Guild Wars 2

…Yes, we know that having MMR influence our ranked matches for pip advancement, not a good idea.

Let’s assume they fix that, and now League matches are based more on current rank.

Let’s ALSO assume, big one here, they find a way to …discourage pairing up with your new amber pip-helper- Erm I mean ‘FRIEND’ and ultimately you are better off working with someone your rank instead, to keep matches not completely all over the place.

…Yes these are a lot of assumptions, but I am getting to the point here. I think we need to work on the League Pip System a bit more. It seems the intent of these various divisions were to be actual skill-based divides of the SPvP base. What we have instead, based on general observation and some scribbled math is that up to Ruby, playing enough games and a bit of luck will get you to the tiers to prevent degradation and start pushing players who just play a lot of games up instead of keeping them at a skill level more in line with what they can do.

What I am trying to get at is, the League Pip System right now needs some tuning still. Sapphire and even Ruby shouldn’t be this easy to get through. Diamond seems to be the only respectable Tier that forces players to really pull out all the stops, given you have to work around 35 pips worth of matches. But…as I have said, we have seen since the start of the League that the natural base of players that were trapped at say Emerald for the first few weeks have made the climb up through divisions, Diamond as a product of that has a few…rougher Diamonds that are getting hammered there.

So talking strictly how the League System Pips work, here are my suggestions on how going forward we make these divisions meaningful:

- Promotional/Demotion matches: This one I have been floating around my head for a while. So, how it will play out is that when you fill the pips out for the division you are currently in, the UI will indicate that you have entered a Promotional Series. What this means is that the next series of matches are a ‘best of’. Let’s say for the sake of the argument that it is a Best of Three. You play these matches out normally, but when you lose, you do not lose pips, you simply lose that match in the series. If you win the best of, you advance to the next division with a single pip into it, simple right? But if you lose the Series, you lose 5 pips to return back to that tier’s base and have to get pips to go back up to another series again.

Furthermore, the matches will be filtered specifically from your current division and the division above you, meaning you won’t get amber or diamond players when you are advancing from Emerald to Sapphire. Yes this introduces longer queues for the promotional series but these matches are literally Win or Lose, losing 499-501 is no different than a shutout in these matches for you. Finally, Demotion matches are a bit different, and can only occur when you have absolutely no pips in your division. There’s no indicator that you are in a demotion series, but there will be an invisible tally on your performance if you continue to lose without winning a pip in your division. Let’s just say players should be wary about dropping if they lose something like three times in a row at zero pips. And, much like losing a promotional, you will drop a division and be zero pips at the highest tier of the lower division. If you can’t handle the fire, stay out of it.

- Raising pips per tier, raising tiers per division – This is more of a band-aid fix, and would likely foster even MORE matches played rather than solve the issue. It seems like Diamond and by some extension Ruby have a decent amount of tiers already to keep players around, but that kind of ‘love’ should be given across the board.

What do you guys think- Well, I know, there’s a LOT going on right now, but it doesn’t hurt to at least try a ball rolling here.

Bring back SoloQ. There is a start.

How about taking stronghold off the ranked playlist so teams can’t abuse it to gain points quickly, especially against SoloQ players.

SliEagle.9062:

How about taking stronghold off the ranked playlist so teams can’t abuse it to gain points quickly, especially against SoloQ players.

Or just separate the rankings.