Guild Wars 2

I want to talk about the current state of GW2 PvP queue structure. There are 3 ways to play sPvP at the moment: ranked queue, unranked queue and hot join servers. These options are sorely lacking in options, fairness and competitiveness and I believe a restructuring is in order to improve this game mode.

Public hot join servers: I believe these are detrimental to the PvP game mode. Their only use is for farming achievements and for testing builds. However, even testing builds in this way it is very limited because people are not playing “for real”. Honestly, testing in the HoTM versus a golem or npc would be more beneficial. Note that this doesn’t apply to private PvP servers where players can duel and have private matches.

Ranked/Unranked Queue: At the moment the only difference between ranked and unranked queue is the map selection, where unranked has access to maps and modes deemed non-competitive or just too different from conquest. Some people tend to avoid ranked queue because they think that they are more likely to encounter organized 5-man teams on voice comms there. While, other people avoid unranked because they hate the possibility of getting placed in a map they don’t like. If you are really lucky, you might encounter an organized 5-man team in unranked against your team full of solo Qers in a map you hate while you were playing in unraked trying to avoid both. Even a duo queue or a triple greatly increase the chances of a team winning. The matchmaking algorithm tries to even up the matchups using rating but sometimes it is still a complete shutdown and additionally punishes organized teams and high MMR players with long queue times. There is also the problem of how these mixed queues affect leader boards.

My proposal: Leave private servers as is, remove hot join servers, leave unranked queue as is, split ranked queue into solo and team, more rewards for ranked solo queue and even more rewards for ranked team queue. Ranked team queue would only accept 5-man teams and it would encourage the use of the LFG tool. I believe this would give more options than the one currently available, it would make ranked queue more competitive and fair, and it would also encourage the formation of more full teams that might stick together in the future. Solo and team leaderboards would give the PvP community something to work towards.

I wish grouch sempai would notice me ( ._.)

+1 for this!!!15!!!

Actually this is a fantastic idea. I’m surprised more people haven’t commented on it.

We have already gone over this, there just simply isnt enough pvp population to split the queues. Why do you think they merged them in the first place? the were separate queues before.

Apolo.5942:

We have already gone over this, there just simply isnt enough pvp population to split the queues. Why do you think they merged them in the first place? the were separate queues before.

Addressing the problem of PvP population by making the PvP experience worse seems counterproductive. The separate queues from before are very different from the proposed queues I am talking about now. Before there were no reward tracks, ranked/unranked split, dont even think the LFG tool was around back then. We have to look at now and the future. HoT will hopefully bring in players and I dont think adding stronghold to the existing mixed queues or to its own queue will be enough to keep those players around in PvP land.

I am not saying my proposed queue structure will fix all that ails PvP but I think we need a solid foundation to build from. I do not see how the current mixed queue system with only map differences between the two queues can provide a fair, competitive, or goal oriented experience. The current PvP experience is to YOLO into ranked/unranked hoping for a decent game (basically RNG) and grinding reward tracks (winning/losing matter very little). I want wining/losing to actually matter. I want incentives for the creation of new teams and for them to stick together.

your suggestion seems to forbid duos and trios from queuing ranked. can’t say i would be a fan of that. looks good otherwise.

I’ve been saying this exact same thing in multiple threads for months now.

I think they have something entirely different planned for HoT. That’s probably why it hasn’t happened yet.

The problem is 2 fold.

1- Balance, in short, its atrocious. Eles, Mesmers and Thiefs are out of control. People just dont like to go from 100% to 0% in a split second, they like the fight to at least last a while.

2- Rewards simply suck. And i dont mean top end top MMR or what ever have you, those should be nice, but the every day every match needs to be much better than it currently is. It is very difficult to sell pvp to some one, when it takes the same or longer than a dungeon run, it is much harder to win and even if you win your reward is a fraction of what you would have earned spending the same time doing dungeons.

choovanski.5462:

your suggestion seems to forbid duos and trios from queuing ranked. can’t say i would be a fan of that. looks good otherwise.

IMO ranked Q needs to be competitive and fair, this means that there need to be as much as a leveled playing field as possible. With the current mixed ranked queue you can queue with any number or teammates and its up to the algorithm to try to use MMR and team size to make a good match. Thats a big burden on the system that results in long queue times and significant amount of one sided games. A 5-man only ranked queue doesnt forbid smaller than 5-man teams from competing but shifts the burden of finding the rest of the team on the LFG tool. This encourages teams to stick together longer. You could argue that it will be difficult to find people to fill out teams but that is where increased rewards (maybe exclusive?) come in. And if you really just want a casual experience with a friend or 2 then unranked is always available.

Apolo.5942:

The problem is 2 fold.

1- Balance, in short, its atrocious. Eles, Mesmers and Thiefs are out of control. People just dont like to go from 100% to 0% in a split second, they like the fight to at least last a while.

2- Rewards simply suck. And i dont mean top end top MMR or what ever have you, those should be nice, but the every day every match needs to be much better than it currently is. It is very difficult to sell pvp to some one, when it takes the same or longer than a dungeon run, it is much harder to win and even if you win your reward is a fraction of what you would have earned spending the same time doing dungeons.

Good points but those seem separate issues( but important ones) from the discussion of the structure of queues.

With the announcement of leagues I think we need the solo/team ranked queue split more than ever. Otherwise, I look forward to everyone trying to grind the rewards and rank teamed up and solo queuing becoming (more)miserable. Also, any leader boards that ranked players individually would be less meaningful is you are at the mercy of the almighty algorithm.

With leagues, they absolutely need to split Solo Q and Team Q for ranked, or else only fully teamed players will have the chance to progress. Leaving a majority of the community with nothing.

I fully support your idea!

None has been able to tell me why there should be a ranked and unranked queue when other than maps they are identical. I’d keep hot join and custom arenas for those who just want to play and don’t care about leavers or matchmaking, and then a ranked solo queue and ranked team queue.

Rewards should be the same for all though, otherwise casuals or achievement hunters will just play the best reward one with no regard.

^That’s a great idea, but some people just like to play without any pressure, but I would still give up unranked queue for solo Q since we’re getting leagues.