Guild Wars 2

masterfan.8375:

Placement matches are a joke. Let me tell you why. There are a lot of players who have never played PVP before, or have little experience with it. They know nothing about rotating… Here comes the best part….. Some of them will get carried in those placement matches, therefore they will most likely be placed in Gold or even Platinum division. And that creates the problem for you, who deserves to be in that division or even better. Those ‘carried placement’ players will get in your team, and you will lose because of them. And you can never progress any drastically because of that….. How can someone with no PVP experience be placed in the same division with people over 5000 games. Tell me Anet, explain me your awesome PVP improvement.

This. Placement is BROKEN.

Not to mention, new players, or any pvp player in general can come in on the LAST DAY of league, win their placements and make leaderboard. ON THE LAST DAY. For the people who played hard throughout the season, is that fair? NO.

Wha…So, basically you get rewarded for NOT playing. Is that what you’re trying to tell us, OP? If so….lol.

I did not know about this. Decay is broken as well, then.

Kick-voting will most certainly be abused! However, I do agree with you on the kick portion of your suggestion. Only, I propose an auto-kick. If anyone afks for a certain period of time OR more importantly does not contribute in any way, shape or form in a match(decap, point-capture,kill)—-the game kicks that person out.

Ross Biddle.2367:

The fact is, regardless of who thinks this or that is or is not OP, all these “little” problems amount to the same stupid bullkitten. To much of everything easily spammed ad-infinity. Whether it’s burn guards burning, aoe circles, heals, evades, condi applications, cleanses, revs multi-funtional multi-dimensional 1 press assured lottery jackpot buttons. Anywhere things are being spammed spammed spammed are points of bad game design and immediate brokenness. HoT broke the game. Anyone raising these sorts of points is completely justified in doing so. Calling those players names doesn’t change that

Mwahahaha! Absolutely!

It doesn’t matter which spam is more OP than the other. The point is that it’s SPAM lol. Elite specs are pretty much ‘I win’ buttons.

The system is fair, the placement games are not. There’s just no freakin way to place people properly in only 10 games. Placement is just pure RNG.

vove.2768:

Crinn.7864:

I got placed in bronze. Clawed my way up to gold 2. Then the mmr fairies got mad and put me on a massive uninterrupted loss streak and now I’m back in lead division.

It’s literally a circus down here. Halp.

I had similar situation. Got placed in bronze, after a winstreak climbed to something around 970, then one loss took almost 50 rating from my progress basically offsetting all the wins. Since then I won only 1 game, my w/l ratio fell way below 50% and people I get paired with are unbelievable and each match getting worse.

I think I already accepted my faith, I don’t even care about the game anymore. I just run around like everyone else, relaxed, bronze is about chillout and those ascended.

Positive thing is that the lower I get the meditrapper guardians are getting funnier and funnier Right now I run into people who play guard, but obviously have no idea what they are doing so I can solo two guards of that kind which feels a little like being superskilled, hilarious. Also it’s getting easier and easier to cap a point 1v2-3. Maybe I do belong here? Anyways, if you don’t think about the rating it’s pretty much noobstomping in that bracket, unluckily I’m still not able to cap all three points at the same time.

I see here the same problem I had in lol few years ago. If you are familiar with the game I got stuck in the elo hell. Finally I managed to carry myself out of it by playing singed/malph/cho gath/shen, it required a lot, but was worth it because at some point instead of noob squad vs noob squad games started to get really balanced.

Maybe the same solution can be applied here? Play a profession that has resources to handle 1v5 fights and after reaching desired ranking start playing the profession you want? It is a pity though.

I fought two guards solo in one game. I managed to down one, he got ressed. Then I downed the other one and HE got ressed. I lost of course. :P

RONIN.9162:

Heya People

Ok here is the thing. Ascended as a reward in Ranked is really a bad idea.
Reason: Way too many PVE players just come there to farm ascended without care about actual pvp which ruins the fun and competitive aspect of ranked for the rest of us.
No matter how good you are you simply can’t carry 3 people from your team that just don’t care about it because they will get their ascended even if they lose every single match thru all season.
Ranked atm is just not fun and most of the time people just get angry and decide not to play.
Atleast you guys should have made those reward Pips for wins only that way they would atleast try to win.
When you confront those PVE farmers you won’t get anywhere because they just don’t care and most common response that you will get is ‘’ it is just a game ’’ or ‘’i don’t care ‘’ that is if you don’t get full wagon of insults.
They just don’t care how pvp part of the community feels!

