Classic ranking without decay (but still hard)

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
1

I think a lot of people think rank decay is a terrible mechanic, indeed it’s pretty much the only real life time negative decay mechanism in Classic WoW. With any other aspect of WoW classic, you can leave for months and come back and kick on where you’ve left off, except for PvP ranking.

But, making PvP ranking a lot easier would likely unbalance the game.

So I had did some numbers, and came up with the following facts that result from the current rank decay system:

  1. If you consistently rank at a particular level, the time it takes you to get the last rank is generally just over 40% of the time it takes to get every other rank up to that level.
  2. Getting to rank 14 takes 15 weeks if you’re consistently ranking in the middle of your bracket, 13 weeks at the top, and roughly speaking, you can take half a week of for every lower bracket/group. That is, if you’re ranking in mid group 12, it’ll 14 weeks (not 15) to get to rank 12.

This suggests to me:

  1. Weekly ranking points should increase by no less than 40% per bracket.
  2. Rank 14 should require around 13 weeks at the top of the bracket, or 15 weeks mid bracket.

So currently, these are the weekly ranking points:

(top of Bracket 14): 13,000
Bracket 14: 12,000
Bracket 13: 11,000
Bracket 12: 10,000
Bracket 11: 9,000
Bracket 10: 8,000
Bracket 9: 7,000
Bracket 8: 6,000
Bracket 7: 5,000
Bracket 6: 4,000
Bracket 5: 3,000
Bracket 4: 2,000
Bracket 3: 1,000
Bracket 2: 400
Bracket 1: 0

And these are the total ranking points for each rank:

Rank 14: 60,000
Rank 13: 55,000
Rank 12: 50,000
Rank 11: 45,000
Rank 10: 40,000
Rank 9: 35,000
Rank 8: 30,000
Rank 7: 25,000
Rank 6: 20,000
Rank 5: 15,000
Rank 4: 10,000
Rank 3: 5,000
Rank 2: 2,000
Rank 1: (15 kills)

Of course the 20% weekly decay makes this harder than it looks. But if we eliminate the 20% weekly decay, but still stick to the facts we’ve got above, what do we end up with? Firstly, we have to ensure each group increases by 40% roughly.

(top of Bracket 14): 100,000
Bracket 14: 70,000
Bracket 13: 50,000
Bracket 12: 35,000
Bracket 11: 25,000
Bracket 10: 17,500
Bracket 9: 12,000
Bracket 8: 8,000
Bracket 7: 6,000
Bracket 6: 4,000
Bracket 5: 3,000
Bracket 4: 2,000
Bracket 3: 1,000
Bracket 2: 400
Bracket 1: 0

And then we need to calculate total ranking points required, based on roughly 13 weeks for the top of rank 14, and slightly less for lower ranks:

Rank 14: 1,300,000
Rank 13: 900,000
Rank 12: 600,000
Rank 11: 400,000
Rank 10: 275,000
Rank 9: 175,000
Rank 8: 125,000
Rank 7: 80,000
Rank 6: 55,000
Rank 5: 35,000
Rank 4: 20,000
Rank 3: 10,000
Rank 2: 4,000
Rank 1: (15 kills)

So what’s the result of this? If you no-life grind out top bracket every week for three months, you will get to rank 14. But if you’re say in middling around bracket nine or ten, currently you’ll never get to rank 14. With this system you will get there, but it will take you literally years (for example, two years at bracket nine).

So high pvp ranks are still a pretty no-life achievement. But at least people can take a week off without losing all their progress.

This sort of system is still tough, but without the nasty decay that results in very unhealthy habits because people can’t take a break.

1 Like
2

Dump that whole rank system.

Honor from kills, badge turn ins, and objectives. But if you’re a rank, it means you’re in an army taking commands, we should have more BG objectives per rank to complete, and push into the next bracket. A little more of a mix of gamer vs. system, than just “I zugged more than another player at mid”

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3

This is pathetic.

2 Likes
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Beauty of the ranking system - not everyone gets to be Rank 14. It is best that way. If you absolutely must have it, you always knew what to do. But here you want to cheapen the entire endeavor so you can have it .

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Are there currently any servers with a high enough PvP pop for anyone to get bracket 14?

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I don’t believe so, but in this system that doesn’t matter, you can still eventually get there, as without decay you don’t necessarily have to reach bracket 14 to achieve rank 14 over time.

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i wouldn’t mind the old honor system if maybe the pulled back on the decay some?

