Breaking into A ranks

[Kami-V]

I seem to be stuck at B ranks; I have peaked at B+ but I seem to spend most of my time at B. I main chargers, specifically the Splatterscope and at time both Squiffers, but I will do E-liter on Moray towers.

I tend to do pretty well and often have the best K/D on my team, but despite this I feel like I can't quite impact the game enough, especially on Tower Control where I usually only go on the tower if I absolutely need to.

I am not at all new to competitive games - I have been a high ranked player for many games, including Melee, so technical skill nor game theory are not new to me. Do any A rank charger players or just A rank players have advice on how to push past the B ranks?

 

[Power]

Ima copy paste what i wrote in another post. You may know a lot of this stuff but.... (Ima make my own post on this separate from the copy/paste:
(Coming from a A+ former splatterscope main and current squiffer main if it matters)

If you still have questions. Private Message me

Original Thoughts:
It is kinda hard to carry with a charger on tower. You are very vulnerable while on the tower, unless your aim is godly and can pick people off no matter what (we wouldn't be having this problem if that was the case)

You will have VERY high K/D's and still lose, probably because there is a lack of team support with the scope. All you can do is kill (your teammates may already be dead by the time you finished your opponent off.)

This is why i suggest the classic squiffer, the bubbler HELPS when used correctly.
(Yes you have exp with this already, good.)

Furthermore, I have gotten so many quad kills with it that would not be possible with a scope or any other charger (maybe the regular one...Maybe)

Along with that, it is fast paced enough to take out people on the tower very quickly (especially after consecutive super jumps) You should also pay attention to your deaths, are they bad deaths? (Enemy gets tower, you lose tower) If you are the only one left alive, retreat and pick off the enemy as they try to charge toward your base. It is very easy to stop an assault in my experience like this.

Flanking works too, people always focus on the tower. Easy way to stop them.

Use cover, to reduce your chances of death (obv.) Many times I had peaked out of a wall for a split second and got a kill. Pretty safe way to go about things.

(COPY/PASTE POST)
-Think critically, what did I do wrong, how can I fix it?

--HELPED ME BECOME PRETTY DECENT W/ SQUIFFER: Practice your aim in the testing range, drag shots, twitch shots, 360 shots.

-Map awareness is key, it can be easy to spot a flank from ur gamepad or if things are too silent check around to see if ur getting flanked.

-For SZ u should constantly he moving for the most part, being a sitting duck makes u an easy target in this mode. For tower control, people focus so much on the tower that they ignore their surroundings. Use this to your advantage

-Don't take defeats too harshly, EVERYONE loses, and lots of good players have bad losing streaks.

-objective over Kills. If u kill 2 ppl and die but they get tower or zone, it isn't worth much as they can recover quickly. I try to avoid dying as much as possible, which means avoiding over extending for a 1 for 1 shootout draw or taking out 2 and dying while ur mates aren't there. If your teammates are not there, u will not be able to capitalize on the kills. Time things correctly.

-Attack from different angles, ur mates go from one entrance while go through another entrance. Either u get easy kills from distracted opponents or they are more dispersed making it easier to defeat them than getting sprayed at from one entrance

-Be sneaky. So many times I have been able to get quad or triple kills because of this, even in A+ rooms this has worked. Most players lack good map awareness, making it easy to flank if u r somewhat deceptive and pick your spots correctly.

-Examine the load out of the opponents team at the beginning of the match, what are it's strengths and weaknesses. How can your weapon and role bring your team to victory?. Pay attention to your teams load out to, to see where it falters and succeeds.

-Learn your weapon role and stick to it, mostly. Learn it's strengths and weaknesses. Learn how to handle different weapons and what position you are most effective using the weapon. For the squiffer very close combat is a last resort, (But a benefit once you become good at it.) You may want to use its maximum range and the point sensors to keep it safe while also being deadly.

-Don't worry about it too much, if you let it bother your mind your progress will be slowed down. It's a process and patience is key.

Kinda a lot, some info may be incorrect but I hope it can help ya!


If you still have questions. Private Message me

 

[Chewi]

I seem to be stuck at B ranks; I have peaked at B+ but I seem to spend most of my time at B. I main chargers, specifically the Splatterscope and at time both Squiffers, but I will do E-liter on Moray towers.

I tend to do pretty well and often have the best K/D on my team, but despite this I feel like I can't quite impact the game enough, especially on Tower Control where I usually only go on the tower if I absolutely need to.

I am not at all new to competitive games - I have been a high ranked player for many games, including Melee, so technical skill nor game theory are not new to me. Do any A rank charger players or just A rank players have advice on how to push past the B ranks?

