First of my background this season, I am a causual PVP player, currently rank 62. I lost my some placement matches (tried a new build, I know bad idea) and then took a break and ended up in “lower hell” ~ 800-1200 rating. Let us start with some compliments first:
- New rewards system motivates to play more matches than previous season.
- More people were brought to PVP (at least I think so, are there statistics?)
- Permanent rank boost gives also good rewards.
Now observed problems (of course from my point of view, I do not assume to speak for everyone)
- Very high toxicity.
- Many people do not know what to play or strategies (players joining for free ascended armor)
- It is almost impossible to get out of this hell, because you get 10-15 points per win. If you are at 1000, you need to win 30-50 games without loss, which is impossible.
- Extremely bad matchmaking, classes get randomly thrown together, it is rather common to have 2-3 of a class in a match on one side and none-1 on the other
- Frustration of experienced players which leads to above
- People stop playing because of frustration.
My ideas how to improve this:
- Allow inexperienced players to select “I am not experienced” (regardless of pvp rank, could be returning players). This will match preferred with others that choose this. It is not possible to select this if rating>50% of player-base (e.g. 1500).
- Give some kind of break out mechanic for lower rated players “I am very experienced”, maybe for 3 matches a day wins give additional rating, maybe until rating is at about 80% of player-base (e.g. 1750?). Next 3 matches will cost additional rating lost. This would give some incentive to fight harder for those trying. Prefer to match people together that have this selected.
- Make MVP system where players can vote for anyone (even other team) except for themselves. Give everyone that received a vote a rating boost, proportional to current rating (e.g. 0 if > 80% of player-base), maybe add MVP rewards (e.g. title: “Supporter of PVP”).
- Make rank gain/loss more elastic, 10-15 points is fine if you are very high, but if you are low, winning 2/3 of games should get you where you belong rather fast. (I was at 1000 with 60% wins)
- Bring back stronghold, however add a separate ladder for it. Recommend this for newer PVE players. I honestly like stronghold a lot, nice twist to normal PVP.
- Maybe make PVP polls like for WVW to ask for your improvement ideas? I really like to openness how WVW changes were introduced.
Thanks for your time.