Originally Posted by
CyberStein
Hi, I would like to congratulate you on what you are doing now, and have a question: I've been playing for 2 years now but I'm still around 1550-1600, I had gotten to 1700 once with friends but afterwards they switched to LoL and I've slided back to 1550 playing solo. When I play a carry I average 300^gpm, when I play support the map is fully warded, I do play bad but that's very rare. I believe I've progressed a lot this last year, I've been watching streams. But still it's not enough and we lose the game. I personally like to play brown/orange because then I know that the other players are better than me. But when I get blue/pink the team gets filled with noobs. I've entered the 1700-1800 games with friends and I can keep up the pace of the game, but I'm stuck at this bracket. What should I do?
--> It is a nice thing that you can keep up the pace of the game, its important that you suit a more skilled team - however that can be no excuse to what your rating is now. I'm not going to talk about your stats right now, because some people take that as an offense, I'll just go ahead and speak about general things.
The possibility of you having less-skilled players in your team is less than the possibility of you facing them. In the worst scenario, you should maintain a higher win percentage than 50%, which means overall your MMR is increasing, slowly but surely.
If you really think your skill-level is what it takes to be in the 1700 bracket, I can tell you what I do to boost my sub accounts. I just pick a mid hero and stomp my way up to the desired bracket. When it starts to get harder and you can no longer win alone, you'll understand that you are where you are supposed to be. However, since you have 50% win with fairly "okay" stats I think you don't have what it takes at the moment. Rather than watching streams, I recommend to watch your classes' experts. For example, if you are a carry, go download dozen replays of Trixi or Era and try to understand his gameplay.
Another thing you can do is to find a casual team to TMM with. If you have some luck and meet the right people, and can maintain team synergy it will be so easy to get out of 1500/1600s with 2/3men queues.
Since you asked a general question, I cannot give you any key facts or some tips, because every single individual have different ways of gaining MMR, some only solo Q, some only team up. This is something you got to try yourself and find out. The current MM system is not the best, and I agree it doesnt show everything about your skill, but gives some idea at least. If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask 
Originally Posted by
bOOxO
Happy to find this thread
! Heres one for you.
How come Doctor Repulsor isnt picked in competitive?
--> Hi, and welcome
Well, in HoNPortal, from time to time, during our casual fun scrims, we have played with or against DR - so he is picked rarely, but just not in any important matches. This can be caused by few things in my opinion,
1) He is an int carry which
needs to be solo. He needs that early levels and the farm advantage to be efficient. Now since this is the case, he has to go mid. He cannot afford to go to a lane and lose/ or even do OK on it. Opponent can easily shut down DR mid with a dual lane mid setup or even a constant roamer.
2) The current metagame focuses on either tanky setup with push or mid game potential, or a harcarry setup. Either way, doctor is just not good enough to compete vs these setups, and DR's team will be forced to push earlier to try finish before. At that time, DR will be far away from his peak and there will be absolutely no point of picking him.
3) Shrunken is the best and most picked up big item in this game, and completely counters DR. Why not pick hag, polly, witch or any other mid dominant hero who is much better (and more useful to team) early/mid game than DR and useless late game like DR?
This is what comes to my mind when I think of why, I'm sure I can come up with more if I do some thinking over it, but DR just does not seem like a good pick at this moment, there are much much better picks which can go with the same strategy.
Originally Posted by
Clytemnestra
You said that rather than watching pro streams we(actually he,but whatever) should download replays of good carry players.Can you provide a list/other good players for all the roles?As i don't really know how competitive hon works i don't really know a lot of those pro players out there and what they do.Can you also tell when did hon became competitive and how players affirmed themselves as top players?And the third question,i want to learn how to draft in lock pick since it seems a pretty well-thought mode.Any pointers/ideas?What heroes to blindban/lock/ban and why?What to choose and why?Anything.(i have been watching a few lock picks but i can't understand why they do what they do)
--> Your first question is answered on Fj's
Black Code. Your second question, I can't say if you're trolling or serious. There is no exact date when HoN became "competitive", competitive means that there is a competition between teams in terms of scrimming and some actual tournaments with or without prizes or any exact boundaries as in top players. The third question, I am sorry to say that I am not going to explain something again which is already greatly explained all around the forums and different websites. You can search for that
Originally Posted by
SheepTamer
Glad you are doing dis.
How did you progress through the mmr and psr system? Did you ever find yourself stuck for a long while, and what made the big difference for you in terms of improving?
