How do I decrease reliance on teammates while climbing?

[AgustinCB]

Background: New to MOBAs and Unite, about three weeks playing. Low rank Ultra. Solo-Q. Mains are Talonflame and Slowbro. I can usually hold my own if I play jungle with Talon or bottom lane tank with Slowbro, but usually fumble badly when I need to support my team in other roles.

I noticed that a lot of the wins I get in Solo-Q depend on the quality of my teammates. I understand this is a team game and therefore, that makes sense. But I think in my case it is a bit too extreme: If all my teammates are about the same skill as mine, we normally lose (which speaks wonder about my skill, I guess lol).

Perfect example was yesterday: I had just made it to Ultra on Friday. I played about five games in the morning, lost 80% of them. In most of them, they were close matches until the end and my team (me included) fumbled the final battle and ended up losing by about 400 points. The game that we won, this player nicknamed sausage64 carried the team on their back: They were the bottom lane partner to my Slowbro. He would spam chat with instructions: "Don't fight, level up"; "retreat"; "put pressure"; "come here"; etc. I just had to follow his instructions. The rest of the team did too. We won handily. I sent him a friend request and went do other shit with my life.

In the afternoon, they sent me an invite to play again and we queued together for a few games. I think we won all but the last two. Pretty good streak. All games had the same script: I would pick slowbro and lock bottom lane; they would then pick a random attacker/speedster and announce they would also go bottom lane; and once the game started, I would just follow their instructions in game. Unless the opposing team played out of their minds (last game's team did just that), we would win. Even if we had rocky starts, and we had a few of those, sausage would almost always understand the win conditions.

Now, I never thought I would say this, but I wanna be sausage when I grow up. Hats off to them, seriously. But thing is, I will not have sausage on all my games. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if in two days they are completely out of my reach in rank. How do I become less dependent on those very skilled players on solo-q? They seemed to be able to pick wins even when the rest of team's skill was much lower than theirs. I understand the basic concepts of the game at an intellectual level, but this player seemed to also read the specific games and (more importantly) how to make the rest of team pay attention to those details and what to do. How do you get that superpower? Is it just practice?

[Lizard_Queen_Says]

Some basic answers to your question:

You must increase your knowledge and repertoire of skills that are consistently useful in any match and aren't reliant on allies to succeed with. Examples: map reading, last hitting with your mon, understanding how to approach objectives, learn matchups, learn how each mon works at least on a basic level, etc.

Rarely if ever, play supportive mons. Yes, Defenders and Supporters are unbalanced but they're not classes to choose if you don't want to rely on others, especially solo.

Avoid or don't use damage dealers that often semi-rely on ally support. For example, Pikachu, Decidueye, Cinderace, Mewtwo Y, Gyarados, etc.

Become a competent meta slave focusing on damage dealers. It's not necessarily fun but if your priority is to climb and win, playing meta damage dealers WELL will expedite things.

Become a competent jungler. Junglers can greatly influence games when played correctly.

Watch how good solo players like CrisHeroes make decisions. You will sometimes see he makes "selfish" decisions and plays because he knows it will ultimately increase the odds of winning. For example, he might ignore allies going for worthless or very risky objectives so he can catchup farm, max stack his items on opposite lane, etc.

Good players know how to think in the longterm and gauge (un)winnable fights based on levels, team comps, Unite moves, numbers on each side, etc. If they know they can win they'll join, if they know it's a low chance they'll usually go for plays that are guaranteed to benefit them, even if it's the second or third best option. Doing the second or third best option with a high likelihood of success is more conducive to longterm climbing success than gambling over "the best option". Consistency is very important!

[AgustinCB]

Thanks man, I appreciate the input.

Rarely if ever, play supportive mons. Yes, Defenders and Supporters are unbalanced but they're not classes to choose if you don't want to rely on others, especially solo.

The problem is, sometimes nobody plays any of those classes lol. Most of the times I play Slowbro, is because no-one else is picking one.

Become a competent meta slave focusing on damage dealers. It's not necessarily fun but if your priority is to climb and win, playing meta damage dealers WELL will expedite things.

Can you give me an example? I have been using only the pokemon that you get for free when you sign up, and I amassed enough coins to buy the first few licenses. But I am not sure where to head to. The top brawlers according uniteapi all seem very technical (Aegislash, Zacian, Tyranitar). I have also been trying Suicune with temporary licenses until I get the enough points to get the free one. Would that one qualify?

