Why is it so difficult Ranking up from Bronze to Crystal

[Commander_Justitia]

Just recently I figured out that I've got a BIG latency problem with my crappy ISP. We're talking 500 ms download latency. Thankfully I'm switching ISPs and I'm hopeful that will help.

I'm playing with VPN mostly, which at least for NA seemed to bypass their ISP/ddos problems apparently. Ironically picking Frankfurt as server location for EU seemed in the past often worse than picking Berlin or Paris/Brussels. While the DC being located in Frankfurt...Which is quite odd, because one would assume Frankfurt VPN-Frankfurt DC would be the fastest connection.

This PvP isn't about getting gud anymore for the most part, I don't like it because of that. I had to no-life it 2 days to do that...Whatever changes they did like a year ago, made the game slower I think, which made lag more important again. Nowadays you would blame your internet connection more than the game engine registering something not correctly, I think I preferred it other way around. Bottom line is, the engine should be better...Wonder if they will ever do it.

[TimotheusReed]

I'm playing with VPN mostly, which at least for NA seemed to bypass their ISP/ddos problems apparently. Ironically picking Frankfurt as server location for EU seemed in the past often worse than picking Berlin or Paris/Brussels. While the DC being located in Frankfurt...Which is quite odd, because one would assume Frankfurt VPN-Frankfurt DC would be the fastest connection.

This PvP isn't about getting gud anymore for the most part, I don't like it because of that. I had to no-life it 2 days to do that...Whatever changes they did like a year ago, made the game slower I think, which made lag more important again. Nowadays you would blame your internet connection more than the game engine registering something not correctly, I think I preferred it other way around. Bottom line is, the engine should be better...Wonder if they will ever do it.

In EU it has not been about "being good" for some time, at least for lower ranks. Right now it is more about "who has the time to play at the EXACT time that Pvp is happening in the middle of the night" or "Who has the most time to play at the beginning of the season". I am slightly exaggerating. Especially players in the higher ranks in EU can still regularly play. For them there is still a skill element to it as long as matches are regularly happening for them.

As long as you have active matches you are able to rank up. But in EU right now there are almost no matches happening in Ranked during the week in the lower ranks at least.
Or at least at my rank.

Right now, for me at least, Pvp is more about being able to play at a certain time of the night and being patient enough to wait in queue for 10-15 minutes until queues are popping than it is about skill.
Especially for new or lower ranked players in EU you are also not really able to improve if you are not even able to play ranked.
At least not if you are a working adult with healthy sleeping habits. Some of those matches only pop during the middle of the night.

I have regularly tried to get matches from 8 p.m. till 2 a.m., but they don't pop in my rank in EU. I can't say anything about 2 a.m. till 6 a.m.
But I honestly have to say that people shouldn't be expected to login late at night just to play ranked in ffxiv.

[Stormfur]

I'm playing with VPN mostly, which at least for NA seemed to bypass their ISP/ddos problems apparently. Ironically picking Frankfurt as server location for EU seemed in the past often worse than picking Berlin or Paris/Brussels. While the DC being located in Frankfurt...Which is quite odd, because one would assume Frankfurt VPN-Frankfurt DC would be the fastest connection.

This PvP isn't about getting gud anymore for the most part, I don't like it because of that. I had to no-life it 2 days to do that...Whatever changes they did like a year ago, made the game slower I think, which made lag more important again. Nowadays you would blame your internet connection more than the game engine registering something not correctly, I think I preferred it other way around. Bottom line is, the engine should be better...Wonder if they will ever do it.

That IS odd re: the datacenter. I wonder why that is. I definitely would prefer NOT to blame my internet. It really did feel more responsive back in the early Feast/Fold days. Now the guard part in particular feels like you really have to mash the button to get it to pop up half a second later, and by then you're dead.

[Valence]

This PvP isn't about getting gud anymore for the most part, I don't like it because of that. I had to no-life it 2 days to do that...Whatever changes they did like a year ago, made the game slower I think, which made lag more important again. Nowadays you would blame your internet connection more than the game engine registering something not correctly, I think I preferred it other way around. Bottom line is, the engine should be better...Wonder if they will ever do it.

I don't know, I hate how everything feels like playing underwater after the registration changes, but on the other hand the way it slowed down everything and the game also got more balanced between burst and pressure/sustain is a godsent as far as I'm concerned. EW CriCon was all about one tap KOs and rocket tag and it frankly felt bad. DT in comparison is a lot more satisfying there, although unfortunately the devs seem to have completely dropped the ball with any pretense at job balance and actually fixing what's broken...