--> This is actually a nice question. To start with, I only played normal games (PSR) with my team, so throughout the scrims I found myself on that point bracket, its not really something special. About Match Making, its a bit harder. Yes, I've found myself stuck in some brackets for a long while, 99% of the time I solo Q'd, so I guess it's something normal. Remember, you get 4 random players, your opponent gets 5. The odds of the "feeder" be in your team is less, you should almost always maintain more win % than 50. If you can do that, do not worry. You will reach the higher MMR brackets, slowly but surely while improving your skills.
I believe I improved the most when I started scrimming 2 years ago. In casual TMM matches, even if you try hard, if your team does not, you cannot achieve a lot. With an organized and ambitious team, you will see yourself concentrating much more and improving a lot faster before you can even realize how high your skill became.
I believe there are 3 factors to improving. Dedication, self-confidence and concentration.
Dedication, I remember times playing 10 hours non stop a day, you need to dedicate a lot of your time if you want to compete with the best. HoN has relatively small competitive scene comparing the money it. Always remember your goal, and decide if dedicating your time is worth the reward. Never spend time with thinking how bad you played in the last game, or flaming the feeder/griefer. Always look forward, I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT WASTE TIME. Sometimes I find myself sitting on a chat, talking with people, wanting to play but never got the chance for hours. Always play and practice.
Self-confidence is an important factor, just as over-confidence is a dangerous habit. As you become higher in the MMR brackets, you will start to see how easy it is to dispatch some of the so-called top players, do not underestimate yourself. If you are playing against someone, it is because you have beaten the same guys, and you deserve to be in that bracket just as much as he does. Try to give your best. If you are having cold-hands, or shaking, you should understand something is wrong. Go take a small walk, breathe and give your best.
Concentration, I think this is one of the most frequent mistakes I find myself doing. Remember though, this is something personal, I will just give examples of myself. Sometimes I play while listening to music, or without game sounds, or even while TV is on in the background. At these times I find my game has decreased a lot. If you are doing something, do it right and give your best. The chance of winning the game while chatting with someone on Facebook or on a casual chat with a friend on Skype is very low for me. Even, if something is on your mind, or bugging you at that point, trust me, your performance will be lowered a lot.
It is up to you to take these into consideration or not, and I am not promising you anything, but if you consider and use these principles there is a big possibility your skill and game play will increase greatly. Still, the MMR has a luck factor. It does not reflect your skill level 100%, but gives an opinion about it. Try to TMM with friends, if you want to become better and higher, do not play for fun, play TO WIN. You might use boring strategies, broken heroes, or same lineups for hours - every high clan/player has done that at some point. Play to win, live to win
Originally Posted by
Jenova26
What heroes do you use when you solo queue? Do you pick certain heroes in certain brackets only? For instance, my favorite heroes are Hag and Bubbles, but I feel like they are weaker than other heroes in the 1500s due to less teamplay, overall, but they tend to stomp the 1600s and up. Vice versa, BH seems to be pretty strong in the 1500s, but gets weaker and weaker as you go up.
What do you look for, personally, when you pick for solo?
--> Well, it is tricky really. I cannot give you facts, I'll tell you what has worked for me. Until 1700s, you can almost guarantee to win alone unless your team is not horribly bad or feeding with a snowball hero, any hero is capable of this however I will tell you those who I think are the easiest: Deadwood, pebbles, succubus, hag, silhoutte, engineer, flux, tundra, aluna and heroes alike..
After 1800ish, (since you match up with 1900 guys too) teams start to get a bit better, players start to have knowledge, positioning and ultimately wards around the map. I found that it is the easiest to support your way up at this point. What I did was play Ophelia 24/7, help all my lanes dominate and force opponent to concede. There is a truth, everyone can carry in pubs until very high brackets, but not everyone can or will support. So support, be a ward whore if you have to, make sure to help all of your lanes, be everywhere and maintain pressure early on. On public games, players don't really want to or know how to turtle, thus if you dominate them early, there is a high chance you are forcing a concede vote.
Originally Posted by
CoreMal
Hi
At which rating did you start playing inhouses and when would you consider a player to benefit more from IH's than tmm with a mate?
Which personal ability would you count most important on your way to 1900?
Do you think a player benefits more from playing with people 100 rating above hinmself, or will it let him stand in the shade with no time to shine? - even in a support role?
Thanks in advance
--> Hi! There wasn't really a moment in my playing history where I thought "Oh, I should start playing inhouses now!". When you get into a competitively active high clan, you will automatically get invited to the inhouses, since its point is to compete with the players who you would normally play against in a tournament. So, don't worry about it just yet, when you find a successful clan who's scrimming a lot, you will find yourself playing in inhouses. At that point, you would be at your peak so there wouldn't be much room to improve anyway.
