Thought I would grind from Bronze IV to at least Diamond this season. I finally reached Diamond tonight. I will say the grind through Platinum was absolutely brutal at times. I came with in 30RP of diamond numerous times only to have strings of bad luck eliminate 200-300RP. I literally played non-stop for 26 hours trying to go from 6800RP to 7200, often times coming with in 30RP of Diamond. Got some rest woke up played a few warm up then won the match. I only played 3-4 matches with a friend from AHQ, but I made it through Platinum I entirely on my own, with nothing but random teammates. Often times hard stuck Platinum IV teammates.
I did it playing nothing but Wattson, unless teammates picked her (which is rare).
The key to this grind is knowing when to run and camp your way to minimal RP losses or positive RP. You are going to get teammates who are having bad rounds or simply don't have the skill set. The hardest part is making it out of Platinum IV and Platinum III. It's easy to camp up into Platinum IV, but Platinum IV is where you start bumping into people who are going to one clip you. Who can shot you off of jump towers and out of the sky. So camping to RP is difficult, toss in that the RP gains from a top 5 placement hardly cover the cost of a match, so you have to be getting KP fairly frequently.
You can make it up to Diamond too. Just play with a pre-made and play smart. Play into your teams legends strengths. Play for positioning because in the Platinum+ lobbies there are more than likely going to be 5-6 squads in final rings. If you don't have early positioning in those final rings you're going to be trying to run through open areas with multiple teams shooting at you who do have cover and positioning.
Rather than making a new thread, I'll just post my soloQ journey to diamond here.
I hate that I love Apex right now
I hate that I’m so addicted to Apex right now even though there’s no content for the whole month of March. I’ve finally reached Diamond after playing 2-3 hours a day for a week and a half from Bronze IV. I’ve been to diamond thrice already but this is the first time that I exclusively played alone (Solo queue) to diamond. Here are some take aways:
I should not be here
I don’t belong in Bronze-Gold lobbies. These lobbies should exclusively be for new players or players that are below average. There should be a system that should stop me from deranking too low to these lobbies. Every game is a 2k game or a minimum 1600 damage game for me. I can’t see how a new player can enjoy their games where there are players at the same level as me or there are smurfs.
Smurfing
Smurfs are everywhere. In my opinion, smurfing is not a problem in pubs since they’re quickly put into harder lobbies after a few games but in rank this is a problem. I’m trying to view this smurfing problem in the eyes of a new player. The tutorial is bad, the amount of information you have to learn as a new player in apex is outstanding, and you get wrecked by smurfs. Not a friendly game for beginners.
Ranked games is how the game should be played
I’m not saying that pubs is not good anymore, but 3 teams left at the end of round 1 kinda annoys me. It’s either you hotdrop with 3-5 other squads or the game becomes a walking simulator ESPECIALLY IN STORM POINT! SP is the worst map for pubs. Also, I love that no one insta-quits when they're downed.
Olympus
Probably one of the biggest factor why I had the will to grind this split was because of the map. Olympus is still my 2nd favorite map after WE. The loot in this map should be the standard for all other maps in this game. The POIs are amazing too except for the whole waterfalls-Hammond Labs area. Hate fighting there.
Cooldown post rank games
I just wish there was some type of mode where I can chill after a stressful game session of rank. Maybe a mode where you can respawn or have objectives where you have to capture a small area of the map.
What gun to use in rank?
The Rampage. It’s so strong or broken (if you want to call it that) so use it! Use everything to gain an advantage except for cheating of course. The alternator saved me a lot of times especially early game.
What legend to use?
Any legend that you can maximize their abilities. Not just knowing what their abilities do, but a deeper understanding of how the legend abilities work and its interactions with other legend abilities. I suggest sticking to one legend.For be it’s Gibby. There was a game where a Rampart carried us to victory.
Ping
Didn’t talk to anyone other than saying thanks and GG to my fellow Japanese teammates. Had one teammate who is a kid (maybe 13 y/o) on the mic while you can clearly hear his dad giving him tips by his side. Wholesome moment for sure.
RANTS
GOD I HATE FIGHTING OTHER GIBBYS! LMAO! You need at least 5 magazines to kill one especially late game where everyone has purple/red shields.
Horizon mains are scary for some reason.
Been experiencing no audio footsteps which was annoying.
Conclusions
The core gameplay of apex is amazing. I just wish that the monetization side of things and the slow fixes could be better/faster. Rank saved me from the content drought this month. I’ve been extremely busy last month and the first half of March. As much as I love playing games, being an adult with a job takes most of my/our time. I now have a problem of buying games but not playing them especially when they’re on sale. LOL. Glad that control is coming back in a few hours and there’s no way I’m touching Kings Canyon rank.
This is some very good feedback there @Cheese9Man, and control is coming back with the next event so you can chill there 🙂
Nice to see that is more then me who have an unhealthy respect for Horizon, for some reason I just cant hit her as well as other legends and she is so god darn elusive.
@Cheese9Man I've been saying they need to limit the overall deranking for awhile. It isn't good for people at lower levels. This is the single biggest reason they should never ever allow demotion too.
Congratulations @Cheese9Man, I agree with most except I don’t find the Rampage so great to use at all. I’m much more effective with the R-301 which I think is the best weapon in the game. Other than that, good post
@KelRiever I agree. I dont like the rampage and really haven't been dying to it post nerf. Having to carry a thermite to make it usable is a hassle. I'd much rather have a hemlock.
