How does someone actually practice before playing Ranked? Because telling someone to practice before queuing sounds pretty stupid especially when they're above Valor 60. Only reason you're not much higher is you play multiple classes because it's fun and you want to know how they function, how they operate. In most cases here is how the scenario plays out for the typical player who ques for ranked : You are player that plays unranked on a regular basis , sometimes even religiously, you know your rotation, you know at least at basic level how to use your defenses if not more , you win most the 1 vs 1 in unranked, and you decide to que ranked because you want some good challenge. You hit up the que with your dps and you get a pop after a good wait. You end up against some Sins, an OP, and PT, you are eager to start the match. After bracket is decided, you finally go in and then..... one oper or sin pops out of stealth and stuns you . So does the second one. You panic and you break, then the other one saps you from stealth again and they " chop chop" chop, chop" you down. However, this in some cases, it isn't panic, you realize you're being tunneled to the point you're gonna get nuked to hell. You know that if you don't break the first one, you're going die because you can't even activate your DCDs. You break, You use your defenses , try all and you end up dead in like 7, 8 seconds . Maybe 15 if you're somewhat familiar but never actually played Ranked. What happens next ? Your team will start talking ****. Your team will call you everything in the book and still persist to call you trash or say you're not a 4th player, 1/10th a player, or whatever their butthurt selves wanna call you. You may have tough skin, so instead of quitting right away, you keep going. You're doing better, learning as you play, you're living longer, you're chasing, etc. but it's still not enough for them, the insults keep coming, they get worse.

At some point, after many insults and toxic people, many of them being in the same matches, someone tells you to practice before you Que or mad because of your damage. Yet they persist you constantly chase the person running away, who is doing a good job at running away. Funny enough, you're the only one chasing them and actually doing an ok job despite your team wanting them chased. When you're not in very hot purist, your DPS is actually relative to theirs. I ask again. How does one practice? Warzones literally do nothing for you and aren't a challenge, Arenas in WZs don't pop enough and when they do it's often not even 4 vs 4. In the WZ everyone is pretty much damage farming or doing whatever they want. You been playing WZs, you been watching Ranked PVPers play, you been taking some notes, and all that's left to do is apply all you know to Ranked like you been doing Unranked. There is no environment to practice Ranked PVP unless you're in a PVP heavy guild or playing Ranked PVP, simply because Unranked is so poorly executed. The que is long enough already and for good reason, players after being demeaned and discouraged, even if they love PVP, they avoid Ranked, because it's overly toxic.

People definitely don't enjoy getting deleted, but there's always a few people who will keep trying and learning from that, but for many of those, the constant ************,moaning, and toxicity in the chat is the reason they choose to not bother again, not because they got deleted the first couple of times they joined. That or they get Ranked Blackballed because some jerks decided to share you around, spread rumors, and stuff. Now all the sudden you're a win-trader or you hand over matches. Honestly, in solo ranked, no chat might be a better option like in FF. Sure people may start doing whatever they want, but if they are knowledgeable enough they should be able to think of what their teammates are thinking or what would be the best course of action, the toxicity will be reduced, and there are target markers already available if you wanna know what your teammate wants focused. Hell, some of the players even talk down on the other Ranked PVP players who you believe are totally better than them. It becomes a lightsaber swinging contest. The matchmaking isn't even fair balanced. Like why am I who am playing my first Ranked PVP match getting paired against literal Ranked PVP vets, someone you see often playing with guys like Mark Biggs, E-Girl, Kogass, Scooby, and etc. (Which I don't mind, however, it doesn't really help someone when their teammates are trashing on them). How is someone supposed to actually get better at Ranked if nobody wants them to play Ranked or they are getting insulted at every turn? Even the military isn't as toxic or full of insults, which speaks volumes. Especially since you get insulted, physically punished, and messed with everyday for months. Doing those same task over and over, until you actually improve to the point nobody can say anything. Not only are you getting insulted but you're receiving help! You can't even do that for Ranked, you get black balled before you even reach the half way point. I'm going to stop now because it's becoming more of a tangent rank on the toxicity of the community. So I'm going to end it with the title question. Practice? For Ranked? How Sway!?

