The Feast Ranked Rewards

[Colekus]

As someone who has played various pvp systems on various games, I feel that the pvp system in ffxiv would be more enjoyable and draw in more players if they revised the ranked rewards system. I've noticed its gone from a top 200 player system to a top 100 player system which requires the player to reach those ranks to get the season reward (mounts, glamour, etc.).

One of the problems I see with this system is that players with multiple accounts that excel in pvp tend to push out other players chances at getting that top 100 spot due to wanting to reach diamond on every data center. Some such players tend to only play on their alternate accounts only for ranking up in pvp which leads to such rewards collecting dust instead of going to someone that might get more use showing their rewards within their data center. If the rewards were account wide instead of being locked to one data center, this could free up some chances for other players to get their rewards.

A better solution that I think would work however would be if the rewards system was based on individual ranking instead of a top number of players. An example would be to have the ranked seasonal reward be given to all players who reach Gold or above, similar to how most pvp systems distribute rewards to their players. This would relieve the stress of checking that top 100 placement as well as draw in more players who want to try it out to reach the ranked rewards. This could increase the player base for ffxiv's pvp system and allow for the system to be expanded upon further with new rewards and events for those that stick around.

I for one would like to enjoy ffxiv's pvp more but apart from doing daily challenges to work towards achievement mounts, I find it very demotivating to work towards getting placed in a top 100 leader board for a seasonal mount just to get pushed out by multiple professionals with their alt accounts, win traders, and boosters who get paid to increase the rank of their customer. If I got more than a title for putting forth such effort and reaching platinum, I would play in every ranked season.

[Stormfur]

Not to mention that there are people who hack, use exploits and pay others to boost them to the top 100. So it's not 100% a reflection of skill (although there are many very skilled and talented PVP players).

It has gotten to the point where there are "gatekeepers" that use their alts and coordinate with their friends to keep people out of diamond/platinum by purposefully throwing matches. Of course they aren't blatant about it, but they do "just enough" to lose. It doesn't matter to them personally because Feast only counts the highest number. So you could earn 1800 and then lose every game after that, and the leaderboard will still show you at 1800.

But I feel like the GMs' and the community managers' hands are tied with regard to what they can do. Very few people participate in PVP because it has become such a clique. GARO was a step in the right direction.

[Colekus]

I agree completely and hope that by the time the new expansion arises, they do more to improve the pvp system as a whole. Especially if they want to make it a competitive E-sport like they have been expressing lately with their tournaments.

Another idea I had that would be a good addition to pvp is to add prior seasonal rewards as items that can be gained in exchange for Wolf Collars. There's only one weapon you can exchange for each class with them and I honestly don't find them that all appealing for glamour. Adding a prior piece of armor for a greater amount of wolf collars and a mount for a very high amount like 50 to 99 wolf collars would allow players to work towards those rewards while gaining experience in pvp as they would need to play multiple seasons depending on which reward they sought out.

[Stormfur]

I've advocated for this ever since collars were introduced. Hopefully our feedback gets noticed but it really feels like the pvp forum and the wolves den itself is a ghost town.

The concern I have about making wolf collar amounts too extreme is that people would say, " hell with this, I'll just boost my char and get season rewards that way"