B+ to A- seemed to be the hardest plateau for chargers. I went from C- to B+ using Splat Charger exclusively, then got stuck in the B's. Around that time, Tower Control came out and I found it a lot harder to control the match as a charger in Tower Control, because you can't really ride the tower effectively yourself and rely on teammates to be the aggressive ones. It gets a lot better in the A's as the average teammate ability improves. I actually changed weapons up and used the Dynamo roller to break into the A's which is kind of cheating, but oh well. I would suggest focusing on Splat Zones in the B ranks as it is a bit kinder to Charger play style with static objectives. I've switched back to chargers for most maps, and hover around mid A+ now with them in both Zones and Tower.

 

[Power]

As frustrating as it may be, I would suggest to not "cheat" your way into the higher ranks. If you learn to carry so much that you can get out of the awfful B ranks, than you become a better player because of it. I don't find rank to be that important, I just simply want to get better. If that means having to tread my way through the B ranks with the weapon I am maining, than so be it.

 

[Chewi]

All's fair in love and turf war.

 

[Pareto]

I remember having the same issue. I had the hardest time breaking past B+ with a charger because of how difficult it was to push and hold an offensive line after your team consistently fails to do so. Even if your teammates are incompetent, it doesn't exactly mean that you did anything wrong; just keep pushing until you find a team who will actually take advantage of your support.

For Tower Control, I personally have a few Bomb Range Up abilities to pressure the opposing team (Splatterscope) with Splat Bombs. Since I'm behind everyone else, building a Bomb Rush doesn't take too long. I use the Bomb Rush exclusively to halt an enemy offense without having to endanger myself and at worst, it cripples their offensive line long enough for my teammates to return and push back.

 

[Kami-V]

Hey everyone! Thanks for all the great replies. I actually hit A- just a little bit ago. I may have gotten a bit of a lucky streak, but I feel confident knowing I can hit A ranks and that I can do it again should I ever fall. Thanks again.

 

[1o2]

For me the biggest problem is playing on tilt. I find that I am generally good enough to easily carry a team, but my anger severely hurts my game play (getting mad at teammates for losing easy fights/Dynamo Rollers etc). A very important thing to remember is that it's not always your team that is the problem. I've had a garbage team but didn't realize it because I was playing well enough for them to thrive. On the flip side, sometimes you can be part of the problem. Constantly trying to push in the same way as your teammate is being just as bad as him/her-even if you think you're "better" than him/her.

Oh, and if you enjoy playing TC as a sniper, if you are creating openings it doesn't hurt to say C'mon (up on the d-pad) to encourage them to ride the tower. Although I'm not sure if this command exists on the EU servers.

 

[Chewi]

For me the biggest problem is playing on tilt. I find that I am generally good enough to easily carry a team, but my anger severely hurts my game play (getting mad at teammates for losing easy fights/Dynamo Rollers etc). A very important thing to remember is that it's not always your team that is the problem. I've had a garbage team but didn't realize it because I was playing well enough for them to thrive. On the flip side, sometimes you can be part of the problem. Constantly trying to push in the same way as your teammate is being just as bad as him/her-even if you think you're "better" than him/her.

Oh, and if you enjoy playing TC as a sniper, if you are creating openings it doesn't hurt to say C'mon (up on the d-pad) to encourage them to ride the tower. Although I'm not sure if this command exists on the EU servers.

On the EU servers, I think the command becomes "To me", which may result in them all just crowding around your sniper's nest! :p

 

[superhiero]

On the EU servers, I think the command becomes "To me", which may result in them all just crowding around your sniper's nest! :p

The commands should really be the same for all regions (and translated to other languages as best as possible). Also, "to me" isn't always useful, I wish there was a "spread out!" command too.

 

[SolarTrifle]

I've been hovering in the upper B+ as a charger main and can agree that the communication with the D pad is pretty helpful in alerting your team that something needs to happen. There are plenty of times in dual-splat zone maps where my team would meaninglessly hover in our zone while I try and get the other zone picked off solo when I could use the d-pad to alert my time to move up.

Also, I find that my strongest tool is simply map choice. It's very easy to use certain types of chargers for certain maps and game types. For example, using a E-liter for most TC maps feels too slow for me to be effective in how fast-paced the game is. I can agree that squiffer is a life saver with bubbler in terms of swaying matches with a bad team.

 

[sammich]

i admit i cheated to get through B+

i had been playing new squiffer almost exclusively from when i hit rank 20 (and could finally play chargers), then when ranked came out and people started walking right into all of my mines, i realized the classic squiffer served me better.

i got stuck in B/B+ for a while, though. my aim just wasn't good enough and i kept leaping into areas. eventually, i just was too stressed and frustrated and i dropped down to C+ one day... i realized i was too frustrated and single-minded, so i learned how to use another weapon (splatter pro forge, which is similar to classic squiffer a little).

well, the effect was immediate. i kicked through C+ and B- and B ranks even without being half as good at machine guns as at my squiffer. but just after i got most of the way through B+, tower control came out. after a 50/50 success rate i decided to see how my squiffer worked in this mode, and holy **** people could not keep up. i jumped straight into the A's.

so it was kind of cheating because i used another weapon to get back up to upper B's and then a new mode to push over, but now i have more than one main weapon and i can carry my team with either one even in the A ranks (though i haven't tried to make a push towards A+ or higher yet)

 

[Drez]

As frustrating as it may be, I would suggest to not "cheat" your way into the higher ranks. If you learn to carry so much that you can get out of the awfful B ranks, than you become a better player because of it. I don't find rank to be that important, I just simply want to get better. If that means having to tread my way through the B ranks with the weapon I am maining, than so be it.