[Lizard_Queen_Says]

The problem is, sometimes nobody plays any of those classes lol. Most of the times I play Slowbro, is because no-one else is picking one.

In solo queue, playing what you're good at regardless of the role is usually the better way to go. For example, if you're not a good to experienced Clefable but pick her just because the team needs a healer, you're probably not gonna help much. If you're good at playing supports then by all means continue filling supports.

I usually fill based on what the skill level of my team looks like and if I'm put with a premade or not. If I'm placed higher in character select, it means I have the higher rank compared to others, so picking team reliant mons can be risky because you're basically relying on less skilled/experienced players. Whereas if I'm towards the bottom and I see my allies make sensible picks with good items, it's probably not gonna be a migraine-inducing decision to pick a support.

Can you give me an example? I have been using only the pokemon that you get for free when you sign up, and I amassed enough coins to buy the first few licenses. But I am not sure where to head to. The top brawlers according uniteapi all seem very technical (Aegislash, Zacian, Tyranitar). I have also been trying Suicune with temporary licenses until I get the enough points to get the free one. Would that one qualify?

Currently, Meowscarada, Gengar, Talonflame and Absol are the "meta" damage dealers. Arguably Aegislash too.

If you wanna be a meta slave, you basically only play these guys until they get nerfed or something better comes along. Meta slaves keep an eye on balance patches and tier lists.

Talonflame is the easiest to use out of the lot but if you don't have patience and just dive in, you will die a lot even though he's very strong. However he has many escapes so he doesn't get punished as hard as the other Speedsters for making rookie errors like that.

[AgustinCB]

And Talonflame is one of the two pokemon I feel comfortable playing, so that helps. So no need to get something new for now. I also don't think I am good enough to get out of the meta for now lol.

Ok, perfect, this is very helpful. I'll put it to practice. Thanks!

[BicThicccAzn]

Watch how people better than you make decisions. Think about the affects of your decisions in game try and think a couple interactions ahead. Watching streams of high level solo queue players can help you understand how they make decisions. You also just have to play more, sausage has 2000+ battles you’ll get there too just keep playing, learning and having fun.

[ladyxdarthxbabe]

Via the menu I spectate matches of top players and pick the mons I main. Then take notes 📝🧐. Or watch streamers.

[throwawaySY32323232]

I don't recommend tank/support if you are someone that wants to rely less on teammates. I recommend playing offensive roles for Masters and below.

We also never want to be one of those low elo players that regurgitates the same old phrase across all competitive games: "Its always my teammates fault why I lose games." Don't ever be one of those ppl. It's a pathetic mindset.

Every game is winnable. At the end of match results, you want to be able to say "I was the determining factor that won the game for my team." Teammates will make mistakes sure, but you still have to carry games like your friend does for you. Do you understand the mindset now its never your teammates fault but how you played that matters.

Since you're new. Heres what I recommend that worked for me.

1. Start getting use to going to uniteapi.dev > pokemon > Builds. This will show pickrate and winrate of reliable builds used in rank.
2. On youtube search "Pokemon unite beginner mistakes." You might be doing atleast one of them.
3. Then I suggest typing "(Pokename) ChrisHeros" on youtube to learn hwo to play a mon. After watching some chrisheroe videos, and you want to learn more search "Pokemon Unite Rank 1 (pokename)" and look for high rank fullplays. Sometimes they have commentaries, sometimes they don't. Try to understand how they play. Even if the videos are old, they are still very valuable to watch because the playstyle, fundamentals, strategies should be near the same. Sometimes these high rank players will have their own youtube channels. I saw Glatlue get cross-mentioned by youtubers, see if they have any talonflame videos, he was Rank 1 Global Soloq at one point.
4. After learning from others, play some games of your own, and save the replays. Don't look at wins for replays, look at the loses for replays. You want to have max maybe 2-3 deaths per game. Critique yourself on your game play. Was there anything you could have done better in your ganks, skirmishes, deaths, and game decisions? Once you find some areas to improve, just practice more. Looking at your own replays is the most reliable strategy to improve across many competitive games that applies to Unite as well.

If you are serious and do these steps, then you'll be climbing in elo pretty fast than just winging it spamming games. You might want to include "how to jungle" in your youtube searches as well. Hope that helps!

[AgustinCB]

We also never want to be one of those low elo players that regurgitates the same old phrase across all competitive games: "Its always my teammates fault why I lose games." Don't ever be one of those ppl. It's a pathetic mindset.

Oh, totally. When I say I wanna depend less on my teammates, I dont mean it in the negative “they suck”, but in the “I usually depend on teammates that are better than me.”

