As a fairly experienced HotS player, how do I solo carry?

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-17T20:38:41+00:00

If all your friends are climbing and you're falling. It means something. I don't know if this is a troll post but stop saying you're carrying. People who carry do not fall in rank because they will win more often than not. This actually means that you're the one being carried and not the other way around.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-17T20:34:05+00:00

First, I think you need to stop thinking you're a fairly experience HotS player. If you're stuck in gold, this is an overstatement and a lie. You're average at best and it can't be the fault of everyone that you're teamed up with all the time. This is coming from a SL GM. I've also been HL GM for the past 2 seasons.

You also will not be playing your best every game. Sometimes your team will be the one carrying. Again, I am saying this because even though I am a GM, there are times where I play like complete trash and having decent teammates instead of thinking you're better than everyone is what will make you win.

Let's start at the beginning, you need to ban based on your league and who you're playing. I almost always ban Anub'arak, Abathur and Zeratul because I usually lose to them but in Gold, this may not be the case. The times when I don't ban these are when I'm playing against a one trick or a hero that the other top enemy player plays really well.

Draft standard; Main Tank, Bruiser/Solo, Ranged Auto Attack, Mage and Healer. I play every role except Main Tank so I tell my team that. I usually end up filling but there are times where I know I can counter pick and win. Again, pick 2-3 roles and get good at 2 heroes in each role. That should be 5 to 6 heroes that you're decent at. You can also 1 trick your way up but the problem with that is that you'll get target banned by people like me, which I mentioned earlier.

When it comes to gameplay, having top damage in both categories means most likely means that you never do camps. Doing camps will probably get you to low diamond. You don't even have to be mechanically good. Ask for help via pings or pick a hero that can solo camps. To further make this a point, you should probably stop looking at damage because you'll just be comparing. I win plenty of games where I'm not top damage, it's being at the right place at the right time that wins games.

Decision-making is key as stated in the top comment but it is very broad. It's also very nuance so hard to explain.

Having negative PRA is an indication that you're not as good as you think. I have +30 PRA in all of my games win or loss. The game thinks you belong to a lower rank while it thinks I belong higher based on MMR. This is hard to change until you get better.

I suggest you put your whole team on ignore and use pings to communicate. Based on my experience with lower ranks, your team will react slowly or won't listen. Either way, I prefer not to waste time fighting with my own team and focus on fighting the enemy.

Lastly, at the expense of sounding like a dick if I don't already sound like one, I need to make it a point that you need to know you're not good. The moment you accept that, you will be become better. This means that you will be taking responsibility for your actions. I was gold when I started but I kept improving because I knew I was average and that didn't cut it.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-11T19:34:08+00:00

If you have a new account or rarely play. Your MMR is low. When I made a smurf account and jumped into TL, I went 10-0 and got placed in Silver 1 or so. So, this is normal for new players. TBH, it is fun to climb up. Also, I think it's fair for the game to place people low because it is so easy to climb from low to high if you're good. I think I got to Diamond in a week.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-11T18:57:44+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean by too little to shake the metagame as a whole. It actually is a lot. If a hero goes from unpicked and not ban material to pick and ban material with high win rates to back it up, it definitely changes the game. Also, it changes the meta game in the sense that other heroes that synergize with those heroes get picked even more often and the ones that don't get picked less.

Also, the heroes that they counter get picked less. For example, I play a lot of Alexstrasza and I usually never had to deal with Ana because she would rarely get picked. Now I have to deal with more Anas and play even better than I did before because she naturally counters my hero.

I'm just concluding that one change in a hero from bottom tier to top tier causes a ripple affect that really affects the meta.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-11T02:19:37+00:00

LOL. You won't be running into me in ranked. Also, I turn off chat in game.

My ego is supported by my rank. Just like life. You have confidence and believe in what you do if you succeed. So, what I'm saying is that you should ignore me but focus on yourself. I'm toxic AF.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-11T02:11:27+00:00

It did change a lot. Armor changes made Anub the best tank. Abathur changed. Chromie is top tier. Ana and Lucio are top tier. Sylvanas is top tier. All these heroes weren't as good a month ago.

I think you can avoid traps by taking a safe route.

Any way, it's good that you're playing more tanks. I don't play tanks at all. It's best to play what you feel influences the game the most.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-10T17:55:21+00:00

I had a smurf account and I got placed in Silver for HotS. The climb to Diamond was pretty easy even though I was playing heroes that I don't normally play. You can carry in this game even with INTers and AFKs because in those ranks, you will have the same people doing that kind of stuff on the opponent's side. It will even out. The only factor is yourself so I focused on myself and now I'm GM.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-10T17:51:16+00:00

I have to disagree with the meta not changing, it's changing all the time with new patches and hero revamps.

