Guild Wars 2

I play a spirit ranger, since I figure that offers some of the best possible help to weaker team members.

But when the team is weak, even having the buffs from a spirit ranger is just not enough to keep them up and take a point.

And for me, it was loss after loss tonight. I tried very, very hard to help the teams I was assigned to…but just had to watch all the points at the top of the screen continuing to go to the enemy team’s color…over and over. That’s what the game gave me.

Disappointing. Not fun.

I can’t think of a more frustration-producing situation that tying a person’s personal skill rating on the public board display to 4 strangers, some of whom just don’t know how to play the game yet.

I started at 550.

Now I am at 44%. And I think I actually played my class pretty well tonight.

is this why you made that topic about how to tell if you’re skilled or not?

Do you understand how the new matchmaking works? The system tries to create even matchups but you have to be ready to carry your team if your own rank is really high since you will get matched with lower ranks to compensate.

That said, why are you still playing a spirit ranger in this meta? Don’t you know it’s shifted to war meta and that hard counters your class?

Excaliber,

No, all the pro teams have spirit rangers. It’s one of the most team-supportive classes you can play. And I figure if I am going to be asked to carry 3 other people who are ineffective, at least I can give them an edge by buffing them very strongly.

You will just have to take my word for it that I was at the right places at the right times to help them out. My reward was being dropped to the 44% bracket along with the people I was assigned to, I guess.

Laserbolt.6731:

Excaliber,

No, all the pro teams have spirit rangers. It’s one of the most team-supportive classes you can play. And I figure if I am going to be asked to carry 3 other people who are ineffective, at least I can give them an edge by buffing them very strongly.

pro teams meaning tPvP. Solo Queue has its own meta…

But it’s a team game. Not a 1v1 game. Even in SoloQ.

Laserbolt.6731:

But it’s a team game. Not a 1v1 game. Even in SoloQ.

Like you already said it’s supposed to be a team game but obviously your team isn’t working with you, hence why you had to make this topic right?

Why don’t you think it over why team-oriented builds dont work (as well) in solo Q.

Excaliber,

I don’t believe the answer is to try to be a one-man army. There are three points. You cannot be everywhere at once.

I don’t need sympathy. Many other people have posted that the same thing has happened to them. Lots of people in the same boat. Good players. Assigned to weak teams because of very few people queuing. Tonight was my turn to plummet.

Solo Q and Team Arena does have slightly different metas but a spirit ranger is still pretty good choice in Yolo Q.

You said it…it’s Yolo Q, why support teammates that you can’t trust and that aren’t competent? You should play a class and a build you enjoy, win or lose…

Laserbolt.6731:

There are three points. You cannot be everywhere at once.

play something with more mobility.

I should add I did this on a second, mule account. I am still a solid 450 or so on my main. But frankly, I don’t think I will be playing my main in soloQ for while. I can see why a lot of people stop playing SoloQ for fear of dropping to the pits after being asked to carry new players.

Now that I have sunk to the depths at 29%, I am no longer concerned about playing SoloQ for fear of unfairly losing MMR… and I can look around and see what is happening at the bottom of MMR.

What I see at low-MMR SoloQ is hotjoin: little teamwork…lots and lots of glass cannons harvesting the new players.

So here I am at 29%. Is it worth playing SoloQ any longer with this character?

Frankly, I am becoming suspicious of Glicko2 MMR accuracy as applied to team sports, especially with a very small pool of players.

If the MMR is adjusted based on your team’s performance…and you are only 1/5 of the team. How can your MMR really be your skill level?

People in posts above say you need to play a non-team-support character in SoloQ. That would seem to contradict the whole point of your rating being the rating of the team you are assigned to. You should support that team, since IT is your rating.

Got to say I’m with ya. And bad players are just bad, my experience is more of dropping into a full glass hero 2 team that 3 of them 2gether can’t even drop 1 bunker. It’ just no fun. If u lose its ugly, if u win its so ez it’s boring. So lets say your luck is OK, its still leaves you at 50/50 wins, so MMR only becomes worse and you know you never get out of that vicious noob circle.

As a none team pvper I really feel like my only options for fun has declined to the 1v1 matches clicking as fast as can and praying for low ping to get in line on the only 2 active servers (EU)…

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/500x/43436274.jpg

Laserbolt.6731:

So here I am at 29%. Is it worth playing SoloQ any longer with this character?

Frankly, I am becoming suspicious of Glicko2 MMR accuracy as applied to team sports, especially with a very small pool of players.

