PvP Season 21 - A Returning Players Story Continued

Not too long ago I made a post about my experience of ranked PvP as a returning player here on the forums. I discussed my struggle at the start and what I did to improve. If you are interested in reading that post here is the link...https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/103265/ranked-pvp-a-returning-players-story#latest

I ended that post of me on the border of getting into gold. I am now in Gold 3 with a few days left of the season so I thought I'd update everyone on what I did to get to this point...

I am still a Thief main, I am very confident in the role now. As I continued the grind I wanted to take my gameplay to the next level and set the aims finding a Team to compete in Automated Tournaments and the Monthly Tournament! Within these huge goals are a bunch of minor improvements to my playstyle that I would have to impliment.The first task ahead of me was to find myself a team. This didn't happen quickly and is still a working process (currently have 5 players but getting things confirmed). I started by joining various PvP Discord servers, Twitch streams and asking there if anyone wanted to duo queue or make a team for AT's. The requirements I asked for were to have a positive mindset, willing to improve and available for regular practice sessions. I managed to get a few interested players from various Twitch Streams (shoutout to Craola and Chuckles) who liked my attitude and are MUCH better players than myself. We all teamed up and made a couple of posts on discord where we got our 4th (shoutout to Mike). These players were Plat 2+ and didn't care about rating, instead on mindset.

Next was regular practice sessions. We set a day where we would all meet up and practice as a team. During the week, whenever we were on we would discuss counters to eachothers builds and practice. As a Thief I focused on learning new combinations such as Steal > Black Powder > Heartseeker > Dodge > Shadowshot > Backstab. People might say that looks like the standard combo with extra steps but it is surprisingly effective on casters and is less predictable. I also practiced on my headshot timing and learning animations to interupt. All of these were done in a 1v1 environment. Find a friend and do this. I cannot emphasize how much this had made a difference to my gameplay!

Rotations... As a Thief main I understood I need to know this more than anything. So here is what I've learned. Good rotations win games, simple as that. Obviously mechanical skill is one thing but if that player is at the wrong place his skill is worthless. As a Thief there are very few situations where I should be in a 1v1 so when I +1 I always ask myself "can I win this fight?" If the answer is no, I leave. You are much more valuable alive than dead. Another key thing is to make use of your minimap and killfeed. These are 2 extremely valuable tools and show you where people are fighting and if they have made a kill.

Between these practice sessions I would constantly be in ranked, often in Duo Queue with members of my team and holding my own even with their higher rating than my own. I am now confident that I will reach even greater heights next season but I am proud of my progress. I have climbed from literally the bottom of Silver 1 to comfortably in Gold 3.The biggest lesson I have learned is that having a high rating is nice but in the current climate it isn't overly important. Focus on improving your own skill level and the rating will go up. I had many ups and downs but I achieved above my set goals. I hope this inspires players to focus on improving and show them that it is possible to move up in rating!