New Shatter map... something Feels off.

[Archeron]

It's hard to say that anything is coming for PvP these days. This entire expansion was focused on Crystaline Conflict, and that has been hit/miss at best. Ranked is certainly a ghost town, on practically every DC.

If they care about PvP, they will implement BASIC QoL changes like matchmaking, job adjustments, better maps, and adjustments to BH. Literally some of the most common sense changes that can be made in the time span of a single patch. If PvP isn't fun, people will not requeue.

-Give us King of the Hill, Capture the flag, or hell even an outright deathmatch betweeen 3 teams.
-Battle-high turns into battle-die. More vulnerability in exchange for the DPS bonus.
-Steal other ideas from MMO's with great PvP, and implement them here. (Within reason.)
-Play test every single change, before implementing them into the live game.
-Stop balancing jobs around CC, and then make Front lines deal with the aftermath of the adjustments.
-Stop taking 6+ months to make half hearted changes.
-Make winning matter. Either increase the roulette bonus for victory, or reduce the bonuses for losing matches.
-Hidden matchmaking systems.

I've tried, and often do get a reply, but it's usually "chill, bro, I'm here for the XP." Sigh.

Your attempt to get a bunch of people playing SCH is a perfect illustration of why solo players cannot do what a premade does, contrary to Olivia's claim. When she isn't running the DRK+, she sometimes runs a 4-SCH. Its rarity makes it much harder for randos to counter. Yes, in principle, a random team can decide to emulate this, but as you say, it simply doesn't happen on NA. We need solutions that apply to the real world, not an imaginary one.

It's like herding cats. It's rare, or nigh on impossible often times to get them to listen. Yes, theoretically randoms can be organized to crush premades. I love it when I can deny them their wins. But the premade players simply fail to see how much extra effort it takes us to fight them. They press 3 buttons and wipe entire alliances.

The random players on non premade teams have to do the following;

1. Listen to call outs of incoming attack from premade, or pay attention to the map themselves.
2. Spread out to limit the effectiveness of Salted Earth before they attack.
3. Stunlock Dark Knights before they can dive.
4. Nuke the Astrologians/Dragoons
5. Wipe up anyone else who remains, while dealing with likely the other team, and new node spawn(s).
6. Do not run away from combat and leave the people who are countering the premade to die.

That's asking a lot of teams with a variety of players of differing skill levels. In most cases, they do not have what it takes to counter the premade, and they will get steam rolled. Olivia may want to educate the playerbase, I appreciate the sentiment but I'll outright say it won't work with the attitudes we have in NA frontlines.

[Mawlzy]

The random players on non premade teams have to do the following;

1. Listen to call outs of incoming attack from premade, or pay attention to the map themselves.
2. Spread out to limit the effectiveness of Salted Earth before they attack.
3. Stunlock Dark Knights before they can dive.
4. Nuke the Astrologians/Dragoons
5. Wipe up anyone else who remains, while dealing with likely the other team, and new node spawn(s).
6. Do not run away from combat and leave the people who are countering the premade to die.

Agree with all of this (point 2 is particularly difficult when the members of the team who are actually trying are zerging after a waymark), but would add a broader strategic issue. The nature of netcode/latency means there's a huge premium on aggression and getting the boot in first, much like a bar fight. When you know your three premade colleagues are coming with you, that aggression is much easier to initiate. For premades on voice, that advantage is massively amplified.

The evidence is all there in the K/D/A summary.