I’m playing this game since release. Till today, I never really experienced progression or any real reward, that would motivate me to continue playing PvP. The only thing that keeps me and many others in this game comes from the social nature aka friends.
Here are some reasons why, followed by suggestions:
- Rank:
The rank system was a good idea, but was terribly put into the game. While the uncompetitive play (hotjoin) rewarded you the most, there was literally no gain from the competitive play (TeamQ, later SoloQ). It was nothing more than a grind, accessible for everyone. Even though you fixed the gain with the latest patches, it was too late. Ranks had and still have never reached a meaningful place in this game.
I suggest to bring in a new rank-system seperated for SoloQ and TeamQ, mabye paired with an emote / title.
- Reward-Track:
Good intention, but doesn’t reward the PvP-Crowd. Still it was the first move into the right direction and I appreciated that. However, we don’t really need bags and chests that can be farmed 10 times faster in PvE. We need tracks that reward all different groups precisely. Casuals, soloqers and teams should get different reward-tracks. I’d like to see instead of PvE-mats a own currency for PvP (like glory, but put into a better system). Please avoid to make a grind-fest out of it if you ever consider to do that again.
For soloq-ers and teams I suggest seasons with special rewards at the end. Give ppl an incentive to actually form a team and play together. You did it with ToL the first time. Problem there: It only lasts for a short period of time.
- Lack of unique titles, special skins and other PvP-only items (e.g. Zaishen-Keys):
I liked the system with chests, materials and unique rewards like the Qualification Points. Sadly you missed the opportunity to make something out of it. The biggest fault you made was to give everyone access to everything (note: if something is accessible to everyone, it looses its value).
Also I missed unique titles/items for the core-base of PvP, some sort of reward that differentiate you from others (key-word: Prestige).
Hint: get back to the date when you released paid-tournaments with gem-prices. This was the biggest incentive we’ve ever had in this game.
- Lack of proper balancing:
Balancing was and is still a big issue in this game. While the latest patch corrected a few skills, the trend to power-creep and easy-to-play-builds dominate. Some of the classes are too independent (eg. ele, warrior), which decrease teamplay heavily and leads into more bunkerish setups.
Also the philosophy of every class should be able to fill every role is not healthy for the game.
- Lack of different Game-Modes:
In my opinion why PvP-Teams are so rare is the fact that it is very hard to get into conquest. Not because the builds are hard to learn, but the rotations have to be timed and coordinated extremely well. This creates a huge entry barrier to newer teams and also prevent more experienced players from pugging.
- Lack of a well-thought ladder-system:
Recently I saw a lot of posts about the ladder-system, most of them not very positive.
There are already enough suggestions for it.
Quick-Note: Make the soloq-ladder showing single persons, while the teamq-ladder showing guilds. Connect it with a season-system and finally reaveal ratings please.
- Queue-System:
I regret the fact that there is only the possibility to queue for one-round-matches.
What I suggest would be bring back the option of a “several-rounds-tournament”. This not only gives the players the feeling of progression, but also is a great chance to couple these tournaments with a proper reward-system.
Hint: progressive curved rewards instead of linears.
Also I’d like to see a option of a map-choice. Something like both teams can eliminate one map from the map-pool, which won’t be played.