I just ignore MMR, it's a bad indicator of how good you are. I can understand team ratings but solo ratings make no sense.
Oh don't be so self-righteous. I would say anything below 5k is potato bracket and since there are very few in this thread who have been above that most will be able to relate. The difference above and below 4k seems to be quite marked though. There seems to be a lot less bullcrap above the 4k mark
Aye maybe I should invest some time in getting good at Starcraft
I'm not being self-righteous. "Potato bracket" is subjective. A 3k player isn't going to class a 4.5k player as bad, in fact he will be extremely dominant in 99% of 3k games. If you think you are in the wrong bracket, and n is large for number of games in that bracket (this is a very big point) then you are simply wrong and you belong in that bracket. "ELO hell" does not exist. Dunning-Kruger etc etc.

Solo ratings do make sense, but it's more of a measure of how individually skilled you are; if you are able to single handedly carry a game, your solo MMR will be higher. If you primarily play support then it will take a lot longer for your contributions to exhibit themselves as a higher MMR.
The majority of people with high solo MMRs tend to play high-impact mid heroes, e.g. Invoker, Tinker, TA, SF, Ember, Naga, Morphling etc. That way if you are better than your opponent you can win your lane, then go and win the other lanes for your team if they are struggling.
I mainly disagree that solo shows how individually skilled you are.
They need to amend mmr to reflect individual performance unless you can be stuck forever in a bracket. The game tends to push you toward a win them a loss so how can I ever escape if I am judged on my teams performance?

I don't suggest its easy but it makes no sense to rate some individually if it's based on a team.
Only thing I can think of is a good performance improves the mmr gain in a win and lessens the negative impact in a loss.
They have to start measuring stuff such as healing given, mana given, courier bought, wards placed all that alongside k/d/a might help measure.
I agree that currently though there us no measure.

It's a shame ranked MMR doesn't appear to be taking in individual performance, even in solo ranked. It's pretty much just +25/-25 Win/loss.
It would be hard to implement and also be transparent about what stats are recorded though, as like you say the system would just be exploited to hell.
Still playing a range of heroes even in ranked. 21 games (including calibration) and i've selected 15 different heroes. Just not keen enough to practice hardcore with like a core of 5.
Well this thread doesn't make me want to play DOTA that's for sure haha!
Well this thread doesn't make me want to play DOTA that's for sure haha!
