Could the rating system be re-evaluated for Shadowbringers?

[Shinklet]

With the split, half of the pvp community are gone from the queue, in their place their are new players- which is fantastic.

In my experience queues are popping often, if not, more often, because the new blood has also identified that there is less competition and less try hards in queue now which evens the competition.

Although ofcourse this could just be people bored because of the content lull.

Regardless, the matchmaking system does not do a good job at differentiating players and their respective skill.

You can get to diamond with 44% winrate across around 500 games. Which isn't exactly what 'the highest tier' should be capable of. A 44% winrate.

In addition to this, players can even get to platinum with as little as 35% winrate across 1000 games, this is because you gain more than you lose, even at platinum.

Perhaps gold and platinum should be given the +25 and -25 treatment that diamond has, because there is such a huge contrast of skill levels in platinum.

The ranked gamemode should be treated as such with an actual ranked elo system in place.

[Crit]

Just create a new tier above diamond, that'll increase match quality to those who reach it and add a more prestigious reward since diamond has rusted into nothingnessm

[Nalien]

Feast didn't have the population for a real matchmaking system, even before SE split data centers up and made matters worse. They could still do something, but all it'll do now is kill queue times further and drive even more people away...

You want better games, you're going to have to find a way to entice people to actually keep playing first. I assume most diamond players are reasonably good, but how many of them continue to actively queue? From what I gather, Feast has a pretty weak competitive community, most just aiming for a safe rating and stopping completely, treating it more as a chore than a competitive game mode. Right on them for doing so, too. SE doesn't remotely reward people who push for top 10 or rank 1, the rewards are frankly a joke... Heck, most of the community seems to consistently hate the top 100 rewards in general... It's a wonder people come back each season at all...

Again, you could try and fix rating and matchmaking, but all it'll do is slow down queues further and push more people away. SE needs to get people actively queuing before doing anything else. Even if you have a good system in place to differentiate players skill levels, what does it matter when almost all the skilled players straight up stop once their rating is safe? Even the current system isn't actually that bad, the issue is that most of the high tier players just stop playing. They've no reason to keep playing once their rating is safe. The result is a few diamonds who stick around getting matched largely with low platinum players, and that creates a jarring difference in skill level that puts even more diamond off from queuing... If all the diamond and all the high platinum players kept queuing, you'd likely see more quality matches, but why would they? Why should they? Their rating is safely in the top 100 so they've got their rewards, and even if they want to play, they can just go play an alt instead for that fix.

Just create a new tier above diamond, that'll increase match quality to those who reach it and add a more prestigious reward since diamond has rusted into nothingnessm

A "Master Wolf" title and 1 extra collar per season? I somehow doubt that would entice many people... Not when the vast majority are already perfectly happy ending each season with platinum. Won't even increase match quality to those who achieve it, you reach that new rank and your queue is completely dead with how active diamond seems to be these days, perhaps that is an increase in quality though...

I'd say add a PvP specific mentor crown type icon that displays your last seasons ranking and looks "cool". That could entice people to actually push higher each season, why settle for a lame #87 next to your name when you can aim for something better? Better than glamours/mounts/titles as a reward at least, in my opinion. It's hard to show those rewards off in a lot of cases, and it's very subjective whether one likes the look of them compared to others (Beta Wolf basically being a purely ironic title, arguably the worst title in the game for EN clients). A mentor icon style thing? Doesn't really have any competition. Mentor crown and RP symbol? That's about it... I imagine most people who play Feast would wear such an icon by default, and if it's showing your rank placement as well, then it becomes a matter of pride to push higher each season, rather than settling for a "safe" rating. More skilled players actively pushing in queue, better quality matches overall.

I think the general reward structure for Feast could do with an overhaul too. Obviously something like more rewards for wolf collars is a given at this point, just to encourage more non-top 100 players, but at the higher tiers I think rank 1 and top 10 needs an adjustment; Change it to top 3 and top 15. Top 3 either all get the trophy, or SE pushes the boat out and makes a Gold/Silver/Bronze version of it. Top 15 could get a special token that can be exchanged alongside wolf collar weapons for a glowing variant? Perhaps do the same with the armors too, glowing versions of the body pieces could be rather nice, although glowing armor isn't something we've seen since 2.x and glows in general are usually hideous... Still, it would be a nice addition to top 10 rewards, right now it's just a free wolf collar weapon? Very lame reward considering anyone who placed bronze every season can have one of those now... Top 10 players will have more weapons of course, but it's not like you can equip two of them at once to show that off...

Better rewards for those tiers, and more rewards overall should encourage more people to push at that level? More people pushing at high levels, more decent players in queue, better matches overall.

[Crit]

Some people, myself included, would rather have 3-4 pops a day that are genuinely good matches rather than 30 pops a day of pure rng madness with climbing being dictated by awful matchmaking. A tier above diamond is in order for the veteran/skilled players to achieve to stay higher on the board or climb even further by playing with only diamonds where those quality matches will be decided by skill, not luck with matchmaking like currently.

Guild Wars 2 had a neat cosmetic emblem next to your name based on your tier in that current season, Feast adding an emblem or your ranking number next to your name is a very nice incentive.

[Araxes]

The Feast actually had a better way of Ranking players in the old seasons. It was a struggle to even reach gold back in the days and we had maybe 2 or 3 diamonds in season 1+2 wich made it actually look like high Tier. I dont know why they made it so easy to climb the ladder. Maybe to give less experienced players a sence of "accomplishment"

[Canadane]

I dont know why they made it so easy to climb the ladder. Maybe to give less experienced players a sence of "accomplishment"

That's pretty much their philosophy on the entire game.