Seriously, get rid of the solo aspect of shuffle, and make it queable with buddies, and make it 1 round only. Seriously. Make it just like skirmishes. You want to know why solo shuffle has long ques, and pvp participation has dwindled down? It’s because the most popular mode revolves around playing by yourself and removes the social aspect of the game.
Like seriously it’s so simple, yet they wont do it. I guarantee you’d have more healers if they could que with a dps buddy.
Please dont say, "well there’s the 3v3 ladder and LFG! yea, and we all know lfg is trash. I’d like to be able to que ranked 3’s with a buddy, without having to sit in lfg, and have us just be able to log on, press que, and it fills that 3rd dps spot.
If people genuinely want to fix q times in shuffle, all Blizzard gotta do is put in a fix they don’t think about much.
Throw a recolored, flying glad mount in shuffle as a reward for only healers, and you must get 2400 + 50 wins.
DPS do not get a mount, only healers do. No different color for DPS, it is a healer ONLY reward. Do the same for tanks and healers in M+ (assuming solo q ever exists for that).
That’s basically the only way enough people will suffer through that experience. Guarantee a new tabard, pennant, vicious saddle, or silly title isn’t going to make any healer I know suddenly q it up.
Recolored glad mount would. Push it even further, if you’re a healer and get 2200 + 50 wins, you get to choose an old elite set.
i’d rather be able to play a ranked mode where it auto fills the other roles that i haven’t qued for and that are needed. I know for myself and a few other buddies we haven’t qued 3’s or anything in like 2 months because pvp just isn’t fun. there’s never a time when 3 of us are on at the same time. If we’d be able to que 3’s with 2 of us, and it auto fills the 3rd, would 100% increase participation. Having a solo mode in a game designed for you to play with others is just bad design and was a terrible idea from the get go. Any mode that has a 45 minute+ wait time just to play, is not fun, and will make people not want to play. You know what would make me que as a healer? Letting me que into 3’s with a buddy of mine and auto filling the 3rd. Every other “competitive” game auto fills the spots you dont have. WoW is the only one, that does not do this and that’s exactly why we’re in the spot we are now with pvp.
People do play brackets as solo and do fight against other teams and we see this in pretty much every other game. Fortnite allows you to que solo into duo’s/trio’s/quads and will auto fill the other players. League allows you to que solo into solo que/flex que and will auto fill the other players, same with warzone, same with overwatch, rivals etc. WoW is the only game that doesn’t allow this. Unfortunately we are at a day and age where people want to just be able to boot up the game and play. Whether that be with friends, or solo. Nobody wants to sit in 45 minute ques as dps and having a one round, ranked arena skirmish style game mode would completely resolve this. Not to mention we can get rid of the solo shuffle bracket, and stop separating the playerbase into all these different versions of 3’s.
In a game like wow, where the pvp player base is already low, we need a que up and play option that’s available to be done with friends OR solo. If you dont want to que solo and think it’s more advantageous to have a set group of 3 people, then what’s preventing you from adding people you’ve qued with and gaining more people in your pool of players? You dont think people que solo into games like fortnite or warzone etc and are successful and win? lol LFG is also a dead system when we have things like discord, arena forums, etc. where people can find players to play with. LFG really only has a place in PvE/World pvp content and even then, I think mythics would benefit greatly from an autofill thing too just like a random dungeon, but that’s a discussion for another time.
I don’t think that will bring the masses flocking to heal solo shuffle.
Tying new rewards to high ratings only incentivizes the people that already queue for pvp a lot and can already achieve high ratings. It will feel out of reach for everyone else and they won’t bother.
I get that, but those are entirely different styles of games.
The problem with something like that is it’s going to be completely dominated by legit groups of 3, especially if it’s just RANDOM players tossed into a group against a real team. At least in shuffle it’s completely random and you get to play with everyone.
We have solo play. We have group play. Just make finding people and grouping easier. I’m suggesting we do almost exactly what you’re asking for, but giving you the option to pick and choose who you play with.
I understand that those are different styles of games, but every single style of game has an autofill option dude, that’s the point i’m trying to make. In every one of those games, having a group is 100% going to give you a slight advantage, but why does that work in every other game, but it won’t in WoW? WoW is the only one that’s not like that, and all of those that have auto fill options, give you the ability to que with your friends. Solo play has no place in an MMO, LFG is literally a dogwater system and i dont think there’s any other better way of finding people and grouping, besides and auto fill option. Hate to say it, but that’s the truth man.
I totally get that. I just think we would need a bit more agency. If your only aim is just to ‘play’ and earn some conquest then maybe, but if it’s ranked in anyway, solo or duo queue would be pointless. One of the big negatives of RSS and Blitz has been how bad some of the matchups can be. While RNG eventually evens itself out, lots of players would quit long before that.
Maybe this is where the breakdown is. It’s not slight in wow, it’s massive. So much so that a comp can almost dictate who is going to win.
Every MMO I have played has solo a solo play experience. The majority of players are enjoying this game solo.
It’s bad, but could easily be fixed. The problem is the lack of filtering. In the same way YOU’RE saying you want the game to pick who you play with WITHOUT any inputs, I’m saying do that, but give us options.
Allow us to still form legit comps with random players and give us the option to keep queuing.
I think you have a very different perspective than a lot of us here. Not saying it’s a wrong one, but in a way we are playing different games.
If you are at x rating qing with your group of 3 and another person is at x rating qing flex q. The lobby is probably gonna be even still. Since the group of 3 are bad enough to be at the same rating as the solo q player even with the addition of coms. The system would be completely fine since like in all things, rating will balance out based on your skill level in your preferred way of playing the bracket. In 2’s there’s tons of people that are higher rated just randomly picking up someone from lfg for the first time as players who try hard it with a duo with coms. In league a bad 5 stack will still get rolled by 5 random solo q players who are a little bit better than them.
Flex q is the way shuffle should’ve always been and should be. It’s how every other pvp game works. It just makes sense.
I think that solo q is easier and lower barrier to entry and is more popular ad a result. I think that that as an option is good for the game.
I also think that moving away from the social aspects of the game perpetuate toxicity and make player retention even higher because there’s less intrinsic motivation when the social aspect is removed, so the game becomes a path-to-least-resistance reward simulator that just makes people grind out their bar and quit, which is much worse in the long term.
Game should have more social components, not less.
I don’t think people really care much about socializing in video games anymore to be honest. Consoles became appealing for so long, and people just want quick matches that have high rewards. I think this all started for WoW when the LFG system had nothing but a few picky pieces of garbage in it, and it’s still like that today. BFA had it’s one shining moment, and that’s the last I can remember myself caring to try the LFG system. Now it’s filled with lke, 7 or 8 losers at a time not accepting people. Not that I care. Just saying, LFG seems dead (except raid nights) and that’s no good.
WoW has been functioning fine as a solo player MMO for years now. It’s what the people want. I mean even Wrath Classic enjoyers were in an uproar over not having LFD.
I like how we think so less of ourselves that we are willing to accept recolor mounts as a carrot on the stick to get players to queue instead of expect a monolith that is Blizzard to care and provide a better service and experience for all. Sad time line this is for all WoW gamers.
I’m sure the VASTE majority of the time players are playing alone. Even when I’m ‘playing’ with friends, it’s usually chatting and doing my own thing. If the solo game was bad in wow, almost everyone would quit. It’s funny to me, that people think MMO means GROUPS when it really just means playing with lots of people.
Honestly, some of the best content this game has had has been solo. I really enjoyed the timed nightmares. I think delves are pretty awful, but those could easily be fixed.