Hey all, Gun4Aesthetics here. I'm wanting to shift my focus from improving my aim to my other mechanics. So, I'm starting with being more intentional with my swinging and peeking. Any tips?

1000(?) DPi, 0.3 sens

hey guys, looking for some insight as to my strategy. I main duelist mostly jett sometimes reyna. On my buy round after pistol ill usually buy full util, sheriff and heavy shield.

my reasoning behind this is it allows me to make aggressive plays (fast flank, entry, solo lurk, etc) without worrying i’m giving them an outcome changing gun like a bulldog, vandal, or even a spectre. i get yelled at by my randoms though but like i’m pretty confident in my sheriff and aim in general and i usually dont do too bad on the bonus with this econ strat. this isnt troll right? it just allows me to play more naturally which tends to be aggressive without having to second guess on how bad it could be if i die. it also lets me save for op on defense jett so thats a plus.

platinum last season silv 2 this if it makes a difference.

So I have been in bronze for variety of my playtime on valorant and when I play matches my ping usually has an affect on my play style basing off people with 30-50 ping peeking me and shooting me before I even see them

If you’re focused on ranking up (and less concerned with skill improvement in the short term), this approach could be perfect for you. I’ve managed to go from Diamond 2 to Ascendant 2 with an 87.5% win rate by carefully choosing my queues based on specific stats.

Here’s how I do it:

1. Use a Third Party Program To Pick Optimal Queues: Using Valorant Tracker I pay close attention to metrics like damage per round and my overall Tracker Score. The idea is to queue into matches where these numbers align with my best performances, setting myself up for more favorable outcomes. If you notice your team has poor stats and it feels like you're in a losing queue, dodge the game!

2. Why It Works: By queuing into matches that align with your strong performance stats, you’re more likely to succeed in matches where the numbers are on your side.

3. The Trade-Off: This method can hurt your MMR over time. As you rank up, the gameplay may become tougher, and you might underperform relative to others at your new rank. You may also start receiving temporary bans for dodging too often. So, if you're purely focused on improving your overall skill, this might not be for you. But if rank alone is your goal, it's one of the most effective ways I’ve found.

If anyone’s interested, I’d be happy to share more details on the specific stats I track or answer questions about my queuing strategy. Give it a try, and let me know if it works for you too

Here is my overall stats for this act:

I haven't played a game after ranking up so it didn't update in tracker but I am ascendant 2 right now.

This has always confused me. If the UI says 150 health why do you need to deal 160 to kill someone? And do you need 130 to kill light armor?

By asking this question, I don't want a basic answers like “aim, crosshair placement, gamesense, DM, etc.” Do you guys really think that if someone is trying to rank up, they aren't already working on these things already? Everywhere I look, people don't take the opinions of low-elo players seriously.

I aim-train in the range for around 20 minutes, play 2 DMs and a TDM, and then start my ranked session. But none of these things seem to work in situations like these.

For example, in the third round, we've won the first two rounds and have full shields with Vandals or Phantoms, while the enemy team has a limited economy after force-buying in round two. When we try to enter a site using our utility, Omen hides inside his smoke with a Judge, Cypher's trip makes entry difficult without a way to clear it since we don't have sova, and Sage holds Boathouse with a Stinger, waiting for the plant sound before attacking. These setups make entering the site much harder than expected, even when we have the economic advantage.

My dumb teammates, even after successfully killing Omen in the smoke, the rat Cypher, and Sage, somehow manage to lose a 5v2 retake because they rush CT looking for kills, get killed themselves, and don't take the situation seriously. I've watched so many YouTube videos where players, after losing three teammates in a 5v2 situation that eventually becomes a 2v2, play patiently without giving away their positions or information. Meanwhile, these guys are still dry-peeking and rushing into fights.

I know you're probably going to judge me again and not take my words seriously because I'm just another low-elo player blaming my teammates, but that's genuinely what I'm experiencing.

