Just get rid of ranked

[Mistress_Irika]

you seriously cannot sit here and tell me that ranked is not on constant life support, try to convince me as to why dev resources should be continued to be poured into it.

It was already heading that direction since season 2. There wasn't a clear win here. Not much to say about the current state. Even if you kept the original settings if how things started out ranked would have eventually been played in a bubble just like feast was. You don't make it out a certain rank you don't play for the rest of the season. You basically get punished for either being bad or being late. What would be the solution then to those that can't play rank? I don't see a true reason for keeping it. System currently exist as a way to try to please majority, and it's not that effective if at all.

I do have 2 suggestions, but I think it'll bring more problems than actual solutions depending on the side that you're on. I'll list my thoughts.

1. No freebees. (Seen a suggestion in a different thread.) No trying to set what rank you want the playerbase to be at. Let them figure it out on their own. Sadly, this is a common problem in most team based games like League of Legends for example. Someone gets stuck in a rank. Team knows that they did bad as a team. Everyone points the fingers at someone else other than themselves. Everyone deserves to be at a higher rank because of their teammates. We've been following that path since CC came out regardless of what season it is. This idea is dead on paper.

2. Strip away the rank system entirely, stars and credits, and instead only use wins as a measurement. No one gets upset for being punished. Problem with that is that it's just another casual queue. There's no difference. Also, if top 100 was there with this suggestion it'll probably lead to more people either throwing or outright surrendering after a failed teamfight. Definitely not certain if this idea would work since the type of rewards that's there now didn't discourage the few from win-trading.

If there's something that I need to take into account I would like to know, because I currently can't think further than this.

[Towa-Musa]

It was already heading that direction since season 2. There wasn't a clear win here. Not much to say about the current state. Even if you kept the original settings if how things started out ranked would have eventually been played in a bubble just like feast was. You don't make it out a certain rank you don't play for the rest of the season. You basically get punished for either being bad or being late. What would be the solution then to those that can't play rank? I don't see a true reason for keeping it. System currently exist as a way to try to please majority, and it's not that effective if at all.

I do have 2 suggestions, but I think it'll bring more problems than actual solutions depending on the side that you're on. I'll list my thoughts.

1. No freebees. (Seen a suggestion in a different thread.) No trying to set what rank you want the playerbase to be at. Let them figure it out on their own. Sadly, this is a common problem in most team based games like League of Legends for example. Someone gets stuck in a rank. Team knows that they did bad as a team. Everyone points the fingers at someone else other than themselves. Everyone deserves to be at a higher rank because of their teammates. We've been following that path since CC came out regardless of what season it is. This idea is dead on paper.

2. Strip away the rank system entirely, stars and credits, and instead only use wins as a measurement. No one gets upset for being punished. Problem with that is that it's just another casual queue. There's no difference. Also, if top 100 was there with this suggestion it'll probably lead to more people either throwing or outright surrendering after a failed teamfight. Definitely not certain if this idea would work since the type of rewards that's there now didn't discourage the few from win-trading.

If there's something that I need to take into account I would like to know, because I currently can't think further than this.

real talk, there's no clear cut solution to this and we are damned if we do damned if we don't SO i think.... number two would be the better solution if i had to choose between the two (if i was held at gunpoint) honestly though, i would just strip ranked and toss it entirely, just focus on putting out crystal shop items and packing the series pass a bit more with rewards instead of loading it with three ACTUAL rewards then filling the rest of it with crystals.

[Astralrisk]

counter argument to that is, they can use casual mode to keep stuff balanced to since its quite literally the same thing and im quite certain ultimate raids don't require FOMO rewards to keep going neither does it have coin toss matchmaking with little to no control over who you match with, that argument does not hold water.

BUT im open minded so if there's another reason you can come up with that would make a reasonable person with an open mind actually THINK that ranked is good enough on its own and does not need life support, id like to hear it.

EDIT:
I have seen the 'ultimate raid' argument multiple times and it does not really work in this situation.