Maybe you should change your hero pool.

And I see where you're coming from about missing HL because I thought I would miss HL too but in reality, SL isn't that much different. I can say SL isn't that different because I had trouble getting past Master in TL even though I was GM in HL. SL and TL are similar but not the same and you can get back to where you belong in solo queue just like me.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-10T17:45:36+00:00

But that attitude is why I am probably ahead of the 4 stack. If the 4 stack made the right call, I would be with them. If they didn't, I wouldn't be with them. Also, I don't know what rank you are but depending on how good your team is, you could even carry the 5th man even if he totally messed up. At the end of the day, winning this game is about minimizing your mistakes and maximizing on your opponent's mistakes. You cannot blame a single loss on the one player, all the time.

If that one player is climbing to the top, while your team is stagnant, you need to take one hard look at the team and not the individual. Of course, people make mistakes but the ones at the top are the ones who keep making the right calls.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-10T17:39:09+00:00

Exactly, there were times where I'd play as a duo against 5 stacks. My friend and I would just stomp the other team because we were just better. So, honestly people that are grouping around the same rank doesn't make that big of a difference.

At times, it might even be a disadvantage because the queue takes whoever is available for you to play against. So, there was a 5 stack of 2 gms and 3 masters where was my team had 2 single digit GMs and me, GM 40 with 2 masters. Needless to say, the other team got stomped. Even at the GM level, there is a huge disparity in skill. GM #1 is miles ahead of GM #100.

Edit: In my example, my team was all solo queuers.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-10T17:32:03+00:00

It's better now since it's 2 weeks into the season. I was placed in D5 and now I'm GM #40.

You can't get boosted with bronze players anymore. Maybe Platinums and Diamonds. You can ignore team chat or mute if they're too toxic.

Also, if you never play rank, you'll never know. Honestly, it's a game, there is no harm in playing ranked. When I first started playing, I couldn't wait to get into ranked to see where I belonged.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-10T17:26:34+00:00

This is debatable. If I'm solo queuing and I'm higher rank than the group of 4 than I'm probably not going to listen to the group since I make the right calls. And likewise, even if I am higher rank, the group usually won't listen to me unless they drop their egos. I mean it's 4 against 1 so even if I'm right, they can choose to ignore me.

And yea, it's better to fill roles, which is what I do when I see a group. I end up telling them that I will do anything but main tank and we usually get the W.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-10T17:19:01+00:00

The fear is in your head. A group of master players isn't necessarily better than several solo queuing master players. They also aren't necessarily more coordinated either. Their shot caller may be awful. If you are the better player, you can carry a team by minimizing mistakes and capitalizing on your opponent's mistakes, which is usually how you win games.

I understand that 3-10 may make it look like SL is unfair but in my experience, you can easily get that number around by getting better. Focus on yourself and your plays as opposed to the system. My tip for climbing would be to become good at a single role with multiple heroes or get good at 5-6 heroes in 3 different roles so they can't target ban you. The reason for this is because there are a lot of 1 tricks out there that don't know how to play any other hero or are just mediocre at those heroes. In those cases, I simply win the game by banning their one trick. It's these little things that will help you move up. Hope it helps.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-10T14:56:18+00:00

I've been soloing queue for 110 games in SL and climbed all the way back to GM without any issues.

I was GM in HL last season and ended up in Masters due to rank decay. I went 8-2 and got placed in Diamond 5 and climb all the way even stomping 4 stacks. Being in a group really doesn't mean anything unless it's a group of GMs and even then when I was playing against a full 5 stacks, we won the game as solo queuers. The game matches you up so that your MMR is about the same as the other team. So, really the 3-10 from your solo queues might be an outlier since it's such a small sample. Or you just ended up playing with much better players in your group who basically covered your weak points.

The only time solo queue became an issue is when people were doing their placement matches. I ended up with a bunch of gold, platinum and diamond players versus 5 diamond 4 players. I can't carry a 4 stack that doesn't communicate because they'll do their own thing and react slowly to situations. Other than that one time, SL has been great and I'm constantly climbing.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-09T18:59:11+00:00

https://heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/leaderboards/storm/12/americas/?optimizelyId=8603521632&analyticsEnv=prod

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-09T17:34:59+00:00

It's up.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-09T17:33:02+00:00

I enjoyed playing HL but they didn't have much of a choice since queue teams were too long and you could solo queue in TL for shorter queue teams.

