/ hearttt_ My Twitch: / hera My Gameplay Channel: / @hera-gameplay My TikTok: / heraageofempires2 My Instagram: / hera_aoe My Twitter: / hera_aoe My Discord: / discord Edits by / @k1aoe
I overcame my fear because I knew that if I would lose a lot I would be matched against people who are worse than I am. At some point you'll start beating human opponents. It might mean you have to lose 10 games in a row, but eventually you'll start winning.
Exactly what I did when I start ranked too, I was like "yeah yeah I lose but when I will be 300 elo I will surely find someone as bad as me" :D I was just afraid to have a longer queue than Hera because I was the worst player of all haha (now I'm 1000 elo and in progress learning from my defeats)
@@Reportforfeed WHen i started playing 1v1 i already had many team games, and the game for some reason put me at 1500 1v1 elo. I lost allll placement matches XD And also ran into smurfs :(
+1 Just more amazing work to help boost the community that helped you. Your willingness to give back always reminds me that you quite deserve the success you've worked so hard for. Thank you for continuing to put these motivational and educational videos up, and for all the hints and build orders and tips you're constantly providing us. Also, plug Survivalist moar if you really want people to get a really quality coaching session for cheap (he is doing replays for CHANNEL POINTS these days and we all love it). Both you and Pete keep up the great work.
I think my issue is the lack of ELO decay, I often take breaks from playing because of work etc... And going back is always a pretty bad experience. Having to lose 5 or 6 games in a row before having some actual good games. It means sacrificing 2 or 3 hard fought night of gaming to getting stomped on the ladder and I'd rather play some chill games with friends. It sucks because there aren't many gaming experiences better than a hard fought battle on aoe!
So true. Have the same. With friends on ranked it happens as well. We win a couple of games and then we lose a couple. For me the most rewarding is if I just barely lose or win (especially the long ones). Winning easily isn't fun
Yea, playing against AI is a good confidence booster. Extreme AI is so good now. Crazy micro nerd and perfect economy. Definitely better than most 1000 Elo.
The clips of losing to t90 along with the commentary about accepting negative outcomes killed me. You can literally hear hera trying to keep a straight face while delivering those lines lol
One good trick on how to handle losses in ranked team games that I learned from countless of my fellow players. Always blame the team mates when you lose.
The running joke in my friend group is that a loss is never Jonas' fault and if I am in the game it's always my fault. Other side lost? I didn't push fast enough. I kill 2 players but we still lose? My fault - I didn't protect my teammate. Clear civ win? My fault - I had force civ unticked. Teammate drops? My fault - took too long to win.
I really have problem with ranked. I stay very nervous and sometimes scared to play. But I still try... Loved you said "a fair game is a fun game". the most frustrating thing for me is smurf. They really destroy my interesting in the game.
Yeah smurfing to me is shameful. How is beating up on people worse than you entertaining? I’ve smurfed to play with friends in other games, but I always hold back. I did it in counterstrike a good bit. I’d just play very passive and occasionally clutch.
Smurfs are the biggest demoraliser. Having someone clearly at 1400-1600 splitting and dodging while pushing 3 fronts with perfect macro vs 1000s is really crappy.
A smurf will also reach a point wherehe will only win 50% of the game, so it is not a real problem except at the start, like when a new skill player begin the game. For example i smurf to try to test other style or strar, that i’m not used, ti be against opponent where it will be a fair figth. I could just use my main account and play like that, loose 10 game in a row before finding a fair match to play, but if iwannt after that replay a map or the strat i know well, it will take 10 game win in a row to refind a fair game.
@@zudaha that's not how Smurf's work. They downboost back to noob level once they win a few games. It's about trolling and noob stomping not elo. It doesn't take long to massively downboost as elo drops get larger with consecutive losses.
A good strategy that works for me is establish goals outside of winning. Work on your build order and be satisfied if you can accomplish that despite whether you win.
what really helped me were 2 things: 1. get proper build orders, eg. the ones from hera and learn/train them and 2. try to play calmly. trying to copy the pro's apms is not necessary on my elo, but execute my gameplay a little slowlyer but precisely and calmy helped a lot. i climbed from 800 to top at 1400 in a year. not that high, but it was fun and i am happy with it so far.
