Guild Wars 2

We’ve all seen the complaints about league not having meaning and that it’s just a grind. While I agree, that’s not why the system MUST be changed.

There are two huge problems with the current progression-based system which are ruining the experience for most players. Both are related to the tier/division system and how it divides the player pool poorly.

1. Lop-sided Matches
   In an ideal PvP system, both sides should have a roughly even chance of winning. Blowouts, especially on the losing side are frustrating and you can rarely learn from them. In order for the current system to allow progression, it relies on pitting teams of disparate skill against each other. Why use a system whose mechanics rely on making the game less enjoyable?
2. Longer Queue Times / Disparate Team Skill
   The current matchmaking system tries to group players of similar rating who are all close in progression. By limiting teammate selection to a progression (pip) range, the potential teammate pool is heavily restricted. This causes the system to take longer to find a match and as it takes longer, it expands skill differential. Neither outcome is healthy.

The theory behind the ranked progression system is that players will quickly separate based on skill. It also assumes that there are enough players throughout a broad range of progression (pip count) who are similar in skill. This is obviously not happening in reality and which is why we have the two problems above.

What can be done to fix it? The best and simplest solution is to not match based on progression, but instead match both teammates and opponents based on rating from a unified pool of all players in the region. By creating a larger player pool, you can match rating closer and faster. This solves both the above problems.

The ranking and reward system should then be built around this matching paradigm. It should encourage continued play throughout the season for all skill levels. There are a few ways to do it; I’ll leave that up to ANet and others.

Sure, just don’t allow low-average MMR players to advance to legendary.

It’s a BROKEN system. Some players can pretend otherwise, but the facts are the facts! It can NEVER be fixed, it can only be DESTROYED AND REPLACED.

Alphabet.7392:

Sure, just don’t allow low-average MMR players to advance to legendary.

Actually that would help averave players, bevause that way they would just fight against average players as well and never fight against those with hifg MMR up to legendary

Oh and the system could be easily fixed by removing mmr – that way people eould really go into the divisions they belong and not an mmr/division mix (would work way better if ruby and diamond would be splited up in 4 divisions instead of two) that way the divisions would reflect the mmr on a grinding way (but i don’t like that solution, because it would just create a grinding mmr)

Tiefsee.3647:

Actually that would help averave players, bevause that way they would just fight against average players as well and never fight against those with hifg MMR up to legendary

This is something that happened in season 1 and i agree there would need to be something in place to prevent that.

They could fix it by making the league system purely reflect mmr and removing pips, but it would make higher leagues less accessible.

They could also fix it by making it so there’s an incentive to having a high mmr, like faster progression or shifting into an mmr league once you reach legendary prestige ranks.

Tiefsee.3647:

Alphabet.7392:

Sure, just don’t allow low-average MMR players to advance to legendary.

Actually that would help averave players, bevause that way they would just fight against average players as well and never fight against those with hifg MMR up to legendary

Oh and the system could be easily fixed by removing mmr – that way people eould really go into the divisions they belong and not an mmr/division mix (would work way better if ruby and diamond would be splited up in 4 divisions instead of two) that way the divisions would reflect the mmr on a grinding way (but i don’t like that solution, because it would just create a grinding mmr)

Yea having matchmaking solely based on Pip rather than MMR is a terrible idea for several reasons. I think OP has a point though. Have matchmaking pull from the whole playerbase pool rather than a limited 15 pip range where players likely just grinded to.

Higher divisions doesn’t necessarily translate to a higher mmr player. Having matchmaking pull from the entire pool means (in theory) less queue times & slightly better matches.

It’ll never be perfect – How matchmaking works as far as team placements needs to be improved. MM in general needs to be a smarter system.

It’s all too little too late for most people anyway, whatever they decide to do.
So many people were not able to grind through season 3 and lost the chance to finish the achievements.

Personally I think ANet need to do more to measure individual perforce (instead of wins and loses) to be better able to match players. At the very least it would be nice to actually have a challenging match. I’d say 9/10 matches it’s pretty clear who the winner is going to be within the first few minutes. Matches have a bad habit of being extremely one sided.

CureForLiving.5360:

Personally I think ANet need to do more to measure individual perforce (instead of wins and loses) to be better able to match players.

Right now, rating (MMR) is calculated using Glicko2. However, ANet has not offered any insight into what ratings are used to calculate that. Is it personal vs. enemy team? Your team’s average vs. enemy team? etc.

One of the problems which is likely happening is that having a worse person on your team and losing will drag your rating down by a lot. Similarly, carrying a worse person to a win will boost their rating by a lot. Ratings will never stabilize properly outside of the extremes; it’s just a big muddy mess in the middle.

I’m doubtful that Anet will do anything to fix the system, so I’ve been playing less the last couple of weeks. I really enjoy a lot of the gameplay in GW2, but Anet’s reluctance to create a semi-decent PvP mode (WvW is great, but not the same) leaves me with a very bitter taste in my mouth.

I have one foot out the door as it is, and if Season 4 doesn’t see some pretty dramatic changes, I’ll find something else to fill my free time.

This same topic keeps repeating itself. And basically, all you’re saying is, Arenanet was right with their Season 1 and season 2 matchmaking systems and they should not listen to any more complaints after they change it back.

Dirame.8521:

This same topic keeps repeating itself. And basically, all you’re saying is, Arenanet was right with their Season 1 and season 2 matchmaking systems and they should not listen to any more complaints after they change it back.

…i’m not sure how, based on this thread, you could have arrived at this conclusion. Especially since Anet simply couldn’t be right at both Season 1 and 2.