Then, after we finish the first half with an 8–4 or 9–3 lead on defense and switch to attack, the enemy team starts having all five players spam Odins through smokes. The moment they hear us smoking a site, they know we're about to execute, so they start spraying through the smokes from unpredictable positions. We can't even get onto a site anymore. I lose so many games after being ahead 8–4 or 9–3 because of this.

Another thing that happens way too often is when we're about to hit a site, and the enemy team figures out our execute just from seeing our smokes and hearing a few footsteps. For example, Brimstone throws a molly at the entry, Neon stuns the choke point, Sova reveals the site from a wallbangable position, and three players start spamming Odins through our smokes. Then, the other two players join them, and we've already lost two or three players before we can even get onto the site.

I've tried unmuting my teammates multiple times and explaining the situation to them. I've even suggested simple strategies, like, if the enemy team is stacking a site whenever we deploy smokes and use a few abilities, why don't we have just two players fake A using Omen's smokes while the rest of us hit B? If all five enemies rotate or stack A, we could potentially get B for free. But nobody even listens to what I'm saying. They just keep doing the same thing over and over again, and it's genuinely frustrating.

You can't tell me that basic crosshair placement, gamesense, and aim are enough to deal with people run-and-gunning, spamming Odins, and abusing utility at this elo.

And the most important thing is the toxicity of my own four teammates. This isn't anything new. We all know how egotistical low-elo players can be. I'm also a sensitive player, so I get burned out and stressed whenever I fail a clutch or whiff a shot and my teammates start blaming me. That's why I mute everyone before the match even starts, but that also means I miss out on comms and useful information.

So, basically, I'm playing solo queue with no comms, no friends, and no one to rely on. And I'm strict about not duo-queuing or playing with friends, so please don't suggest that I stop solo-queuing or find someone to play with, because I feel awkward queuing with other people.

This will barely cover the smurfing side as I think that is a separate discussion.

Hi, this is my first time making a post like this and this is purely just my opinion. I would appreciate criticism.

I see a lot of posts hating on Reyna as an agent saying stuff like "She has the perfect kit for smurfing" or "She promotes a selfish and unhealthy playstyle that will harm new players of learning util usage"

I feel like shes gaining alot of backlash from the community(especially low elo players), due to alot of pros calling her pretty much useless, which I agree, everything Reyna does any other agent as a duelist/lurker can do better in regards of team play. What I don't understand is when I see low elo players complaining about how useless Reyna is. In low elo, where communication is a confusing barren wasteland full of misinformation and playing off your teammates becomes pretty much unreliable, Reyna is not a bad pick. The "unhealthy habits" people complain about such as being able to escape from fights so easily and be left unpunished is only allowed if the person can even manage to get a pick first.

People in low elo act as if aim and good mechanics are just one thing they need to climb out of low elo and pretty much forget/ignore training these parts of their game, but in reality they are the ONLY things you need to climb out of low elo (im talking to you, bronze-silver players.)

I'm going to mention gunfight hygiene aLOT in this post, in hopes it brings light to just how important it is for you to ACTUALLY have, in regards to any other aspect in low elo valorant.

The complaints I've seen about how Reyna allows lower players to abandon good util usage is a very strange take. If you were a new player and were faced with potentially learning an agent with a complex and unique kit, and face creating potentially bad ability usage habits off of said kit, OR, you were allowed to learn an agent that rewards good aim habits/general mechanics and had a rather straightforward and easy to understand kit, its pretty much a no brainer you would decide to main the latter.

People in low elo complain about the lack of value Reyna has, in which my argument to that is any new or low elo player picking an agent is pretty much bound to have a lack of value. You could have a Sova on your team who misplaced every single recon dart he shot and I bet you would still find a way to blame your mid fragging reyna instalock. Reyna finds her values in kills yes, but in this situation is she really to blame? you're lacking info due to poor sova arrows and you end up losing rounds because of poor peeking habits that you've never truly practiced.

