Why is it so difficult Ranking up from Bronze to Crystal

[Stormfur]

And I wasn't even mentioning that you are locked out of even ranking up during the season if you dont play at the right time.
But you can ALWAYS do an Ultimate as long as you find a group of players willing to do the content.

I'm going to add to this that, when you do an Ultimate, you can strategize with your party. You can keep practicing until you get it. Imagine if Ultimates were done like CC:

"Okay guys, you've got 3 weeks to get this weapon. We're going to pair you up with random people, some of whom may never have set foot in an Ultimate in their lives. Also all your skills are different. Oh and no potions or food. You can't chat either except for these five pre-selected commands. Also if you're not one of the first 300 people on the server to clear it, you don't get squat and those weapons will never be made available again."

People. would. lose. their. MINDS.

I understand PVP is a different beast but you can still make a mode competitive without turning the suffering knob up to 11.

[TimotheusReed]

I'm going to add to this that, when you do an Ultimate, you can strategize with your party. You can keep practicing until you get it. Imagine if Ultimates were done like CC:

"Okay guys, you've got 3 weeks to get this weapon. We're going to pair you up with random people, some of whom may never have set foot in an Ultimate in their lives. Also all your skills are different. Oh and no potions or food. You can't chat either except for these five pre-selected commands. Also if you're not one of the first 300 people on the server to clear it, you don't get squat and those weapons will never be made available again."

People. would. lose. their. MINDS.

I understand PVP is a different beast but you can still make a mode competitive without turning the suffering knob up to 11.

Completely agree. Nothing more to add to this from my side.

But how do we make SE aware? Do they know?
Do they simply ignore EU feedback? What do we have to do to be recognized?

[Stormfur]

Completely agree. Nothing more to add to this from my side.

But how do we make SE aware? Do they know?
Do they simply ignore EU feedback? What do we have to do to be recognized?

That's the million-dollar question. I made a post here: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...81%84%E3%80%82 (hopefully the link shows right, it's on the japanese PVP forums)

[Valence]

I have translated that post on my end and barring any oddities in translation, I fundamentally disagree with the takes found there. People are blaming the system for not progressing or not being able to reach their peak again?

[Stormfur]

The system IS broken. 30+ people read that post and said "Yes, something needs to change."
We can agree to disagree.

[Valence]

Not disagreeing that the ladder is not a great design, but if you think it's because of the system you're not climbing, you're entitled and delusional in my opinion. Odds are you're just rusty and need to get back into it. Or work on consistency. Peaks are also peaks and not an average, people need to stop seeing them as the rank that corresponds to their skill, and more like personal records.

Like, I'm not reaching Omega this season, should I blame the system because last season I did so in all logic I should be able to this season? No, I should just play more, try harder, and improve my own play. There is no secret there, else why do you think the same people are always in Ultima if the system is broken? Shouldn't they also have the same issues than you do? If not then why are they achieving this in twice less victories then all of us?

Like for real, people in the pvp community need to stop coping and trying to find excuses, if you're not climbing, then you need to humble yourself and start looking at what you could be doing better. It's the same in every pvp game and there is no secret about it. It's a mentality issue, if you're not ready to accept that, you'll not be able to achieve the results you're after.

If anything the system is broken but in reverse of what people are saying: it pushes people way too high for their skill level, they end up in diamond or crystal in their first season because they have decent skills, and then they immediately drop down back to diam4 or even plat because they're not consistent and they peaked there precisely because of the system, that shouldn't have let them that high in the first place. Same thing happens with all the gold players that streak into plat, then get stuck at the bottom of plat4 because they didn't acquire the skills required to be there.

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh and unfair, but that's the cold truth.

[Stormfur]

I’m not blaming the system because I “can’t climb.” I’ve hit high ranks before and I’m fully aware that personal performance matters.

What I’m pointing out (and what a lot of people here seem to agree with) is that this ladder has structural issues that make consistency harder than it needs to be, especially with matchmaking volatility, streak dependency, and MMR swings.

Saying “just improve” doesn’t address that. Both things can be true at the same time: players should work on their play AND the system can be flawed.

Also, using the same handful of top players as proof the system is fine isn’t very convincing. The fact that exceptional players can brute-force it doesn’t mean it works well for the rest of the ladder.

Critiquing design doesn't equal refusing accountability. I’m doing both.

[Valence]

I'm not saying the system is fine, we do agree it has serious shortcomings.

[Gavrenon]

For me, it's climbing to and staying in the top 300 that grinds my gears. When you can get 9-15 losses in a row, while consistently doing the best in the team in terms of damage/damage taken ratio, crystal uptime etc and your teammates are similar rank but nowhere near your performance, it's demoralising.

I just wish the playerbase didn't have such a huge skill gap across Diamond, Omega and Ultima. Every match becomes, can I carry 4 other people, instead of can we work well as a team?

[NevaehQuest]

This comes down to the player retention issue again. In CC the snowballing happens very soon and sometimes matches become very one sided bullying. It is not fun to just be the punching bag the entire game, and if you get rat just because you play better(or sometimes being a healer or a caster, just any reason) will totally ruin your experience. You can't really run for safety and there is nothing to stop a mnk and a pld chasing you the entire game just because they think your are a bigger threat, and there is no way to punish them if your team also fail to apply pressure. Sometimes it takes one super horrible experience to make a player completely stop playing.