Funny that this video was uploaded as I've started getting back into AOEII after a few months of not playing it. Despite having played the game since the 90s, I've never played online against strangers (but sometimes with my brother/friends), partly for the reasons you talked about. Maybe I'll go through the Art of War stuff again (I mostly got gold last time I went through it) to refresh my skills and try some matches. If anything, watching Low Elo Legends has made me realise that there are people who will be at my level. While I don't think I'm inexperienced enough to be a LEL myself, but I'm probably between that and the 'average' player. At the end of the day, I have to remind myself it's just a game and being bad at it relative to other people has absolutely zero bearing on my value as a person, but it's almost like I've convinced myself otherwise.
I think another reason (specific to ranked 1v1) is the game is very intense, you have to be super locked in and focused for what might be a hour + match. Custom games and even team games sometimes are a more chilled way to play a match, when you still want to play other people.
Yeah, for me ranked is more stressful because I feel like I have to be on top of everything. Keep my TC producing, get the build order down correctly, prepare to engage the opponent etc. In comparison, for quick play and lobby matches I can take it easy a bit more and allow myself to make mistakes and be less efficient.
I think for a lot of people with ranked anxiety the 50% loss mentality doesnt quite apply. We're talking about people who are probably 500-600 skill level, but stuck at 1k elo just because they havent played many, if any games. By the time they get to where they truly belong on the ladder, they will have lost 20+ games, all basically in a row. Thats extremely disheartening for a brand new ranked player, and causes a lot of people to quit ranked for good. IMO, players should begin at 500 elo, not 1k.
Exactly, at chess I could pick what elo I want to start, it was about 500 and I was able to win my first games, it was so much fun. At 1000 I would be just slathered. Same with Aoe2
@@fazeraoe9582 But doing that is kind of a dick move because you inflate your opponents' elo. If the system is designed around 50% winrate and you're out there giving free wins, you're basically causing that opponent to lose one of his future games.
@@Naccarat Yes I understand, but if the premise is that a new player would be too discouraged to lose many times in a row then this is a reasonable action for the greater good.
@@fazeraoe9582 a game's ranked system is VERY flawed if the first thing that you have to do is resign 15 games. And plenty of other competitive games have the starting elo be lower than the average without any issues. Rocket league, overwatch, apex, even chess all come to mind.
I think we all know that the real anxiety comes from that death chime sound when an opponent is matched and the ranked countdown begins. Before that you're just like rank and chill 😂
Hey guys just going to share my experience in aoe2. At the begining I played some ranked and got very frustrated. Reached around 1250-1300 on my own playing archer civs, but got stomped hard sometimes which got my anxiety up. After that I just quit ranking and I only played unranked for like 4 months. A lot of practice and that got my self stime a bit up. So I reached 1500 afterwards when I got back on ranked. Now I'm almost 1700 and I'm really enjoying it!
i started playing aoe this month,i had 2 games against my friend,then i hopped right into ranked 2vs2,yea i lost 9 in a row,but now i feel confident in winning 80% of my games
I love to play ranked. But after 2 or 3 games I'm exhausted I get so frustrated. And I want to play more but "chill" but there's no such place in game to play. Quick play is a landslide defeat every time. Thank you for this video 💚
Quick play is a mistake because there is a hidden elo system. You are essentially queueing ranked without knowing it, but this hidden elo is very unbalanced.
Quick play is really the sape thing than ranled play, but just not display your elo to you, and with way less players, so don’t success to find you fair match like ranked game. Wyou will need to pkay lobby game instead
For me it was that played a few, got absolutely hammered and was like I could queue back up till my rank is probably balanced out or I can just play some AI or casual game with some friends. I'll play ranked at some point, but its rough to start for sure.
I think its not just ranked. when i play AoE 2 i like to chill, sometimes with my sister. So we play bots. Online, ranked or not, just feels way to stressfull.