Solution :
1.Make those rewards to award pips for wins only and loss to take pips away like you did in previous season.
2. Make Fractals and Raid only thru Random Queue so that PvP players can go there and mess up their pve part of the game and that way they will learn how other people feel when they come to PVP mess up ranked . This is drastic solution but they need to learn once and for all

I agree, it’s a TERRIBLE idea. ANet made this mistake TWICE now. First it was the backpack, now it’s ascended gear.

When you do that, it just shows a lack of confidence in PvP as a whole and a bad incentive. You entice them. You bring PvE players here for the wrong reasons. PvE players are not given a reason to play and learn PvP, they are given a reason to farm. PvE players need an incentive to play PvP not rewards! We HAVE rewards. 30 silver a match, reward track, dailies. PvP needs to focus on PvP not PvE. PvE players will come. They always have.

Think of this. If PvP players went over to PvE and convinced ANet to change it to openworld PvP, the PvE community would be lit on FIRE!

Just stop catering to PvE players! ANet made this same mistake twice now. First, they tried to lure them in with the legendary backpack, and NOW with ascended gear. It’s going to backfire.

PvE guys always came and went, no problem, and we welcome them. There’s no need to entice them with gear. Otherwise, what kind of example do you think is set for them?

“Hey! I can come here and grind out gear to play a game mode I don’t like.”

NO! We need incentives for PvP not PvE. It’s like that saying: “If you build it, they will come.” To be fair, I don’t blame them. Loot is loot, but we need to stop focusing on PvE players at PvP’s expense.

Saleerian.2973:

I am glad ladder is back, but I think Anet shouldn´t reset ratings.. it just cause mix of experienced and new players. To answer your question there is no way to solo carry whole clueless team mainly in gold division and bellow. You can try duo with someone from top 50 aswell but its not guaranteed otherwise you should wait couple of months till the system settle down.

Yeah, the reset and the placement matches messed up the system.

Polismassa.6740:

JTGuevara.9018:

If placement truly worked and did what it was supposed to, WHY is there all this fluctuation? WHY must we wait until the system stabilizes?

Every single MMR system needs some place to start. Nobody in their right mind would say that placement matches are always going to give you the perfect rating to match your skill level.

Your suggestion of having the previous season’s MMR determine the starting point sounds good in theory, but you’re not taking into account players who either take a break from the game, or players who don’t play ranked PvP. Perhaps for those who do play ranked and receive a rating during the course of this season, the next season could take that ranking into account, but for players who did not, where do they go?

The unfortunate fact is that some system that gives a rough estimate of a player’s rating is necessary for this system.

I haven’t thought about the breaks. Thanks for catching that.

Then the only other suggestion I really have is to replicate the league system in unranked. You would have an unranked leaderboard and use THAT for league placement. It’s really the only thing I can see working.

Polismassa.6740:

There has been a sentiment among many people i’ve seen post on this forum about how placement matches “screw over” some players by putting them at the wrong rating (usually lower than they believe they should be) and them finding it difficult or impossible to raise their rating.

What i’m wondering is, for those who believe that the placement matches are an unfair and badly designed system, what is your alternative solution that would do roughly the same thing?

Now, i’m going to be completely upfront about the fact that I am biased towards saying that the current system is probably the best one there is (not that it is always right, but that it does what it needs to do effectively and that there aren’t many better systems.) I’ve played CS:GO and Dota 2, and I felt in both of those games that I was placed fairly close to my “true rating” and the same is true for my calibration in GW2.

Basically, if you have an idea for a better system to replace placement matches, or if you would want them removed altogether, convince me. I’m really genuinely interested to know what ideas people have here.

Here’s the thing. As far as I’ve seen, placement doesn’t just screw over players, it elevates others. They are far too random and inaccurate and distort the matchmaking. They also distort peoples’ perception of their skill. You cannot place people on ten matches alone. If placement truly worked and did what it was supposed to, WHY is there all this fluctuation? WHY must we wait until the system stabilizes? Of course, since this is the first season with the new league system, I can understand why it was possibly necessary.