Some people Duel players of higher skill as a way to understand the ins and outs of their class Or they watch streams of people who play their class and try to understand what they're doing. Some people speak to other players that have already achieved good rating for tips and tricks.

To be honest there is no way to practice ranked and it is hard for a new player, however some people do enter without even a basic understanding of defensive and passives.

How does someone actually practice before playing Ranked? Because telling someone to practice before queuing sounds pretty stupid especially when they're above Valor 60. Only reason you're not much higher is you play multiple classes because it's fun and you want to know how they function, how they operate. In most cases here is how the scenario plays out for the typical player who ques for ranked : You are player that plays unranked on a regular basis , sometimes even religiously, you know your rotation, you know at least at basic level how to use your defenses if not more , you win most the 1 vs 1 in unranked, and you decide to que ranked because you want some good challenge. You hit up the que with your dps and you get a pop after a good wait. You end up against some Sins, an OP, and PT, you are eager to start the match. After bracket is decided, you finally go in and then..... one oper or sin pops out of stealth and stuns you . So does the second one. You panic and you break, then the other one saps you from stealth again and they " chop chop" chop, chop" you down. However, this in some cases, it isn't panic, you realize you're being tunneled to the point you're gonna get nuked to hell. You know that if you don't break the first one, you're going die because you can't even activate your DCDs. You break, You use your defenses , try all and you end up dead in like 7, 8 seconds . Maybe 15 if you're somewhat familiar but never actually played Ranked. What happens next ? Your team will start talking ****. Your team will call you everything in the book and still persist to call you trash or say you're not a 4th player, 1/10th a player, or whatever their butthurt selves wanna call you. You may have tough skin, so instead of quitting right away, you keep going. You're doing better, learning as you play, you're living longer, you're chasing, etc. but it's still not enough for them, the insults keep coming, they get worse.

 

At some point, after many insults and toxic people, many of them being in the same matches, someone tells you to practice before you Que or mad because of your damage. Yet they persist you constantly chase the person running away, who is doing a good job at running away. Funny enough, you're the only one chasing them and actually doing an ok job despite your team wanting them chased. When you're not in very hot purist, your DPS is actually relative to theirs. I ask again. How does one practice? Warzones literally do nothing for you and aren't a challenge, Arenas in WZs don't pop enough and when they do it's often not even 4 vs 4. In the WZ everyone is pretty much damage farming or doing whatever they want. You been playing WZs, you been watching Ranked PVPers play, you been taking some notes, and all that's left to do is apply all you know to Ranked like you been doing Unranked. There is no environment to practice Ranked PVP unless you're in a PVP heavy guild or playing Ranked PVP, simply because Unranked is so poorly executed. The que is long enough already and for good reason, players after being demeaned and discouraged, even if they love PVP, they avoid Ranked, because it's overly toxic.

 

People definitely don't enjoy getting deleted, but there's always a few people who will keep trying and learning from that, but for many of those, the constant ************,moaning, and toxicity in the chat is the reason they choose to not bother again, not because they got deleted the first couple of times they joined. That or they get Ranked Blackballed because some jerks decided to share you around, spread rumors, and stuff. Now all the sudden you're a win-trader or you hand over matches. Honestly, in solo ranked, no chat might be a better option like in FF. Sure people may start doing whatever they want, but if they are knowledgeable enough they should be able to think of what their teammates are thinking or what would be the best course of action, the toxicity will be reduced, and there are target markers already available if you wanna know what your teammate wants focused. Hell, some of the players even talk down on the other Ranked PVP players who you believe are totally better than them. It becomes a lightsaber swinging contest. The matchmaking isn't even fair balanced. Like why am I who am playing my first Ranked PVP match getting paired against literal Ranked PVP vets, someone you see often playing with guys like Mark Biggs, E-Girl, Kogass, Scooby, and etc. (Which I don't mind, however, it doesn't really help someone when their teammates are trashing on them). How is someone supposed to actually get better at Ranked if nobody wants them to play Ranked or they are getting insulted at every turn? Even the military isn't as toxic or full of insults, which speaks volumes. Especially since you get insulted, physically punished, and messed with everyday for months. Doing those same task over and over, until you actually improve to the point nobody can say anything. Not only are you getting insulted but you're receiving help! You can't even do that for Ranked, you get black balled before you even reach the half way point. I'm going to stop now because it's becoming more of a tangent rank on the toxicity of the community. So I'm going to end it with the title question. Practice? For Ranked? How Sway!?