Depending of your personnality or with time, ranled game become reall chill as well. In fact, it would be great to have an option to hide your elo, so like that you don’t know it, and it will not upset your mind. Ranked game will be just a way to find more easily good game to play
I'm not sure why but for some reason I feel a lot less nervous in team ranked, maybe because the responsibility is shared I'm not sure. I really want to play and enjoy 1v1 but I queue up for it then think "I'll tick team as well for some variety" then eventually untick 1v1 :)
team games have the potential to be more and usually are. the only downside is if one temmate makes early mistakes and resigns early then the game is basically cancelled before it really starts, which sucks.
What most likely will happen is that people will overcome your ladder anxiety/fear, but then you will eventually climb up a player bracket in which it stops being relatively laid back or not good enough that allows you to play as you want, to a point you are either forced to play certain meta or lose. Personally happens to me a lot, when I feel I'm forced to do something I don't want to do, I stop being having fun and drop it, it is why I dislike Arabia so much and stick to off meta maps.
This seems completely normal, you can play how you like to play and the elo system will allow you to climb up to whatever rating that your strategy will work against. When your rating gets high enough that it doesn't work anymore, you fall back down to the rating in which it does. What's the problem?
If you always play off meta, weird strat and loose because of it, because its only work against weakest opponent, you will drop elo but after that be against player where this style is 50% winrate, so it’s not a problem. It’s the same if you decide to play random or bad civ instead playing op civ, the system is just to findyou opponent that will be close game with your current skill, way to p,ay the game, etc
Another thing that makes it difficult is how long games can take. If I have time to game for an hour, is that enough time for a game of ranked? Games can certainly go that long or longer, and the idea of having to resign a game like that because you have other commitments is rough
I love playing only ranked 😂 It immediatelly shows where you are, how good or bad are you. I see loosing as a learning something new - every time. For example, last night a guy welcomed my paladin attack with 10s of monks! I felt that for the very first time. I rarely play monks. Usually they pick up relic, and sometimes in every 10th game I carry them in battle for healing or some eventual conversion. From now on, when I saw this (and lost), I will seriously consider monks. Also, I always wheteher loose or win, like to look game replay again, to see the errors I made or what I should have done better. That helps a lot! And I think ranked is the best, because for the points, you will always give the best version of your game. So guys, not only don't be afraid to play ranked, but play only ranked! It is the best AoE, trust me!
Amazing video explaining a lot, iv started Aoe2 like 2 months ago after 15+ years break, and aoe serial will always be in my heart, i remember when i was teenager and there was bombing in Serbia 1999, i was escaping bomb shelter with my best mate so we can go to his home to play aoe1 on 2 pc's against AI. When i got back i was so "afraid" of ranked that i did only ai games first month, but as soon i jumped to ranked i had much more fun even losing most of first 50 games.
I feel like the few times I had any "ladder anxiety" were mostly related to not playing a ranked game in months for whatever reason and feeling like I'm gonna play 300 elo below what my rank shows due to being rusty and it's gonna be embarrassing. Which is usually not the case, either. It's a weird feeling
Great video. One notion that wasn't mentioned. ☝ One advantage to loosing.... Your next game will be easier ;) Since you will be matched up with someone at lower ELO. And so you then can look fwd to the win against a lower Eli player.
If I ever start to play ranked, I will lose like 20-30 games on purpose, just to get low elo and to go up again. I would lose the games anyway. They should ask at what elo you want to start.
Something else… play with you friends!!! I have been playing age with buddies online for idk 6+ years now, ranked. It’s a blast, the rage over the comms is hilarious! And other people will take you into their clans/play with you if you don’t have a crew that’s into rts games.
One thing kinda decieving about ranked and starting at 1k is that u don't actually face 1k elo enemies early on. Your first like 2-3 games at 1k elo u face people at like 800 elo, I'm somewhat certain of this, I noticed this for me and my friend in both 1v1 and teamgame ranked. However, u suddenly start facing people your elo after a while and then u get stomped. Also the 50% loss also needs to have the bottom 1% being excluded, those guys lose quite a bit more.