I suggest to get rid of it. You can place for next season according to the mmr of the current season like seasons 3 and 4.

I agree with you that this system is the best one there is, but the placement games messed it up.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Placement games are mostly about luck. They have a disproportionate amount of influence on your season and, more importantly, distort your perception of your skill. Ten games are not enough to determine where you should be.

Lucentfir.7430:

Imo I still think it’s way too early to begin ’it’s where you belong’ posts. Apparently having some decent and lucky placement matches placing you at platinum instantly gives you bragging rights or something. I’d give it a month or so before it’s actually accurate considering the fact I have friends who’ve never really even set foot in Spvp and got placed in gold and higher. Either that or the first 10 matches or so matter way too much. Also people can sit on their ranking a max of 3 days before having to play one game to reset the decay times. So as said before give it a month or so.

Thank you! Finally some sense! All that bragging about “gitgud” could blow up in their faces if they themselves drop divisions lol!

Well, I don’t blame matchmaking. I blame the placement matches. They’re inaccurate. If placement matches worked, WHY is there all this mmr fluctuation?

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Then just ignore those placement matches and keep playing, and the system might put you where you belong. Don’t forget, the season lasts for almost 2 months. It is simply not possible to rate everyone correctly after a few matches.

To add to this, don’t play on weekends. Lots of newbies and casual players play at those times. If you’re a veteran player with higher mmr that tends to have an influence in games or help carry, you will get paired up with them.

I’m in the bronze hell myself. I fluctuate from bronze to silver, and vice versa.

All I can really say is, don’t play on weekends. There are more newbies and casual players during these times.

Kahrgan.7401:

I cannot carry 4 other people in my team. It requires a team effort to win a game, yet I am personally affected (via rating, and therefore losing rating when they decide to crash into the DH zerg trap pile over and over in a match)

The league rating system is absolute garbage, and cannot be taken seriously, because it means you were lucky or unlucky, and that’s it. You can carry your hardest, cap points, decap, assist in teamfights and turn the tide, but if your team is chasing off points… leaving points uncapped after they killed the person decapping it (this happened a total of 10 times today alone), fighting off points, dying by going in 1v4… The list goes on.

But I do like the new reward system, so I got that going for me.

Rating needs to be changed to take into account personal contribution. Team healing, dmg, decaps, defense, offense, etc.

The system is not garbage. What messed up the system were the PLACEMENT matches. They’re pretty much based in luck and inaccurate. They do a lousy job of determining where you should be.

JTGuevara.9018:

Entenkommando.5208:

JTGuevara.9018:

direx.8207:

I somehow managed to place in the top 5 after my placement matches (won 9 lost 1). Not really sure how I feel about that because I know I’m not good enough to be here at all. Now I’m really hesitant to play more matches because I’m probably going to get beat down to low /mid plat (where I probably belong) and that just won’t be fun to lose so many matches in a row.

Honestly I’d have preferred to have started low so I could climb instead of starting off high and being expected to fall.

However I’m also considering just playing once every 3 days and see how high I can end at.

Here I see a flaw: leaderboard decay. You are textbook proof of it, direx. If you aced placement and got into the top of the leaderboards, you just need to win one game every three days to keep it. You’re in a comfortable position.

To this, I suggest CONSTANT leaderboard decay at the highest levels. No 3 days. You have to constantly fight to keep your position at the top. You go 1 day without pvp, you DROP. Period. You can even have levels of decay the lower you go down the ladder, all the way to bronze.

Of course it’s a little flawed but there are a few things at least I personally think should be considered.
1) As you can see MMR ratings are still heavily going up on the top to even if you placed high at the very beginning players will gradually push you down.
2) Even if you are only playing one match every 3 days, if you don’t have the skill to play on this level and get crushed every single game that is still at least 20 games you’d have to play and get rekt in until the end of the season.
3) How much does it really matter for you? I mean sure it is somewhat unfair for these people but what do they really get? A title and 20 AP’s for literally not playing PvP the entire season while you play every day and get the pip rewards.
4) Shouldn’t the main focus right now be to get good and balanced matches? That is what true competitive players should care about. And you should want to be teamed with and against similarily skilled players to get the most fun out of the matches. If there is one or two guys camping the leaderboard, who cares? You won’t see them, won’t play against them, all you will experience is an improved (tho debatable to which degree cough cough) matchmaking and more balanced and fun matches.