You practice during OFFSEASONS. Year after year its the same story. Why can't you people figure it out? There is a period between seasons where there is NO rating. Rank still pops. There is no moaning on your skill because between seasons you are not costing anyone anything. There is no reason to write an essay on why you are bad at PvP and people are mean to you because there is your answer which could've been answered after just reading your title. If these stragglers would just all queue there would be so many games going on at a time and there would be full games of people like you. 4v4s of people who have no idea what they are doing which would in turn increase the population of the game mode and allow said people to learn how to play and allow competition. Instead what we have is every single night 1 or 2 dudes out of the entire server decides to "try it out" then ends up in a game with 7 other people who actually do know what they are doing and end up getting exploded. You know what; since I am quitting this joke of a game in February when an actual good MMO is coming out I will teach you rank. PM me and I will make sure that if you do decide to play rank or something regularly that you will by the time I delete all my characters next year be ready for it. Who else wants to learn rank? Its not that hard. There is a reason why this game has no competitive scene and the ranked pvpers who stream have like an average of 6 viewers. It is an easy, unbalanced brain dead game that requires little more then a modicum of map awareness and a slightly higher APM then your worst Starcraft 2 player.

The only way to practice for ranked is playing ranked. As long as you are genuinely trying to learn, just keep queueing and ignore the toxic people who think they can gatekeep.

Pretty much this. Sadly the match making is borked and will put you with much higher rated players a lot of the time instead of with players in the same rating bracket. If BioWare could fix that properly, then there’d be a lot less toxicity because those around you would be similar skills and rating.

You practice during OFFSEASONS. Year after year its the same story. Why can't you people figure it out? There is a period between seasons where there is NO rating. Rank still pops. There is no moaning on your skill because between seasons you are not costing anyone anything. There is no reason to write an essay on why you are bad at PvP and people are mean to you because there is your answer which could've been answered after just reading your title. If these stragglers would just all queue there would be so many games going on at a time and there would be full games of people like you. 4v4s of people who have no idea what they are doing which would in turn increase the population of the game mode and allow said people to learn how to play and allow competition. Instead what we have is every single night 1 or 2 dudes out of the entire server decides to "try it out" then ends up in a game with 7 other people who actually do know what they are doing and end up getting exploded. You know what; since I am quitting this joke of a game in February when an actual good MMO is coming out I will teach you rank. PM me and I will make sure that if you do decide to play rank or something regularly that you will by the time I delete all my characters next year be ready for it. Who else wants to learn rank? Its not that hard. There is a reason why this game has no competitive scene and the ranked pvpers who stream have like an average of 6 viewers. It is an easy, unbalanced brain dead game that requires little more then a modicum of map awareness and a slightly higher APM then your worst Starcraft 2 player.

You can’t rely on preseasons in this game to learn cause you never know how long the seasons will be or how long preseason will be.

The only way to practice for ranked is playing ranked. As long as you are genuinely trying to learn, just keep queueing and ignore the toxic people who think they can gatekeep.