Really love this kind of educational content. Keep it going bro! One tip, be aware of filler words like "guys"! You say that often when you are improvising sections. Completely natural, everyone does it! But something to keep in mind.
great vid hera! Im a sports psychologyst (maybe the only one in the planet that plays aoe 11), and Im agree with all the points you made. I would add that ranked is stresful, in a lesser degree than a tourney match, but nevertheless implies that little rush, stress response. I think that a good way to deal with this fear is trying to lear how to enjoy that stress and those nerves, that energy that you only feel there, and use them to focus, have fun and play great memorable games, that usually doesnt happen agains a AI. In other words, playing agains a human provides a different gaming experience, and I think all of us can agree that the games that we have most enjoyed in our lives have been agains a human being, so the ranked ladder can be that place where we go seeking those games, instead of just thinking in those win-lose terms
Great video, so good for the community! My biggest problem with playing Ranked is that you can't choose the map! I wanna get good and learn other map one day (love ur map videos) but I don't have much time to play and I feel force to play wtv I get..... I would never cancel the game till I get arabia, It's toxic for the game! Luv from Montreal
I promised myself to jump into ranked after i know i can beat extreme ai, because i do really love this game, i've been playing it literally all my life, i remember playing it in my brother's computer at 4yo, and now im 23 i really want to be one of the top tiers, but i think my problem is as you said, how to manage losses, i hate losing, but as you put it into perspective i think it helped me a lot.
Its funny, I won my first two games and then said "well, never gonna have as good a record as this" and then just stopped and told myself I'd come back once I completed all the campaigns on hard cause the achievements are a reward that I know will happen unlike a ranked win. That plus getting an adult job has made it so I haven't gone back in. I'm finally close to finishing all the campaigns (Vietnamese is the only one I'm not at the final mission, and I have like 4 on the last mission), so hopefully the campaogns havent made me worse, although I still float way too many resources and dont use manyonels cause the ai is so good against them. Also nice vid, always good to see the community is still friendly
Some people like the basics to be fully (largely) set... If ever, a quick video on hotkeys (not in depth ones, but a section of tips & ideas - e.g. keep successive keybinds such as build hotkeys at least 1 key away from one another). Going in-depth helps set the stage because not everyone can try/practise 10 different keybind/hotkey setups, before finding an efficient/fitting one! The Basic Tips to Playing Ranked, The Advanced Tips to Playing Ranked, Playing Ranked Helps you Find Out Where you Excel & Where you're Lacking, etc. Even instead of build orders we can see play-macro/micro (video of key-strokes) for example... I think that would help the 'Hyper-Focussers' such as myself, who are good/alright - yet always worry that we're missing something crucial and get a bit of angst around it.
I would get so stressed out doing 1v1s even though i had fun and didnt care about elo the stress was just to much so i started doing 3v3s and 4v4s. Its alot of fun and i might start doing 1v1s again but for now ive got caught up in 10x shared.
Just want to say I love your content. Just got back into this game the past 3 weeks and your content improves my game. As a kid, I was always scared to play Ranked due to the reasons you mentioned in this video. Now, I enjoy playing Ranked because you can analyze or re-watch what you did wrong liker you mentioned. Is Steam the best platform to play Ranked?
You're quite enlightened and bright. Your win/lose argument is rock solid. I fear getting into an Islands map with Teutons/Koreans/Turks as foe with their 13 Range Defenses, and me playing as anything without a Cannon Galleon with Siege Engineers (14 > 13) So if I started as Cumans, or Byzantines. (Nothing or Dromon @ 12 range.) I'd be lost from the get go. My fear of losing units and "looking bad" neuters any "bravery" needed to even CONSIDER playing online. So I tend to love Civilizations with Elite Cannon Galleons. But I sense that this is an ostentation/pride issue that I must overcome. I appreciate your explanation of loss/win. And I just need to get over myself. 😛
You forgot one major reason some people don't play ranked: The mindset that they will not get good enough EVER. The concept that everyone has a natural amount of ability, affinity, or talent, and that will always be what holds them back once they reach a certain ELO. If you're too slow, too stupid, too old, too unhealthy, you may just be capped at 1700 or 1400, and there may not seem like there's a reason to grind for ranking on the Ladder when that's where you'll always be. Basically, you can only go down from here because this is all you're capable of. You've even said it yourself that age plays an important role in how well you'll do, and you're gonna have an insane uphill grind if you try to come into the competitive scene at 30+ because there will be plenty who will grow faster than you simply because they're younger, more energetic, and have time to grow before their body naturally slows down.
