Hate it or love it, Blizzard gave something to the player base that a lot of people have been asking for. Although I think everyone is generally happy, there are some core issues that if this idea were to stay, probably need to be addressed. (And no, I’m not referring to the ladder being 40% DHs).
-Que times.
-The ladder itself.
-Exploitation of a player.
-Any communication.
-Sense of actual community.
I actually think the biggest issue, is the ladder itself. Essentially what’s happening, is that the player base is being split. Some people want to sit in LFG and do 3s, while others just want to que. This is going to effect que times, because most healers (lots of comments across socials) are going to sit in LFG, while DPS is going to sit in 50 min que times for SS. Maybe you just have a busy life and can’t LFG or don’t care too. At this point I’m fairly certain no reward other than gold and free playtime is going to get healers to que SS. Which leads me to my next point… The underlining issue is the ladder itself.
Other games, if you solo/duo (aside from something like flex in LoL) you get put into games with premades. If I play a game of ranked Apex by myself, there’s a chance I might run into 3 guys in discord… That’s a me problem. I think the same thing should be going on here in Arena. If you que up at high elo by yourself and run into CDew and Mes… So be it. Effectively that’s me saying the ranked SS mode should be just done away with, but… Yeah. It should just be solo que ranked 3s. This would help with the inflation of the ladder in 3s, and you’d still be able to give season rewards based on top % of spec. But you can still get a gladiator title and mount for reaching 2400 etc etc. Giving a mount or gladiator title to SS would kill 3s, and not giving a reward to people who do it solo… is not rewarding either. The titles for top %1 can still stay.
SS is splitting the ladder, and now you have people ****ing on their fellow players saying SS isn’t real, and that the rating doesn’t matter. Others say it’s the real testimony of skill.
Just do away with it, and make it all ranked 3s. This way it’s one ladder, like most games. Shuffle should just become what skirmishes are and people should have the option to que 2s or 3s. People with less exp on a spec are going to naturally do 2s until they feel comfortable anyway. Other specs shine in 2s… so be it.
It would stop the exploitation of the weak link in SS. After the second round, you can tell who the noob is, and people pile onto that person. Sure if they rage quit they’ll get penalized, but the toxicity is going to just turn to people throwing rounds instead of leaving, and now you have another problem on your hands. You are now getting L’s by trolling, instead of conquest and CR based on rounds won. It’s already happening, I have DPS saying dont target X i don’t want them to throw.
I think if people jumped right into 3s for one round, it would make people communicate in staging more. Hell, maybe in coms. If you win the game, you get the option to que again with those people (like skirmishes) Maybe that next que you win again, and again, and the next thing you know… You guys are actually using Blizzards in game coms and now You have some friends to play with and you form a team. There’s another dad who works 50 hours a week and your schedules line up with each other and you vibe, awesome. Because playing with friends is always better than alone.
Which leads to the actual PvP community growing and not being divided. This is an MMO after all.
The mode has split the ladder up, is causing problems with que times, and isn’t rewarding other than a title. Giving more to the latter is going to worsen other brackets. Vice versa.
Maybe it’s not this expac, or maybe it’s season 3. But I think for ranked, it should be done away with. I’m sorry that means the devs would have to axe their own code like they did with garrisons, but hey… it can replace skirmishes which is actually a really cool thing.
Just my two sense.
Happy Q’ing
