Ranked Help

[Kevs02Accord]

Looking for some advice. Started this ranked season with high hopes of doing well, and I did for the first few ranks, really well actually. Now I am R9, but the struggle is real, feels like R2 last season all over again, I keep bouncing around, 9 to 10 to 11, back down again. I tried checking my stats for trends but WTR.com seems screwy, don't think I have that many games played. I know I was in full potato mode on Saturday, so that didnt help.

 

I planned to play some of my best ships at T6, Bayern, Budyonny, Leander, Farragut. I also have Fubuki, Shinonome, Ryujo, Graf Spee as back ups, although Fubuki doesn't have a captain. I feel like I am doing ok in the BB's, but I hadn't found my groove so I switched to Fuso recently. I really like Bayern but no one supports the push, DD's dont spot or smoke like they should, so I have to hang back, and Fuso is much better for that game play.

 

As for cruisers, I am really struggling with them, Budyonny I stay in the back and HE spam, Leander I camp in smoke and AP spam, problem is as soon as I am spotted I almost instantly get deleted. I can do really well in these ships, but not consistently.

 

For DD's, Farragut is good, and you can usually beat most other dd's in a knife fight, problem here is you usually get focused down pretty quick. Shinonome, well I suck in that ship for some reason.

 

I don't know, I realize I am not that good, but to me it seems like BB is the only viable class, at least you dont get one shot all the time. Do you guys have any suggestions what of my available ships fit best in the R10 and under meta and how to deal with non-supporting teammates? I also think I am being too aggressive, expecting to get help and then not, hence the Fuso pick, more of a survival pick than anything. I really dont want to grind another season with IJN BB's, its kind of boring.

 

PS I like to play CV's in same tier matches, what should I run in my Ryujo 122 vs 311. I prefer 122 but got cancer when I ran up against a 311 and 2 clevelands, although the next game we were both 122 and I did well.

[bitwiser]

You are playing in the R10-6 queue before all the best players have ranked out. The likely result  (unless you're really good) is to slide back into the previous queue due to stiff competition at those ranks. Give it a week or two and the skill level will be considerably lower. 

[Kevs02Accord]

3 minutes ago, bitwiser said:

You are playing in the R10-6 queue before all the best players have ranked out. The likely result  (unless you're really good) is to slide back into the previous queue due to stiff competition at those ranks. Give it a week or two and the skill level will be considerably lower. 

I agree with this too. However, last season I drug it out and the grind from R5 down was horrific due to total potato teams some times. I guess I was hoping if I got an earlier start this season I could at least do well on the unicum teams and rank out faster.

[Deviathan]

Aside from the fact that you're probably playing the really good players that haven't ranked out yet, are you hugging islands like they're your waifu in your cruisers?  As someone who's using the Warspite, wiggling and using islands are the hardest things for me to deal with against a cruiser.  If you're playing out in the open a lot, even at longer range, I am eventually going to catch you in a turn and punish you for it.

[Kevs02Accord]

2 minutes ago, Mortarian said:

Aside from the fact that you're probably playing the really good players that haven't ranked out yet, are you hugging islands like they're your waifu in your cruisers?  As someone who's using the Warspite, wiggling and using islands are the hardest things for me to deal with against a cruiser.  If you're playing out in the open a lot, even at longer range, I am eventually going to catch you in a turn and punish you for it.

You're right, definitely not as much as I should be. I do ok at this in the Budyonny, but in Leander I like to be out in the open, in smoke. I guess I need to get better and micro for Leander smoke and Budyonny island hugging.

[Grevester]

Straight to the point, bouncing around or 'no progress' can mean one of two things

1. You are in a bad luck streak. This can go either way mind you, as a good player could have a run of teammates not working well together to a bad player no longer being lucky to be carried. There is no solution you can do for bad luck. 

2. You are no longer able to influence the match enough to affect the outcome positively, but also not negatively. This is usually because the people you are entering match with are around your skill level or higher. The first solution would be to wait for these more skilled players to advance farther, thus lowering the overall skill pool of your league. The second is to improve your play. 

[bitwiser]

7 minutes ago, Kevs02Accord said:

I agree with this too. However, last season I drug it out and the grind from R5 down was horrific due to total potato teams some times. I guess I was hoping if I got an earlier start this season I could at least do well on the unicum teams and rank out faster.

