48 replies to this topic

[TheRealAbray]

I log on after patching Tuesday to find out I'm tier 4. That's ok, I'm not complaining, I'm just confused. Sure, I'll take the occasional MM stomps where half my team wanders around shooting the sky while getting eaten alive by the enemy before I even realize they have all died alone in corners, and I'll try to salvage my score with 300 damage and a kill and some assists. I'm also quite happy when I get put on the stomping team and do ridiculous amounts of damage and get more than 2 kills and 500+ damage multiple times in a row.


But I'm still confused at how am I below average tier when I have a positive kdr, positive w/l, and more often than not am AT LEAST average. And by average I mean I am always dealing damage that is higher than the majority of the team (where damage is the overwhelming majority of psr, especially when my heavies end up spotting just as well as most mediums and lights).


PGI claims that by playing better than average, you will never drop in psr, only stay about equal. Yes, I have my bad games here and there, and yes, I've taken some hard times trying to get mechs elited out. But the idea still stands that more often than not, I am a pretty strong player on the team. So I should only be moving up in tiers. But here I am in the "underhive," with my positive stats. Shouldn't I have at least moved up until I reach players thay can consistently prove themselves significantly better than me? I can think of a couple reasons why I am not in tier 3 (I'm an average player):

1) everybody starts in tier 5 and PGI has yet again made grind equal progress. So basically the more I play (assuming I play at least average), the higher tier I'll end up in, if I play thousands and thousands of games. But until I've played 5000 drops, I am still the same as a noob.

2) PGI's formula still incorrectly weights damage as being "good." My triple uac jager is very good at dealing damage efficiently, so I feel that I may be getting shafted on psr due to my accuracy.

3) psr changes rapidly. I've been trying to skill out ravens recently and have had a lot of subpar drops. This could explain the low tier, assuming I could drop to tier 4 in about 50 drops.

Are any of these reasons valid? Do I somehow suck really hard despite having positive stats and being able to out damage most of the other players I ever drop with/against? Anything I'm missing here? I'm no competitive player, just confused as to how my stats can be so good whole being in the lower end of tiers</p>

Edited by TheRealAbray, 24 September 2015 - 12:30 AM.

[Vlad Ward]

How many games do you have under your belt?

I brought my alt to mid Tier 3 in just under 250 games, using mostly the trial thunderbolt followed by basic-level thunderbolts. But I had a bit of an advantage as an experienced player, so I did fairly well in most games.

The formula still weighs damage very heavily, so if you're not putting out much heat you won't rise as fast. It does reward things like scouting and flanking, but you need a lot of that for it to really add up.

W/L is also extremely important. If you're sitting at 50/50 W/L, you aren't going to go up very fast.

[Kiiyor]

You need lots of games and lots of consistency to move up tiers. If your w/l is consistent as you say, you'll be moving up - it will just likely be a grind to hit the higher tiers.

Don't think of your tier as your skill level. Your tier is actually more of an indication of the volume of competent games you have played - not your overall competency. IMHO, anyways.

[El Bandito]

TheRealAbray, on 24 September 2015 - 12:26 AM, said:

But I'm still confused at how am I below average tier when I have a positive kdr, positive w/l, and more often than not am AT LEAST average. And by average I mean I am always dealing damage that is higher than the majority of the team (where damage is the overwhelming majority of psr, especially when my heavies end up spotting just as well as most mediums and lights).

Show me your stats screenshot. Otherwise this is meaningless.

Edited by El Bandito, 24 September 2015 - 02:14 AM.

[Kyynele]

The matchmaker still takes into account the quality of the matches you play. If you're T4 and get matched against T3s, and you do great there, you'll get a significant boost to your rating. If you only do well when you're matched against T5s, your rating won't increase much, as you're expected to be able to win those on your current tier.

You need to win the hard matchups to progress, because that's the only way to show the matchmaker that you don't belong to your current tier.

If your tier is lower than you expect from your stats, chances are you mostly do well in the matches that the MM considers easy for you.

[TheNef]

Don't worry about it I have thousands of games under my belt, almost a 2 kdr and more wins than losses, but I mostly play my spider which I consider myself actually quite good in and I'm in Tier 5. I thought maybe I'd be 3 but apparently not. This now means however that 'm playing in matches and getting more kills and more damage a lot easier than I was before.

The thing you'll notice though is that when you win your PSR will go up as long as you don't play dreadfully whereas if you loose you nearly always go down. I had one match yesterday where I got six kills, had I think about 550 damage and a score of around 420(ish). Our team however lost, I was the last mech, I did better in this game than most of my others for the day however my PSR stayed the same( i was expecting it to go up as I'd played well). Other games that I lost in I did very well also but not maybe as good as the previous but my PSR went down.

So I thought there's really not a lot about how I play that's going to change as this the way I enjoy the game so better not to dwell on the TIER. If however you want to rise in the TIER system then really concentrate on winning and dishing out as much damage as possible and you will rise. I think .

[Vlad Ward]

TheNef, on 24 September 2015 - 02:06 AM, said:

Don't worry about it I have thousands of games under my belt, almost a 2 kdr and more wins than losses and I'm in Tier 5.

lol what. How is that even possible? Specific numbers please? I'm honestly curious.

[MeiSooHaityu]

When I first logged in after the patch, it said I was tier 4 (borderline tier 3).

I am sporting a 1.45 KDR and a 1.15 W/L ratio.

So yea, I believe the OP.

I think the tier system is very KDR orientated. Like I have said in other thread. I've seen the tier indicator go up with doing little damage, getting 1 kill, and surviving. I've also seen it go down when I did almost 600 damage, didn't get a kill, and died.

