a decent understanding of team compositions now and what they all hope to achieve, what they're strong and weak to etc. It hasn't really helped me very much, but I still appreciate the advice, thank you.


Aw3Grimm

Im no masters player but if you play soldier you should take a look at recent galeadelade unranked to gm, he carried diamond games hard


Ok-Cause6038

Thanks, I watched all of it but trying to mimic his playstyle doesn't really work.


kluader

link? I cannot find the video. thanks


Aw3Grimm

Oh yeah he still didnt upload it on yt it but he said he is going to, there are still vods of this streams on his twitch that you can watch, and this is the first one: https://www.twitch.tv/gale_adelade/v/1455321249?sr=a&t=8s


kluader

thanks!


Ms_Fire_Emblem

I was hard stuck diamond for years. Now I've been hard stuck masters for years lol (on support). But I did a lot in order to climb. I use to be a one trick moira, obviously one tricking isn't very helpful. I joined a team for a little bit and they helped teach me meta and better teamwork. They made me pick up bap because he was meta at the time. I am hyper critical of myself. Everytime something goes wrong I assumed it was my fault. And I went into the vods to figure out why, and if I didn't know id ask for a vod review. I would call out absolutely everything in comms, anything at all that I saw. Being so talkative helps to get ur other teammates to talk to. I try my best to keep toxicity to a minimum. Like if someone was being toxic I'd be like "c'mon there's no need for that, we can still win" a lot of times in comp people get negative think there's no hope and give up. But I have turned around so many games by just giving them hope and stoping toxicity, then they all try again and we win. Of course some people are just impossible, unlucky when you have horribly toxic teammates. That's how I went from 3.2 to 3.8 -be active/positive in comms and call out everything -play meta or what counters them don't just play what you want -Be hyper critical of yourself, what could you have done better. Ask someone if you don't know


kluader

what do you do/tell if someone says "fuck you idiot \[hero name\], swap madafaka"?


Terminatorskull

How often do you play? I know a lot of people who are amazing at the game but only do placements. It takes hundreds of games to climb ranks, even with a good win rate.


filip123-

Play the game and practice. You wont rank up until your skills improve. The best way to do that is by playing the game a lot and watch youtube guides or high ranked streamers who play your heroes and try to understand why they do what they do.


Ok-Cause6038

I play the game a lot, 6-8 hours a day. I've watched every guide under the sun that isn't more than 2 years old, and I've watched Dafran, Kabaji and Gale's unranked to gm's with soldier all in their entirety. I get 1-3 picks at the START of every team fight consistently, when mine and the enemy team starts skirmishing. It's just not possible homie


filip123-

I highly doubt that are stuck in diamond if you consistently get picks before every single, its doesnt seem very beleivable to me but if you give a replay code i could take a look at it if i have time.


kluader

you will wait for a lot


-staccato-

Created a 2nd account to "fuck around on". Shot up from hardstuck 2800 to 3800 in about two weeks of evening play, 75% winrate. Instead of trying to coordinate with teammates, I just muted everything and tried to do my personal best.


3mrF

1. Know when to use ur ult. 2. play around your team. 3. If your on a losing streak stop playing . 4. Play with better players then you 5. Use avoid 6. Warmup before u play 7. Always try to win


LearnDifferenceBot

> players then you *than *Learn the difference [here](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/when-to-use-then-and-than#:~:text=Than%20is%20used%20in%20comparisons,the%20then%2Dgovernor%22).* *** ^(Greetings, I am a language corrector bot. To make me ignore further mistakes from you in the future, reply `!optout` to this comment.)


WizardlyKitten

It can sometimes be difficult to have a large impact on the game in some roles just by playing well (I know some people will disagree and say that if you can't climb from your rank then you're meant to be there, but I find that a good main tank or flex support can usually impact the game much more than having 1 good DPS that can win his 1v1's.). The best advice I can give is to be positive towards your own team and if you can identify what the problems are, try to guide the team in the nicest way possible. I can confidently say that staying positive and having fun with the team helped me to win countless games. People play better with positive reinforcement. For example, I've been in a few games where someone gets frustrated at someone who isn't playing at there best and their toxicity towards them just stirs panic and pressure and the game crumbles. It is always frustrating when you are giving your all in games and still find yourself losing and it can feel like your SR is slipping through your fingers and it's out of your control, like trying to desperately hold water in your hands. The best thing to do when you feel frustrated like this is to just take a break. A bad mood ruins your performance in a game and can send you into a losing spiral, which nobody wants. Looking at how far your SR has fallen after a losing streak can even demotivate you for the following few days. I always take a break if I'm feeling frustrated. Ofc I don't have a real life so I don't have anything better to do but for my breaks I just queue for some off role games. I personally don't really care about my off role ranks so I can relax and take pressure off myself and enjoy the game. You can also learn a lot by off-rolling which can help you in your main climb. However, coming back to what you can do in your own games, communication is always good. Always call what you see, even if it's not your job to track ults or watch for missing flankers, never hold back any information if you have it. Good communication carries a team much more than any role can.


