Short introduction: I’m no 12,000 MMR player who has all the answers. I’m a casual player, much like many others out there and I thought that as a more reasonably-ranked person I could share my actual experience of how I’ve gained MMR. Spoiler – this is not a “one size fits all” situation. Take it with a grain of salt – this is just my experience. Hope you find it helpful!
I’ve always been an Archon-Legend player. I’ve finished Season 4 as an Archon 3. This season I’ve calibrated as a low Legend 1 and dropped to Archon 5 (~2,890 MMR) very quickly. I then decided to take some time and change a lot of my tactics to meet my new goal – Ancient.
Here’s what I learned and did during this journey that helped me improve:
- This first point might be the hardest to accept, but it’s probably where everyone should start – accept that you’re just as good (and bad) as everyone else in your rank. There’s a reason why you were put into this exact rank. Hate it or love it, but you’re contributing to a win just as much as you’re contributing to a loss. Forced 50% is an old myth and all it means is you were put into the correct bracket.
- Playing a lot does not necessarily mean improving or climbing up the ranks. Your mental state really affects your gameplay and it is far better to play when you’re in a good mental state than it is to spam games while raging. I’ve had days where I’ve played 10 games a day and other times I wouldn’t play a single game for a week. I only started searching for a game when I really felt like playing and wanted to have fun while doing that.
- Experiment. We’ve all had that phase where we wanted to just be a pos 1 (carry) and quite literally carry the game, but if you give other roles a try you may find out you’re actually a very very good pos 3 instead!
- On that note I’d like to add – I’ve personally gained a lot of MMR as a support in a certain season, a pos 1 in another and more recently as a pos 3. If a set of heroes that I’m good at becomes strong in a certain patch, I’ll definitely switch to playing that role in that patch. A good support could 100% be the difference between a loss and a win. It’s not a shame to play a role that isn’t pos 1 - you might even enjoy it more!
- Follow the Meta. While it’s not impossible to be successful with heroes that are off-meta, and those heroes definitely are playable, spamming that off-meta hero will very likely cripple your ability to rank up.
- There’s a good reason why certain heroes aren’t picked in a certain brackets or at all at a given patch.
- Some heroes who are meta are played differently from what you’re used to, so being informed of the recent changes could really help you play better. A recent example would be SF being played as a magic-based hero compared to a right-click hero.
- There are a lot of websites that can help you with that, most notably dota2protracker. I combine this with watching live games of heroes I wish to learn.
- Keep it cool, keep the toxicity out. This is quite a big topic and I could spend an entire post just on this, but here’s my take on it:
- We’ve all had that Crusader picking IO mid because he saw Topson playing it once, but calling gg and bashing on him during the pick phase isn’t going to contribute to anything. That is causing the team to pit against a certain player and expecting a loss before the game even started. Now that pos 4/5 won’t TP mid to help him when the enemy team dives him because “gg he’s IO so why bother, go next”.
- This also applies to problems arising during the game. I guarantee that Pugna who decrepified you during a Leshrac ult knows they’ve screwed up. Shouting “what the hell are you doing you <insert swear word in your language>?!” is not going to make them play better and is very likely doing the opposite. There are better ways to ask something from your teammates. Assuming you’re not a smurf, you are at the mercy of 4 other players. You might be right when you tell him he played badly, but what do you care about most? Being right or winning?
- This one is a personal favorite of mine and probably not a proven statistic, but if you’re going to all chat “ez” during the laning phase and then pause when you kill the enemy at the 5 minutes mark, you’re going to lose. Karma is a B, don’t mess with her.
- Play with people who are better & higher ranked than you. I can’t stress this one enough. Playing (unranked) with my Immortal friends has taught me A LOT and probably what helped me embrace point number 1. If you’re a Crusader, team up with a Legend/Ancient player. If you’re a Legend player, team up with your Divine/Immortal friends. You will lose many games in a row, most games will be a stomp, but as you continue playing you’ll see an improvement. Suddenly, you don’t die as easily in lane. Suddenly, your wards aren’t getting de-warded after 30 seconds. You find yourself farming in the correct spots and hitting item timings faster, etc.. The more you play against better players the better you’ll become yourself. Just remember point 2.
Bonus:
I've been trying to avoid "obvious" things that are under the "git-gud" category, like learn how to last hit better and similar suggestions, I'm sure you've heard those a million times, but this one made a lot of difference for me so I feel like it deserves to be mentioned:
Itemization. Following guides is OK up to a point. Somewhere around mid-high Archon you probably want to start learning how to properly itemize against your opponents. Not every game calls for a Radiance on a carry. Not every game calls for a EUL on a support. Buying the wrong items on a carry could mean you’re now unable to join team fights and your team is unable to fight without you, while buying the wrong items on a support could mean that your’e unable to have a good-enough contributions in team fights and your carry is now forced to buy an item he should not have to compensate.
And there you have it… Next up - Divine.
Good luck to all MMR climbers!
EDIT:
Q&A - a collection of questions and answers from different communities
Q: "can you explain more about point 2
i can only spend like 5-6 games a week to play in a good condition. But isn't playing that low amount of games per week gonna hurt my ability to stay in shape? From what i've heard ppl normally play 2-3 games a day at least to climb the medal"
A: "Definitely!
Firstly, Dota is a game and games are meant to be enjoyed. If you're forcing yourself to play or playing when you don't really feel like it, then what's the point? All the ranks in the world won't make a difference.
With that being said, we all know how frustrating the game can be at times. It's really easy to get tilted during a game and when you start a game already at an unstable state, it's a slippery slope. It will cause you to not pay attention as much, make more mistakes and possibly be toxic towards other players - which heavily relates to point #5.
I believe that even playing as few as 5-6 GOOD games a week would be a lot more beneficial to your learning experience than 14-21 awful ones. I mean, who wants to learn anything when he's barely feeling like playing?
Secondly, and way more important - if you're only finding yourself in a good condition 5-6 times a week, have you ever stopped and asked yourself "why"?
Is it that you're under too much stress in real life? Are you working too much? Too hard? Having money issues? Wife/husband issues? Afraid of losing before even starting? Don't enjoy the game anymore?
Whatever the reason may be, it takes precedence over the game. Have your life in order first, worry about the game later. You're welcome to PM me if you need someone to talk to :)"