I would understand everyone being reset to zero as Blizz previously stated, but since Blizz announced that players will NOT lose their current rank when we switch to the new system, Blizz should just restore everyone whose rank decayed to the bottom of their “highest lifetime rank.”
Blizzard’s poor communication on this issue is really to blame. When it was first announced, Blizzard specifically said the new system would “completely” reset all ranks:
Many people stopped ranking precisely because of this statement. There are a lot of people who probably stopped ranking 3-6 weeks ago because they knew they couldn’t hit Rank X, but may have very well continued ranking if Blizz had been clear about their plans.
I get that Blizz has a right to course correct, but in doing so the devs should also do right by the players. The current plan rewards only those who were pushing for R14 and missed it, while punishing the players who decided to take a break based on representations made by Blizz.
Moreover, restoring ranks will have no in-game impact in terms of player power since the players presumably bought the gear they were eligible for before they started decaying.
Last, restoring decayed ranks will actually INCREASE PVP participation. I’m sure many players won’t bother re-ranking now that everything is reset. But I am sure there are a lot of people who stopped at R10+ who might decide to pick up from where they left off when Blizz said everything was going to be reset.
Hopefully they do, but with these changes and likely the fact those people already got the gear having achieved their highest ranks, I am sure it would be more advantageous for them to grind up on another character.
See I’m smart. I knew D4 was going to be garbage based off D3 and the direction retail wow was going. They didn’t get a single cent out of me from diablo.
But then they scammed me via 4 weeks of ranking decay in classic. Well played blizzard.
As I said a few times earlier it’s too bad that the people who paid any sort of attention are the ones to be “punished” but I guess they were already prepared to rerank or stop. Yes I agree that just giving people their highest rank would be fairer considering.
They really should just put everyone back to their highest lifetime rank, that would fix any outstanding issues with people wanting titles if they aren’t going to retroactively give people titles from their previous highest rank. 2 birds one stone. I had friends who stopped ranking assuming they would be reset and now that it isn’t being reset who are pretty disappointed. This system has been very poorly communicated on what exactly is and isn’t happening and when.
I am very critical of Blizzards failures, but on this issue they were clear that changes were on the way, hell they actually gave us more than they said they would.
TL;DR the communication they gave on this was just fine. Tho the one place they could have done better was a more clear timeline.
But Highest lifetime rank would be real nice, so if they did that I would not complain.
I’ve praised Blizzard and I think because this was so far out there’s some accuracy in still praising them because people could have just finished up or not bothered for three months.
However, this reminds me of handing someone who didn’t save anything for retirement $100,000 while at the same time taxing the person who did save for retirement enough that they’re left with only $60,000.
While they could have done better; its certainly better than their most recent track record on changes… If we slam them too hard they’re more than likely to recluse again.
Ironically, it would have been better if Blizz hadn’t said anything and sprung the change on us. Then everyone who was actively ranking wouldn’t have lost progress, not just the people who were going for R14.
They have the data for max lifetime rank. It’s how they handed out titles when tbc came.
The ONLY argument against Max lifetime rank is the dishonorable kill wave it would cause leading up to that reset.
And that you solve in one of two ways.
First, simply count every dhk accrued again after the reset… All at once.
Or simply say nothing until it’s too late for people to reenact the purge, then reset people to max lifetime rank anyway. So for this the one that appears to be what we’re doing, but blizzard absolutely loves fumbling the ball on the goal line, so be entirely prepared to get fully reset