I started after my placements at 1400, then lost 20 or so games and now im 1k elo steady. I am still kinda bew to the game but them 20 losses almost made me quit.. but now i play against my skill level and i have a blast having really close games almost every game. And at the 1k elo you never know what to expect some people play so strangely sometimes i feel like copying meta stuff doesnt really work for me and its just my micro seems to be my strength. If people feudal rush me i almost never loose a villager, i just really struggle at working army comps and changing my transitions but its alot of fun learning.
I think the biggest reason I don't do ranked is that I don't feel like I got the fundamentals down. I feel like I'm not really good enough to play as a result, but I also can't tell when I've gotten them down enough to play
This video speaks to me, i played 1 ranked game, got stomped and never tried again. Maybe some day I will try again. Also I think its worth mentioning that 50% win rate doesnt mean that every other game is a win. I might be 4 losses in a row, 2 wins, 1 loss and than 3 wins.
For me it is honestly that I feel like as long i can't beat like multiple extreme AI in a macro game, (by not hitting them with early agression to abuse the AI stupidness) why would I play vs other players. For me it feels like Ranked Play is the next level after beating let's say 2 Extreme AI's without cheesing them.
I'm happy that you used my clip in your video :) 100% true by the way, but the reason I don't want to play competitively is that I'm simply "too old" for it, I enjoy watching more, and there is always someone to watch.
"Ranked /anxiety/" is just that- anxiety. It causes the 'fight or flight' response as a preperation for something intimidating; pumping your body full or cortisol and adrenaline. This ' ranked anxiety' also plays into a psychological trap that stops people from starting things. Humans dont like failure. We're averse to it. Its natural to dislike the idea of failing; and it stops people from starting so many things in life. Dont fear the ladder. dont fear your opponent. dont fear the game. AND DO NOT FEAR LOSS. now heres the catch: in a 1v1 or team v team situation, like in videogames for example, its important to have goals and achievements that DONT RELY ON WINNING EVERY GAME. Hera and his friend's quote make a great point about the 50% winrate thing, but breaking that down further could be helpful, so ill get into it a bit more from a psych perspective. accepting that you cant win every game is awesome, and almost required for a strong mental in competitive games. its a great point, but the problem with executing it is the mental goals [or lack thereof]. If you aren't playing to win (every single game), why are you playing? As a beginner learning a new skill (or a new game), setting frequent, small and achievable goals is massive for creating a positive neurochemical feedback cycle, forming a habbit or feeling satisfied in practise, rather then the overwhelmingly negative feedback loop that comes only focusing on outcomes (win v loss, feelings of **failure**) instead of action / progress ( where your goal is to practise / improve, hit a build correctly, try something new, not only to win win win) and lastly, another little tip to help with the pain of defeat, because itll be there even if you dont fear defeat, thats just the nature of competition. **This is incredibly important in 1v1 games** like AOE or SC2 where you cant just flame your team to vent these negative emotions. Its partly why team games are so much more popular, and so much more toxic, but thats off topic. **RESPECT YOUR OPPONENTS**. losing is so much easier when you respect the victor. they're playing the same game, with the same limitations, you're both trying your best. You were bested one on one. Thats alright, always the next one. Respect their victory over you and learn from it (rather than unsuccessfully coping, and feeling awful about it). and remember, the goal wasnt to win it was to have fun, play and improve; so it wasn't a failure unless you learnt nothing and felt bad doing it.