I so agree to this. I don't care how many times I go from B- to C+, I'm still improving and surely I'll move up even further if I put my time and effort into it. I'm even considering motion controls, when I'm default analog. Do it with the weapon you want and are comfortable with. I'm not a charger type of person, therefore I will stick to guns/rollers until I get good at them. : D

 

[superhiero]

I dunno, I don't think switching weapons for different modes is cheating at all. I feel some weapons are just better suited to different modes, and different maps. I think only ever using one kind of weapon is limiting yourself too since then you might not learn the strengths of other weapons like their range and not know when it's safe to go in, etc.

 

[Drez]

True. I just mean that, I'd rather use the weapon I know I'd use after getting into those ranks, instead of one I don't intend to use after getting up there. Unless you consider it your new main than, that's fine. So when I say 'cheating' I'm not saying cheating the match, but I mean 'cheating yourself' by only using the roller.

So superhiero, I actually agree with your last sentence, and what I would say is use a variety of weapons when going up in rank to get better with most of them, instead of one. Yet I mean it's up to the person.

 

[NouriZ]

I also stay in the B+ tier for 90% of the time and can never seem to make it to A or even A-. I use the Forge Splattershot pro and the Tentatek Splattershot and always top the most Kills for my team yet I can never make it to A. Any suggestions? xP

 

[Drez]

Clone yourself. Or maybe get more kills then the guy who topped the enemy team scores. :3 Otherwise I have nothing else.

 

[Power]

With Forge u have to use its range to ur advantage. Dont stop moving is a great one too, use as many random angles to surprise ur opponent and throw off their aim. I climbed 2 whole ranks in the span of 2 hours (finally playing in the level I am capable of...) just by doing this with the Forge, constantly checking where everyone was, waiting for them to try to be sneaky and flank, using inkzooka wisely (very simple) also point sensors if they are too far away and you don't want to risk your positioning and get placed into a bad situation. But once again, use as many angles and elevations as you can. Your shots have to be somewhat on point too. I would suggest working with a charger as after using 3k scope I can always aim easier and kill faster. Remember to aim where they will most likely go.


Edit: kills and being at the top of the leader board usually means nothing in terms of winning. I had a 22-3 match and still lost because we choked at the end. All that matters is if you are able to secure the points for your objective. seeking out kills is a no no. It is best to secure an area and ink around to be even more secure instead of rushing in, killing 2 or 3 people and then dying. They could have beacons, or are just going to super jump to them. I wouldn't rely on my teammates (at least in solo queue) to deal with the few people that are left before they all super jump or regroup. For the most part, it is best to play it safely and not take to huge of risk unless you will lose without it. The longer you are alive, the longer you have control over some part of the map. This reduces the enemies ability to set up their defense, making it more likely
for you to take back zones or tower.

Sorry if it's just a big chunk and some words may be off (autocorrect. ) I'm on mobile.

 

[NouriZ]

With Forge u have to use its range to ur advantage. Dont stop moving is a great one too, use as many random angles to surprise ur opponent and throw off their aim. I climbed 2 whole ranks in the span of 2 hours (finally playing in the level I am capable of...) just by doing this with the Forge, constantly checking where everyone was, waiting for them to try to be sneaky and flank, using inkzooka wisely (very simple) also point sensors if they are too far away and you don't want to risk your positioning and get placed into a bad situation. But once again, use as many angles and elevations as you can. Your shots have to be somewhat on point too. I would suggest working with a charger as after using 3k scope I can always aim easier and kill faster. Remember to aim where they will most likely go.


Edit: kills and being at the top of the leader board usually means nothing in terms of winning. I had a 22-3 match and still lost because we choked at the end. All that matters is if you are able to secure the points for your objective. seeking out kills is a no no. It is best to secure an area and ink around to be even more secure instead of rushing in, killing 2 or 3 people and then dying. They could have beacons, or are just going to super jump to them. I wouldn't rely on my teammates (at least in solo queue) to deal with the few people that are left before they all super jump or regroup. For the most part, it is best to play it safely and not take to huge of risk unless you will lose without it. The longer you are alive, the longer you have control over some part of the map. This reduces the enemies ability to set up their defense, making it more likely
for you to take back zones or tower.

Sorry if it's just a big chunk and some words may be off (autocorrect. ) I'm on mobile.

Wow! That was super helpful! I will most definitely take this into consideration. Thanks so much for the post I'm sure it'll help! :D