I do think ultimate raids are very similar to that of ranked, in terms of a pve to pvp comparison. It's a niche piece of content that is appeals towards people who want to try and experience a challenging version of content they already enjoy. This is especially true for small pvp arena modes where the main enjoyment from doing ranked specifically, at least for me anyways, is trying to get better by fighting people who are equal/higher than me in skill. The idea of going into casual to just farm kills on Timmy who just queues into CC to level up a class and doesn't care about actually playing the game does not sound fun at all in the slightest. And I imagine someone who just wants to play CC for fun doesn't want to go up against Gus the No Lifer who does nothing but queues CC and just farms you constantly. Having the separation in skill levels theoretically allows for these two parties to stay separated. And I know SE could add some kind of MMR system to help queues for people, but lets be honest, they wouldn't care enough to implement it and with how it already functions for ranked I doubt it would be good.

The only real "life support" it needs is an occasional shake up of decent rewards to keep people caring to queue ranked. I think what they did recently with the Hellhound glows is fine since it's minimal enough to not cause people to feel FOMO, at least compared to the Feast's ranked rewards of unique armor/mounts, and as far as we know will not be removed from the game at any point in time. They would probably just have to add some new glow type for weapons every few major patches to not feel stale, which would probably not even be that big of a deal to make at all. Not that it doesn't have issues, experiencing the solo queue moment of depending on others hurts and makes me wish for duo queues or literally ANY premade queues in any capacity, but having ranked exist is not really that bad.

[Sinstrel]

I do think ultimate raids are very similar to that of ranked, in terms of a pve to pvp comparison. It's a niche piece of content that is appeals towards people who want to try and experience a challenging version of content they already enjoy.

This x1000. I think a lot of the frustration people have with ranked is because; 1. They don't understand who this content is made for and 2. They don't realize how much of a time investment it takes to actually see some decent results.

People clear ultimate raids in 200-300 pulls/attempts. For arguments sake lets say every attempt is nearly a full clear (15 minute long fight) That would be about 75 hours (4,500 mins) of playtime before finally getting a clear. If you took that same amount of time (4,500 min) and divide that by 5 minute CC matches, you'd only be at 900 games played, and assuming you manage to keep a 50% winrate, you'd only have about 450 wins which is barely even scratching the surface of starting to understand how to even play the game mode, let alone making top 100 or even getting any of the 1000 win achieves.

Now for a casual player, you've really gotta take a step back and be honest with yourself about what you're getting yourself into here. It is monumental, and very clearly designed for people who already enjoy doing this. For the people who do enjoy these extreme types of content, its amazing and literally the only thing they have. Don't force yourself to do content you clearly do not enjoy, and then call for it to be deleted for the people it is made/designed for imo.

[SweetPete]

I say get rid of ranked. It's just the same people on the top 100 board anyway. Like the feast. I reached crystal in the first season and literally my first match as a crystal player my whm teammate threw the match to their buddy on the other team. Win trading. I was over it then. Haven't touched ranked since.

[RyanCousland]

I say get rid of ranked. It's just the same people on the top 100 board anyway. Like the feast. I reached crystal in the first season and literally my first match as a crystal player my whm teammate threw the match to their buddy on the other team. Win trading. I was over it then. Haven't touched ranked since.

its the same people because they enjoy the challenge of ranked not because of WT, the amount of this happening is little, i'll extend an olive branch and say maybe less than 10% are probably cheating with WT, add-ons , ect

[Towa-Musa]

I do think ultimate raids are very similar to that of ranked, in terms of a pve to pvp comparison. It's a niche piece of content that is appeals towards people who want to try and experience a challenging version of content they already enjoy. .

That's quite literally the only similarity that is true. that its niche and a small amount of players actually enjoy it.

This is especially true for small pvp arena modes where the main enjoyment from doing ranked specifically, at least for me anyways, is trying to get better by fighting people who are equal/higher than me in skill. The idea of going into casual to just farm kills on Timmy who just queues into CC to level up a class and doesn't care about actually playing the game does not sound fun at all in the slightest. And I imagine someone who just wants to play CC for fun doesn't want to go up against Gus the No Lifer who does nothing but queues CC and just farms you constantly.