That seems like a fair compromise considering only a handful of people willing to exploit the system will get a meaningless title to inflate their ego while getting crushed in any skillful aspect of the game.

Your first point is what I considered the most.

You’re right, players are moving up so the leaderboard is in flux. It’s very early in the season. Those that move up have a direct effect on those already up there, especially if they didn’t play much. They will fall naturally as others advance. It’s possible that what I suggest might not even be needed at all! :P

Actually, I take that back. I stick by what I said.

Players can only be pushed down by the system IF they play. I say this because of skill ratings. It’s harder to gain skill rating, but easier to lose it. You need constant leaderboard decay the higher you go up the ladder, ESPECIALLY at the top.

Right now, with the 3 day leaderboard decay, there’s no incentive for the top players except to play once and try to win every 3 days. They’re in comfortable positions. Since they don’t play, the league system can’t push them down if they lose. This makes it harder for players in lower divisions to catch up. The top players might not even be that good, (you even read it straight from one of the top 5, direx) which brings me to…

…placement…

Placement games are pretty much luck. They have a disproportionate amount of influence where you end up in the season. ANet NEEDS to do placement differently for next season. Ten games is just not enough to determine how skilled you are, it distorts the otherwise workable system ANet created.

I disagree on the placement games. They are the source of the mis-placing. They’re luck-based. Rating gain/loss could be adjusted a tiny bit, I think, too.

Other than that, yes. This system is fair. I love the fact that you can drop. Even though I’m on a 7 game losing streak, I’m giving this is chance.

I think you’re right. It needs improvement. Rank is partly luck-based because of the placement games. It’s the one glaring flaw in the system. As you said, these matches make or break your entire season.

1. Disagree. I would rather not go by stats, but by team score. You even say it yourself below. Less points lost for close games. I would also add more points won for blowouts, not that much, of course.

2. I firmly agree. Placement games need to go. I thought of them merely as seeding, but they just have a disproportionate influence where you end up. I actually don’t think ANet will do them again anyway, they’ll most likely use the data from this season for next season’s placement.

3. Agree.

4. Somewhat agree. Bunker can stay. Condi can go!

spartan.9421:

The ranking clearly does not matter this season because is was so badly done. My brother who is PvE scrub that struggles to even 1v1 against veteran mobs somehow got lucky enough to place gold. While I, someone who plays pvp every day and knows what he’s doing, gets stuck in bronze. Despite what people shout this system is based solely on luck. you have to get lucky enough to get teammates who will communicate and know what they’re doing. no matter how good you think you are, you can not carry 4 terrible teammates when fighting 5 decent enemies. Especially when said teammates do not communicate or pay attention. A team game should not be based solely on luck.

This system is actually fair, it’s the placement games that are based on luck. That is its glaring flaw.

Yeah, placement games are flawed. They matter way too much.

Entenkommando.5208:

JTGuevara.9018:

direx.8207:

I somehow managed to place in the top 5 after my placement matches (won 9 lost 1). Not really sure how I feel about that because I know I’m not good enough to be here at all. Now I’m really hesitant to play more matches because I’m probably going to get beat down to low /mid plat (where I probably belong) and that just won’t be fun to lose so many matches in a row.

Honestly I’d have preferred to have started low so I could climb instead of starting off high and being expected to fall.

However I’m also considering just playing once every 3 days and see how high I can end at.

Here I see a flaw: leaderboard decay. You are textbook proof of it, direx. If you aced placement and got into the top of the leaderboards, you just need to win one game every three days to keep it. You’re in a comfortable position.

To this, I suggest CONSTANT leaderboard decay at the highest levels. No 3 days. You have to constantly fight to keep your position at the top. You go 1 day without pvp, you DROP. Period. You can even have levels of decay the lower you go down the ladder, all the way to bronze.

