I would love to play more Ranked PVP buuuutttt....

[Kai_Lee]

Don't remember past season having issues with queue times? Could be wrong.

[Aviars]

Don't remember past season having issues with queue times? Could be wrong.

They did slow down the longer it got, but they never truly completely died until s6 and 7.

The fact that they reduced the season in half and now ques seem to die twice as fast should be a indicator to SE that what they did is not working. Allowing people to keep their highest rating does not encourage queing but allows people to quit playing due to the fact they don't have any incentive to reclaim the points they lose from losses.

I think SE need to truly examine why Heavensward Feast never truly had dead ques compared to what we have now, especially when the seasons back then lasted well into 4 months.

Edit: Just wanna say s1/2 did die on the second half of the seasons, but that was because of major patches. However s3/4 were able to persist for the entire season.

They really should look into implementing rank decay and adding weekly incentives to play in addition to top 100 rewards.

[FelipePF]

Yeah, I think that rank decay is a good solution as well, it's something to try, like the dude over there said, it doesn't hurt to. It's gonna be disappointing if they don't do anything about queue times though.

[Gallus]

The only solution is accepting ranked isn't going anywhere here, it is bound to stay marginal because the kind of people playing it will always dissuade the other 99% of the players that came to this game to have a good time. They disabled the chat and turned the PVP rotations into a 4 button mash fest in a blatant attempt to turn the pvp into some newbie friendly grounds where everybody is welcome.
They failed. And they will keep failing. No mount is going to make up for bathing in mud thorough months.

[Stormfur]

I do believe they're doing some things to make PVP more newbie-friendly. But simplifying the system and corralling us into a single map isn't going to sustain it. What PVP needs (in addition to the 1,001 suggestions already made in this forum) is something that people, at any level, can work toward. On their own time, at their own pace. Not this "everybody-rush-in-the-first-two-weeks-and-no-life-it-to-top-100-and-then-do-nothing-for-the-remaining-2-months" system we have now.

If they're going to keep the top 100 as an enviable pinnacle that so few can reach, then they need to 1) make rewards account-wide and 2) award other top achievements in the same way (top frontlines, top POTD scores..not necessarily the same items but with the same sort of "clout", if that makes sense).

But overall, PVP seems like this red-headed stepchild that lives in the closet and gets fed a few scraps from time to time.

[Gallus]

It sounds like you're blaming the players for Square's bad development team.

Square's "bad" development team has tried quite a few things to encourage and promote ranked gameplay. Exclusive mounts, accessories, weapons, titles, wolf marks (GC seals), experience for your alts, even a complete revamp of the system. They've been feeding you all with all sorts of stuff. It has failed every season. A small minority of flamers and ladder posturers that will eat alive anyone who "stands on their way" to their precious rewards and elo. The removal of the chat goes to show what kind of players stick to your ranked mode.

[Gallus]

But overall, PVP seems like this red-headed stepchild that lives in the closet and gets fed a few scraps from time to time.

They've done quite a few things for PVP, they've messed up however at incentivizing ranked while leaving normal and frontlines into the oblivion coffer. If they kept updating their rewards for frontlines and normal mode people would play them and even enjoy them. However, no sane soul will ever go through ranked no matter what. It's 2018 most people know by now what you can expect from there, no reward will make up for a godawful experience for most people.

[BloodRubyXII]

The only solution is accepting ranked isn't going anywhere here, it is bound to stay marginal because the kind of people playing it will always dissuade the other 99% of the players that came to this game to have a good time. They disabled the chat and turned the PVP rotations into a 4 button mash fest in a blatant attempt to turn the pvp into some newbie friendly grounds where everybody is welcome.
They failed. And they will keep failing. No mount is going to make up for bathing in mud thorough months.

It's weird you mention the people playing it dissuade others whilst subtly making out you're some kind of veteran feast player in the same breath. They don't, they actively try to help others for the most part because those "newbie" players are the only hope of having a semi-active season for at least a few weeks. And they're still trying. All things considered this wasn't even a bad season, it fared far better than S6. In fact your entire post is painful to read, because you played horrendously this season then ragequit WPD discord after people tried helping you, which was quickly followed by you claiming it was a Discord full of basement dwellers and all sorts of other lovely things. The grind is only a grind when you rely on strong stacked teams to carry you to top 100 btw, this could be why you're nowhere to be seen in customs. I can understand negativity given the state of feast, but you offer no concepts for improvement whatsoever and you come across as a massive hypocrit, even if in the occasional case you're right.

If you're going to go, just go quietly lol.

[Cammel]

I always wondered why doesn't s/e mash all the data centers for feast specifically. Like if you were to play call of duty your not restricted to just one area and you wouldn't run into the same team 4 matches in a row

[Stormfur]

I liked how Astragalos did incentives. Want this awesome mount? Cool - win 100 matches. Not terribly difficult -- if you were the grinding type, you could grind it...if you'd rather do Astragalos a couple times a week for Wondrous Tails, no problem -- you'd get your 100 wins in time.

Sure, Astragalos had its fair share of problems and there are plenty of other threads that lay them all out. But at least it had something you could work toward, and do so in an environment that didn't penalize you for winning.