So solo PUGers probably have a more difficult time getting a higher tier, lighter mechs that harrass and support probably have a harder time. Plus, if you are grinding new mechs, you might take that tier hit as well.

Overall, I just want to be at least Tier 3 so I can play with all the people I see on here and know. I figure if I'm tier 4, all the tier 1 players are off limits, and that kinda stinks. Hopefully I hold onto tier 3, but hey, whatever happens, happens.

[Vlad Ward]

MeiSooHaityu, on 24 September 2015 - 02:11 AM, said:

When I first logged in after the patch, it said I was tier 4 (borderline tier 3).

I am sporting a 1.45 KDR and a 1.15 W/L ratio.

So yea, I believe the OP.

I think the tier system is very KDR orientated. Like I have said in other thread. I've seen the tier indicator go up with doing little damage, getting 1 kill, and surviving. I've also seen it go down when I did almost 600 damage, didn't get a kill, and died.

So solo PUGers probably have a more difficult time getting a higher tier, lighter mechs that harrass and support probably have a harder time. Plus, if you are grinding new mechs, you might take that tier hit as well.

Overall, I just want to be at least Tier 3 so I can play with all the people I see on here and know. I figure if I'm tier 4, all the tier 1 players are off limits, and that kinda stinks. Hopefully I hold onto tier 3, but hey, whatever happens, happens.

My KDR is lower than yours. So it's not that.

[Mudhutwarrior]

Have a bud here who is a much better player than I am. He can make any crap in the mechlab work for him and his k/d is much higher than mine. I am a 3 3/4 with a 1.12 kd and he is a bottom tier 4 with a 1.87 kd.

The only thing we can figure is he has a lot of discos because of his isp. But would that not effect his K/D?

Really without decent info from PGI it seems all of us are guessing.

[MeiSooHaityu]

Vlad Ward, on 24 September 2015 - 02:12 AM, said:

My KDR is lower than yours. So it's not that.

Hmm. Well whatever it is, I wish it was more clearly defined. I've only played a bit since the new system was introduced, so it is possible my observations are coincidental.

Maybe it is more of what Kyynele said, but if that is the case, I wish the game would tell you at the launch menu if the competition's average tier rating was above or below yours. It might make more sense of how your tier advanced or dropped after a match.

[TexAce]

I dont think Tier 3 is supposed to be the average-good tier.

"Average" is more somewhere between 3 and 4, leaning more to 4.

[fat4eyes]

MeiSooHaityu, on 24 September 2015 - 02:11 AM, said:

I think the tier system is very KDR orientated. Like I have said in other thread. I've seen the tier indicator go up with doing little damage, getting 1 kill, and surviving. I've also seen it go down when I did almost 600 damage, didn't get a kill, and died.

I don't think so. My KDR is .86, but my W/L is 1.22. I'm in low tier 2. Wins still matter a lot more than match score. A loss is effectively a -300 to your match score with regards to PSR changes (because if you score less than 300 in a loss, your PSR goes down, while even scoring 0 in a win means your PSR remains the same).

[RePlayBoy101]

Dont get to hungup on this tier its better to be t4 than t2/t1 becouse the u will get games faster and u wont have to bust ur ass just to win

[TheNef]

Vlad Ward, on 24 September 2015 - 02:11 AM, said:

lol what. How is that even possible? Specific numbers please? I'm honestly curious.

Lol just for you ... .this is my spidey



and this is from the game

[Appogee]

New players start at 90% of Tier 4.

[Vlad Ward]

TheNef, on 24 September 2015 - 03:09 AM, said:

Lol just for you ... .this is my spidey



and this is from the game

Your spider has more games on record than I have total post stat wipe.

And a higher KDR.

It looks like you're averaging 221 damage a game, though. That may have something to do with it. Losses with that score will tank your PSR, and wins may not raise it all that much.

Yeah. It must be the damage. Wow.

Edit: For comparison, this is my most used Mech

DIRE WOLF DWF-PRIME(I) 316 178 130 1.37 332 218 1.52 144,418 393,664

It comes out to an average of 457 damage a game.

Hm. That's lower than I would've thought. Makes a big difference in PSR though.

Edited by Vlad Ward, 24 September 2015 - 03:19 AM.

[Kyynele]

TheNef, on 24 September 2015 - 03:09 AM, said:

Lol just for you ... .this is my spidey

Average damage per match is ~220, which is low. Also, losing hundreds more games than you die in, as well as having less than 1 kill per match average strongly hints to your KDR being high mainly because you hide when things don't go well.

[Greyhart]

The most important factor is whether you have a good w/l ratio.

If you lose then you are not moving or going down. Unless you do really well, which is unlikely unless it is a close game.

If you win you can go up or stay the same.

Do a score of 200 and win and you go up.

Do a score of 200 and lose you go down.

Therefore you are more likely to have a higher tier if you are regularly grouped with good players even if you're not all that good.

If you're average and grouped with players that aren't that good you go down.

So if you want to increase your PSR join a group of good players and play with them. Your skill doesn't need to improve but as you will win more than you lose you will advance in PSR and if you of nothing and win you do no damage to your PSR.

So win and do ok increases PSR.

[TheNef]

Kyynele, on 24 September 2015 - 03:19 AM, said:

Average damage per match is ~220, which is low. Also, losing hundreds more games than you die in, as well as having less than 1 kill per match average strongly hints to your KDR being high mainly because you hide when things don't go well.

But I never hide, I just don't rush in headlessly. I pick my targets, distract and do a lot of spotting etc ..... with a whopping 18 alpha, damage was never the reason I really play the game and consider myself a good team player.