About your second question, ready above. I've talked about 3 personal abilities I try to maintain while gaming - I think those have improved me a lot. And of course, brophelia <3
Your final one, I believe that: unless you're getting crushed; you're not learning anything. Get stomped, download the replay, analyze your lane, opponents - from its hardsupport harassing and ward spots to its hard carry's farming capabilities. You will feel the difference next game! Hope it was useful
Originally Posted by
DeepWaters
How do you manage your game? I mean, do you just take a hero and do your thing, or youre like "okay, i will gang with parasite at lvl 2, then take a big creep and head over to the bot lane which is pushed. Since top lane has a tendency to get pushed i will go there after 2 lvls..." and so and so. Do you do things like killing the carry or pushing naturally - or do you observe things like the minutes or the carries items, and by that you decide about a specific course of action?
In short - do you tend to strategize alot, when most of your ingame actions(like ganking or pushing) are a direct result of pre planning(unlike most players when theyre all "oh, im near top lane - lets gang", or you just let the game flow? If it is the former - do you have any methods in which i can develop such skills?
--> Interesting question haven't thought much about this. Of course it differs from game to game, and depends on if you are asking about pubs or scrims. I am not trying hard in public games since I already have an overwhelming job and play TMM to have fun. I'm going to give a general answer including what I do in both.
Usually, game starts with what we call "theorycrafting" in the picking phase. From the lanes they can use, to what items they can counter us with - of course this includes the bloodlust kill and the strategies to gank the lanes. However, when the game starts everything can change - so it is useful to have a backbone plane, but also you should be able to adapt them to the current situation. To be honest, players who are able to judge the game and do this successfully are the
top players.
To improve this particular skill, I would say you should take some time and think about your game. Download scrims between top clans, analyze their strategies. Also you should note that, you cannot just say "I'll gank top lane", team coordination and communication is the most important thing in this game. Do not expect to achieve this too well in public, especially if you are solo queue.
Originally Posted by
SinisterMJ
When you go through the MMR Ratings, do you notice something like
-1500 - they lack map control, and are bad at last hitting
-1600 - (I don't know what they are lacking, etc)
Like, what's the difference between a 1500 player to a 1600 to a 1700 to a 1800? Is it just generally worse in all areas, or are there special features these players are worse with?
--> Well, this is a very generic question, I can only answer this with my own experience while smurfing. I feel like the biggest handicap lower brackets have that they all die for picking carries, thinking that playing carries make them look better or something then have to lane a dual carry dual melee lane and fail. No one wants to play hard support/semi support in these games because they are just not as fun with a team who does not know how to control the lane and roam around. Its really a dead end, if you pick supports/roamers its not gonna be as effective and you will be bored, if you do not pick it then you will probably lose.
Other important thing is the positioning, the term "throwing" is really what these players tend to do as game progresses. I do not know if it is because of pure lack of knowledge or slacky play but as the game progresses, and the wards get countered, players tend to go out and farm a lane for 5 minutes without expecting a gank, the team who pub trains and pick off the solo misplaced players will most likely win the game.
Originally Posted by
ExerCrest
How do I not care for my KDR in NM and how to maintain it.
Originally Posted by
Kartious
How come do majority of players find stats so important? There are too many players are like "oh you have 0.XX kd so you are bad" when the player commonly picks supports for other games which makes them isolated from picking any other role in games? I mean I used to worry about KD a lot until I preferred to take the bullet and pick support for the team (around 70% of games noon will pick support and want to carry), this is now sort of kicking in me in the teeth as less players will allow me to mid or pick a carry role. That also leads to another question of why do people refuse to pick supports for the team which everyone will know that the game is lost due to bad lanes or bad set up (like chronos / ew lane or someone picking night hound to solo or something).
--> I feel like you both will share the same answer, so I will answer you both in once if you guys don't mind. FIrst of all, KDR
is important and you should care about it. Does not matter if you play a hard support or a hard carry, no one will want a guy who has 0.2 kdr in his team, you cannot go 0-10 as glacius and expect it to be okay. If you follow the current competitive scene, and from my own experience in HoNPortal (hint hint) I can safely say a feeding hard support easily costed us the game, because early kill or two to the enemy carry changes A LOT.
