I am sure many people will have strong opinions about this, but hear me out. I believe a solo queue 3v3 could be great for the game, and here’s how I would implement it if I were the developers.
First, I would give a daily reward to players for winning two arena games per day. The reward would be a substantial amount of gold, perhaps a loot box that has a chance to drop items like pets, mounts, etc. This reward would be given to all arena players, not just those in the solo queue, so that high-rated players wouldn’t feel like they were missing out by not participating in the solo queue. This is because the higher the rating, the less likely you would find a game and the less likely you would win a game.
Second, I would integrate the solo queue into the regular 3v3 bracket so that a random solo team could end up facing a group queuing as a three-person team. Would this be a bit unfair? Yes, but many of the games happening right now aren’t much different. A lot of people are just playing with randoms without voice communication and could end up facing a real 3v3 team with voice comms, putting them at a significant disadvantage. However, people know they will be at a disadvantage. They don’t mind, and if they do, they know they can always use voice comms if they want to push their rating. Essentially, they understand they are at a disadvantage, but it’s not an issue for them; they just want to play the game. A solo queue could operate under the same principle. I think we would see a surge of people playing in the low ratings bracket, which would be beneficial because more rating would be in the game, and you wouldn’t be facing gladiators at 1800.
Essentially, the low ratings would have lots of action and the highest-rated players wouldn’t really see a change at all. There are a lot of players who would absolutely do arena but let’s be honest, it can be intimidating for new or less skilled players to step into the arena. If they perform poorly, there’s a high chance their team member will tell them they are not good after one game and leave. So, that person needs to find another player willing to play with them, and after the negative first experience, they would be less likely to keep going. Arena can be toxic after all, we all know this. If it was more inviting to newer players and easier to get started I think it would be great for the game because many of those players would eventually reach a point where they cant push any higher in solo que and branch out to look for a real team.
I wouldn’t use a solo shuffle style like retail has because I don’t like how it splits up the player base, I think the players should all be in the same bracket. It would be simple, a random healer and 2 random dps and it would just be 1 game, with the option for the players to join a group after the game if they want to continue as a group. I would even make it so you didn’t need to join solo, you could join with a buddy and it just finds you guys a random 3rd.
Thanks for getting this far.