CC Ranked Feels Like An Unfun Joke

[AristocraticCorgi]

matchmaking system is so broken it's not even funny

you need to be extremely lucky to get matched with competent people

[Loggos]

You know what, OP? I agree with you, because honestly I'm at my limit.


I'm by no means a good pvper but maybe I would be a little bit better if purify actually worked when I press it, if my ocgds or my godforsaken LB actually went off when I press them repeatedly and I didn't have to keep track of their activation while I mash my buttons 5 times only to die because I had to dedicate my attention to my hotbar for too long, if the game didn't suddenly switch target mid-button press, if predicting the impact of your skills wasn't as accurate as reading tea leaves, if my skills actually did something when I die just 0.5ms before the animation finishes etc. etc.

When I lose because of my actual blunders then that sucks but that's on me and it's the result I deserve. Annoying but it just means I need to get better.
But when you get punished even in those moments where you don't make mistakes then that frustration reaches a whole new level. Because you did get that button press right, you did make the right call, your reflexes were actually on point that time and yet it means absolutely nothing. Here, have another death.
It feels more like player vs. system than player vs. player.

You are getting robbed of the opportunity to be able to play good, you just have to take the damage now.

Yep, this is exactly what it feels like. Parts of your skill set feel redundant. Many of the motor skills, reflexes and game awareness you built under the old, snappy system don't apply here anymore. Fast in-the-moment reactions which used to be an expression of skill and your ability to quickly assess and resolve situations don't work as well anymore. But you can't really relearn them properly to work with the new system and adapt a reliable proactive/planning-based gameplay either because the new system has several uncertainties baked into it so that half of your actions amount to guesswork. And even if you plan ahead correctly and press purify/whatever skill in anticipation there is still a chance that it will just not go through.

Also see a lot of animations of my skills, just them not going through, giving me wrong feedback of what I actually used. Also dying 2-3s after using hallowed ground, because of delayed damage effects landing on you, feels bad.

Same here. The feedback on my screen and what actually happens ingame often don't align, esp. when either I die or when a target dies to another player while I cast my skill. The animation is not cancelled and my attack gets lost in the void. Annoying if it is an ocgd because tough luck, it's on cooldown now. It's also noticeable with AoEs. Target dies to another person but AoE attack is executed? Tough luck again, nobody else standing close to the target actually gets hit, even though the animation tells you otherwise. And if it was an ocgd? It’s lost as well.

Or if somebody dashes/teleports while your animation plays? If you are unlucky the animation isn't canceled but your skill doesn't hit/isn't counted. And you just lost. Your ogcd. Again.

[Valence]

Wait, is this whats happening? I've wondered why my off globals feel so sluggish going off since 7.1...
Could Square really have baked an animation lock into PVP GCD's to prevent us from potentially changing the damage resolution time?

There has always been some locks after any action (gcd or ogcd) like in pve, but with the changes they just made it a lot worse since they based everything on visual animations instead of minimum locks. Weaving recuperate or purify feels terrible and takes ages. It makes you die a lot better as a result as well.

[Rayn_Vulpes]

I'm glad to see there are others who feel the same way about the state of CC. If it was 40hrs of pvp or 200hrs of some other menial task for the same reward I'd be doing the other task at this point to save my sanity.

However, ranked still rewards skill with enough gap, else you wouldn't have all the usual top ranker culprits up there at all times and being the first ones to reach it as well.

By no means am I the best and I've had my share of mess-ups. There's definitely a gap between the top and bottom. I wont name drop but there's certainly some at the top who I'll recognize as talented players and others who after being paired with repeatedly has me questioning how TF they are ranked the way they are. More often than not my Diamond/Crystal matches are a back & forth tossup that I've won more often than lost. It's the Plat/Diamond mix games that repeatedly drag me back down since thats largely where the RNG teammate factor comes into play.

Perhaps its because there's not a large enough player pool to help stretch out that gap, but the problem players seem to repeatedly rise up to then drag others back down with them and this process repeats.

[Commander_Justitia]

Wait, is this whats happening? I've wondered why my off globals feel so sluggish going off since 7.1...
Could Square really have baked an animation lock into PVP GCD's to prevent us from potentially changing the damage resolution time?

Tbh I tested it with heals, it is still possible somewhat. Like using Cure 2 and then spamming an offglobal, is still faster than e.g. another hardcast.

Just if you press a skill like Paladin Imperator skill, and then try to spam purify or recuperate after it - an awful long time will pass till you are able to press it.

So this statement below definitely checks out, feeling-wise

they based everything on visual animations instead of minimum locks. It makes you die a lot better as a result as well.

[Garuketo]

More often than not my Diamond/Crystal matches are a back & forth tossup that I've won more often than lost. It's the Plat/Diamond mix games that repeatedly drag me back down since thats largely where the RNG teammate factor comes into play.

If you are winning Diamond/Crystal matches, but generally dropping stars in Plat/Diamond and thats what preventing you from hitting Crystal, then you need to play better because it means you are not playing well enough to carry your plats when you get them. Like some people are not good, but the reason why you–and other people–get stuck in ranked is not because of matchmaking. Its generally a lack of fundamentals, consistent poor decision making, or a lack of knowledge of how to play their job.

