The Ranking system has made me just about quit Ranked altogether

[Qeilos]

Just be lucky I guess? I went from unranked to Gold in 7 losses (mostly at end of silver games) on WHM and then winstreaked to mid Plat from Gold 4 on SCH. After that I played a lot of BRD with a bit of SCH in the mix and with very few losses streaked to mid Diamond.

There the real grind begun and I had to try like 6 times at rank up game and falling back to mid Diamond twice. It took about 70-something wins in total to get to Crystal.

Few other friends finished their grind and also agreed that Diamond too longest (mostly over 100 wins total), before that you have more carry potential but it will weaken the higher you get. There will still be unwinnable games and the game does try its hardest to cut your win streak down (my first Silver to Gold rank up attempt was in full high Plat game).

It must just be that im playing only SMN, it doesnt feel like I have persistent agency in a game. I can help spike finish someone off if someone else made them low but considering my entire kit outside of Ruin is on longish cooldowns i feel like im hoping my team hasnt essentially lost the game before I get to my LB.

[ThaCa]

It must just be that im playing only SMN, it doesnt feel like I have persistent agency in a game. I can help spike finish someone off if someone else made them low but considering my entire kit outside of Ruin is on longish cooldowns i feel like im hoping my team hasnt essentially lost the game before I get to my LB.

Yeah SMN has similar agency to SCH and excels at grinding the enemy team down with all the AoE damage, they are also great counter initiators due the low CD on the bind and being able to charge enemies who overextend. It should be possible to rank up on one, but it's probably harder than the more solo target bursty Jobs since people's teamwork is lacking on lower ranks and they often over commit.