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I don’t think it’s about ‘cheapening’ the entire endeavor. The post clearly states It’s about encouraging a healthier lifestyle WHILE pressing for a difficult achievement. Taking three hours for gym time a few times a week and cooking food instead of fast food or delivery detracts from time that COULD have been and SHOULD have been spent sitting stationary by your PC farming HK’s to stay a head of ‘the other guy’ ranking for PvP. *dare I say social interactions with other human beings in a non kill or be killed scenario might help psychological wellbeing as well: edit

I think that there are other systems that might lend toward general IRL healthy practices without detracting from the overall difficulty of the achievement. (I like the #nochanges mindset on just about every aspect of Vanilla but I think a “Some Changes” as long as they are minimal would not depreciate from the value of the game. Light brush strokes on a Masterpiece.)

11

This is a problem with ‘old’ servers who’s peak population has long since passed. All the more reason for Fresh… and for tweaks to the system that would enable players who are literally the best pvper on the server (but just came late) should have Grand Marshal and the gear that goes with it

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For some reason, players who have never really pushed feel the need to safeguard a “healthier lifestyle” for others. No thanks. If you find the grind unhealthy, don’t participate. Don’t screw up the game for others because you don’t like how they choose to push it. Look to your own game time and practices and decide for yourself if what you do is healthy.

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I never wanted rank 14, but I wanted a higher rank for the pvp armor, but the decay made it to the point I couldn’t because of IRL reasons, I just wish the decay wasn’t as brutal

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I do find the way players in Classic played the R14 grind VERY UNHEALTHY! In every way: Psychologically, sedentary practices, food choices, distancing from social relationships/obligations.

AND I DIDN’T PARTICIPATE past rank 8 and took a much more casual approach doing a minimum amount to maintain my standings for a time when I would have about 6 weeks to grind much more heavily to get ranking.

In hindsight it is a factor in WHY I chose to play Druid instead of my old ‘main’ Warrior.

This is where we’ll have to differ. I do not think that having a different system is going to ‘screw up the game for others’ The game DID have a different system in TBC and Wrath and beyond. There are some things about Wow that are simply “Broken” and in favor of #nochanges I think it’s best to minimize any and all changes that fundamentally change the way the game is played; HOWEVER this is one case that I do think it would be better to come up with an alternative method (still challenging as the author posted) to achieve the highest level in PvP as well as get the gear and Oh so coveted WEAPONS for the classes/players that want to invest the time to making that achievement.

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The elitistic classic Andy’s in classic are brainless for sure, trying to rationalize with them is impossible. I really like your point and I totally agree with it. But like I said vanilla Andy’s wont accept it and they think everything after vanilla is the downfall of wow

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Thank you for the support. I am a #nochanges advocate but I’m convinced that there will probably not be any new launches from Blizzard that they do not make SOME changes. (as per the PTR they have already officially labeled it 1.14 (instead of the 1.13 that was Classic Era) I’ve been helping report bugs and fix issues by playing and doing speed leveling there but I already don’t like some of the things I’m seeing :frowning:

17

The PTR usually have bugs but we just have to wait and see if blizzard decides to fix them but ofc keep reporting those bugs, they’ll at least try to fix some for sure.

I’m also a #nochanges advocate but some aspects of vanilla weren’t healthy at all. Vanilla has a lot of things that makes it so special, so changing the pvp system into a more healthy system would help the game in a good way. I’ve said this multiple times; not everyone that goes for the R14 wants it for raiding, they also want it for just the pvp content and the enjoyment of it.

Just let people have fun, dont let the elitistic players stand in your way. How many players stopped casuals from ranking up? A lot! and tbh that’s not fair.

Hopefully blizzard does something about this. But until then we just have to wait

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Or, they could just turn off decay.

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what have you seen? What do your elven eyes detect?

20

Lol <3 love that

I just saw that upon reaching lvl 20 in the PTR there was an option to ‘expand my backpack’ total number of slots… hidden behind a “paid upgrade” (facepalm)

It seems like ALL of the communities collective outrage on the “pay to win” objections of retail go unheeded.

That’s just one of the big ones. I play druid so I’ve reported multiple issues with how my shapeshift forms interact etc. It’s not the way that it was in Vanilla anymore and I don’t like it.

edit* though they did fix the bug that left druid stuck in place by spider web roots and nets from trappers. Shifting forms didn’t break root… bug was reported and now shapeshift does break me out.

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if its an extra 4 slots thats from the authenticator and that is in already

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Vanilla Wow has 16 slot bag for the backpack. It is no longer “Bliz like”