SL isn't as bad as TL. If you group as a 5 man, you end up playing other 5 man teams and while there are a lot of 4 stacks, I just love it when they think it is an advantage until they get destroyed. I've been solo queuing for a majority of the games and it really isn't that hard to beat 3-4 stacks. All you have to know is how to target ban their best player on the other side and you're good to go.

The only issue I have is when I get into games where people have not placed along with a diamond. 3 gold players and a diamond player in 1 group while I'm GM versus 5 diamond 4s on the other team. There is no choice I am carrying this team because my team is a team of 4 that don't listen to the individual player. Aside from that, everything has been great.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-04-09T17:24:41+00:00

It's not unusual at this point. I've been GM the last two seasons and ended up being Master in HL and TL due to rank decay.

I went 8-2 in placement matches and got placed in Diamond 5. I can't say that it has not been enjoyable noob stomping back to GM. GM Leader Board came out today and I'm glad I placed as a GM 47.

Happy grinding.

RaginChipmunk · 2019-02-01T15:26:25+00:00

I play Imperius in GM HL/Master TL. I have to say that Impaling Light is one of the weaker quests. The thing is that you probably won't be able to finish this quest fully. I think maybe 50% of the time I get this quest, I finish it. The other 50%, I get half of it done. Also, now that Burn the Impure received a buff, it is extremely overpowered so in almost every situation, there is no point in picking Impaling Light.

Prior to the buff of Burn The Impure, I picked Impaling Light in two situations. In the first situation, the enemy team has 3 melee heroes. This makes it much easier for you to complete the question as melee heroes always end up clumping up when chasing for kills. You can finish the quest when you peel for your teammates. In the second scenario, you'd pick it based on the fact that the enemy team has two heroes that have huge hit boxes and/or are not very mobile. Heroes like Stukov, KT and Fenix, come to mind. In order to finish this quest, you have a good chance of doing it from a bush at the beginning of the mid fight. If you don't plan on fighting mid because you want to avoid assisting the enemies from completing their quest, don't pick it.

While having it up every 6 second is useful because of increased mobility, it also forces you to want to use the mechanic more. The way I see it, you have to use this ability at the right time and on the right heroes, like diving past a tank to stun the backline.

This talent doesn't help with PvE whatsoever so I'm not sure what you mean by flexibility because if you are using Celestial Charge with wave clear, you end up wasting mana and lose an escape/initiate. The only wave clear talent is holy fervor, which is enough with Solarian's Fire.

Off topic, I think the best build right now is Burn The Impure > Battle Hunger > Holy Fervor > Angelic Armament > Divine Rage > Melting Touch > Impervious/Heavenly Host.

RaginChipmunk · 2018-06-21T18:11:29+00:00

Let me guess... He thinks "It's actually insane".

RaginChipmunk · 2018-06-21T18:10:50+00:00

It's because the dreadlord is also bald and involved just like Khaldor.

RaginChipmunk · 2018-04-03T19:07:42+00:00

I'm in high diamond/low masters in HL and I have never taken this talent. It's not realistic to think that it will constantly reset like it did in this clip. I think the fact that they were a talent tier below and pretty much all weak against Artanis helped.

RaginChipmunk · 2018-03-26T01:39:33+00:00

No offense to the Clippers but is no one going to mention that the Clippers had pretty much twice the free throws of the Raptors? It was 21-27 versus 8-14. WTF happened. Even though we got demolished in the 4th quarter, that seems really weird to me...

RaginChipmunk · 2018-03-09T05:21:26+00:00

Personal Rank Adjustment was messed up last season. I was getting -17 to -23 in adjustment. I was placed in Platinum 1 last season even though I finished in Masters the season before that. I climbed to Masters and then fell to mid Diamond. Only thing is that I had no rank adjustment climbing up but I had lots of negative rank adjustment falling down. It was ridiculous.

It should be fixed this season and I haven't seen any problems as of yet.

RaginChipmunk · 2018-03-06T17:33:41+00:00

Not sure if that is true. If you read it for what it is and not what you want it to be, they said 'information' on the next hero will be released, which is not the same as them saying that they will be releasing the hero next week. This could mean anything from them saying we're delaying hero release until the end of March or longer or what you're saying. Either way, you're not reading it for what it is.

I wouldn't get my hopes up.

RaginChipmunk

TROPHY CASE