If the MMR is adjusted based on your team’s performance…and you are only 1/5 of the team. How can your MMR really be your skill level?

People in posts above say you need to play a non-team-support character in SoloQ. That would seem to contradict the whole point of your rating being the rating of the team you are assigned to. You should support that team, since IT is your rating.

If you’ve got 4 pebbles and a big rock on one side of a balance and 5 pebbles on the other side, which side will be heavier?

This is basically the gist of how these rating systems work. The more you win, the heavier the rocks you’re weighed with, both on your own team and on the opponent’s. Eventually you’ll be getting weighed with and against similarly weighted rocks and your probability of winning will be about 50%.

If you’re getting a consistent 50% win ratio while playing with the pebbles, perhaps you’re not as big as you think you are.

all this elo hell blabla in this forum atm remembers me of the Lol forums 1-2 years ago
half the threads there was like “heeeeeeeelp im in Elo hell”

@op

make video bout your gamepaly or matches you talk about cause noone can judge by your worths what is wrong – all i see you lose a lot but you dont think you are this bad^^

edit:
oh and all you guyz should not forget 40% ranking now is the 80-90% ranking before
cause not alot players played it now since reset

top 1 is exact 100%

so when only 1999 players play than rank 1000 =50% somehow

so relax

Subdue.5479:

If you’ve got 4 pebbles and a big rock on one side of a balance and 5 pebbles on the other side, which side will be heavier?

This is basically the gist of how these rating systems work. The more you win, the heavier the rocks you’re weighed with, both on your own team and on the opponent’s. Eventually you’ll be getting weighed with and against similarly weighted rocks and your probability of winning will be about 50%.

If you’re getting a consistent 50% win ratio while playing with the pebbles, perhaps you’re not as big as you think you are.

Well… I am open to the idea that maybe in reality I hopelessly suck. But it really doesn’t feel that way when I look at my gameplay. And when I look at other people’s stories and screen shots posted here.

When I think hard about the string of games I lost last night, I really can’t think of what else I, as a spirit ranger, could have done in those matches that would have guaranteed win in those 500 – 150 games… when the opposing team had individual scores of 200 to 250, and my team had scores of 0 to 80!

I supported team fights very well. I had the amazing Spirit of Nature there at the right times to stream health into my team mates. I stayed alive and kept my spirits up and running. I did my share of downing opponents.

I am starting to believe there is such thing as a “class MMR”, which I will discuss in a new thread.

Maybe you are just not as good as you think you are?

Caring about rank is the death of modes like this. Solo Q is a dice roll, expecting to be 100% all the time is falacy, complaining about it is silly.

Play your best, win or lose, get up and queue again. Most fun I’ve had so far is in US solo queue for some odd reason. It might seem that smaller community = more competitive games.

Lordrosicky.5813:

Maybe you are just not as good as you think you are?

One comforting answer for you is that the leaderboards are accurate on judging personal skill… and I just suck.

Then all is well in your world as you compete for your leaderboard rank.

But as I said in the post above, I really cannot see what I could have done that would have reversed the score in those matches I was assigned to. I don’t see how my spirit ranger could have made my team have the 200 – 250 individual scores, and the other team have the 0 to 80 scores. I was there supporting team fights. They were losing the two other points all the time.

I do realize that the typical PvP Forum reply to someone complaining about this is “you just suck”.

But last night just felt different than that.

Laserbolt.6731:

Lordrosicky.5813:

Maybe you are just not as good as you think you are?

One comforting answer for you is that the leaderboards are accurate and I just suck.

Then all is well in your world as you compete for leaderboard rank.

But as I said in the post above, I really cannot see what I could have done that would have reversed the score in those matches I was assigned to. I don’t see how my spirit ranger could have made My team have the 200 – 250 individual scores, and the other team have the 0 to 80 scores. I was there supporting team fights. They were losing the two other points all the time.

The leaderboards are not accurate. Look at some of the people in the top 50. Alot of them are bad.

Just dont take it too seriously, it doesnt mean all that much.

Honestly though, if you play well in solo q and try to improve then you will improve and do better. Just try to improve and have fun watching your rating as a personal progression type of thing. Dont look at it as some hard indiciation of your skill. But also dont just think you cant improve.

Edit: for example, maybe you need to kill people quicker to help your team. 2 months ago maybe it takes me 15 seconds to kill someone. Maybe now it is 5 seconds and that extra 10 seconds I can run and help somewhere else.

Lordrosicky.5813:

Maybe you are just not as good as you think you are?

I don’t know:

Before the reset, I was at 60% rating in solo queue.