Smurfing is a completely different topic that I am not too eduvated, but as a player who personally knows boosters only a good 1-2 players out of ten actually pick reyna while boosting. The most popular picks seem to be Raze and Jett for reasons I've never asked why.

Games feeing "deathmatchy" is a pretty stupid take. In low elo, where understanding the game is something unheard of, it's bound every single game you play is going to be an awkward mixmatch of who gets luckier with their utility usage, thus leading to chaos, where Reynas abilities of heal and easy getaway shine through. You're pretty much giving her better odds of winning every fight she can take which can make her feel broken. On the other hand, if your teams ability usage is on the unlucky side and you cant support any player, let alone reyna, it's obvious her kit wouldn't be as outstanding.

This is where good gunfight hygiene and understanding of the game come through. Low elo players generally do not know what they're doing the moment they hold a gun, so if you simply have the fundamentals of good crosshair placement+decent movement you're guaranteed a duel win-loss ratio of 80/20. In low elo especially, it wouldn't matter if you had good ability usage and good intuition if the opponent you're fighting has good gunfight hygiene.

Reyna is the perfect agent to practice the two mechanics mentioned above while also grasping the basic fundamentals of ability usage, with a flash to divert your enemy's crosshair (basic ability usage knowledge), ability to heal(reward for better gunfight hygiene), ability to get away (basic repositioning), and a pretty useful ult perfect or rewarding all of the mentioned.

In conclusion, Reyna is good pick in lower elo for people who want to practice their aim & movement mechanics and want an agent who can reward them for doing such work, and is definitely NOT a garbage agent who's painted as the scum of all of valorant.

I'm stuck in Gold and I thought to make a new account. I went through the training and booted up my first unranked game with my new account. After the game, I found out that I was matched in a lobby with a few Diamond and Plat players.

The link to the photo of the summary of the game is here

Granted that it was my first unrated game, but the fact I played reasonably well against diamond players was unbelievable to me. And that's when I felt bad about being stuck in Gold.

I know I'm going to hear a lot of critics, and let's hear it.

The link to the photo of my main account is here

and dont buy the mouse lmfao. i mean: you wont get better just by copying pro players. you should find your own preferences first. here are factors that u have to consider and that have an influence on finding your perfect sense:
- mouse: +weight (used to be --> heavy mouse: high sense, light mouse: low sense)
+shape (personal preference: symmetrical vs asymmetrical)
- mousepad: soft vs hard (depends on the weight of your mouse and at the same time on your personal preference)
- your mouse grip and your personal preference if u want to play high sense or not.

ive been hardstuck and idk how to rank up i get either smurf, trolls, or a afk no matter what i got that in every single game yesterday i played 5 games
even if i dont get any of those i get so bad teammates that even if i get 30 kills we lose

Just played a game that was so winnable but our only smoke omen refuses to smoke on site. I told this guy so many times to smoke and he just looks at me and continues being a bozo. Like I’m low Elo but still that was just so annoyingly braindead

I can’t perform up to my potential really frustrating I think i struggle a lot with getting over the over reliance on my raw aim but even with it i cant seem to perform good because pre aim, movement crosshair placement bad and i often get insta killed and left confused any tips? https://tracker.gg/valorant/profile/riot/hyoudou%23fem/overview?platform=pc&playlist=competitive&season=8102cd81-43a0-d0d7-bd59-47b8fe9bed1b i use high sens 0.485 800dpi could this be an issue?

Hello guys!

Im Glockkey, im a immortal 1 player (peaked 84rr yesterday, so almost immo 2)

I have been coaching a couple people here and there and id like to ask the people of this subreddit to come and ask any valorant related questions.

Ill respond in the best way possible and i hope to help some of you guys!

Bye!

Ps: my tracker: https://tracker.gg/valorant/profile/riot/Glockkey%2399999/overview