I would generally agree with this, but it's hard to say without seeing OP play. There are some new people in ranked that come in with proper gear and a good attitude, and those players improve pretty rapidly even if they get destroyed at first. These players listen to advice and adjust their play accordingly. For players like that, absolutely, playing more ranked is the only way to improve and if some morons are being toxic, best to just ignore them.

But then there are players that come in with no set bonus, wrong tactical, a bad attitude, don't take any advice, and repeatedly don't even play the basics of their class correctly. That second category of people still have a lot to learn from regs/guides/streams, etc, and they really don't belong in ranked to begin with. Some people still cross the line in terms of "toxicity" but telling someone like that to get proper gear and practice in regs is 100% warranted.

The best way to practise SR is to do a lot of 1vs1 versus a player of your level or better. Doing 1 vs 1 versus a different class helps also much more as you start to understand the other class.

1 vs 1 helps a lot because you tend to understand how your DCDs work the most, and in those important games where you end 1vs1, 2 vs 2, or 2 vs 3 it is what you really need.

This will help you more then doing SR. Queuing SR will not help much since some games can be easy and others can be total mahhh and you are globalled. If you are verus 2 or 3 PTs chances are you are if you playing one of the squishier classes....

Team composition is important in SR as much as player skill, with some exception here and there.

Some people still cross the line in terms of "toxicity" but telling someone like that to get proper gear and practice in regs is 100% warranted.

Telling someone to get gear is not toxic really....

Telling someone to get gear is not toxic really....

I agree, but apparently not all new players see it that way lol

I would generally agree with this, but it's hard to say without seeing OP play. There are some new people in ranked that come in with proper gear and a good attitude, and those players improve pretty rapidly even if they get destroyed at first. These players listen to advice and adjust their play accordingly. For players like that, absolutely, playing more ranked is the only way to improve and if some morons are being toxic, best to just ignore them.

 

But then there are players that come in with no set bonus, wrong tactical, a bad attitude, don't take any advice, and repeatedly don't even play the basics of their class correctly. That second category of people still have a lot to learn from regs/guides/streams, etc, and they really don't belong in ranked to begin with. Some people still cross the line in terms of "toxicity" but telling someone like that to get proper gear and practice in regs is 100% warranted.

This is accurate. I'm guessing you are on SF since most of the streamers you mentioned are on SF. If you tell us your character name we can give our specific pointers and tips to practice, more than just "go practice in regs"

It is worth saying, if you are new to ranked and get told to practice in regs since you are not ready for ranked, follow up on that after the game. Don't be offended. Just whisper them after the game asking what specifically you can do to get better.

There's a different dynamic to 4v4 than the usual 8v8 -- which is a lot harder to practice as far as solo goes given that you'll see a lot more 8v8 in regs unless you only queue during the slow times.

I know during my stint a few people were demanding that I guard so and so and this was after the 50% dmg nerf for dps guards. And while I get the usage, its the entitlement in the attitude that the vocal people gave. I couldn't even go ten matches without someone paying off people (multiple times) on my team to throw. The rewards aren't all that enticing to have to constantly deal with that mindset.

The funny thing was I did a reg the other day with one of those people. And while he did perform well, I was the one who got the mvp votes. Ranked on satele would be a lot more popular if not for a few people ruining it. I mean they have to "beg" folks to queue more than gsf.

You can’t rely on preseasons in this game to learn cause you never know how long the seasons will be or how long preseason will be.

