Alternatively, one could argue that blizzard just saved the 5s bracket.
2s is, always has been, and always will be a joke of a bracket
3s balance isn’t all that hot either in tbc…and frankly is significantly worse now than I remember it being in og tbc.
5s is admittedly kind of a mess (which is why in later expansions they tried to focus on 3v3 balance) but the reason it was removed at all was lack of participation, not lack of balance. If anything the “messiness” of 5s gives it much more latitude help give players a foot in the door since it’s less meta driven, while also giving the “just let me do 10 games and leave” crowd the opportunity to gear up (which I kind of feel like it’s the vast majority of the players now, that don’t actually even seem to enjoy arena beyond the “thing I have to do for the gear”)
Why does it matter of 2s/3s give less points so long as the points they DO give are enough to purchase all slots AND have time to compete on the ladder in full BiS.
The point incentive to 5s both livens the bracket and creates good opportunities for playing arena with new people. Without it the bracket dies and people just stick to 2s and SOME people will push in 3s.
If getting the gear is your goal, you WILL complete it even faster than before these changes and even if you ONLY play 2s. If you think you are losing a competitive edge by NOT participating in 5s, realise that the gear difference is less than a 1% increase in some slots. It is not the reason you are struggling to climb above 1600.
If titles/ranks are your goal, you will still complete your set AND have time to push for titles even if you only play 2s.
It’s not rocket science… It’s too hard getting 5 people to all run games at the same time, let alone repeatedly week to week since rating is team based.
Arenas in general are mandatory if you want current pvp gear. Personally I’ve always hated my time in them. Personally I’ve never understood why we couldn’t just move to a rated solo queu bg system based off win%. Better players over time would naturally win more games and it would naturally encourage more people to play hybrid classes in healer specs. Such a system would also have the impact of providing a reason for people to actually try to win the game while doing randoms.
