Tips for advancing the ranks?

[AetherFenris]

So first off, I've only been playing for 3 days. I'm new as hell. I am not trying to come as some super pro douche. But I have been mentored by some pretty good players that I know and who got me into the game, so I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of things compared to a lot of new players. I feel really frustrated trying to get to the A and S ranks. I seem to almost always get paired with teammates that don't know how to fill roles. The last rainmaker match I played earlier, I got matched with 3 players on my team using all of the starting gear and weapons. I have no idea how the **** they made it through C rank. How do, at the very least, keep your rank from going down when you get matched with numbskull teammates?

 

[Floating Eyeball]

I feel you, I got stuck plenty of times yesterday with teammates shooting off to the side while I had to try to take on the zone or RM on my own. My advice isn't fun, but I'd suggest waiting those guys out some way, through playing turf war or just doing something else for a bit. (Of course, you should try a new lobby first, but don't keep it up if that doesn't help after the first few times) It sucks, but it's better to just let those guys take themselves out of the bracket on their own than get dragged down with them, and it can be really frustrating. I know I've ended up dropping a rank or two from a losing streak that I promised I would stop "Just as soon as I win a match... and then the match right after that," and it was really aggravating.
Also, when Map/Mode combo you're good at comes up, play it as much as you can. If you can climb higher in the ranks, you'll have less to worry about when you do face the occasional loss, and you'll be more likely to have better players on your team. And the rush of a great win streak is fantastic.

 

[NotAPerso]

In the lower ranks it's fairly easy for a good player to carry a team so if you're really good at an S/S+ level then you'd have little trouble regardless of teammates. My point being is you just got the game so you're probably not good enough to shoot straight up through to the S ranks and that's perfectly fine just know that blaming teammates for mistakes won't help you improve. Knowing the basics of how each mode work is great and admittedly better than most low ranking players so you have that going for you but there are many more factors as to how you could personally improve to make you better than other players of your current rank. You need to be better than your opponents to advance in rank so comparison to how much better you may be than teammates is silly.

Anyways, things to practice are positioning, aim, retreating, pushing objective, strafing and swim strafing, ink management, stealth.
I can break down what and how of any of these that you request and if you have a preferred weapon that you need help with better utilizing then it would also be helpful if you include that.

 

[CknSalad]

I would focus first on ink control mainly and focusing on the objective. Having at least mid-control and your spawn area inked is really important as it makes it harder for enemies to advance and push objective. Your aim will get better over time after getting used to the motion controls (feels weird, but in the end is better). I would also not expect too much from teammates up until B/B+ ranks where players will start to aim better and get a better grasp of the objectives. Even then at B/B+ ranks, players tend to lose track of objective and either focus on frags or not pay attention to mini-map, so everybody is too scattered to coordinate good pushes. Since you are new, I would just relax a little with some turf war before ranked matches and even try out various weapons to figure out what your main weapon and possible secondaries are.

If you lose three/four matches in a row, I would consider going to turf war or just simply take a break from the game. If you notice your reflexes are getting noticeably slower or you are making more reckless pushes toward enemy territory and trying too hard to outfrag enemies, that is also a good indicator to take a break.

The fastest way to improve is to take some time after each round to reflect what went well and what did not went well. If you keep dying to a certain weapon or dying on certain spots of the map, try to think how you could change your playstyle or approach to remedy that.

 

[CknSalad]

As for modes, I can give you a few tips:

Splat Zones: Try your hardest not to die on the zone as you will spill out enemy ink on the spot you died on. This may sound minor, but has definitely been enough to cost me close zones matches.

Tower Control: Stealth jump/super jump is pretty popular in this mode. Just be wary when you are on tower or supporting your teammate who is pushing back the tower. Kraken, bubbler, and ink-zooka are specials that are particularly used a lot on this mode. Push back kraken on tower with killer wail or shooting at it, as kraken can really push tower a bit. Splash walls and bomb subs (particularly suction bomb) are useful on the tower. On some maps, you can bounce off the splash wall off walls for easier deployment on tower (such as Hammerhead Bridge).

Rainmaker: Don't go for the rainmaker right away in the initial mid-fight. Get a feel for where the enemies are positions esp. if there are any chargers. Start to make the push once you get a good one/two man advantage and have decent ink coverage on mid. Sometimes it is good to play flank to cover enemy flanking to your carrier or to catch enemies focusing on carrier off guard. If you are carrier, learn when to push and dive for lead as well as when to keep shooting the rainmaker for a bit to get back ink control and push back enemies. Over time, you will learn when to fully charge or just small charge bursts to get the lead or have just enough to dunk it.

I dunno if this helped as you stated other good players have helped you. Hopefully it did :)