Why is it so difficult Ranking up from Bronze to Crystal

[Lacksz]

That’s interesting. From my experience, climbing from unranked to Crystal feels similar in both EU and JP, usually taking me around 40 wins in each, even with high latency in both. In Season 8 on EU-Light, I placed #11 on 450ms, though I haven’t done the same on JP yet since I mostly stick to FL/RW.

You implied EU has a skill gap compared to JP (?), but it works both ways: it enables strong players to dominate and hard carry more often than in JP where the mode is more team-reliant and balanced. In this sense, EU can be easier to climb from unranked to Crystal provided you have enough experience (Beyond Crystal is a different story, which OP isn’t concerned with).

I genuinely believe anyone can reach Crystal, even without much experience, sheer will and some RNG can get you there. I hope OP and anyone reading this doesn’t give up.

[Mistress_Irika]

Here's a solution, considering you get virtually nothing if you don't hit crystal.

Wins are what level your ranks up to Crystal. Past crystal, that's when the competitive nature comes out, and the leader board takes front and center with consistent repetitive wins.

So basically, get rid of the loss punishments crystal and below? No losing stars diamond and below? So we're basically boosting everyone from platinum to crystal? My goodness...
We had a similar system like this during the 1st 2 seasons, and during the 2nd season there were complaints from the few people that didn't make it to Crystal that they weren't getting any games either due to being late, being bad, or both. Those that made it to Crystal rank could care less about those that didn't make it. So when the idea of adding demotion came to light they push back hard.
If you push for this, you're definitely going to create dead ranks platinum and below punishing the few players that decide to start late season. Personally, I would rather that we get a proper rank mode to where everyone can be demoted all the way to bronze with majority of the playerbase sitting between upper silver/lower gold, but I'm just a minority here.

I doubt that heavily, everyone I've asked for help has either one, said basically what you and others have to said, 'Oh it's not hard to rank up at all......I can get to crystal in one weekend. And everyone else that can't sucks and is nothing but trash.' Or two, if I ask for help with matches, and learning, suddenly they're nowhere to be found, extra shifts at work suddenly appeared in their name and they ghost me and eventually remove me. And the ones that do offer "help" have no willingness to help me improve my own class, it's always oh get this other class and use that one. You shouldn't use what you're using now.

And on the classes I have used, and understood, I don't know how I'm not doing damage. Like paltry sums in comparison to enemy counterparts using the same class against, I will hound someone, and just watch as I'm doing virtually nothing, they're losing health in 10% increments to my attacks, and they touch a potion, turn around and two tap me. And then in the reverse, someone's hounding me, I turn around and again they two tap me. I have seen many times, white mages be at the top as damage and kill leaders in games. And I'm off in the back dead, cosplaying as a carpet, because apparently a tank can get one shotted, and a dps can't do damage, and my healing means nothing.

I feel sorry that you're not getting any help. I hope someone is able to help you soon. Keep looking.
As far as dying as a tank is concerned, you need to change your mindset. You cannot treat pvp like it's pve. Roles does not exist in pvp. Tanks, healers, and dps are nonexistent. It's just the class itself.

[SpritePR]

You should try the pvp revival discord (use google as i don't know the rules on discords here) and ask questions there. The only way to improve at pvp is to play it a lot. Just like anything in this game you aren't going to get great resources inside the game itself or on these forums.

[Valence]

That’s interesting. From my experience, climbing from unranked to Crystal feels similar in both EU and JP, usually taking me around 40 wins in each, even with high latency in both. In Season 8 on EU-Light, I placed #11 on 450ms, though I haven’t done the same on JP yet since I mostly stick to FL/RW.

You implied EU has a skill gap compared to JP (?), but it works both ways: it enables strong players to dominate and hard carry more often than in JP where the mode is more team-reliant and balanced. In this sense, EU can be easier to climb from unranked to Crystal provided you have enough experience (Beyond Crystal is a different story, which OP isn’t concerned with).

I genuinely believe anyone can reach Crystal, even without much experience, sheer will and some RNG can get you there. I hope OP and anyone reading this doesn’t give up.

Yeah it could also have been tied to just luck on my end. My highest peak has been on JP the first season I tried (last season). Current season is being a lot more painful at crystal for some reason.

You will always have a stronger player if you're climbing and still not at your skill level, and it's gonna be you, and this should make you streak enough until the skill gap thins. Once you're around your skill level on JP however, you'll have a lot less games where omega players meet fresh diamonds, and you'll also have less players in diamond that have no business being there for example. Problem being that no matter what you do, if you get paired with those, they'll anchor your game so much that it's gonna be a pain. You'll tell me, you can also be lucky and have the opponent get this, which is definitely true, but I do feel that in both cases when this happens, it will completely much up pretty much muck up any attempt at making plays to turn the game in your favor. This will not be all of your games fortunately but in my opinion it generates a lot of white noise in the games you get and on top of it since it's longer to find games, or even have active times on western DCs, then you waste more time imo.

It could also be a matter of playstyle differences I guess, even though overall the differences between regions as you say are wildly overblown. JP just tends to have a lot more discipline, doesn't run everywhere like monkeys as much, but less creativity (and doesn't seem to know the concept of ratting).