Of course it’s a little flawed but there are a few things at least I personally think should be considered.
1) As you can see MMR ratings are still heavily going up on the top to even if you placed high at the very beginning players will gradually push you down.
2) Even if you are only playing one match every 3 days, if you don’t have the skill to play on this level and get crushed every single game that is still at least 20 games you’d have to play and get rekt in until the end of the season.
3) How much does it really matter for you? I mean sure it is somewhat unfair for these people but what do they really get? A title and 20 AP’s for literally not playing PvP the entire season while you play every day and get the pip rewards.
4) Shouldn’t the main focus right now be to get good and balanced matches? That is what true competitive players should care about. And you should want to be teamed with and against similarily skilled players to get the most fun out of the matches. If there is one or two guys camping the leaderboard, who cares? You won’t see them, won’t play against them, all you will experience is an improved (tho debatable to which degree cough cough) matchmaking and more balanced and fun matches.

That seems like a fair compromise considering only a handful of people willing to exploit the system will get a meaningless title to inflate their ego while getting crushed in any skillful aspect of the game.

Your first point is what I considered the most.

You’re right, players are moving up so the leaderboard is in flux. It’s very early in the season. Those that move up have a direct effect on those already up there, especially if they didn’t play much. They will fall naturally as others advance. It’s possible that what I suggest might not even be needed at all! :P

direx.8207:

I somehow managed to place in the top 5 after my placement matches (won 9 lost 1). Not really sure how I feel about that because I know I’m not good enough to be here at all. Now I’m really hesitant to play more matches because I’m probably going to get beat down to low /mid plat (where I probably belong) and that just won’t be fun to lose so many matches in a row.

Honestly I’d have preferred to have started low so I could climb instead of starting off high and being expected to fall.

However I’m also considering just playing once every 3 days and see how high I can end at.

Here I see a flaw: leaderboard decay. You are textbook proof of it, direx. If you aced placement and got into the top of the leaderboards, you just need to win one game every three days to keep it. You’re in a comfortable position.

To this, I suggest CONSTANT leaderboard decay at the highest levels. No 3 days. You have to constantly fight to keep your position at the top. You go 1 day without pvp, you DROP. Period. You can even have levels of decay the lower you go down the ladder, all the way to bronze.

xKratos.4758:

As a top MMR player myself I agreed completely with what katsumi said especially about the placement matches, I placed mid gold but get out of it within 3 games and got into top 10 (for like 20 mins then I logged off and 20 mins later I’m #12 FeelsBadMan )

The system is working definitely in my opinion. It is flaw in some aspects however with time it will work out. The complains atm are mostly from people who delude themselves into thinking theyre better than they truly are and they just need to accept that if you’re truly good. Then you’ll get Top 50 and Legendary.

As someone with a 1068 rating on silver, I agree. This is a fair system. Keep it.

I’m going with GS/Mace + Sh with the usual def, disc, bers lines.

I’m just so tired of condi.

This thread is so funny!

I played pvp since release. We actually HAD a pvp tutorial way back then. Of course you could only access it once! Never again! You were shipped to the small island south of HOTM and went through an event with an NPC talking….and…centaurs….and capture points…..I can’t even remember it was so long ago. I don’t what happened to it. I think the tutorial is either account-bound or ANet took it out later on.

StickerHappy.8052:

JTGuevara.9018:

I like it!

Skill Rating: 1068 (Silver T1)
W/L: 21-15
Power Warrior(GS/Mace + Sh)

I concur on placement games, they ARE weird. I went 5-5, so I assumed I would be placed in silver or gold. Nope. BRONZE. I started at bronze t3 with a 950 rating. As you said OP, the rating advancement made me raise an eyebrow. However, if I’m correct, those that played well in placement and started higher generally are falling and those that played not-so-well and started lower generally are rising. Maybe they had a bad day at work, frustrated, tired or something and wound up losing most of their games. This is consistent with the way mmr works. An example: 10,9,8,7,6 vs 10,9,8,7,6

Now that you can actually DROP, those that got stuck in bronze, for example will get better players matched up with them.

Overall, though, this system is fair. I hated the previous system.

What was your initial MMR? I think this has something to do with it. I went for 5-5 too, But I did have a 267 Initial MMR (I think this is on the higher end pre patch, since a lot of ESL players I know are on this bracket or even higher) and I landed at Silver T3. Hiro (Talgo) who had initial 240 something or 220 MMR did 7-3 on his placement matches and he is in Gold.