 

Yeah I agree that's a real thing as well. There is kind of a sweet spot about 2 weeks into the ranked season where the best players have ranked out but the real taters haven't made their way into the rank 5 queue yet. I think this is the best time to play if your goal is to get to rank 1 with as little frustration as possible.

[Kevs02Accord]

7 minutes ago, Pulicat said:

Straight to the point, bouncing around or 'no progress' can mean one of two things

1. You are in a bad luck streak. This can go either way mind you, as a good player could have a run of teammates not working well together to a bad player no longer being lucky to be carried. There is no solution you can do for bad luck. 

2. You are no longer able to influence the match enough to affect the outcome positively, but also not negatively. This is usually because the people you are entering match with are around your skill level or higher. The first solution would be to wait for these more skilled players to advance farther, thus lowering the overall skill pool of your league. The second is to improve your play. 

 

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head, its a me issue. As I am thinking about it, R13 to 10 I could play like randoms, be out in the open, crazy flanking, etc... As I went down in ranks this caused me to potato hard. I think I need to go back to my ranked season motto, just chill and slow my roll. I am hoping if I exorcise the potato in me and find the ship(s) I can do the best in and stick with it, at least I wont be hurting the team. That way when I am playing on a team with better players I can still contribute to the win, instead of contributing to the loss.

 

6 minutes ago, bitwiser said:

 

Yeah I agree that's a real thing as well. There is kind of a sweet spot about 2 weeks into the ranked season where the best players have ranked out but the real taters haven't made their way into the rank 5 queue yet. I think this is the best time to play if your goal is to get to rank 1 with as little frustration as possible.

 

I really hope so, maybe I'll just get a few wins at a time and not push so hard and let R1 come to me. Last season I finished with a few days left and the teams were full of potato, that was really frustrating to be R2.4 numerous times and have people on your team who didn't know what they should be doing.

[MajorHavoc]

Nah don't wait.  At any given time a double digit loss streak can plummet you back to 12.  Grind away and hope for those W's!

[_ENO_]

I'm with you on the cruiser deal kevs- though I'm in lower ranks still (bouncing between 13-15). I think we were in a battle together last night or maybe it was a couple nights ago- I recognize the name. Or we were opposing- either way. I'm also running a Budyonny and really, really suffering. First night was great... bumped up 3 ranks- last night 0-4... none of which I was able to peal away a top XP spot but was usually last alive with reasonable damage. 

 

Problem is every time a battleship touches me I lose a good portion of my health and when it's either shoot at angled battleships or distant DDs or a juicy cruiser that's "doing its best" the choice is obvious. My priority target notification rockets up almost instantly. 

 

I'm fighting the urge to just shift back to my old BB main ways- roll up my Arizona and Warspite and just go for it... I'm afraid that's not going to help me "git gud" in cruisers but then again some might argue that ranked isn't where you should be trying new things. The counterpoint to that is that random gameplay and ranked are very different in composition and doesn't really help you learn to play in the tighter environment of ranked. 

 

Anyway, good luck with the upcoming ranks... I definitely feel your pain. 

[Deviathan]

53 minutes ago, Kevs02Accord said:

You're right, definitely not as much as I should be. I do ok at this in the Budyonny, but in Leander I like to be out in the open, in smoke. I guess I need to get better and micro for Leander smoke and Budyonny island hugging.

 

I don't have a Budyonny so I would imagine it's a little tougher with the gun arcs than something like a Leander or Cleveland, but you need to abuse islands to avoid being able to be focus fired as much as you can (they're also good torpedo barriers).  If you can get the shells over an island but are having a hard time hitting the target or hitting the right spot on their ship, you can use the doubletap-M trick to get a quick look at how they're angled and if they're moving (or you can use your torpedo indicator for this too).  The best Budyonny captain I ran into yesterday was using the islands on one of the maps to where he could pepper me with IFHE but it was difficult for me to get a good shot back without exposing myself to the rest of his team, he was at longer range wiggling and out of the line of sight for the other battleships on my team.

[Kevs02Accord]

29 minutes ago, ENO75 said:

I'm with you on the cruiser deal kevs- though I'm in lower ranks still (bouncing between 13-15). I think we were in a battle together last night or maybe it was a couple nights ago- I recognize the name. Or we were opposing- either way. I'm also running a Budyonny and really, really suffering. First night was great... bumped up 3 ranks- last night 0-4... none of which I was able to peal away a top XP spot but was usually last alive with reasonable damage. 