However, stats or KDR in this case is not everything. How come do majority of players find so important? I cannot answer that, the majority of players do not understand this game then. As you go up in the MMR ladder you will see players will stop caring
too much about your stats. But if you are a mid player or a hard carry only and a kind of player who refuse to ward/play support, your stats should be perfect. Creeps average, KD, APM, GPM, Denies everything. The second part of your question, "Why do people refuse to play supports?" is what I just answered to someone above, I'll just copy paste if you do not mind:
I feel like the biggest handicap lower brackets have that they all die for picking carries, thinking that playing carries make them look better or something then have to lane a dual carry dual melee lane and fail. No one wants to play hard support/semi support in these games because they are just not as fun with a team who does not know how to control the lane and roam around. Its really a dead end, if you pick supports/roamers its not gonna be as effective and you will be bored, if you do not pick it then you will probably lose. But again, this is only in lower games, as you go higher and higher you will see that even TMM games will become more like scrims, where people use in game VOIP more, and actually have primary roles to play. Hope this clears things up a bit.
Originally Posted by
Rordarok
How would you advise new players to get into competitive scene? What are the requirements and what do they have to do to get noticed? What are the basic requirements to actually get there.
Think of age, times to play, having a pitchy voice, what roles are needed most atm, how do you get in contact with decent players etc. etc.
--> There is no rule book on this. People used to host a lot more inhouses, especially before TMM was introduced, players would get to know each other there and if you're lucky you can get invited to few scrims and so on. But now, with Nova's great initiative there is QsQ. I think it is the best way to bring your game to the next level, you get to meet a lot of great players who have the talent but haven't yet made a name. So you might find yourself creating a clan with those people and work your way up!
Originally Posted by
OneSantaPlz
On a scale of 1 to 10, How important do you think it is to be nice to your teammates to win?
With all the flaming and hating in Heroes Of Newerth, I found it easier to win when my team cooporated: If you are nice in the beginning they will help more to win the game.
What is your vision about this?
--> 10. Definitely. It is very important to be nice. By acting in a mature way and making constructive comments you can make them step their games up. If you find that your team is worse than you are, simply act as the ingame leader and tell them what to do. A good team leader in TMM games where people are mostly unorganized can change a lot!
Originally Posted by
Silentform
How do you decide which items to make? Like i mostly follow ingame guides but sometimes it should be defensive items before offensive and i know its based on enemy heroes or their items. And the guide i choose might not be relevant to opposing team setup. So what do you think? How will i get used to decide which item to go for?
PS: Im new to this game, i havent played DoTA before coming to HoN.
--> That's something comes with experience and time. You can only get better in item choices by playing. Also, I'm sure watching casts like HoNCast or other good players' casts on Twitch.tv gives a lot of feedback and insight on item choices. To start with, try to understand why competitive players make certain choices in scrims, then once you get the idea, you should be coming up with your own ideas!
Originally Posted by
Salem1
1) Yesterday I played with 4 friends, we went up against a clan in all pick. I knew before we even hit enter que that we would most likely lose since we didn't have a plan or anything and 3 of them play very irregularily but still, something happened in the game that I want to know what I'm supposed to do about.
I was CD on legion short lane with VJ up against a solo Bubbles. My farm was strong and he even died because of a misclick. I knew that the first thing I had to do after getting ghost marchers is get a shrunken - we were up against WS, Gauntlet, Bubbles, Silhouette and Magmus (zzzz). Thing is that as soon as Gauntlet hit 6 - and I knew this would happen at the start of the game, just didn't know what I could possibly do against it - he and Bubbles started roaming me. As soon as their ultimates were up they'd come and burst me down. I know that this game revolves around burst and cc which CD doesn't have any of thus making him a 2nd rate hero but what can I do against that? To survive, let alone inflict any damage, I'd need to have a shrunken head by the time I'm done with the laning phase. How do I deal with such overwhelming burst and cc as a hero like CD?
--> The key here is to organize your team. There are 2 ways to counter if the enemy team is locking down your key hero. First one is, getting a lane ward, and by telling your support to put up some defensive ward, you should be safely farming your lane and back when you see them coming to you. Once they understand you have wards, a) they will either leave you alone (which is freefarm and for a hero like CD its really dangerous) or b) they will pubtrain and push your lane, in this case you counter push another lane or try to defend your tower, it should give you some space to farm - fallen towers give you more space to farm if you get lane wards. Second choice, is to make your team push some towers or at least make some pressure by ganking their forest/playing aggressively which will attract gauntlet/bubbles attention off of you which should give you enough time to farm your core item to actually be useful in teamfights. I hope this was satisfying enough.
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