[Loggos]

Genuine question, no bait, but (how) can a single person carry a team against five (potentially) skilled players? Even if you are good, 1v5 seems unproportionally difficult to me? I'm sure some incredibly good players can do it but I don't think this should lead to the conclusion that those who can't do it/overcome the matchmaking RNG are not good at all in turn. There are many people who may not be exceptional but are still skilled nonetheless.

Also, would you say you can carry on every job? Because personally I have the impression that some jobs lend themselves better for carrying than others. So even if you are good (or even crystal-worthy) on a job that has little carry potential you might be stuck if your team isn't strong?

And if your answer to that would be "just switch to a carry job" then I don't think this is a satisfying solution because first, you could be terrible at "carry" jobs (e.g., I am terrible at AST, but some non-carry jobs feel very natural to me).
And second then your original statement would only be semi-true because it would indeed mean that there are some jobs that can't carry and are much more team-dependant (hence if your team sucks, you'll go down too) if the solution is to not play them.

And I'd also like to add that switching to a job for practical reasons would make ranking up purely about...ranking up. And while that is perfectly fine and may be the goal for some people, other people might see little value in it if they have to play many, many matches on a job they don't enjoy. The result/high rank would not justify/balance out the lack of fun the ranking process itself might be under those circumstances.

[Mawlzy]

And I'd also like to add that switching to a job for practical reasons would make ranking up purely about...ranking up. And while that is perfectly fine and may be the goal for some people, other people might see little value in it if they have to play many, many matches on a job they don't enjoy. The result/high rank would not justify/balance out the lack of fun the ranking process itself might be under those circumstances.

I think what you're identifying is a central difference in philosophy across all PvP modes, and the dominant Discord ideology.

Complain about the 7.0 FL meta, we were told "get on voice with friends, play DRK, lead a meta stack."

Now in 7.1 we learn "ranked sucks, get on voice with friends, play custom matches."

And for those who do want to play ranked, "git gud" is rolled out rather than acknowledging matchmaking is far from perfect. Your job choice to carry? Yes, you get to pick from half a dozen tops.

When I retired from the 9/5 rat race, the first thing I did was throw my headset in the trash since I'd never have to sit on another Zoom call.

PvP Discord, partly because of its functionality, simply doesn't acknowledge that many of us do not want to engage in this way.

[SpritePR]

Genuine question, no bait, but (how) can a single person carry a team against five (potentially) skilled players? Even if you are good, 1v5 seems unproportionally difficult to me? I'm sure some incredibly good players can do it but I don't think this should lead to the conclusion that those who can't do it/overcome the matchmaking RNG are not good at all in turn. There are many people who may not be exceptional but are still skilled nonetheless.

Also, would you say you can carry on every job? Because personally I have the impression that some jobs lend themselves better for carrying than others. So even if you are good (or even crystal-worthy) on a job that has little carry potential you might be stuck if your team isn't strong?

And if your answer to that would be "just switch to a carry job" then I don't think this is a satisfying solution because first, you could be terrible at "carry" jobs (e.g., I am terrible at AST, but some non-carry jobs feel very natural to me).
And second then your original statement would only be semi-true because it would indeed mean that there are some jobs that can't carry and are much more team-dependant (hence if your team sucks, you'll go down too) if the solution is to not play them.

And I'd also like to add that switching to a job for practical reasons would make ranking up purely about...ranking up. And while that is perfectly fine and may be the goal for some people, other people might see little value in it if they have to play many, many matches on a job they don't enjoy. The result/high rank would not justify/balance out the lack of fun the ranking process itself might be under those circumstances.

The carry job right now is AST. Even if you hate it its a necessary evil to win it seems. Personally I swapped to maining PLD because I used to play it and its very strong right now.

I actually want to play BLM but its just not good enough vs the 'meta' jobs to warrant dragging my team down with it.

[Valence]

There is a bit of truth in every reply I've seen here. Yes it is harder to carry lower rated players with a support job and it will take you more time, but also, yes you can still do it because your presence and the fundamentals of pvp as said above, are job agnostic and define a lot of the performance as well. Knowing how and when to push, when to go for point, when to defend, when to retreat, how to manage resources, how to position oneself... This is further informed by the job and role you play yes, but the basics remain. It is also by virtue of pvp that if you knew what you are doing wrong, you'd have improved over it already, and this goes for every player rank ever. You have to discover it for yourself and learn, and for example when I compare how I perform currently to how I performed when I started the season, adjusting to all the changes, shaking off the rust... well I can feel the difference.

However, I'll say that 95% of the jobs I've seen played in crystal so far are absolute monsters: AST the elephant in the room, but also GNB (that job is actually wild, see how it can top SMN damage even by being a crazy tough tank), NIN (LB timer is overtuned), and then the usual trusty jobs like WHM, PLD, or new SAM. It's almost always a variation of that comp.