 

Problem is every time a battleship touches me I lose a good portion of my health and when it's either shoot at angled battleships or distant DDs or a juicy cruiser that's "doing its best" the choice is obvious. My priority target notification rockets up almost instantly. 

 

I'm fighting the urge to just shift back to my old BB main ways- roll up my Arizona and Warspite and just go for it... I'm afraid that's not going to help me "git gud" in cruisers but then again some might argue that ranked isn't where you should be trying new things. The counterpoint to that is that random gameplay and ranked are very different in composition and doesn't really help you learn to play in the tighter environment of ranked. 

 

Anyway, good luck with the upcoming ranks... I definitely feel your pain. 

 

I think we did as well mate. I remember after grinding out last season and starting to play randoms again, it was a joke how easy it was. Now having played randoms so long between seasons, I have been spoiled and I am not used to the competitive nature of ranked, where every mistake can be punished. Since I have consistency problems I will probably have to roll with BB's, at least if you make a mistake or two you can recover.

 

8 minutes ago, Mortarian said:

 

I don't have a Budyonny so I would imagine it's a little tougher with the gun arcs than something like a Leander or Cleveland, but you need to abuse islands to avoid being able to be focus fired as much as you can (they're also good torpedo barriers).  If you can get the shells over an island but are having a hard time hitting the target or hitting the right spot on their ship, you can use the doubletap-M trick to get a quick look at how they're angled and if they're moving (or you can use your torpedo indicator for this too).  The best Budyonny captain I ran into yesterday was using the islands on one of the maps to where he could pepper me with IFHE but it was difficult for me to get a good shot back without exposing myself to the rest of his team, he was at longer range wiggling and out of the line of sight for the other battleships on my team.

 

Yeah arcs are pretty flat. I find I can get near an island but not as close as Cleveland or Leander, that brings up the issue of being spotted by planes. I don't usually have problems hitting. Its just that one or two mistakes and then your spotted and get deleted, or best case lose 30% of your health. Just sucks cruisers get punished so hard, even DD's, you take a normal pen from a BB and you're pretty much dead.

[VVoony]

Don't hug islands. I see so many mistakes who tries to shoot over island only to get deleted.

It's highly specialized and skilled play for only certain players who can pull it off right.

If you are not extremly good at it, you might as well just not do it.

Generally, it's better to maneuver and avoid the shots fired at you.

This way, not only you eliminate possible deletion that happens when you sit still behind island,

you make enemies waste their shot.

Staying behind and avoid getting fired at in the first place is one thing, but if you can make them fire at you and avoid it compeletely, it's a huge huge advantage for your team

[GUNSTAR_THE_LEGEND]

2 hours ago, MajorHavoc said:

Nah don't wait.  At any given time a double digit loss streak can plummet you back to 12.  Grind away and hope for those W's!

Yeah as in i was 1 star from rank 8 and now im back to no stars rank 10. 

[BoostedOutlaw]

I wouldn't wait. Just play now. Playing with better players will make you better. Personally, I like to get a rhythm going. I keep playing if I'm winning and If I lose, I play a random battle then jump back into ranked. Getting a rhythm going helps out IMO. Playing like that treated me well last season and so far so good this season. 

[Thunderstruck2016]

I just got to Rank 8/9 and from what I can tell, I think you should stick with BBs and DDs.  The Smoke meta finally arrived for me when I got into Ranks 5-10 Matchmaking.  

 

I've mostly succeeded in using the Fuso and Cleveland.  Fuso is good because it has a 28 second reload and good armor against cruiser 6in HE shells (even with IFHE).  Its only downside is that it doesnt do that well against BB AP.  Cleveland is nice because of its 12 guns.  If I survive I can usually get 100k damage because of the floaty shells that is perfect for hiding behind islands and shooting at targets behind islands.  

 

Tips on how you can improve your ships you mentioned:

Bayern: I got nothing.  I hated this ship when playing in Randoms.  It doesn't have as good secondaries as later German BBs and playing it because it has 15in guns and can overmatch bow armor is not worth it for me.  I'd go with Fuso for a tech tree ship. 

Budyonny: you're playing it right.  It is a long range HE spammer.  If you find yourself still taking a lot of damage even at long range from battleships, mix up your evasion maneuvering.  Most simply turn away, instead slow down or turn in.