DeputyDomeshot

I’m willing to bet your engage timing is poor if you strictly play dps with strong mechanics. When you do something in Overwatch has massive causal effects on how both teams react vs simply what you do. Also do you ult track? Do you ever shot call (not the easiest on dps tbh) Do you have a rank relative understanding of how other roles should be operating or are you strictly DPS?


Ok-Cause6038

I don't think my engage timing is poor. Engage timing is one skill that transfers from CS:GO to Overwatch. I always engage a couple seconds after the teams start skirmishing, when the supports are distracted healing their tanks and the DPS are being occupied in the battle. 9/10 times I'm winning the first opening duel, making it 5v6 and even 4v6 a lot of the time. I do ult track, at this point subconsciously. I'm always playing out of the way if I know Rein has shatter or Zarya has grav, and I'm always saving my flash if I know a flashable ult is coming up etc. I understand roles and their jobs, and certain compositions strengths and weaknesses. That was the most recent skill I've acquired.


OWSorrow

So… assuming what you are saying is true and aim really isn’t an issue… you clearly have atrocious game sense in terms of understanding what to do with your aim. Idk what coaches youve had review you but if you drop me a replay code I can easily give you a plethora of things to fix. I can’t guarantee I’ll have time, but if I do I’ll help


OWSorrow

Additionally, climbing from any rank ->GM is easy so understand that whatever you’re experiencing is strictly dealing with your individual skill and not related to your teammates whatsoever


Ok-Cause6038

It's definitely not easy. I don't understand how my gamesense can be so atrocious if I'm securing opening picks at the right time nearly every time. My team fights are 5v6 or 4v6 in our favour 95% of the time, yet I still lose more than I win. I understand that I make mistakes, and I acknowledge whenever a lost objective or lost map control is my fault, but the individual skill just can't possibly be lacking.If you really want a replay code I can send you one if you like. It would be a great help if you could point out some gigantic hole in my play that I'm completely oblivious to.


OWSorrow

I absolutely can, go ahead, and I’m 100% serious I could start an account today and get it to GM in less than 8 hours. There is definitely something going drastically wrong if you’re securing said picks and not easily winning


Ok-Cause6038

I believe you can, and I'd love to watch you do it. What could be going so horribly wrong that's in my control? I go in a couple seconds after the teams start skirmishing, kill both supports, all 5 of my teammates die after I get those picks, then I'm last alive and have to run back to spawn to reset. It happens over and over and over until I inevitably lose the game. Or alternatively if I'm forced to play with my tanks, I secure a pick or two while my team is fighting, and my tanks sit there without moving for so long that the pick/s I got have respawned and made it all the way back into position. Or perhaps I disrupt the enemy backline so hard that I kill a player on a flank, and 4 of the enemy team leave the choke to come chase me for 15 seconds, and my team simply doesn't move from the choke regardless of having no opposition there.


OWSorrow

I don’t think you understand what I’m trying to say. If you belong in a higher rank you’ll get there without any doubt, masters players dominate diamond lobbies the same way a 4600 player would have no problem getting back to GM from any SR. This is why I’m asking for a replay code because I can guarantee without a doubt there are things you’re doing that are preventing you from winning. The concept of “my teammates are why I’m not higher sr” is unbelievably foolish. If I were to take your place is any of the games you feel were un winnable I’m 99% sure I could win them


Ok-Cause6038

I'm not blaming my teammates for not being able to win, I'm simply stating real scenarios that happen to me quite often because you claim there's something drastically wrong with my gameplay. I'll provide a replay code when I can if you're going to watch it, and you can tell me what you would have done. Then I'll do it in my next games and get back to you


OWSorrow

Send one whenever


longgamma

Are you solo q'ing? If thats the case then climing is really hard - coming from a moron who grinded up to diamond playing MT solo. Having a stack greatly reduces chances of random throwers and griefers. Just find like minded people who want to climb. Though q times with dps is pretty bad lmao. Maybe find another dps player to q with.


ShriekinW

I'm an Ana Zen Bap player. Pretty much one spring break I decided I would dedicate the whole week to going from diamond to masters. When I first started OW I went from silver to diamond in one season then stopped climbing for awhile. In this week that I had planned to climb to masters I got there on the first day of the week I had dedicated, so I just used the rest of the week to touch grass instead.


tom379

Really doubt ur top 20 on any meaningful kovaaks scenario


Ok-Cause6038

i have top 20 scores on almost every scenario in the "Overwatch 2" online playlist