Guild Wars 2

Current PvP Ranking System Rewards the Wrong People

How does ANET plan on revising ranks to give the prestige of high rank to those who earned it?

In Guild Wars 1 we had:

• Emote ranks as an exclusive reward for winning in high-end PvP. Heroes Ascent (Tombs of the Primeval Kings for you super old schoolers)

• Separate emotes for players in a ranked Guild for the GvG ladder (albeit this was introduced within the last year prior to GW2 release)

• Separate emote ranks for PvE’rs (Zaishen ranks, though anyone could easily obtain Zrank)

As of now, rank emotes mean nothing, give no indication of a player’s skill level, and are exploited and farmed via custom arenas. This leaves those who legitimately obtained their ranks with nothing.

Also, rank points are awarded for anything. You don’t have to win to obtain it, you don’t have to perform well, you don’t have to do anything other than show up and run around to eventually grind out a rank.

What we need is a rank ladder for wins, possibly tied to in-game performance (although that may not work, as it would discourage less aggressive roles). A new set of rank emotes to show off notable accomplishments in PvP, not just how much you were able to exploit the game or how much time you spent in it.

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasnt GW1 rank system also based on humongous amount of time required to “grind” it up? The only difference was that more skilled players were able to reach the goal faster. But if someone who was bad played consistently for years, he would still reach that over time.

It definitely happened. The infrequency of an unskilled player obtaining notable rank isn’t that relevant though. The thing is, in Heroes Ascent, teams were formed by the players prior to entering the matches. Unskilled players didn’t get picked for teams. They certainly didn’t get picked by winning teams, at least.

I do recall a terrible protection monk who was rank14 (out 15 total, which is HUGE). Im sure that particular player didn’t get his rank via monking though.

Yes you are right op. I don’t agree that rank should be “nerfed”, it should be devalued and used as a placeholder to pve rank: a personal reward metric and higher ranks should be easier to get. There has already been significant damage to rank’s prestige and it needs a replacement. When they first introduced rank to the scoreboard i was shocked, how could a measurement that counted your losses with your wins be displayed so prominently as if it were an indicator of player skill?

There is wide room to implement a smart new measure of player skill, one that allows for newer players to join and champions skilled veterans. It doesn’t need to be complicated, actually it would be better if it was simple. Just like you said, the rank from gw1 is a good base to build on, and I would think it would be sufficient. There could be improvements or additional ranks/titles per “seasons” or for winning monthly tournaments or a title that is only gained from daily tournaments. Tournament system needs to be the base of this new system however.

milo you’re so right. The addition of seasons akin to LoL seasons would help dramatically. There would be a sensible level of progression that we could focus on with end-of-season rewards. Sure, it’s what LoL uses, but it works so well. I also like the idea of the daily tourny-title.

Achilles.2197:

It definitely happened. The infrequency of an unskilled player obtaining notable rank isn’t that relevant though. The thing is, in Heroes Ascent, teams were formed by the players prior to entering the matches. Unskilled players didn’t get picked for teams. They certainly didn’t get picked by winning teams, at least.

I do recall a terrible protection monk who was rank14 (out 15 total, which is HUGE). Im sure that particular player didn’t get his rank via monking though.

ppl buying accounts…you know…