Leander: Don't smoke up in the open water.  Smoke next to an island that way you have cover when your smoke runs out and don't go out again until it is back up.

Farragut: Provide smokes and spotting for your team.  Contest caps but try not to stay in the center.  Use your smoke mostly for your teammates.  US DDs are paramount supporters. 

Shinonome: Provide smoke early in the game for teammates.  Go off into the center or the edges to spot for your team and make torpedo runs.  Its the only T6 DD that has good guns, torpedoes, and concealment. 

[Dictonary]

3 hours ago, 0806sung said:

Don't hug islands. I see so many mistakes who tries to shoot over island only to get deleted.

It's highly specialized and skilled play for only certain players who can pull it off right.

If you are not extremly good at it, you might as well just not do it.

Generally, it's better to maneuver and avoid the shots fired at you.

This way, not only you eliminate possible deletion that happens when you sit still behind island,

you make enemies waste their shot.

Staying behind and avoid getting fired at in the first place is one thing, but if you can make them fire at you and avoid it compeletely, it's a huge huge advantage for your team

Island hiding. Solve by spotter aircraft and prepare to be deleted by a broadside from a Fuso. If you can make me distracted with you, it is a better chance than hiding behind something I can fire over.

[Dictonary]

2 hours ago, BoostedOutlaw said:

I wouldn't wait. Just play now. Playing with better players will make you better. Personally, I like to get a rhythm going. I keep playing if I'm winning and If I lose, I play a random battle then jump back into ranked. Getting a rhythm going helps out IMO. Playing like that treated me well last season and so far so good this season. 

Get your skills honed and battle with good players. Learn, adapt, and repeat. That is how you become better. Try another gamemode after a losing streak, maybe you will get a 5 star in an operation. Same with ranked. Note every move they make and use the best.

[Veasel]

1 hour ago, Dictonary said:

Island hiding. Solve by spotter aircraft and prepare to be deleted by a broadside from a Fuso. If you can make me distracted with you, it is a better chance than hiding behind something I can fire over.

The Buddy has really flat arcs, it's not well suited to island humping- plenty of ships can return fire over the island. 

In saying that spotters are still and issue for a Cleveland, because other Clevelands have absolutely no issues in lobbing shells over islands,  and that why I'm seriously considering running DF permanently on the Cleveland - I've had Hyrdo all the way to R10 with no issues.

Swatting those float planes can benefit the whole team.

[Dictonary]

Just now, Veasel said:

Which is why I'm seriously considering running DF permanently on the Cleveland - I've had Hyrdo all the way to R10 with no issues.

Swatting those float planes can benefit the whole team.

Although, I could achieve the same results without them, it is a bit easier with them.

[Veasel]

8 minutes ago, Dictonary said:

Although, I could achieve the same results without them, it is a bit easier with them.

The bigger issue is the actually spotting the float planes provide.   I'm running the Cleveland for the most part, and the biggest issue is general taking fire form other Clevelands balloon bombs.  

But you can't shoot what you can't see.

[Dictonary]

Just now, Veasel said:

The bigger issue is the actually spotting the float planes provide.   I'm running the Cleveland for the most part, and the biggest issue is general taking fire form other Clevelands balloon bombs.  

But you can't shoot what you can't see.

Unless, you know that your enemy is there and you have shell collision detector enabled in the settings. And boy it is a game changer.

[BarbedWireRat]

7 hours ago, Dictonary said:

Get your skills honed and battle with good players. Learn, adapt, and repeat. That is how you become better. Try another gamemode after a losing streak, maybe you will get a 5 star in an operation. Same with ranked. Note every move they make and use the best.

Last several seasons I have waited out the good players before joining ranked but this time I think I'll just play through whatever happens until I get burned out!  Yeah maybe I will learn some strategies getting smoked by the better players while I get bounced back to 12 this week; I'll just try to not have high expectations for advancing or get too attached to my ranking if I luck into a win streak.

[Kevs02Accord]

Thanks for all the insight guys. I decided to go back to my S6 tried and true methods. Now I am playing the Fuso, and every once in a while the Ryujo. I think I just like to play too aggressive and the Fuso forces me to slow down, focus on my shots, positioning, etc... I have done really well, as far as wins are concerned. I got really lucky yesterday and had some excellent teammates and made a lot of progress.