To be fair, my placement matches are absolutely horrendous.

950 mmr, it’s on the first paragraph.

SunBreaker.6850:

JTGuevara.9018:

SunBreaker.6850:

JTGuevara.9018:

If you lose a match, you lose a division ONLY when your skill rating is near your division threshhold. In your case, for example, since you’re in Gold—you will lose your division if your skill rating falls below 1350.

Now, let’s say you get to platinum. Platinum is for people who have 1650 – 1949 skill rating. If you get 1640 and you lose a match, you do NOT lose everything. Your rating just goes down a bit.

As far as decay, yes you will lose skill rating bit by bit after 3 days. It’s important to have, though. This is so players are incentivized to keep playing and maintain their rating and rank so they don’t stay permanently at the top. The decay gives others a chance to catch up to them.

So my skill is at 1352, if I lose a match I will lose my division?

Yes, you’ll go down to silver.

Thank you, your answer is really helpful for a casual player like me

You’re welcome!

I like it!

Skill Rating: 1068 (Silver T1)
W/L: 21-15
Power Warrior(GS/Mace + Sh)

I concur on placement games, they ARE weird. I went 5-5, so I assumed I would be placed in silver or gold. Nope. BRONZE. I started at bronze t3 with a 950 rating. As you said OP, the rating advancement made me raise an eyebrow. However, if I’m correct, those that played well in placement and started higher generally are falling and those that played not-so-well and started lower generally are rising. Maybe they had a bad day at work, frustrated, tired or something and wound up losing most of their games. This is consistent with the way mmr works. An example: 10,9,8,7,6 vs 10,9,8,7,6

Now that you can actually DROP, those that got stuck in bronze, for example will get better players matched up with them.

Overall, though, this system is fair. I hated the previous system.

SunBreaker.6850:

JTGuevara.9018:

If you lose a match, you lose a division ONLY when your skill rating is near your division threshhold. In your case, for example, since you’re in Gold—you will lose your division if your skill rating falls below 1350.

Now, let’s say you get to platinum. Platinum is for people who have 1650 – 1949 skill rating. If you get 1640 and you lose a match, you do NOT lose everything. Your rating just goes down a bit.

As far as decay, yes you will lose skill rating bit by bit after 3 days. It’s important to have, though. This is so players are incentivized to keep playing and maintain their rating and rank so they don’t stay permanently at the top. The decay gives others a chance to catch up to them.

So my skill is at 1352, if I lose a match I will lose my division?

Yes, you’ll go down to silver.

I had a 4 game winning streak until I ran against three DH. YES, I can beat DH. I used a rifle for warr to do that. Still, there’s only so much I can do when your team willingly just runs into the traps!

If you lose a match, you lose a division ONLY when your skill rating is near your division threshhold. In your case, for example, since you’re in Gold—you will lose your division if your skill rating falls below 1350.

Now, let’s say you get to platinum. Platinum is for people who have 1650 – 1949 skill rating. If you get 1640 and you lose a match, you do NOT lose everything. Your rating just goes down a bit.

As far as decay, yes you will lose skill rating bit by bit after 3 days. It’s important to have, though. This is so players are incentivized to keep playing and maintain their rating and rank so they don’t stay permanently at the top. The decay gives others a chance to catch up to them.

I gotta agree with the anti-rifle people here. Don’t do it. Rifle, like warhorn is weak. Ever since ANet chopped gunflame and removed pierce, it’s just not useful except for taking out DH.

Link.1049:

Given it a chance… and getting diminishing returns. People can play 10 matches and rack up 2000 points… whereas others only get 10 points per win, 13 if they’re on a 5 game streak.

Don’t forget that players can lose tiers and divisions. That free ride comes with a price!

Well, I hit a bad spot tonight. I rode a 7-0 winning streak during the day and had a 2-6 losing streak late at night, then I won 2 more. Do I rage? Do I quit? No. Why? Less people play at night. Most likely, the matchmaking got me matched with lower MMR players so the queue doesn’t take hours. Why do I say this? I hit a SIX minute queue around 2am, I also played repeated with the same people at times. Compare that to the day time where I queued in just a few seconds.

