I feel stuck as a noob
I recently started playing this game for the first time since playing Age of Empires 1 in like 2008 when I was 7.
I am really interested in getting competitive but I feel stuck in a way. I can beat moderate AI and sometimes hard AI. I know what a perfect dark age looks like. I know how to do a fast castle build. But after practicing I still just get obliterated in any online match ranked or not.
Other than practicing vs AI, what could I do to improve besides boring stuff like practicing dark age. Are there certain things I could try do in online matches where even if I lose, I learned something new? Should I just spam ranked until I atart winning even if it means dropping to 100 elo? I just want to weave some fun stuff in with the boring dark age practice and AI matches so I dont lose interest. It really looks like the further you go in this game the more fun it is
EDIT:
Wow, so many responses! Thanks for the support y'all this community seems great.