All my posts for the past year have been negative and hateful toward the devs.. Not because i hate the game, but quite the opposite. I love the game and there is so much potential to it, that its painful to see how it is handled (nevermind the reasons for now).

 

So, trying not to give another bloodrage post, and working on my "positivity", here's a suggestion for the pvp devs:

 

You all know how much players want 8v8 ranked back. You said before you wont have 8v8 and 4v4 because of balance issues.

You all know how important would be for pvp (and for pve for that matter) to implement cross server queues.

Now, assuming you are actually working on bringing cross server in the (distant) future (as rumour has it), how about these changes for ranked:

 

Keep arenas, only for solo ranked queue. You wont have as much trouble with balance, cause players wont be able to determine their group composition before hand, leaving it for the matchmaking system to handle (which also needs a tweek, but thats another matter)

Bring back 8v8 ranked by group ranked queue (ofc in this case cross server would be needed to keep it alive and thriving).

 

To be honest, I dont think you will ever fix the balance issues. There will always be the underdogs and the fotm classes. But thats something that pretty much all the players have come to accept. This is an alt-friendly game, so i already know that if i want to heal, ill log on my scoundrel, if i want to tank guardian/vanguard is the way to go, if i want to dps (well there's a lot of choice for this one, but) i go on sage cause despite the squishiness its still immensely fun to play. You dont need to concern yourselves with balance issues for 2 types of ranked games if you keep them apart - arena for ranked solo queue, and regular maps for ranked group queue. Team ranked is a lot less popular than solo right now because its all about who times their stunlocks and switchs better, its not a matter of tactics or skill like the 8v8 ranked used to be.

 

In the end, you please the players who favor 8v8 ranked, and still cater to those who enjoy arena deathmatches, and the balance issues are not gonna get worse or better by doing this, because its just an mmo characteristic, it always happens..

 

And by doing this, you dont need to develop anything (except ofc cross server, which i sincerely hope is on the works, even if its only gonna be implemented a year from now) and you just have to switch 1 thing that already exists (group ranked arenas) by another thing which you already had (8v8 ranked).

 

Not to mention, this would also bring back a need for pvp players to actually have an organized guild.

 

PS: In case cross servers is just a rumour, merging all european servers into 1, and all american servers into 2 (West and East) would also work to keep 8v8 alive.

 

Feel free to add anything you think would be helpful for the pvp'ers without asking too much resources from the pvp dev team, which would probably get an instant: No.

 

PSS: And please, no more ugly helmets with pve characteristics to it. Thats still an unbelievable move...

Not a big fan of 4 v 4 , but less room for collusion and fixing then I saw in 8 v 8. I do believe that cross server access is only beneficial , just doesn't increase the chances of 8 v 8 being better or improved in any manner. I think the best way to handle this is a group finder method. reserve spots and increase the penalty for leaving a match.

Ranked does not ever play well here. Even if they brought back 8v8, there's no magic solution to make it even what it was, let alone what it should have been in the first place. The ship sailed long ago and they are not getting most those players back. I think its time to just cut their losses.

 

Get rid of ranked entirely. Go to arena only Q and Warzone only Q with matchmaking based primarily on roles for both with a hidden rating also. There. Less Qs, more people in those Qs and for what THEY actually want to do so there is less quitting.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Technohic