Let me just say this. I HATED the previous league system. It was a skill-less grind. As a warrior main during season 1, 2 and 3 I bombarded it on these forums DAILY. It was made to attract new players, but it ended up alienating both new and old. It just did not work.

Let’s give ANet some credit here.

I know, I’m sorry. It’s just that we have a good thing going for pvp, I don’t want it to be changed to something worse just because players are disappointed with their placement and rating.

As someone who’s played since season 1 and seen it all, I ask people to please give the new league system a chance. It’s a fair system.

If you’re struggling right now, whether in the placement games or beyond, don’t quit. Things WILL settle. They already are for me. I lost badly the first 2 placement games by about 250 pts, I won the next 2, lost FOUR, then won the rest. Those who got higher placement are generally plummeting and those who got lower placement are rising. It’s the system doing its work.

Gotta give credit where it’s due. Way to go, devs.

Zintrothen.1056:

Yeah, let’s go back to the horrible way things were before, with premades fighting pugs. Those were great days! MAKE GUILD WARS 2 GREAT AGAIN!

Or you can adapt and encourage Anet to keep this system and introduce a 3+ man queue. That’ll work well too once these great changes bring back more players.

Precisely! Well said.

Yes. This system is a big improvement. I love it, the leaderboard, skill rating, scoring changes, divisions, solo q, all of it! This is a fair system.

Now, I understand that teams were unfortunately left out and there is some fighting solo/team queuers about solo q. This is why you need BOTH soloq and teamq. If we have team q only again, we’ll be RIGHT back where we started! Solo queuers will be left in the cold again.

Fluffball.8307:

Wins and losses are not as important as the quality of your opponents. This season is a brutal reality check for everyone who swore they were better than they actually are, and all sorts of excuses are flying around.

But yes, I figure there won’t be much movement, which I actually find pretty interesting. For the first time I’m genuinely trying to play my very best in each match instead of going like 65%, really paying attention and I’ve already noticed a difference in how effective I am.

Precisely.

Skill matters now.

OriOri.8724:

Personally I’ve stayed out of PvP these past two days. I’m not very good, and I want to let as many players that are better than I am get through their placement matches and into higher divisions before I start the season. I figure everyone will be happier that way

I hear ya. I did the same for just the first day. When the season starts, it’s a mess. Everybody wants a piece of the action.

YES, give this thing a chance. As someone who’s played since the first season, this is the most fair system! Don’t quit!

I assume that the frustration must be coming from placement matches. Placement games are just that, placement. They don’t matter as much. Think of them like pre-season or seeds.

The previous league system was a glorified reward track, I’m GLAD to see it gone.

Another thing, to everyone struggling with placement matches, keep at it. Placement matches are just that, placement. They don’t really matter as much. Think of them like an aptitude test, or pre-season. As someone who’s played since season 1 and seen it all, give this thing a chance. It’s a fair system.

masterfan.8375:

Lets all agree that 2 man queue is the worst decision ever. Its pure gamble, and your skill doesn’t mean ANYTHING if you get complete randoms in the team who only got 500 -1000 games. What’s point of this? I don’t see any competition in that. No pre mades, no voice chat, no nothing. Where’s fun in that? You are destined to gamble every single game.

Let’s NOT agree. Bringing back solo q was the right decision.

However, I do agree with you that team q should be brought back as well. Why not have BOTH? As it used to be!

YES, THIS is what I’m talking about! I’m loving the new league system, solo q, the skill rating, leaderboard, division, scoring change, leaderboard decay after inactivity, all of it! You actually get rewarded for your skill now. ANet, way to go.

I hated the previous system. I’m glad it was reconsidered.

That being said, as a solo queuer I’m happy that solo q is back, although I’m sad for people who want to form teams. They shouldn’t have been left out in the cold. For season 6, I suggest to bring back a separate team q along-side solo-q again.

JTGuevara.9018:

Kuya.6495:

JTGuevara.9018:

These changes are solid. I like that skill splitting is being done regularly. I like the buffs to core guardian and DH shave.

I do NOT like engi changes. Hammer is untouched?! Hammer is still king, both in terms of damage and utility. It will take more than minor rifle buffs to get people to switch over. The rifle itself even might need to be reworked globally.