From my experience it has existed. I don't know how long because the last time I played was S6 but I know it is a thing. I have seen enough people queueing in the month that I have been back to know that if everyone of these random non ranked player types would just queue all at once there would be like 3 full games going of new players and they would probably be having a fair and balanced time. I just don't care anymore but this regs leaver queue thing they added has given me less of a reason to sub for more then this month. But "people hate arenas" That may be true but I think more people don't mind arenas or like them then absolutely despise them. Ranked at least is actual PvP and even if you lose you get more "rewards" then you do if you win a regs. If you leave regs someone immediately spawns in to take your spot. Its always been like that. Forcing people to play Vandin or endless Hypergates with no option to filter or vote for maps with the threat of of 15 minute lockout is gona force them to go play something else. Maybe I will minimize and sit in stealth who knows. So far noone has kicked me for doing it. Forcing me to play map types that I think are lame is sure not gona force me to play the map types. Was in a Hypergate last night and didn't even feel like playing it so I went under the spawn and sat in stealth and minimized. When I popped back into the game 10 minutes later, there were 2 dudes sitting next to me as well. Could these devs be any more incompetent? Just delete PvP entirely then. The 80 people in the game who pvp will find something else to play then the remaining RP players and TC gf pros can have the game to themselves. Its like this game has become a parody of itself since 3.0 and I hardly recognize it anymore. And we can already see where the devs priorities with 7.0 are: NEW CHARACTER CREATION UI but with same old potato faces and cartoon graphics. Its like putting mayo on spaghetti. It makes absolutely no sense. Who is even gona see the new character creator? Oh yeah a handful of new players who devs hope buy some stuff off the cash shop then never play again duh.

There's a different dynamic to 4v4 than the usual 8v8 -- which is a lot harder to practice as far as solo goes given that you'll see a lot more 8v8 in regs unless you only queue during the slow times.

 

I know during my stint a few people were demanding that I guard so and so and this was after the 50% dmg nerf for dps guards. And while I get the usage, its the entitlement in the attitude that the vocal people gave. I couldn't even go ten matches without someone paying off people (multiple times) on my team to throw. The rewards aren't all that enticing to have to constantly deal with that mindset.

 

The funny thing was I did a reg the other day with one of those people. And while he did perform well, I was the one who got the mvp votes. Ranked on satele would be a lot more popular if not for a few people ruining it. I mean they have to "beg" folks to queue more than gsf.

The rewards used to be good. The titles were good. The mounts were good. All I see now is people with replicas lol. Pixel replicas. How lazy are these devs? The replicas even say in the description: for you silver/golden perfomance in S3,4,5,6 lol....like uh no. It should say in the description: For you token farming and purchase of this weapon lockbox Giradda bestows upon you replicas. That actually reminds me I need to add that to the nonexistent suggestion box.

Some people Duel players of higher skill as a way to understand the ins and outs of their class Or they watch streams of people who play their class and try to understand what they're doing. Some people speak to other players that have already achieved good rating for tips and tricks.

 

To be honest there is no way to practice ranked and it is hard for a new player, however some people do enter without even a basic understanding of defensive and passives.

I watch Streams or videos of some PVPers often enough on a frequent basis, read my class abilities, sit and listen to multiple guides, etc. After I even go and try to apply it to unranked the best I can. I can't really duel players of a higher skill level because I can't really find them, otherwise i'd do that.

Pretty much this. Sadly the match making is borked and will put you with much higher rated players a lot of the time instead of with players in the same rating bracket. If BioWare could fix that properly, then there’d be a lot less toxicity because those around you would be similar skills and rating.

I agree and that would be nice, unfortunately Bioware neglects many things that would be nice for PVP.

I would generally agree with this, but it's hard to say without seeing OP play. There are some new people in ranked that come in with proper gear and a good attitude, and those players improve pretty rapidly even if they get destroyed at first. These players listen to advice and adjust their play accordingly. For players like that, absolutely, playing more ranked is the only way to improve and if some morons are being toxic, best to just ignore them.

 

But then there are players that come in with no set bonus, wrong tactical, a bad attitude, don't take any advice, and repeatedly don't even play the basics of their class correctly. That second category of people still have a lot to learn from regs/guides/streams, etc, and they really don't belong in ranked to begin with. Some people still cross the line in terms of "toxicity" but telling someone like that to get proper gear and practice in regs is 100% warranted.

