Guild Wars 2

What is the difference between Ranked & Unranked.

There isn’t anything on the wiki to explain the difference and looking in game I can’t see the difference either besides the name.

The rewards for winning/losing are the same. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spvp#Rewards

Hot-join is now “practice”.
Solo & Team queue are now “ranked”

What’s the point of Unranked and how is it different than Ranked (Besides the name)? I really don’t get it.

Ranked does not have the following maps as a playable option: Courtyard, Skyhammer, Spirit Watch.

Also, ranked and unranked have separate MMR systems.

Source.

ranked has a leaderboard and unranked doesn’t. That’s the only difference by my understanding. Matchmaking and rewards are the same for both afaik.

Hotjoin got renamed to Practice. It otherwise functions exactly the same as it did before.

Solo Queue and Team Queue got merged together. (There is a fair bit of player unhappiness about this, and we may see them get split again in future if efforts to help solo queuers avoid matches with pre-made teams don’t work.)

From the merger above, there are now two modes: Unranked (Play) and Ranked (Compete). Both play exactly the same (with the same rewards), except that matches in Ranked will move you up or down the PvP Leaderboards. Matches in Unranked do not affect your Leaderboard standing at all.

This leaderboard?

https://leaderboards.guildwars2.com/en/na/pvp/friends

Still shows solo/team and makes no sense. Why isn’t there anything in game to explain the difference. (and what’s the point of the leaderboard? I guess just to say “I’m better than you”?)

The leaderboards aren’t active until the 16th Dec.

Im watching Noscoc (top5) roll hotjoin scrubs in Unranked with a full premade 500 to 10.

Sounds like MMR should lock them out of playing a pug of people who just bought guildwars2 and went into the mists, but no.

Brunners.7251:

The leaderboards aren’t active until the 16th Dec.

So right now…there is absolutely no difference between Ranked and Unranked? And after the 16th the only difference will be one is for the leaderboards that can’t even be seen in game, and the other doesn’t affect those leaderboards? So for someone who doesn’t visit the forums or know about the leaderboards there will be absolutely no difference besides the name?

Am I understanding that right?

khani.4786:

Brunners.7251:

The leaderboards aren’t active until the 16th Dec.

So right now…there is absolutely no difference between Ranked and Unranked? And after the 16th the only difference will be one is for the leaderboards that can’t even be seen in game, and the other doesn’t affect those leaderboards? So for someone who doesn’t visit the forums or know about the leaderboards there will be absolutely no difference besides the name?

Am I understanding that right?

Probably.. why? Does that matter?
On top of the buttons it says " PLAY!" (Unranked) “COMPETE!” "(Ranked)

Darnis.4056:

khani.4786:

Brunners.7251:

The leaderboards aren’t active until the 16th Dec.

So right now…there is absolutely no difference between Ranked and Unranked? And after the 16th the only difference will be one is for the leaderboards that can’t even be seen in game, and the other doesn’t affect those leaderboards? So for someone who doesn’t visit the forums or know about the leaderboards there will be absolutely no difference besides the name?

Am I understanding that right?

Probably.. why? Does that matter?

It matters for those who want to understand what the difference is…where should I or would I want to spend my time. I play very little PvP and want to know what the options are so I can spend my time wisely. That is done by making informed decisions.

Surely there is something more than one has a leaderboard and the other doesn’t. That doesn’t make sense to me. Does the leaderboard do anything the current one doesn’t? Will I get better rewards later if I somehow manage to progress up in ranking on it?

Darnis.4056:

On top of the buttons it says " PLAY!" (Unranked) “COMPETE!” "(Ranked)

Both of those things mean the same thing to me as you’re in PvP and Playing is competition.

Both use the same MMR as far as I’m aware so as far as your competition goes, it should be the same in both.

The difference between Unranked and Ranked (after the leaderboards are on anyway) is one is…well, ranked. Your ladder position will be at stake and I believe at the end of the “season” they are going to trial there will be prizes, although those prizes are usually for the top 200 and upwards.

Unranked is much more casual, there’s no pressure of a bad game ruining your ranking but you still get the same set up as ranked so the games will still play exactly the same way, only the result at the end doesn’t matter.

