First-time PvPer, I have some thoughts...

[Sindele]

It's not really a "UX miss that could have been caught with testing" because it's a deliberate decision targeting a different cohort, choosing to preserve bar layouts rather than overwriting them when a revamp changes things. It's the same reason that invalid buttons stay on your bar after an expansion changes them, so you remember what was placed where and can adapt to the change easily. 100% the decision was discussed and they decided that the small amount of people who would a) blindly queue in without checking and b) couldn't figure out where their PVP profile was to assign new buttons when they realized their buttons didn't work wasn't worth sacrificing the existing PVP bar layouts of the entire playerbase for.

A tutorial would have been a nice way to avoid it, but sacrifices get made sometimes.

[AorusCorsair]

It's not really a "UX miss that could have been caught with testing" because it's a deliberate decision targeting a different cohort, choosing to preserve bar layouts rather than overwriting them when a revamp changes things. It's the same reason that invalid buttons stay on your bar after an expansion changes them, so you remember what was placed where and can adapt to the change easily. 100% the decision was discussed and they decided that the small amount of people who would a) blindly queue in without checking and b) couldn't figure out where their PVP profile was to assign new buttons when they realized their buttons didn't work wasn't worth sacrificing the existing PVP bar layouts of the entire playerbase for.

A tutorial would have been a nice way to avoid it, but sacrifices get made sometimes.

Here's the thing about UX though: It's not about what the developers intend or the experienced playerbase thinks. When people are new they don't know or care about all of our opinions. They're just trying to sit down and play the game. The fact that this post exists shows that there was, in fact, a UX miss. The fact that you and I "get it" and intuitively knew that we needed to replace our expired hotbar skills doesn't mean that others have failed when they didn't have the same experience to prompt that insight.

You're probably right that most people who care about this content don't really need a tutorial (with the exception of overtime mechanics). You're probably also right that they made a conscious decision not to invest resources into providing one. It's just really unfortunate when this ends up alienating new players like the OP.

[Gserpent]

Here's the thing about UX though: It's not about what the developers intend or the experienced playerbase thinks. When people are new they don't know or care about all of our opinions. They're just trying to sit down and play the game. The fact that this post exists shows that there was, in fact, a UX miss. The fact that you and I "get it" and intuitively knew that we needed to replace our expired hotbar skills doesn't mean that others have failed when they didn't have the same experience to prompt that insight.

You're probably right that most people who care about this content don't really need a tutorial (with the exception of overtime mechanics). You're probably also right that they made a conscious decision not to invest resources into providing one. It's just really unfortunate when this ends up alienating new players like the OP.

I genuinely don't think there's a lot lost, if the people being lost are so oblivious that they don't even notice the multiple pop-up texts telling them their hotbars have changed to PvP ones, they don't notice that their hotbars are different/full of slashed-out icons, etc.

There's a line, somewhere, where you can't do anything but literally point to the player and go "you are the problem, this is not something anyone reasonable would try to design around or for."

[Nytes]

The fact that this post exists shows that there was, in fact, a UX miss. The fact that you and I "get it" and intuitively knew that we needed to replace our expired hotbar skills doesn't mean that others have failed when they didn't have the same experience to prompt that insight.

The fact that this post exists shows players don't read patch notes to figure out whats changed with the game, or read any type of release data or post that the devs and designers put out for us to have knowledge of what we need to know. They want it spoon feed, but it already is, they just have to simply read.