I come in with the 306 Gear set bonus, Purple 286 Augs, knowledgeable of my rotation, DCDs, and a good attitude just wanting to have fun playing some PVP. I try my best, I try to use what I've seen and learned from watching others play, and when knocked down I just get up and try harder. I may not be perfect or an expert but i'm trying and looking to learn. I also agree that telling someone to get gear or read their ability is not toxic. I'm not really a new player, I played Ranked way back when Makeb was just coming out or came out, but I haven't played ranked since then and took a long hiatus on the game until the recent year. Sometimes I feel like a new player and sometimes I feel like i'm not, it's a weird state of limbo.

This is accurate. I'm guessing you are on SF since most of the streamers you mentioned are on SF. If you tell us your character name we can give our specific pointers and tips to practice, more than just "go practice in regs"

 

It is worth saying, if you are new to ranked and get told to practice in regs since you are not ready for ranked, follow up on that after the game. Don't be offended. Just whisper them after the game asking what specifically you can do to get better.

Yes, that would be correct. It was only 1 person who said to practice before queuing when they left and they weren't even my faction so I couldn't whisper. Their player behavior was also kinda shady and they would also bump heads with other teammates on who to target. The unranked WZs really do nothing for me practice wise other than applying what i've already been watching Streamers do and the environment is different. If they had an unranked Arenas only que i'd do it but they don't. Right now the main characters i've been trying to go ranked on are Impside: Pakhetia and Bountymatrix. I've found more success on Pakhetia.

Right now the main characters i've been trying to go ranked on are Impside: Pakhetia and Bountymatrix. I've found more success on Pakhetia.

I don't think I've seen you in ranked. Sorry I can't help.

Right now the main characters i've been trying to go ranked on are Impside: Pakhetia and Bountymatrix. I've found more success on Pakhetia.

Your best bet is to talk to some experienced op and merc mains about how to survive better. Especially on merc it's all about how you rotate your dcds without overlapping them, along with kiting. Some advice should help, and then you just need to practice and learn how much burst certain classes have and when to pop stuff.

Timely dps on the correct target(s) is very important in ranked, but when you're new you'll be targeted first a lot, and learning to survive will be what helps you win games more than anything else right now.

Your best bet is to talk to some experienced op and merc mains about how to survive better. Especially on merc it's all about how you rotate your dcds without overlapping them, along with kiting. Some advice should help, and then you just need to practice and learn how much burst certain classes have and when to pop stuff.

 

Timely dps on the correct target(s) is very important in ranked, but when you're new you'll be targeted first a lot, and learning to survive will be what helps you win games more than anything else right now.

Thank you, I will try asking around.

Thank you, I will try asking around.

You can also try queing early morning during weekends because you have mostly arenas due to low population in que .

This will help you get familiar with them, because as a regular unranked player, arenas are what you are bad at, due to not playing them enough. Then you enter a game mode where you play against players who play ONLY arenas .

You had some great advice here . Use it, but practice arenas as much as possible. As soon as you are decent, forget regs. Que only when ranked doesn't pop.

Practicing for ranked is pointless. Unless you in the "click" of all 5 of them......you toast! ALL HAIL SWTOR RANKED!

I don't! hahahaha!

Practicing for ranked is pointless. Unless you in the "click" of all 5 of them......you toast! ALL HAIL SWTOR RANKED!

 

I don't! hahahaha!

this makes no sense....

This is accurate. I'm guessing you are on SF since most of the streamers you mentioned are on SF. If you tell us your character name we can give our specific pointers and tips to practice, more than just "go practice in regs"

 

It is worth saying, if you are new to ranked and get told to practice in regs since you are not ready for ranked, follow up on that after the game. Don't be offended. Just whisper them after the game asking what specifically you can do to get better.

This is so accurate. I started qing earlier this season and was the worst operative you will ever see and even now sometimes play like a monkey. But I improved and I attribute that improvement to not being offended at people who flamed me and not just ignoring everyone who flamed me. The people who flame are typically better than you and can help you improve. I got flamed, and afterwards asked them what I did wrong, and the more I asked the more I learned.