The "Casual PvP Problem" (For Tomes and Exp) and Possible Fixes

[Buff_Archer]

Switching GC's to chase wins happens all the time, but it doesn't really make a difference unless you can somehow guarantee you'll only be playing with the best players in your GC.

I can guarantee that. In this case of course I wouldn't call it chasing wins if the purpose in changing GC's is to be able to play alongside a more coordinated and consistent group of people than if you were solo queueing. The downside of course is having your PVP rank start at 0 for the new GC and the thought of that might make you ill. But if it's a good point of reference, I recruited someone from Maelstrom the week before Seal Rock came out, and between then and now she's hit at least rank 27.

[RiceisNice]

...

What time does your linkshell usually queue? I try to queue up with some friends of mine, although we're only 4-5 out of the pool of 24.

[Februs]

Snip.

I think I've run into you guys, actually. Unless you used to be a flame, that is. I recognize your name. Maybe I waved at you at some point... I do that occasionally, cuz' I'm weird.
I know what you mean about premades, but that's still not a guarantee, unless you can pack all 24 players with people in your team (which I have seen happen. It's not something that can be made with 100% success, because the game optimizes matches based on que times, but I know I've seen a group coordinate a three alliance que using 3rd party chat like TS, mumble, or party chat for Ps4). Having 8 players working together is better than none, though. That's for sure.

[Februs]

The mentioned in game exp bonus, or any in game bonus should be given to the team but not the player, bcoz it is always a team work and most likely the bonus will come from kill/capture ..etc
Some role and jobs would have serious disadvantage, so it will break the balance or job selection.
And it also encourage more badly internal competition,

Currently, I'm most in favour of the idea of giving exp bonuses based on following objectives. I am NOT in favour of handing out pvp exp for kills. That would cause more problems than it would fix. I'd rather they either 1. offer exp bonuses for fighting in a certain proximity to a node, or 2. Providing exp based on or scaled with the points earned at the end of the match. Winning team would obviously still get the most, but that would just be an incentive to get the team to play better. In either case, there needs to be a reward for playing well.

[Februs]

PvP gear should have more use than simply being glamour fluff (and the i180 pvp sets aren't even good at being that imo). Gives people incentives to excel and grow.

I think they need to overhaul the wolf's mark system. 1. WM shops should offer more than just pvp gear. Maybe throw a few PvE sets in there, for the sake of variety, and some housing stuff or vanity items, like minions or mounts. 2. Why is there only ONE (two including crafted) pvp set at 180, and nothing between 110-180?? That is ludicrous. PvP players who have yet to cap to 50 are stuck wearing their pve armour until 50. Let us customize to optimize, for crying out loud.

[Buff_Archer]

What time does your linkshell usually queue? I try to queue up with some friends of mine, although we're only 4-5 out of the pool of 24.

Just about every afternoon/evening there's people from our group forming a party. I'd say afternoon to late evenings North America time, if it's one of the more active PVP windows where we're getting queue times of 15 min or less, we'll typically have 1-2 have parties going, and other times it will be less than 8, since it's more of a network to allow people to find others who are interested in partying up at the same (often ad hoc) time rather than a static where we have a set time and fixed groups. We've never come close to filling a whole alliance at once but it's not uncommon that a couple of groups will form up at slightly different times and finally end up in the same game, which can sometimes mean being able to make a bigger difference in the outcome of the game. And something nice about having this kind of network is not having those games with no healers... I've gotten kind of fed up with rolling as scholar in 100% PUG teams and that brings out the worst in me, but if it's a different matter when queuing with people from our Linkshell, and there are some others who alternate between DPS and healer as the situation requires, though of course many prefer one or the other and that's fine.

If there's not a similar network on your server, I'd recommend starting one. Early on I used the Lodestone rankings as a recruiting tool to see who in the same GC/server was playing a large number of matches, and I'd review the scoreboard at the end of matches to see who was from my server, and if they stood out based on any of the metrics (kill count, damage dealt, HP restored) I'd contact them after the match. And once you have a dozen or so people with some of them looking for people to invite, it should grow on its own.

[Buff_Archer]

I think I've run into you guys, actually. Unless you used to be a flame, that is. I recognize your name. Maybe I waved at you at some point... I do that occasionally, cuz' I'm weird.
I know what you mean about premades, but that's still not a guarantee, unless you can pack all 24 players with people in your team (which I have seen happen. It's not something that can be made with 100% success, because the game optimizes matches based on que times, but I know I've seen a group coordinate a three alliance que using 3rd party chat like TS, mumble, or party chat for Ps4). Having 8 players working together is better than none, though. That's for sure.

Now that it says in the battle log what player offs another (based on log settings I suppose) you might have seen me either killing a player, or getting killed by another player. Sometimes I'll also do a wave/point emote at a member of another GC on the periphery if I want the people around me to see they're there and no time to type, but since it says their name vs the role over their head that's only so helpful. I've always been in Adder though, just hit 50 finally and no way I'm going to start over. I've found running with at least a few others to make a match more fun, and even if the alliance doesn't do well, being in a party that plays well can make the difference between having fun and not. And yeah there's not much of a way to guarantee how your whole alliance is going to play, no matter where you are- and suppose every GC had 3 great teams, that means there's still going to be two losing ones. But I've seen every single GC play really badly, and so those who solo queue are more at the mercy of how good/bad the people queueing at the same time are, vs those who can at least bring a reliable group with them. Nothing sucks like fighting against another player where your skills are evenly matched but the have a healer with them and you don't.

[RiceisNice]

...

We do have a linkshell, but there's really no specific time window. I usually do queue after raid time (past 11pm EST), other than that, me and a couple of others would usually jump in around 8-9pm est on non-raid nights. If you have a way to contact outside, we could probably try to hit up some queues.

[seraph1m]

Playing melee in Seize is really no issue.

that's not a random example that is a representative assesment from every game its not like i cant find many images like that showing a ranged in the top? ohh and look at everyone else on the top all ranged you just got carried

TL : DR shhh child one example doesn't represent the whole

[Buff_Archer]

We do have a linkshell, but there's really no specific time window. I usually do queue after raid time (past 11pm EST), other than that, me and a couple of others would usually jump in around 8-9pm est on non-raid nights. If you have a way to contact outside, we could probably try to hit up some queues.

I'd be all for getting some cross server coordination going on, having teams queue up at the same time seems like it would have a reasonable chance of getting people in the same alliance. Well the term 'reasonable' hardly applies to pvp queues. A lot of people use TS but being on PS4, interfacing with another device during pvp is a challenge for me, but at least psn does allow people to coordinate without all having to be logged into a TS server that most people wouldn't have an easy way to know when to log onto without any kind of cross server communication.