[Advice] How do people feel about bad ranked builds?

Discussion in 'Card Hunter General Chat' started by Flaxative, Jun 24, 2014.

  1. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Hi guys! In this thread I want to get people's opinions on a situation/scenario I'm facing.

    I recently put together a ranked build that's just kind of bad. It can get passable hands on rare occasion, and when it does, it can beat a 1600 if that player stumbles. But on average my positions are weak, my draws are lame. I have little to no counterplay against the popular builds in the upper tiers and my strategy is slow and unreliable. I don't want to get into the specifics of my build yet—I'm still refining it, and will post in the deckbuilding forums at some point—but the thing is: it's incredibly fun to play.

    Other builds I've run keep me solidly in the 1550-1650 range.

    From that point, if I play this build, I lose a lot and my rating goes down. Is this tanking? My goal is to eventually be able to play fair matches with other players who aren't running strong builds.

    The problem, of course, is that if I ever switch back to a strong build, I'll essentially be smurfing. Say my build stabilizes around 1100, and then I return to one of my 3DC, aggro elves, or firestorm hybrid parties—all 1600-land builds—won't I get a lot of easy wins and won't it be kind of unfair?

    I know I could just play my bad builds in casuals. But then I have to find opponents, and I don't get loot for winning. While I love casual games, especially when I'm playing against some of my buddies from my guild or the forums, I also want to be able to pilot my new build in ranked.

    Any insight into this issue is welcome. Mostly I'd like help thinking about the implications.

    Cheers!
     
    ParodyKnaveBob, Jarmo and neoncat like this.
  2. neoncat

    neoncat Feline Outline

    Good sir, are you insinuating that I play dishonorably? ಠ_ಠ
     
  3. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    This thread isn't about you, @neoncat, it's about me and my problems.

    :p

    No, but, I want to hear other people's opinions—including yours.
     
    neoncat likes this.
  4. neoncat

    neoncat Feline Outline

    Well.... this basically describes how I choose to play ranked MP. I optimize for builds I enjoy over builds that would win consistently at high rating. As I once told Stexe, the only reason I'm not at the top of the season rating chart is because I'd rather run an elf wizard... :D

    I would consider it to be dishonorable smurfing if one were to play a build intending to lower ones ranking. The principle of double effect permits loss of rating as an undesired side effect when your intention is simply to have fun (and get loot).
     
    ParodyKnaveBob and Flaxative like this.
  5. Scarponi

    Scarponi Moderator

    I'm pretty much with neoncat here. MP should be competitive, but it should also be fun. If you have fun running a different build and it drops you for a while I don't see a problem with that as long as you're not trying to game the system. I've had ideas for interesting builds and tried them, sometimes they take some serious tweaking before they're competitive - this causes me to drop during the "refinement stage," but the build essentially stabilizes and then plays at its appropriate level. I don't see anything wrong with running unique builds even if it's not "the most competitive build you can field." Isn't the whole discussion of balance about getting more variety in the game? As far as the drop and then subsequent climb, I would note two things. First, if it concerns you I would just suggest playing at least a significant number of games at your stabilized level - basically as long as you're not just dropping a ton of points and then turning around immediately to climb the ladder you're okay. Secondly, when you switch to a more competitive build, you're likely to climb quickly so its not like there's an extended period where you're whipping a bunch of weaker builds.
     
    ParodyKnaveBob and Flaxative like this.
  6. Jarmo

    Jarmo Snow Griffin

    Go for it, Flaxative. You've now stated your intent publicly, that alone should go a long way towards keeping your honour intact. The see-sawing rating is just a property of the system in use. Besides, it's not so serious. It's just a game, what does it matter if you lose a bunch and then win a bunch :)? Let's all just try to enjoy ourselves while allowing each other the same as much as is reasonable.
     
    Flaxative likes this.
  7. Lord Feleran

    Lord Feleran Guild Leader

    I'd say this should be tolerated unless your goal is to get easy fast wins against weaker players.
     
    Flaxative likes this.
  8. Bandreus

    Bandreus Thaumaturge

    As long as the other player is having fun (i.e. you're not throwing away matches, resigning early, etc.) it's fine.
     
    ParodyKnaveBob and Flaxative like this.
  9. Squidy

    Squidy Hydra

    How can getting fast and easy wins against low elo players be an issue when someone allready invested a lot of time fighting (and losing so for nothing) against high elo players? Plus one can't do that for long as too many wins will bring him back to high elo.
     
  10. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Yeah I will note that all the games I'm losing, I'm playing in accordance with my guilds ideals of not throwing matches. I always do my best.
     
  11. Lord Feleran

    Lord Feleran Guild Leader

    Well, you can resign immediately when facing an opp you do not want to play which also lovers your rating.
     

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