I suffer from this kind of anxiety. Been playing aoe2 for ages on and off, campaigns and against ai and just messing around in scenario editor. Recently a friend of mine got into the game and has been learning fast. He inspired me to take a step into ranked. I trained against ai for many many games to get my basics down and finally couple days ago stepped into ranked. Now after 10 placement games my record is pretty good 5-5 with 1030 elo at the end. I did it. And I didn't lose every game. Last two I lost to same kind of stuff and I'm doing research on how to improve that aspect of my game play. Noticed this video and decided to write my "success story" in case someone might find it inspiring. BTW my friend is still better than me so I got some training to do and oh boy am I eager to get into it. Thanks for reading.
If the average person is losing when starting at 1000 elo, they why not start them against 800 elo players. There will still be some who lose a bit, and a few others who advance, but it would be a better starting point. Make it happen Hera, the devs will listen to a Champion.
I was really nervous and stopped. Then a year later I took a day and some to just grind out games then the next evening a few I stayed the same elo and if I focused maybe or probably can climb a bit higher, but what's the point? I play games even when I don't feel my best. It's a little internal copium to not stress out about losing and play more relaxed games. It probably doesn't work for everyone but it worked wonders for me.
BRO I LOVE YOUR MINDSET, what about videos on where to wall and why, what techs to get and when and or why, the opponent is on gold? that means archers, figuring out the low level things I feel like there are gaps in knowledge because higher level players just know to some degree it is learned and then becomes intuitive I'm 700 elo and just started ranked, I got every upgrade up till castle age, I have been watching a LOT of your content, T90, Viper etc and I noticed in tournaments and watching streams with the capture age that a lot of pros don't get that many upgrades, they go for units, this seems obvious now to me but at the time it wasn't obvious, I thought the upgrades were more efficient or something, LEL mentality as they say, "look through our eyes" even your series of mind of a pro, it's about your and other pros mentality, what you are thinking, your reasoning and your logic, and why, very very good stuff, this is pure gold here
Sisyphus is a punished figure in the ladder of Age of Empires 2. His punishment is: he must add Franks to a duel on Arabia, and every time he reaches 1000 Elo, he drops down to 900 afterwards, repeating this process endlessly. The adjective 'Sisyphean' describes a 'never-ending and futile task.' -Inspired by scenarios of Pyrrhus of Epirus.
"Man up bro, we are waiting for you". I'd be nice also that videos are aimed for girls too. We also love playing and have our space in the community. We should be recongnise too. Love your content. Xo
I agree, we need more girls playing AoE!! Hell, we need more players in general! I like to check replays while i have my coffee, if you want someone to watch yours, tell me your player name and i'll take a look! :)
When I play ranked my hands feel cold and shaky and it's a lot more stressful than it is fun. I have to be in a really good mood to play ranked. Also, due to job and life in general I don't have enough time to play, so basically it's quite difficult to maintain a level.
Same here! After some time i get back to normal and am not nervous anymore, but by that time i probably killed the boar with the TC, or deleted vils by mistake, or did something stupid enough to ruin the game xD
Pretty new AOE 2 player, with 200 hours at the moment. In the other games, such as Dota2 (highest rank - Immortal) I have no issues playing ranked, in fact, it's very easy because I know I'm good at it even when I lose. When it comes to World of Warcraft, I'm also high ranked arena player (2v2,3v3) and I have no anxiety queing into those games. But with AoE2 it's pure anxiety, I don't know why. Maybe because I got way too comfy playing ranked at the games I know inside out and with AoE I'm a newbie. Don't know if it makes sense.
I mostly play teamgames ranked with a few real life friends. That‘s where I really try to win, picking my best civs while having a good time on Discord. 1vs.1: Random Map, random civ. Drop that ELO, I‘m just trying to have a chill game
I've never played online vs people. Ever. I can only beat Hard Ai 50% of the time in a fair fight. So I'm not great, therefore I don't fancy getting crushed 10-20 games in a row plus the general anxiety of doing PvP (not loosing, just playing). Want a more chill time, especially as I'm trying to learn; early rush strats, Civ bonuses, hotkeys, general execution etc Maybe once I get a footing with confidence in myself I'll throw myself in, but until then I feel I still need to grasp the basics better
I think another reason is that many people see streams/videos of pro players and it looks super easy. Even if you watch a 1200, they normally have a good dark age and it looks kind a smooth. But if you start to play "competitively" you are stressed out, you lose a vil to a boar, you mess up your BO etc. That is in stark contrast to what you have seen and demotivates a lot.