That being said, I remind myself that this is only a preview of tomorrow and what it will bring.

I don’t think this is a preview. I think this is all there will be for tomorrow. Karl said there aren’t gonna be changes to warrior and necro tomorrow, so i imagine this also means there aren’t any more changes for now. If they have bigger changes planned, then i wouldn’t expect them at the start of the season.

Well, we’ll see. The patch notes tomorrow will tell everything.

Well, I saw! I stand corrected then!

Well…meh… disappointing. Not much changes. At least there’s no more DH trap daze, ele and core guard got a boost and pvp skill-split is happening regularly. Still, I do NOT like the new amulet. PvP needs less power creep not more!! Why not bring back clerics and soldiers?

As a Solo-Queuer, let me just say that I support you OP.

Even though I appreciate that soloq is coming back, it shouldn’t have been at the expense of teams.

What you suggest is what we had in the past, two separate queues of 5-man teams and individuals. You’re not the only one! I still do, for these past couple years, ever since it was taken away.

Westenev.5289:

JTGuevara.9018:

I don’t understand all this Braham hate. The PC over-stepped the bounds and deserved it. Simple as that. Also, all this talk of killing off a character just because you don’t like him and he doesn’t obey you is ridiculous. The PC has no authority outside of the Pact.

Another thing, there’s just a lack of character development with the PC. The PC is the typical hero character. What are the PC’s dreams, background, struggles, flaws, addictions, traits, quirks, habits? The only development you see with the PC is in the first half of the personal story, and with….Aurene.

In a way, I understand why. Since this is an MMO where thousands of people play, the PC’s character development has to be as uniform to satisfy as many players as possible.

I think that’s simply not true – our character is far from the copy-and-paste personality of, say, a FPS shooter protagonist. Our character has a fair amount of characterisation – and a few loose ends (at least, as a human – did my sister die in orr? Why have I not tried to contact my family at the tavern?).

Think back to a light shining in the darkness – the level 60 story before the retaking of Claw Island. The Pale Tree gives us three fears – the fear of getting someone killed by our actions, The fear of being disgraced by those kittenpect us, or the fear of having someone suffer for our actions. At first, they all might seem like reasonable cut and paste fears – but at their core, all choices amounted to the same thing. The Commander simply doesn’t want to be ostracised from their peers.

These fears are exhibited several times throughout the story – the most potent of which occurs when Caithe ran off with the egg, causing the commander to exhibit extreme paranoia. The effects of this betrayal travels well into LS3 – why do you think the commander refuses the job as Pact Martial? Simply because they can no longer trust other people to do their jobs without screwing up and getting people killed. The Commander can’t trust Lazarus to Marjory, just as they want to mother Brahm. The commander failed to realise they had strong opinions about this treatment – and weren’t willing to oblige us with their usual “YES, COMMANDER!”.

At the root, I think the commander is a very caring person who simply fears being alone. The way the story is turning, the commander’s available friends are dwindling – causing them to panic. Perhaps their true companions are moving on, with the commander forced to “watch” the dragons alone? Perhaps the commander feels they are in the same heading down the same precarious situation as Eir with Destinies Edge, where they are forced to helplessly watch as their family fragmented?

This is just my interpretation though.

Mmmm good points. I guess you’re right, he does in some respects. The PC is not faceless. However, the PC as shown currently, has a tendency to take control where the PC shouldn’t. He’s not in any position of authority. Ironically, what I didn’t realize when I last posted, that IS some characterization, a flaw. If anything, those very things you mention, such as the fear of being ostracized and someone suffering because of our actions are the precise things that should be further explored and emphasized. Say a cutscene? Flashback? Past relationships?

I don’t understand all this Braham hate. The PC over-stepped the bounds and deserved it. Simple as that. Also, all this talk of killing off a character just because you don’t like him and he doesn’t obey you is ridiculous. The PC has no authority outside of the Pact.

Another thing, there’s just a lack of character development with the PC. The PC is the typical hero character. What are the PC’s dreams, background, struggles, flaws, addictions, traits, quirks, habits? The only development you see with the PC is in the first half of the personal story, and with….Aurene.

In a way, I understand why. Since this is an MMO where thousands of people play, the PC’s character development has to be as uniform to satisfy as many players as possible.