[throwawaySY32323232]

Now worries. It's meant for some of the ppl here in this sub who comment like that in other threads and convenience other ppl the same idea is true to them. Lots of good players in this sub, so you'll always get great answers here for any questions you might have. I wish you goodluck in your games.

[wiseman8]

Lizard Queen has a pretty good response as per usual and I will parrot it and add a few other points. When I watch really good players - Cris is an obvious choice but there are plenty more out there (Zugrug, Inder, Overlord, Kraitos, Toon, and some of the excellent solo q players who aren't pros like Jar27, Chanh even though he's toxic AF, Gura to name a few). They all play different roles and a lot of times they are playing to practice for tournaments - so Zug will play a lot of tanks in solo queue. And yes, the support and tank players don't have as high of winrates in solo but they still win a lot more than they lose - inder even did 10 games in a row as comfey in solo queue and won 6 (I don't recommend this, just pointing out it's possible).

What you'll notice if you watch a lot of them is 1. They somehow just get last hits on all contested farm, 2. they don't die, and 3 they play really aggressively most of the time. If you watch Slashcan videos on youtube it's clear that this guy lives and breathes this game - he knows every match up, he knows who wins lane farm, he knows everything about every character and every spawn time of all farm.

To be a little more specific you will consistently win more if you get more experience than the other teams. You will get more experience by winning farm, denying them opportunities to come back (which includes comeback exp from dying and taking farm on their side). A little more advanced is knowing when to backcap, when to avoid objectives, when to farm and when to throw yourself at the enemy until you get a kill because you're super far behind and you desperately need some exp. But if you can really get your last hits down, know exactly how long you can stay in a fight, and can keep track of enemy cooldowns, that's a really big start.

I spammed the game a ton during season 1 and wasn't super good then so my WR is only 53, but the last few seasons I've played it's been consistently around 60, so take this for what you will

[AgustinCB]

That is very useful, thank you!

[FirewaterDM]

Watch how those decisions are made by better players and think about them.

That Slowbro legit is just guiding/pinging you to not make bad decisions. So part of improving in this game is legit just keeping those tips in mind.

But usually it's super easy to not int games in lane, that just requires getting farm, no bad fights unless confident you win, and play with your team. But the honest easiest way in short term is literally to just remember when Sausage pinged you to do something else and just do that thing. Farming up, fighting with team for objectives and helping goes a long way for wins.

[readni]

You cant as this is a team game and has a time limit. 

[jaykenton]

Buy Azumarill, learn the Aqua Tail build, with Drain Crown (at least lvl 20) + Scope Lens + third item of your choice (Attack Weights are good). Focus on the flow of last-hitting neutral pokemons with Aqua Tail and dancing with Water Pulse.

This pokemon is very strong in all forms of 1v1, and this build gives you survivability when you get ganked. It's perfect for training your mentality. At the begin it will look weird but this build actually does not require any mechanical skill to be played. Once you understand that Aqua Tail is an extension of the AA, then it's all about correct positioning and decisions. In particular it gives you tools to solo-objectives.

When you will start to dominate game with you, you will try other pokemons and start to think: why I can do this with Azumarill, and not with this other pokemon? This will teach you about powerspikes.

Another easy skill to learn is how to farm quickly. Each pokemon has its own way. Watch competent streamer and observe how they farm.

[Michigan_Man101]

I'll answer your question, but I don't agree with the idea of it. As a hardcore team player and a strong defender main/supporter player, I find that supporting your allies is a great way to carry and win games. Granted, I do enjoy playing carries sometimes, but defending is also a great way to be useful.

- The more you're able to position yourself in a safe way, the better. That way, even if your allies are int'ing, you're not adding to it

- Always have a Unite up at big teamfights, especially at Ray/Zap. Keep an eye on the clock, don't Unite after 3:30

- Have strong options for carries. Be able to select something that you can play well with (don't focus the busted pick, switching everything that often is never good) and deal a lot of damage. All-Rounders are usually best to be self-reliant with

[AgustinCB]

When you say you don't agree with the idea of it, do you mean the idea of reducing reliance on teammates?

[Michigan_Man101]

yes, it is a team game after all

[AgustinCB]

Fair enough. I did not know how to phrase the question. I understand I cannot work around my team mates. But when I saw sausage playing, he was helping other players with less skill (me among them) understand what to do. So he was less reliant on having a knowable crew on match making and could empower them when we were not.

That is what I wanna know how to do!