I used to have real bad ladder anxiety in any game where I just thinking "ok Im gonna hit play" my heartrate would start racing. I got a handle on that and was able to approach games with excitement instead of anxiety with playing Red Alert remastered ranked and then Guilty Gear Strive and now SF6. My hangup with AOE2 now is the time commitment to the games knowing a random map queue will be a 25-60 minute game, with my schedule that would mean 1-2 games a day so the hard part is getting myself to start knowing I could lose first 5+ games and be several days of losing only
Na man you're right, Elo was made just to match you fairly, I bet you in the beginning they joked about Elo being high or low and now it's something taken very seriously. Congrats on getting world record Elo Hera. It's cool for you to release a video just to remind everyone to have fun, very modest thing to do.
The best way to stop getting is to learn to be defeated and learn from your mistakes and see what do you need to improve, it´s okay to drop elo, no one can win every single game, im 14xx in 1v1 and had a losing streak of over 10 games and that made me feel frustrated but even though i lost a lot i still enjoyed playing; I might have said the same thing that hera said in the video; also an oppinion of mine is that 1v1 rm is the best game mode there is in aoe2 and without it i would have stopped playing this game a while ago, The best feeling that i had while playing this game was reaching 1500 elo even though i couldnt keep that elo and that doesnt bother me bc i had fun while reaching it.
Thanks Hera for making this video. I've been an AOE2 lurker for the last 3 years. Only watching videos and streams of all the content creators. Only recently did I start playing ranked and realised it's not as easy to keep your tcs from idling haha. Also still learning the boar Tc trick. Currently at 800ish, but with my game skill lacking behind my game knowledge, I believe I should be up to the 1100-1200 mark haha. One day, when I finally dont snipe the boar with my Tc, we shall see lol
You don't really need to tc Garrison boar until further up the ladder. Up to 1k standard vill shooting of boar will be fine. Basics first then pro tricks I'd say. Daut doesn't even do that trick lol.
Yeah I had that as well. But now try to ignore the castle drop as it means I can counter attack. But usually economic damage is huge. Always hard to deal with. I try to analyse and see why things happened the way it did. But in practice it's still hard.
Came here for AoE2 and got life advice instead. #wholesomeaf. For years i was afraid of starting my video business until i realized falling is the only way to learn and grow. Now i try to take risks and fail as often as i can.
I never had that competitive spark that would have me improve again and again. Cooperative games are different, (ME3 Multiplayer was a great time with friends), but competitive is just something I could not focus on. If I were to do this, I'd want to do it properly, which I can't spare the time to do. I don't know where the skill floor is, but optimizing my start properly is not something I have the time to practice.
The drive to want to win makes things difficult sometimes. I beat myself up so much when I lose. Dealing with your emotions is important for ladder play.
Coming from Dota2 and LoL it's really weird that I tend to feel much more anxious at playing a AoE2 ranked game than I was when I played MOBAs, despite the fact that I feel much less frustrated if I lose a game of AoE2 than I do for those other games. I guess part of it comes from not having the excuse to blame your teammates for your loss, which means you and only you are responsible for not winning. It's also harder to grind AoE2. After I win a game I feel exhausted like I just came home from work and I've earned the right to relax. I like to end on a win so I rarely if ever queue another game immediately. Thanks for the video man, it's good & healthy to have a conversation as a community about that stuff. Take care *Day 12 of asking for the ultimate guide for Gurjaras bro did you think I would forget*
I keep thinking about the mental strain that playing makes me commit to. I'm usually feeling done by mid castle age; a game that goes to post-imp absolutely roasts me.