And 94% in Team Queue.

I always joined both alone, so I got teamed with pugs.

In Team Queue I had better teammates and better enemies.

If I sucked, how that could be possibile?

One of the theories I ended up with is that fighting against better players makes you a better player, and fighting against worse players makes you a worse player. And this change is really quick. I think it has something to do with motivation and focus. You don’t have fun killing Heartseeker spamming thieves (even when you are at full health), so you get worse.

redslion.9675:

Lordrosicky.5813:

Maybe you are just not as good as you think you are?

I don’t know:

Before the reset, I was at 60% rating in solo queue.

And 94% in Team Queue.

I always joined both alone, so I got teamed with pugs.

In Team Queue I had better teammates and better enemies.

If I sucked, how that could be possibile?

One of the theories I ended up with is that fighting against better players makes you a better player, and fighting against worse players makes you a worse player. And this change is really quick. I think it has something to do with motivation and focus. You don’t have fun killing Heartseeker spamming thieves (even when you are at full health), so you get worse.

Most of my “team q” games are done solo or with 1 other person. It is sad they got rid of this (now queuing as 2/3 is just terrible in team q). And you did used to get some fun games queuing solo in team q. Its stopped that.

Yeh, probably playing against good people is the way to improve most.

“60% rating in solo queue.
94% in Team Queue.”

checked how many players even play now?

60% rating in soloQ before reset is now something like 20-30% maby

and teamQ is even worse – your 90%+ will be now something like 40-50%

i did not the math but do it by yourself when wanna know

Does there tend to be a certain type of class/build that has an advantage in the SoloQ style, with non-coordinated teams, and where you are often teamed with unskilled players?

Laserbolt.6731:

Does there tend to be a certain type of class/build that has an advantage in the SoloQ style, with non-coordinated teams, and where you are often teamed with unskilled players?

Warrior and spirit ranger because they are exceptional in team fights and 1v1 too

lowranks you can do alot with condi necro or warrior – engi or guardian for skyhammer

higher ranks so from 800-100 i did good with bunker guardian (atleast your team will than have always a guardian in mid – but bad when another guardian join and dont wanna reroll^^)

Romek.4201:

“60% rating in solo queue.
94% in Team Queue.”

checked how many players even play now?

60% rating in soloQ before reset is now something like 20-30% maby

and teamQ is even worse – your 90%+ will be now something like 40-50%

i did not the math but do it by yourself when wanna know

I meant BEFORE the reset.

Now in Solo queue I’m at 600

And seems like entering a team match takes longer than an invasion on Dark Souls. And that is a long, LONG time.XD

Laserbolt.6731:

And for me, it was loss after loss tonight. I tried very, very hard to help the teams I was assigned to…but just had to watch all the points at the top of the screen continuing to go to the enemy team’s color…over and over. That’s what the game gave me.

I played my way out of elo hell before, so I get how fun those matches are.

• On a spirit ranger, I’d suggest you hold side point and then support mid. If you don’t hold a point, assume no one else will. I don’t know how you play your ranger, but I’d equip a warhorn because you’ll be running around a lot.
• At the beginning of the match, tell people what you will be doing and ask someone to take home point, kill treb, or whatever. Once in a while, people do listen.
• Call targets. Override bad target calls from newbies asap.
• Ping on the map. Draw on the map. Tell people where to go. If anyone listens, thank them.
• Be able to switch classes before the match. Have a bunker guardian ready to play. Newbies don’t know how to kill guardians and if you can get one team member to stand on a second point, you have a good chance of winning.
• If the map has secondary objectives like temple buffs, announce them in advance, then go for them. Assume no one will help you.
• If you get consistently matched up with a really bad player, e.g. a thief who dies 200 times per match, friend him or her. Then wait until he/she is in a match before you queue.

I hope you have better luck with your queues. The game can’t afford to lose more players.

Ulalume,
Many thanks for sharing your experience and your suggestions. I will take them to heart.
I run the swiftness signet and leave out one of the lesser spirits, so I am fairly quick.
Someone else suggested that a ranged super glass cannon is good for low-ranked matches with less experienced people, and also for assaulting them off a point.
They claim spirit ranger is a team support build and without a team working together, you are not that useful.

What do you think?

My pleasure. It’s probably easier to give you my build. Check your PMs.

Laserbolt.6731:

And for me, it was loss after loss tonight.

Happens in every MMO.

Laserbolt.6731:

I started at 550.

Now I am at 44%.

That’s the comical part.
Anet seems to think the games is LoL with a super sized player pool and a serious ranked que system.