[Rayn_Vulpes]

I played about 21 or 22 matches this season. Won 17. Dominated rather hard but I've placed higher in the past.. Even with a high ass win rate and streaks the climb was unbearably slow when starting at the bottom of bronze. I'd only made it to Silver 1 before I was bored of CC again. Would seriously love for ranks to be pt based not wins so if you're clearly a top performer you climb out a bit faster. I don't have the time to sit and play CC all day when I work 6 days a week and play other things.

Then remembering why I stopped playing CC at all in the past because in higher ranks the matchmaking felt horrible since you could have lower ranks placed on your team and the most effective counter to a bad player being on your team repeatedly would be to play their job. The rewards aren't enticing enough to make me suffer through it again

[Valence]

You've only played 20 games and think it climbs slowly?

Now I don't necessarily disagree with the solutions, most multiplayer competitive games have a general ranking (often with an attached point based MMR) and a hidden elo behind. The hidden elo is there to ensure that the more you win the more the system will match you against higher hidden elos, and the more you lose it will do the opposite. Of course the more you win against higher and higher players, the more points you'll gain which will mechanically pull your ranking/MMR up as well, and the more you lose against lower rated opponents, the more points you'll start losing and your ranking will plummet faster and faster.

This system is generally there for the system to find out where players belong without having to make them climb all the way from the bottom. For instance those games generally have unranked players that just hop in fresh randomly match against opponents and if they win, they'll get a way higher rated one after, and if they lose for example, then the system will find somebody in between until it finally places the player roughly in the league where they belong after a certain amount of games, instead of just making them climb from bronze no matter what. In SC for example if you're so good and win all your unranked games you'll probably get dropped in the Master league directly, and in XIV this would translate into crystal, with the appropriate MMR rating. All of this is determined by the hidden elo that is able to swing low and high a lot more than the actual rating, and is what's used by the matchmaking.

In XIV, the matchmaking only bases itself on the general player ranking/MMR, which is a lot more... basic. But I think that's also a difference of vision from the devs that do envision climbing through the whole ranks as a grind in itself. MMO mentality in a nutshell, even if it makes you smurf until you get out of leagues where you don't belong. And similarly, you'll have the opposite happen as well, with people climbing through sheer streaks of luck so high that they end up where they don't belong, and won't lose enough points once they sandbag those games because maybe the next games they'll get carried again.

[Commander_Justitia]

If the majority of matches would have fair matchmaking, you would on average climb higher as a good player.
The fairness of matchmaking is just not a constant, it is changing every few hours or daily. Because the playerpool is simply not big enough. Which we can see by seeing what ranks can even play with each other, just for queues that pop. They gave us easier popping matches, but have thrown out meaning to the ranks out of the window. Which in itself, is not a bad thing. Because it is a game, and we don't want to waste our time. It is just bad, when you pretend to be a serious PvP mode.

You can be stuck in unranked-silver for 100 games, and then clear gold-diamond in 20 matches. What does this say about the game mode? Was it you who was at fault as player? Or is the system just too random, that you aren't able to carry anyone efficiently in lower ranks. Maybe some jobs can do better than others, but even they are not immune.

[SpritePR]

If the majority of matches would have fair matchmaking, you would on average climb higher as a good player.
The fairness of matchmaking is just not a constant, it is changing every few hours or daily. Because the playerpool is simply not big enough. Which we can see by seeing what ranks can even play with each other, just for queues that pop. They gave us easier popping matches, but have thrown out meaning to the ranks out of the window. Which in itself, is not a bad thing. Because it is a game, and we don't want to waste our time. It is just bad, when you pretend to be a serious PvP mode.

You can be stuck in unranked-silver for 100 games, and then clear gold-diamond in 20 matches. What does this say about the game mode? Was it you who was at fault as player? Or is the system just too random, that you aren't able to carry anyone efficiently in lower ranks. Maybe some jobs can do better than others, but even they are not immune.

Some of my diamond matches i was getting matched with top 10 players due to low pop. They were extremely sweaty matches lol. That said i don't think that should be a common occurrence but it sadly seems to be.

[Valence]

If you're getting stuck for 100 games in unranked silver then it may sound a little harsh but you still have progress to do. I don't have that problem in leagues below crystal to progress, but I used to be "stuck" longer in plat/diam in the past because I lacked the skill to be influential enough in my games at that level. Now I can clear out of those relatively fast.

But I do agree that as someone that plays on JP as well on the side, the difference with EU is night and day because in JP you're mostly matched with players of relative skill due to their player pool being way more sustainable. This incidentally makes the climb a bit less frustrating with less coin flip - or "white noise" - due to the crazy skill differences you find on EU, which tend to soak a lot of the influence you sometimes can have on games if those gaps are sharp enough to sandbag your game (or the opposite if you're the lower bracket and paired with top players).

[tsuchii]

cuz its an unpopular mode with a significantly smaller player base compared to say savage raiding. there's way too many people in the lower ranks and way too many win traders in the upper ranks. just give up on it. square will never make a meaningful, competitive PVP. it's just hot garbage from CC to Frontline.