I literally started playing AOE 3 months ago. Hopped into my first ranked game the other day only to realise you start with 100 ELO 😭 so far I’ve lost all 10 of my placement games and they haven’t even been close!
I play random matches mostly just to practice but started playing ranked games again because random multiplayers lobby games would match me with opponents that are 500+ ELO higher than me and Im tired of being wrecked after 15 min.
I wish they would drop new players in at 750 ELO or something. Strange that they set it up to be such a shock for newbies by guaranteeing several losses at first
On stopping playing ranked games so you stay "above 1400 ELO" or whatever-- remember the story of baseball player Ted Williams. On the last day of the season in 1941, his batting average was .400. A statistical milestone that hadn't been done before. The manager offered to bench him for the final day, thus securing the .400 club membership. Ted Williams insisted on playing--> got six hits on eight at-bats, and ended the season at .406.
I'm not playing ranked anymore because of a really dumb reason and I know it shouldn't bother me but it just does. I used to play some AoE2 ranked just before AoE4 came out, which I tried playing ranked too but it was so frustrating that I stoped playing any strategy games in multi player. I kinda want to start AoE2 ranked again but I just can't bring myself to play again. Only PvE.
I am afraid of ranked because it causes intrusive thoughts. When I play ranked and lose, I can't stop thinking about what I could do better. I've woken up at night thinking about it - and been exhausted at work from it. Not for me.
A losing streak lowers my self-confidence, silly I know, but what I do is take a break from the game and do something else like socialize with friends and return once I'm calm again. Then I view replay of last game, identify mistakes and try to not repeat them the next time I play. I think it's comforting to remember that no one can win all the time, not even the best players in the world. Win some, lose some.
Would link your Aoe2 Beginner Guide video after every popular video and especially those appealing to newcomers. I´m just imagining seeing one of your videos without having heard about aoe2 before - I might find it kind of interesting, but would be probably kind of lost without understanding the basics...and than probably forget about the game (need to get people to 2nd stage of buying, the information search)
Everyone is bad at the game. The winner of each game just plays a little better than the loser. Over the years playing aoe in a semi competitive manner has revealed a lot about my own mindset and has helped me grow a lot as a person. I was someone who really wanted to win, recognzed that I wasn't that good, mentally punished myself/raged for losing, and snapped easily and resigned under pressure even in a winnable position. I still have some of those issues but it's been a learning and growing experience. Especially going into a game knowing that I could lose and am ok with that outcome.
Nice background! Are you also playing a Plague Tale? Havent played the sequel yet but am a big fan of the first. Also am looking forward to your tournament!
i know all this shit and i still dont click the button. some games like fighting/shooting games you can reset to neutral after making a mistake and pick it back up, but strategy games like aoe dota or whatever you have to be so on top of everything to not squander a game before any meaningful interaction. makes me feel like i need to be 100% mentally prepared just to even click the button and how often is that the case. otherwise i'll forget a house and instantly lose.
I have a Bachelor in psychology and we had a similar thing, it's pretty much like "work anxiety" or whatever you call it in English. So, basically, your self-esteem is either too low or too high that you are afraid to start working. The fear of failure comes in equal force both to people think too high of themselves or too low of themselves. In reality, the fear of end result is, actually, the best way to measure your worth yourself. So in this example, you play some ranked games. Do you like the result? Did you like the games? Do you like how your elo looks? If yes, good - continue enjoying it. If no, even better - you can clearly see that you need to improve and you can concentrate on what exactly. It is better to be worse at the game since the real enjoyment comes from you seeing an improvement and, if you understand less, there is more space for improving.
I used to have this fear but now I am around 600-700 ELO with around 45% winrate out of a 100 games. I learn so much every single game and it's so much fun. You just have to be okay with a loss.
Thanks for the great video Hera, it convinced me to play ranked again after a break of five years. Love it, but at 73 I can't play too much. The old eyes get strained and cause headaches.🙂
I believe the starting point is very important, I almost gave up when I drop to 900. It is very annoying feeling that by doing nothing, people are above me. Now I am 1300, but I believe more people would come if we start at 800.
