Nobody “sells” HWL. Because you cannot sell a player his own game time. You might be referring to someone who is very dumb buying a bracket 1 spot if he was br2 or 3 or something
They were selling bracket spots and setting caps based on who was ‘next in line’ etc. Whatever the solution, the current iteration of PvP ranking isn’t fun for most people involved if these external solutions of ‘bracket mafias’ are required to even make it bearable to progress through the ranks at an even pace.
Bro, did you rank at all last server, I’ve ranked quite a few times and know the system well. Anyone “buying” artificial numbers is being dumb. Because you cannot be sold your own play time. But I do agree with you, ranking can be miserable. Is what it is
I got to Stone Guard playing casually as I ended up burning out from Dad Guild raid shenanigans, so no I can’t say I was deliberately ranking, and you might not be able to be sold your own play time but you can run a large Discord with the majority of PvP guilds on a server and state honor caps and limits to insure who you want gets HWL next. I don’t know the intricacies because the content of their character spoke for itself and wanted no part in the mess.
However it doesn’t have to just be what it is with SoM, I’m not a systems designer, but some changes are needed and maybe they’re something complex or maybe they’re getting rid of rank decay or setting PvP gear in the Enlisted/Officer spectrum and allowing it to be just bought plainly and simply. Maybe that’ll make some raiders mad because I know the high rank pants are BiS for some classes for a good bit, but I’d rather some of them have to gnash their teeth for a bit for a better gameplay experience.
1 Like
I agree, I mainly think a nerf to decay is the best and easiest solution. I do not think tokens, or anything that will allow pve guys to swipe the gear should be allowed. A lot of people who hate pvp rank just for pve, ranking is far less miserable if you love premades v premades. But I will say nobody toxically chooses who gets r14 next, it’s always br1 people, it’s a ladder system and yes it’s grindy af
1 Like
I’m biased but I don’t think there’s anything intrinsically wrong with the “bracket mafia” system: when it works right, the coordination makes things easier for everyone.
There are things intrinsically wrong with the ranking system, and while there are a few NEETs and no lifers eager to jump back into it, most people will want to see the system see #somechanges.
Here are some off the top of my head:
-
Get rid of, or decrease RP decay - the “20%” number is completely and there’s no reason it couldn’t be 5%, if not 0%.
-
make the pools larger - again the numbers as they currently stand are arbitrary. What if you doubled/tripled the number of people in each bracket spot per week? Speeding up graduation rates also would decrease the number of breakers (though they’ll always exist)
-
simply have pvp gear be rolled out in phases, making marks/honor a currency. Basically what the acquisition system became after the classic period. People may complain about the loss of prestige, but real talk - did anyone really care about r14 after the introduction of instanced arenas? Does anyone really care about it now?
-
alternatively, some kind of rated BG system tied in with an alleviation of the premade system (e.g. you can only queue with 5 max, or separate ratings for solo queues and premade queues)
Exactly.
I’ve also ranked multiple times, one of those being over a summer with my ally. I still had my job but it was way easier than ranking my horde druid thanks to 600k caps in addition to instant queues and playing with a great PVP team. I’d cap by Friday evening/Saturday morning.
Some people “bought spots” but that’s because they were rank 6 or whatever and they wanted a BR14 spot to rank faster. I’ll be flat-out honest, they’d pay botters to pool boost (make level 1 bots to kill level 5 bots at the graveyards), but that was the worst thing about it. Those botters all got mass banned at one point. I remember the entire thing. Anyway, that part is irrelevant, I never paid anything because I got to my ranks naturally and took natural spots and was given spots because I’m a team player, not some rebel lone wolf who doesn’t like working with others.
The caps allowed people to not kill themselves while ranking, to hold jobs while ranking etc. Even though people like to blame the boogieman “bracket mafia”. FFA is way worse and often requires 22+ hours a day of PVPing. Many bot or account share at that point. I am not exaggerating.
You complain a lot.
I’m not voicing an opinion either way about changing the system, but there’s nothing inherently wrong in that. It’s just that after 17 years players have been programmed that everyone is entitled to everything. That no one can stand out and be exceptional. That the reward is all that matters and the experience is irrelevant. You could just play and have fun and get what you get. But apparently that’s not a thing with a video game anymore. The only thing that matters is getting the ultimate prize, which everyone should be able to achieve.
It’s a very Retail mindset. But Blizz is catering to that philosophy anyway, so it is what it is.
2 Likes
Just get rank 14 4Head
you are just too young to appreciate it.
plenty will swear by it as the most fun they had in game.
let people enjoy things.
I ranked to 10 on multiple toons in Vanilla, and then did a rank 12 grind in classic. Was going to do 13 but decided against it. Not really sure how my age matters since I’m probably older than the majority of the playerbase.
It doesn’t matter the age or occupation. This crowd wants everything handed to them with minimal effort. Once they change R14 to be more accommodating to casuals, the child-like player base will then say that the AQ40 mount grind is too hard and needs to be dumbed down.
4 Likes
I grinded HWL solo, only pugs and I did face a lot of premades.
Guess what, I sucked it up.
It’s classic, if you can’t make time don’t bother, the PVP is not for you.
5 Likes
this.
respect.
With a healthy pool size ranking isn’t to tough till 12.
1 Like
Rank 14 grind was always the dumbest concept in wow. It may have worked in 2005 but in modern times its dumb af.
1 Like