You're gonna find those kinds of people in both modes no matter what, i guarantee you, you will.

The only real "life support" it needs is an occasional shake up of decent rewards to keep people caring to queue ranked. I think what they did recently with the Hellhound glows is fine since it's minimal enough to not cause people to feel FOMO, at least compared to the Feast's ranked rewards of unique armor/mounts, and as far as we know will not be removed from the game at any point in time. They would probably just have to add some new glow type for weapons every few major patches to not feel stale, which would probably not even be that big of a deal to make at all.

Dude, that does not change the fact that it NEEDS incentive for people to WANT to actually que for ranked. nobody save for a small few actually WANT to play ranked over casual and ranked dies within three weeks.
History is repeating itself, so instead of letting it fully repeat i say just pull the plug and invest dev resources where it truly matters rather then keeping a mode on constant life support.

[Towa-Musa]

its the same people because they enjoy the challenge of ranked not because of WT, the amount of this happening is little, i'll extend an olive branch and say maybe less than 10% are probably cheating with WT, add-ons , ect

The only challenge in ranked is the artificial difficulty induced from the randoms you get on your team, no you cannot carry them because deadweight ruins a match.

[Towa-Musa]

This x1000. I think a lot of the frustration people have with ranked is because; 1. They don't understand who this content is made for and 2. They don't realize how much of a time investment it takes to actually see some decent results.

People clear ultimate raids in 200-300 pulls/attempts. For arguments sake lets say every attempt is nearly a full clear (15 minute long fight) That would be about 75 hours (4,500 mins) of playtime before finally getting a clear. If you took that same amount of time (4,500 min) and divide that by 5 minute CC matches, you'd only be at 900 games played, and assuming you manage to keep a 50% winrate, you'd only have about 450 wins which is barely even scratching the surface of starting to understand how to even play the game mode, let alone making top 100 or even getting any of the 1000 win achieves.

Now for a casual player, you've really gotta take a step back and be honest with yourself about what you're getting yourself into here. It is monumental, and very clearly designed for people who already enjoy doing this. For the people who do enjoy these extreme types of content, its amazing and literally the only thing they have. Don't force yourself to do content you clearly do not enjoy, and then call for it to be deleted for the people it is made/designed for imo.

Again you cannot compare Ranked CC to Ultimate raids because the only REAL difficulty that comes from ranked is your teammates and the netcode.

[Astralrisk]

That's quite literally the only similarity that is true. that its niche and a small amount of players actually enjoy it.



You're gonna find those kinds of people in both modes no matter what, i guarantee you, you will.

It's mostly considered niche in the sense that it is challenging. Obviously the mode has issues because of how this game is coded and designed, and I know the existence of a ranked mode won't outright stop higher skilled players going into the casual queue. However, I still think it's better than not having it for a small team arena game mode. The reason the mode exists is specifically to offer that for a crowd of people that SE knows exists because that is what small arena based game modes appeal to the most in almost every video game.

Dude, that does not change the fact that it NEEDS incentive for people to WANT to actually que for ranked. nobody save for a small few actually WANT to play ranked over casual and ranked dies within three weeks.
History is repeating itself, so instead of letting it fully repeat i say just pull the plug and invest dev resources where it truly matters rather then keeping a mode on constant life support.

Like I just said in the post, adding the weapon glows is already a decent incentive to allow people to go into rank and work for. Having that is already a huge improvement compared to portrait frames that we've gotten for three major patches in a row. Can the reward system be better? Yes, having a way to where everyone of all ranks can work towards getting the glows would be better since it'll keep even the lower tier crowd invested if they get stuck in the lower ranks. I would say that the reward alone has kept Primal ranked queues alive longer than they have been for the last couple of seasons, again can still be better but it's a step in the right direction.