1. Would it be possible for players queuing solo to only ever be matched up against other players queuing solo? I don’t mind a single queue button for everyone, but the system should be able to split duo-queued and up from solo folk. To really go all out, you could have a check box that people select to opt-in to being a solo queue player that gets paired with non-solo queuers. Options are always nice!
2. Improve rewards for Ranked Matches or reduce Unranked arena to the previous Solo Queue level of rewards. Currently, w/o a leaderboard or better rewards, there’s no reason to use ranked queue, this may not be much of an issue when the season starts, but right now ranked arena feels like an unnecessary option. That shouldn’t be the case. Unranked arena should not be as rewarding as ranked (remove the title wins from unranked as well, pls (champ titles)). Make unranked arenas the “test area, playground” type place they were meant to be (i think).
3. Remove the following maps from Ranked Arena: Skyhammer, Spirit Watch & Courtyard. No explanation needed on that one.
In closing, thanks for the hard work devs. I’m really frustrated this didn’t turn out better because I firmly believe you guys worked your kittens off getting this stuff done and did so because you love this game mode as much as we do. Ultimately, I don’t know that any back-end changes are going to be the solution to the inherent issue of a low population of PvP players.
I think there needs to be a big improvement to the rewards aspect of this game mode if it is going to see a long-term population growth, and it will also need new game modes to keep players interested. I’m not sure which of those two things is a the chicken or the egg, but I think starting with more rewards and achievement points couldn’t hurt. Thanks for reading.