Oh and you have “practice” but that’s just hot join and isn’t really viable to learn pvp, which is what the new unranked mode should do very well.

Darnis.4056:

Im watching Noscoc (top5) roll hotjoin scrubs in Unranked with a full premade 500 to 10.

Sounds like MMR should lock them out of playing a pug of people who just bought guildwars2 and went into the mists, but no.

Just think how many people these top teams have turned off to unranked play in the past two hours. Five per match, maybe 6 matches per hour. Say, 60 more disappointed people.

How many in a day from other top rated people doing this?

The system is new , so there is of course room for improvement.

BUT…
Arenanet’s doing some sort of magical thinking Right now

“When ladders go live, No one will que unranked with a full top tier premade!”
When ladders are in people will still que unranked with high level Premades;

UNLESS Anet stops them from doing so by coding it in.
Easiest fix is Unranked can only be qued with less then 5.

Courtyard is leaving the rotation so there is hope for Anet yet.

They should disable ranked in between seasons. Not much difference anyway except making both ‘less’ populated.

I look at my Unranked by Profession stats: Played 22 won 7.

And I remember the last match where 3 of my team fought at the mine in Niflhel the entire match and we lost 500 to 49. It’s interesting to see the stats, but I have to remind myself that they do not necessarily mean that I played badly.

is the rank reward and title track progress the same for rank and unranked games?

Darnis.4056:

Im watching Noscoc (top5) roll hotjoin scrubs in Unranked with a full premade 500 to 10.

Sounds like MMR should lock them out of playing a pug of people who just bought guildwars2 and went into the mists, but no.

Yeah he’s training for wts….

OH…WAIT…….

Unranked also has a 7 map rotation while Ranked has a 4 map rotation. Useful if you can’t stand Skyhammer/Spirit Watch/Courtyard.

What about the player base? What do we have to expect when playing solo ranked?

MyPuppy.8970:

What about the player base? What do we have to expect when playing solo ranked?

Players are much much worse in ranked than unranked. Fact.

MyPuppy.8970:

What about the player base? What do we have to expect when playing solo ranked?

My experience soloing in ranked, the players are on a much higher caliber level. I consistently get into games with players like; Tarcis, Hman, Phanta, OE, and etc. It’s one of the reason why I play ranked because I run into a lot of great players. Sometimes I face Abjured or some other high ranked premades four or five times in a row and that can be annoying. However, for the most part my games are good. Here’s an example:

Ranked → Play with all your elite buddies when knowing your comp is strong
Unranked → Play with your casual buddies when learning/teaching/testing

Mrbig.8019:

MyPuppy.8970:

What about the player base? What do we have to expect when playing solo ranked?

Players are much much worse in ranked than unranked. Fact.

There is just as much idiots raging in unranked and as in ranked.

Mrbig.8019:

MyPuppy.8970:

What about the player base? What do we have to expect when playing solo ranked?

Players are much much worse in ranked than unranked. Fact.

People may perceive ranked to be full of bad players because the MMR system is separate from unranked. People grind through so much unranked that they often play very competitive matches in unranked. Then, they hop into ranked where their MMR is still low, and get matched versus beginners.

zone.1073:

Mrbig.8019:

MyPuppy.8970:

What about the player base? What do we have to expect when playing solo ranked?

Players are much much worse in ranked than unranked. Fact.

People may perceive ranked to be full of bad players because the MMR system is separate from unranked. People grind through so much unranked that they often play very competitive matches in unranked. Then, they hop into ranked where their MMR is still low, and get matched versus beginners.

I’m not perceiving anything.

As a solo player unranked is way better since decent players are solo-duo queing there and that’s what you meet, instead of going ranked where u face terrible pre-mades with turret engies on ts playing just to farm their leaderboard rank.

ye that’s EU current state.

Mrbig.8019:

I’m not perceiving anything.

As a solo player unranked is way better since decent players are solo-duo queing there and that’s what you meet, instead of going ranked where u face terrible pre-mades with turret engies on ts playing just to farm their leaderboard rank.

ye that’s EU current state.

On NA, ranked and unranked are very interchangeable. There’s an equal amount of premades and soloqueue in both. Most players hop back and forth between the two, depending on which one has the shortest queue times at the moment.