Are we witnessing the death throes of arena this expansion? It felt like it started last expansion with introduction of shuffle.
This expansion with blitz/shuff I don’t think 3s has felt more dead.
Sad to think we’ll never have seasons like BFA/SL offered in terms of participation ever again.
I actually feel like 3s is fine and it’s shuffle that’s more dead o.O
Yes.
Casual participation will always gravitate to what you can simply queue and play, rather than what you have to socialize, schedule, or organize for.
As for Shuffle, casual players have always preferred battlegrounds to arena. Back in the day, Ghostcrawler was on record as saying the amount of casual BGers equaled the amount of casual LFR players.
Plus, Blitz allows you to potentially duo queue with a friend, and people like that.
If the game mode is to ever see resurgence, it needs to adapt and allow similar solo queuing or something.
It died last xpac with the introduction of shuffle. People have simply moved on.
Hmm. It was doing pretty alright last expac, though. The only truly horrific season in somewhat recent history in regards to queues was, like, eternal. Maybe early verdant.
It actually died in season 4 of SL. Shuffle was the band aid and lifeline of arena.
No? It was kind of its own thing.
Ye, but only for that season.
I do think there is sum shuffle burnout happening at the moment
YES it is dead
Like Shadowlands season 1-2 had amazing participation and nothing was wrong (besides tuning but tuning is ALWAYS an issue lol)… then they give them a taste of solo shuffle and read all the forums posts about a solo queue option and devs said “hey lets listen to forum posters to dictate what we add to the game” that sounds like a good idea huh boys?
its so sad man, and we can never go back now, its literally RUINED lol they RUINED it with solo shuff and solo blitz… sigh
Did it ruin anything? Or did it open up rated PvP to more people who actually want to play it than ever?
Shadowlands forced PvEers – i.e., people who don’t want to PvP – to PvP. It consequently had rampant cheating via carries and pilots, to the point where Blizzard had to attempt to crack down on RMT in the group finding tool.
It also had some of the worst gear disparity of all time within the PvP gearing ecosystem.
RSS and Blitz didnt do anything to arena that a lack of a good LFG system wasnt already going to do.
I guess what my point is that. If you look at participation, it was the BEST in shadowlands. period. Devs than introduce more options to play, making the playbase divided now more than ever. So you will have brackets that are being neglected and unplayable.
For example, at 10pm PST There were 4 groups in LFG looking to 3s LOL that is insane, INSANE.
Now giving players an entry to play is not bad but i feel it was not needed, this is an opinion I know, but people were generally happy in pvp brackets (the AMAZING participation in 3s is proof enough in shadowlands). giving new options to play wasnt needed, again an opinion and who is to say what was needed or not. But the current state of 3v3 participation is hurting and when you have something in your game that is failing, that is BAD. and it is failing because of what the Devs added to the game.
The arguemnt of carrys and selling of rating, that is a seperate issue. and Im not addressing that really. Ill just say its everywhere lol your top RWF raiders are selling carrys lol like we cant escape it and that is a whole new argument to have.
If you have read this far, i just am so so so sad that 3v3 is dying while the new rated solo experiences are doing okay? And why would you 3s when you can just solo queue and remain an introvert? Like its no wonder they are thriving… they need to be removed to bring back the RPG MMO aspect of WoW pvp. This is HOT TAKE but its really how i feel.
Casuals used to do low to mid rating arenas to learn the ropes. But now they’re doing ss or bgb for almost the same rewards. So there’s rarely any low to mid players anymore. You’re facing hardcore experienced multi glads at low mmr. 3s is just spread too thin and that’s not even accounting for the people play classic arena over retail.
You can become a GRAND MARSHAL or a LEGEND or… just a random guy that died in Rome every day and nobody cared (gladiator). I think the choice is obvious.
There is no reason to q 3s besides glad, which, guess what, 99% of everyone will never get
late in the season it can be really beneficial to just tap into 2s / 3s to grab a quick 1800. i think season 3 of DF was the last season i played anything more than 100 games. I pop in last week in greens to grab elite sets in 2s
Participation so far this season by character count.
EU: 2s: 60843 , 3s: 32842, RBG: 6814, Solo Shuff: 152243, Blitz: 126466.
US: 2s: 60902, 3s: 37844, RBG: 8400, Solo Shuff: 148459, Blitz: 134073.
If they give shuff glad mount, 3s will see RBG level of participation.
the awful 2s bracket considering only certain meta specs are grossly broken in there being nearly double of 3s is funny
also surprised rbgs even have that many players
3v3 organized arena only lives rn because of the glad mount, if they put it anywhere else that’s the end of 3s instantly.
People tolerate 3s for the unique reward and having a glad mount. Outside of that, no one cares about 3s more than either solo q variant
It’s almost like they should have created separate rewards for different modes