I'll Forever be Bronze

[HyperiusUltima]

Right, so I've been doing some more BRD work. Also I appreciate the help from people who have provided advice in the thread o/

One thing that's been grating me is positioning and how to not get jumped. I know hiding behind walls is one thing and peeking, but it's not always viable because the enemy MNK could simply just wait and then blast you into the enemy team after a Stun. Not sure what to do about getting jumped by Melee aside from Repelling and run away.

[Llynethil]

Monk does monk things, all ranged jobs hate monks jumping them, but bard just kinda gets shafted by monks since you lack any burst to take em down before they take you down, it is how it is.

Best you can hope for is your team helping you kill them or peel them off you, don't try to 1v1 melees as bard, tends to not work out well, you're a team dependant job so play according to that.

[HyperiusUltima]

So basically any melee job I run into is going to merc me. Guess I'll die.

On a different note, I can't determine good Paean targets(yes I know Melee are the usual choice, but brain is trying to process it quickly on status bar when debuffs last TWO SECONDS).

[Ransu]

Right, so I've been doing some more BRD work. Also I appreciate the help from people who have provided advice in the thread o/

One thing that's been grating me is positioning and how to not get jumped. I know hiding behind walls is one thing and peeking, but it's not always viable because the enemy MNK could simply just wait and then blast you into the enemy team after a Stun. Not sure what to do about getting jumped by Melee aside from Repelling and run away.

I don't recommend BRD right now. They nerfed silent nocturn into the ground and destroyed its ability to secure kills.

[HyperiusUltima]

I don't recommend BRD right now. They nerfed silent nocturn into the ground and destroyed its ability to secure kills.

Then what do you suggest? Literally I'm getting job changed so often nowadays it feels like I can't sit in one job for a while.

[Ransu]

Then what do you suggest? Literally I'm getting job changed so often nowadays it feels like I can't sit in one job for a while.

PLD is plenty capable of climbing through the low ranks, but honestly the easiest job to climb with and has the most impact is DRG and MCH in terms of raw killing ability. Otherwise play AST or SCH. WHM is pretty easy mode at the low levels as well.

[Valence]

NA problem maybe...? I'm not noticing those issues in EU at least regarding what is happening ingame.

Oddly enough ranked has gotten cleaner on Light/EU over ranked seasons. I see a lot less bad marks or quickchat spamm, at least in Diam/Crystal. It happens occasionally in Plat from less experienced players, and below... I have no idea, haven't been there since S3 reset.

However, it's casual that has grown consistently more toxic, which is kinda weird. The amount of salt I've seen in casual is unreal.

[Valence]

Right, so I've been doing some more BRD work. Also I appreciate the help from people who have provided advice in the thread o/

One thing that's been grating me is positioning and how to not get jumped. I know hiding behind walls is one thing and peeking, but it's not always viable because the enemy MNK could simply just wait and then blast you into the enemy team after a Stun. Not sure what to do about getting jumped by Melee aside from Repelling and run away.

There is no easy answer to this for the simple reason that ranged jobs depend heavily on the non ranged jobs of your team. If those get overrun/overwhelmed, or just don't care or play properly, your backlines suddenly become wide open and you get melees running rampant everywhere. When this happens it's a losing battle, because ranged jobs for most of them are the better jobs at applying AoE/damage pressure, but are hard countered by a lot of melees (esp MNK, SAM, RPR, DRG, or even more occasional ones like LB WAR, or DPS GNB). If you do not get support from your team, it's already a win for the melees because they're denying your team more than you're denying them if they keep you busy fighting them and eventually potentially dying.

Shaking melees off your back is usually a delicate balance of not getting exposed yourself to the enemy ranged (attracting all fire like melees usually do, except you're not a melee able to sustain that), and not fleeing away from your team, leaving you extremely exposed. The trick is to make the enemy melees over commit on you and delay as much as you can with your tools (Guard, Purify, Recuperate, Warden's and Repelling on BRD, etc) until your buddies managed to kill the melee or shake them off. Good melee players at higher levels are actually very good at picking off lone targets by harassing backlines, and if your team doesn't help you then everybody loses (which happens even at crystal because a lot of melee players think that if you die to someone else as a ranged, you deserve to die, which is stupid).

This is what I do think that no matter the ranged job, even if fully designed for DPS/cc like SMN, BLM, MCH, you're still inherently part support and cannot function on your own, unlike a team of melees/healers.

Then what do you suggest? Literally I'm getting job changed so often nowadays it feels like I can't sit in one job for a while.

BRD is still a perfectly capable job even if the nerf hurt.

Also no, MCH is NOT a carry job by far. People don't realize how it relies heavily on a good team, for the simple reason that the job strives on opportunities and ticks around those hard. If your team doesn't allow you opportunities for targets to snipe/secure kill, then your job value plummets down to oblivion. But it's a good job though for sure.

[Sinstrel]

So basically any melee job I run into is going to merc me. Guess I'll die.

On a different note, I can't determine good Paean targets(yes I know Melee are the usual choice, but brain is trying to process it quickly on status bar when debuffs last TWO SECONDS).

1. Generally, yes. I always advise new players in PvP to start out playing ranged jobs because it teaches you the very important skill of positioning, and how drastically it can affect your games. As a rule of thumb starting out as a new player, never be in front of your tank or melee... EVER. Not even to push the crystal (unless you are losing in overtime). Stay behind your melee and tank until you learn the caveats where it is okay to push beyond them.

If you have no melee or tank on your team, that is also fine and the same concept applies. Stay ranged and dont push the crystal until your team is at a numbers advantage. Let the enemy approach you even if they pushed into you 15-30%. It wont matter if you wipe them and push it to 50. As long as you are 5v5, pushing the crystal is the last thing you need to be thinking about. Land a kill first, then check your party's mana. If they are all above 50%, then you can push. If they are below 50% call for them to fall back and drink first... then push.

This advice is tailored to you as a newer player. These are not hardset rules and will change over time as you rank higher and gain more experience.

2. You can't always pick the optinal Paen target. Of course, do your best and continue to learn and get better at it. However I would advise you to just keep it on cooldown until you start to see the patterns of the optimal target.

You can use Paen preemptively before your target even gets hit by CC. And it will auto nullify the CC for your target.

I really do hope you find success, and I think it would be great to see a more diverse cast of players in the higher ranks of play. Currently, it is quite boring playing against the same players over and over. But I digress.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Oddly enough ranked has gotten cleaner on Light/EU over ranked seasons. I see a lot less bad marks or quickchat spamm, at least in Diam/Crystal. It happens occasionally in Plat from less experienced players, and below... I have no idea, haven't been there since S3 reset.

However, it's casual that has grown consistently more toxic, which is kinda weird. The amount of salt I've seen in casual is unreal.

I can definitely vouch for the casual toxicity, there have been some quite extraordinary cases. From 3-minute-long "Push the Crystal spam" (R.I.P. my ears) to "Hello", "Hello", "Hello" salt from dying while overextending like a true hero.

Granted I use the ignore1 mark liberally to tell people who do that off and occasionally drop it on some call-active hero who dives 1v5 when I ask them to fall back like 7 times in a row. But yeah there definitely has been a rise of that in casual.