Are you enjoying this?

[Coffex]

Are you actually having fun in pvp? If so please explain why you are enjoying it. If you are not enjoying it, please explain why.

Seems the general consensus I am hearing is that the pvp is worse than before. More cheating, more win trading, and all around just poor ranking system. People are playing hundreds of matches with w/l of 50/50 and stuck in bronze rank.

I would like to hear what people enjoy about it. We have heard plenty of people complain about the things listed above, but what do you actually enjoy? They are making balance changes so its hard to say its balanced. They have openly admitted to rampant cheating so its hard to say its competitive.

I want to enjoy pvp in this game. Explain to me how you are having fun, perhaps we can all try to do what you are doing and you can help others enjoy this system.

[SeiyaSoiya]

If you play pvp for fun, it won't last long, the kits are rather simple and the excitement of rng based wins or losses wears off quite quickly.
If you play to climb and get better, it's not meant to be fun, ranked in any competitive pvp game is about getting serious and going tryhard, it doesn't really matter if the game is balanced, you play to overcome the challenge.
personally? I'm trying to hit crystal, I am poopsocking dragoon and since this is solo queue only there is no social interaction to be had, this is a lone endeavor that feels a lot like work, but since I'm obsessed with it, I just soldier on
fun will come later once I can afford to try out new classes and actually learn the game, for now all I need to do is keep playing more and more games until I make it.

[Flamvell]

Don't take it serious. That's all. Grind your rewards in CC, enjoy the battle itself and don't give a damn about ranked until the next series season.

[Dionysius]

It's quite different for me because what I am hearing from people in-game, reddit, youtube, etc (except forum) has been very positive. Everyone I know that never touch The Feast are now playing PVP on daily basis (including FL).

The pros (fun/engaging/fast/unique jobs/less-frustration/rewards) out-weight the cons (cheating/spam/win-trading).
Probably because I got to Crystal without meeting any cheater/win-traders.

I'd say if someone stucked in Bronze, maybe it's time to change strategy/jobs, don't think it's the game's fault.

[Commander_Justitia]

I don't think there is more cheating or wintrading, just more new people in PvP. New people don't like when they lose and search for reasons why they lose, because it isn't them, it must be cheating. Also the rng matchmaking doesn't help I agree with that. I played all of the old PvP, and I know at least for EU, the cheating and wintrading issues were not as big as the community made it sound like. You just don't get affected by it much here, not a specific reason to quit PvP over it. (its a way bigger problem in PvE btw even if that is not against other players)

I personally didn't like PvP gameplay anymore since they seperated it from PvE skills during heavensward/stormblood, but the memes and situations are still fun that come out of it. Imagine everyone in clown costumes and makeup while Benny Hill theme runs in the background, that is like the peak gameplay here.

[Dionysius]

But I hope they're taking more stern stance against cheater/win-trader.

[LowIQ]

I want to enjoy pvp in this game.

Now is a bad time for this.
Before the revamp we had pvp modes like rival wings and frontline to play casually for fun but now it's all about crystal conflict. RW got canned completely and FL doesn't go well with how the new pvp is designed.

[AlexSag]

I had an amazing time with CC when it first launched, hated it when I was trying to rank up on PLD, but am really enjoying it again now that I'm just playing casual matches. Aside from the cheating, I don't think the game is balanced enough to try to take ranking up seriously on certain jobs.

[Corbeau]

Most people enjoying Crystalline Conflict are busy playing it. With rare exceptions, you're only ever going to get angry voices on the forums.

I enjoy Crystalline Conflict a lot, because it has great class identity and quick enjoyable matches where your contribution is palpable. In contrast, old pvp was an infamously miserable slog not worth touching with a ten foot pole. Frontlines still sucks but it always sucked and will never not suck due to it's basic design as an armed-mob management simulator.

[gioroggia]

Honestly, I have more fun playing unranked or even (gods forbid) frontline. Ranked takes a lot of the fun out of it since it puts you at the mercy of things you have absolutely no control of. I am almost always the top dps in my team, and more often than not in the whole match as well. I play objectively and strategically. I think I am a very decent player for the rank I am at (gold 2). Still, I lose just as often as I win, and since I hardly ever get streaks I have been stuck at gold for some time.

The problem is that although I know there is a lot of RNG involved (player matching, team composition, victory distribution, etc) I can't help but get upset when I am about to rank up to plat only to have a streak of eight losses. Something just like that has happened three times in gold already. I have 132 wins, I think, and 260 CC games total. The vast majority is ranked. Yet I am stuck. People with fewer games and worst win % are in crystal because they got one or a few win streaks.

I also get upset about the game balance. We all know it's terrible. I mostly play Dragoon (sometimes scholar or machinist), and though people *think* Dragoon is good, it is not. It's middle of the pack. The large damage numbers you see at the end hide the fact that Dragoon has no cc to contribute with the team, no utility, has difficulty finishing up retreating enemies - it has only 1 dash (the jump), no cc, and no speed % bonus - and a good deal of its damage is AOE, which is not as useful as single-target concentrated damage. Also, 1 on 1 it's the weakest melee DPS, losing even to monk and reaper. So, when I am playing with or against RDM or NIN, I know they are far more useful to the fight than I am. That if I picked one of them I would rank up faster. But I really don't want to.

So... yeah. For all these reasons ranked hasn't been particularly fun to me. I do have more fun playing unranked because then I don't get upset about my teammates or game balance. I just play whatever I want and enjoy it.

Still, for some mysterious reason, I want to get to crystal.