20 Consecutive Frontline Losses

[ReiganCross]

I mean, like the tittle says, that can only mean that I'm bad at this, right?

But somehow it doesn't matter how well I do, it goes to absolute shit. I can get a Battle High 4 on a Ninja, assassinating my way through the front or I can hop on a White Mage and play half the game chasing Warriors into cliffs. I can get a BLM into BH3 while bringing 2 crystals down by myself and we get dead last on less then 700 points when the battle is over. Or I can play a MNK going suicidal on Tanks all day and we get a close 1500 2nd place.

... All losses, all the time, every time.

I don't really have a point to make, just a question. How can it get THIS bad?!

[SweetPete]

Well pvp is all about teamwork. Especially in frontlines. If you don't have that then it will most definitely be a loss. Unfortunately. I love pvp but I have accepted the fact that whatever happens, just happens. You can have a great leader who tries to lead well but unless our teammates pay attention and not just chase a team that isn't even a threat instead of taking down the actually team that is a threat, none of it matters. At this point with 24 people. I just go in and hope for the best. That's all. Plus losing isn't bad if you aren't after the mount. I am having fun collecting my moogle tombstones anyway.

[Cidel]

I saw the thread title and I was like: "I think I know who's making this thread" lol. I was in your party for your 18th consecutive loss. I can't speak on your 19 other non-wins, but that one team we were on was a trainwreck.

We were south spawn, and first large ice @ 1 minute-in was the southeast one. It was called in alliance chat. All of maybe 4-5 people out of 24 went. They were promptly picked-off by the east team as they went to swarm the large ice. Meanwhile, I think at least a party's worth of people were still fighting the third/west team in mid over basically nothing in what looked like a stalemate while the large ice basically went to the east team. A smaller group were busy having an ill-fated skirmish in the southwest ledge area of the map with a small group from the western team (likely trolling/baiting newbs with knockbacks). That's already a huge red flag on the coherence and aptitude of your team. I don't recall much else specifics in that particular match aside from at one point about two-thirds of the team dropping everything to go after the small ice right by our flag- thereafter only to be distracted by that small enemy group in the southwest and proceed to chase them en masse nearly all the way back to their flag.

It's not you; there's nothing you did wrong- hell, I think at the end of the game only you and I had any killstreak/BH bonuses in our entire party (that says a lot about the ability of your team). Really, what kind of team you get matched with is a roll of the dice- and some days you get a string of being on uncoordinated ones. The best thing you can do for yourself is to learn the map layouts, and constantly call out spawning objectives and incoming danger- I cannot understate just how many people lose track of everything happening around them and on the map.

Sometimes you just have to take the reins of shot-caller if nobody else is stepping-up to the plate. That'll give you even the smallest improvement to your chances of winning. Less frequently, you may be blessed with a team who all know what they're doing, don't need constant guidance, and are damn-well effective at killing things and maintaining killstreaks. Otherwise, try not to let it get to you; sometimes you can lead the horse(s) to water and they'll drink, other times they'll all go on their own without you needing to tell them to, but most commonly they'll all freak-out and run towards a cliff.

[Esmoire]

Sometimes it's just like that. Unbelievable and unlikely, but it happens. For example I had a hugely positive WR when playing RW doing almost only solo queue. Recently begun playing with my partner and have almost only lost when playing together... And while she is still learning the mode she definitely isn't bad, and has me on comms explaining the system in and out. I see imperfections all over the map but I think it's another example of just a victim of improbability.

I do think the advice of learning to shotcall is a good idea. As someone who plays on Primal you have no doubt seen me in a few of your games. I have done shotcalling for roughly a thousand games and have learned a lot. If I never have to shotcall, I can more likely play at my 100%... Far from being close to the best player on the DC, but I'd say above average performance. On the other hand, shotcalling will definitely take away at least 10% of my potential output, definitely more so when the team needs more direction. In doing so, I say my calls have maybe a 85%~ accuracy in being a reasonable or advantageous decision; when I was starting out I had some bad calls, though I'd say the outright negative decisions are at a <1% margin which is acceptable.

I find the ultimate picture is that, while it makes my individual performance worse, if I can get even a third of the team to notice a key objective, get them at the same place, know what to avoid, retreat, etc., I significantly improve my likelihood of success and getting a 1st place win. While I have a 38% 1st place rate mostly solo queue, I have recently taken my partner into PvP and by playing with me she has consistently held over 40%. It's an art where you get better and better at the calls. Making better macros, getting better at making calls in the middle of a fight, removing yourself from the micro to take in the macro. It's not for everyone, but we could definitely use more strong shotcallers on Primal, and if you want to win more that's a way to do so.

Mentality helps, too. The only thing we have 100% control over is our improvement. Even if I got a 3rd place, if I played well, had good shotcalling, really feel like I landed my execution, I can go out of the match happy. Even if I isolate a problem of mine and am able to find out something concrete I can work on for next time I am pretty happy with that, too.

[ReiganCross]

I saw the thread title and I was like: "I think I know who's making this thread" lol. I was in your party for your 18th consecutive loss. I can't speak on your 19 other non-wins, but that one team we were on was a trainwreck.

They were all like that. I think that maybe my mistake was immediately re-queueing after taking the loss and ending up on the same team. All of my 20 teams went exactly as you saw. You'd get a solid frontline for the first minute or so of the game and then people started dying because people don't know that potions are a thing aparently (I tried healing a couple of times and I'd get maybe half my Alliance in range, none of which knew how to heal themselves.) And then it gets scattered and people start chasing warriors into cliffs to the point that it became a pattern that I tried to warn people about.

Every time. For 20 consecutive games. I only really stopped because it got into the time of the day where Frontline die down and queue tipes go over an hour. I'll get my mount some day, but today is not that day.

[Genz]

people don't know that potions are a thing aparently

Yeah, there is always a bunch of players with healing = 0 at the end of a run

But it's not just the med.kits, there is a general lack of... survival instinct? I guess the PvE is partly at fault :
- ranged/melee distinction doesn't really exist in PvE, since boss can attack anyone, depending on gimmick
- PvE teaches players to always attack
- Being KO in PvE isn't very important in most cases.
So we get all these players that rush in blindly, stay too close too long, dies 5-10 times per run, etc. For PvP, it's necessary to re-learn some basic habits that are lost in PvE.

[ReiganCross]

Yeah, not to mention Tanks aren't all that tanky, since they don't really get Tank CDs, just a high defense and a bit more HP, maybe their ults...

But these people probably were there for Tomestones of Esoterics and nothing more. Didn't cared for winning at all, barely cared for staying alive, probably didn't know about BH being a thing (Which I admit, took me quite a while to even notice it myself.)

I try to play every day to first win, so I'd get one victory torwards the mount achievement every day and maybe next year I get it. But damn that day was rough...