Ranked Queue has become a joke, thanks to Duo Queue

The decision was bad and I'm just making this short post to point at the highlights:

1. We can see what the leaderboard looks like. Same old, multi-account people right up the top. Forming duo with friends from teams etc to gain advantage.
2. Bad duos wreck games too. On numerous occasions we end up with pipp farmer duo friends who have no idea what to do.
3. General balance across games has been poor.
4. Queue times have not improved at all. In fact, worsened.

Don't start your chest banging below if you're in top 250 and I'm not. I really don't care about what tier or division anyone is in. This is the same poor quality of games across all tiers.

Please, re-consider and make ranked as Solo Queue exclusive! Let every player complete on their own.Improve the ATs (e.g. make them more frequent etc) for players who would like to play with friends.

Based on the current state of unranked, I now prefer to learn a new class in Ranked itself. There's no point playing unranked anymore for any purpose other than reward track farming while chilling out with guildies. I'm seeing several other players doing the same. They're learning in Ranked. Duo queues will eventually turn ranked into what unranked is now. Save it!

you should state what server you are and also look at another server that you aren't

because it's quite different

@Liza.2758 said:you should state what server you are and also look at another server that you aren't

because it's quite different

sPvP is cross server?

@Liza.2758 - what do you mean by server. I'm talking NA PvP in general.

@BadMed.3846 said:@Liza.2758 - what do you mean by server. I'm talking NA PvP in general.

you realize the game has 2 server right ? NA and EU

@Liza.2758 said:

@BadMed.3846 said:@Liza.2758 - what do you mean by server. I'm talking NA PvP in general.

"Server" is a weird way of saying "region" and improper terminology that only really refers to World vs. World. Of course it's going to confuse people. Say region or "Na or EU" like normal people.

@mortrialus.3062 said:

@Liza.2758 said:

@BadMed.3846 said:@Liza.2758 - what do you mean by server. I'm talking NA PvP in general.

well forgive me then in other games ( LoL , fornite ) this is what people says ... i didn't know gw2 has such their own ancient language

deleted - accidental late post.

I'm 100% on board with this. If 2v2 AT's were a permanent feature and more frequent we wouldn't even need ranked DuoQ. Then we wouldn't have players trying to learn to play that way, busting the already doody matchmaker, and making it hard on themselves and their teams. Similarly the top .1% of players all stacking together exploiting it to ensure they are the only ones on the leaderboards would be forced to play ranked solo, spreading them out more and making ranked more fair in general.

Ranked queue has always been a joke. 2v2 actually makes it somewhat bearable.

1. Don't know who the alts are but I recognise a lot of the leaderboard players so I don't know wtf you're talking on about with alts.

2.If you're being matched with pip farmers, says a lot more about you than bad duos.

3.Balance is aite right now although some classes like the mirage can use more tweaking. Ppl nonstop complaining about balance generally don't know wtf they're talking about in the first place. Mostly lower ranked players. Devs shouldnt balance the game based on those opinions.

4.Queue times are the same. Not longer, not faster. You get faster queues during prime time and slower queues during off hours.

Also just because you dont have friends to play with doesnt mean others shouldnt be allowed to play with their friends. Also you make it sound like solo queue is going to make ranked games soo much better. It's going to be the fucking same. You're not any good now and you're not gonna be any better with solo queue only. It just becomes a more miserable experience for people who just want to play with friends.

@Les.4872 said:

1. Don't know who the alts are but I recognise a lot of the leaderboard players so I don't know kitten you're talking on about with alts.Let's not get into naming. I know for very well who some of them are.

2.If you're being matched with pip farmers, says a lot more about you than bad duos.I think you're defying logic there and trying to put on an elitist hat. Please get down to earth and be reasonable.

3.Balance is aite right now although some classes like the mirage can use more tweaking. Ppl nonstop complaining about balance generally don't know kitten they're talking about in the first place. Mostly lower ranked players. Devs shouldnt balance the game based on those opinions.Balancing always needs to be a joint effort. Community opinion matters.

4.Queue times are the same. Not longer, not faster. You get faster queues during prime time and slower queues during off hours.I'd agree to the more or less same queue times part. However, many here used to claim that duo will attract more people to the game. All I'm saying is that the ability to duo has not benefited the queue times in any way.

Also just because you dont have friends to play with doesnt mean others shouldnt be allowed to play with their friends.Play with your friends. GW2 has many more game modes. ATs, WvW, Fractals, Raids, Open World etc etc. Leave Ranked alone.

Also you make it sound like solo queue is going to make ranked games soo much better. It's going to be the kitten same.You have the crystal ball? I'm sure you had it when you asked for duo queue too.

You're not any good now and you're not gonna be any better with solo queue only. It just becomes a more miserable experience for people who just want to play with friends.You're trying to be too judgemental by declaring that I'm not any good now. At least it proves how terrible you are!

Go play a single player game then

@witcher.3197 said:Go play a single player game then

Kind of a pointless comment considering it's still playing multiplayer, and competitively at that.

@Les.4872 said:Also just because you dont have friends to play with doesnt mean others shouldnt be allowed to play with their friends. Also you make it sound like solo queue is going to make ranked games soo much better. It's going to be the kitten same. You're not any good now and you're not gonna be any better with solo queue only. It just becomes a more miserable experience for people who just want to play with friends.

Why are you accusing this person of having no friends? A more accurate comment would be no friends willing to play Gw2 Ranked; which btw, I think is pretty common sentiment, especially now. You sort of inadvertently agree it's a miserable experience, so getting anyone into it wouldn't be an easy task so it's pretty hypocritical to accuse someone of being alone having said that. If it's going to be the same as it is now, I don't really see the issue and you sort of immediately contradict that by saying it would be different. Truth is, it probably would be. Pretty drastically, but for the better. Arenanet has said it before that the matchmaker has difficulties fitting in DuoQ's, especially those with higher ratings and disparity and the result is heavily imbalanced matchmaking, and that's not to say it's not already bad enough on its own.

SPvP does not have the population to support DuoQ in its current state and the sooner it gets removed, the sooner one more technical issue with ranked will be fixed and we can maybe move forward in building up a stable population so that the game can support DuoQ.

@BadMed.3846 said:You're trying to be too judgemental by declaring that I'm not any good now. At least it proves how terrible you are!

Yes I agree. I am a terrible person and I still think a solo queue only ranked queue is a horrible idea. Remember last season when there was solo queue only at 1600 above? The only incentive it gave to players is to stay below 1600 so that they can play with friends or to not bother with ranked at all because solo play at that level is nightmarish they way matchmaking is (plats getting matched with golds +5/-20 games). Population was among the lowest then and there was at most 2 people in legendary division by the end of the season (NA). Look i get you want a more balanced matchmaking experience but anet is not dumping any resources on pvp atm and the greatest incentive for a lot of people to play ranked is the ability to queue with others to share the climbing experience. Makes the climb less stressful and is generally a better experience. In terms of gameplay the only advantage duo queues get is better coordination and thats if theyre on discord. The idea is sharing the same matchmaking experience is more enjoyable with others. Doesnt make them better or worse. Removing duo queue again is just gonna drive away more people and you're gonna get even more volatile games against really high ranked players or really low ranked players.

I see the win trade wars season 14 went pretty good. I mean look at the leaderboard lol.

Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting to bring back the old no duo queues for 1600 and above. Do it across the board. Make this game mode solo only.

The sole purpose of this game mode should be around single player leaderboard. This is impossible to be fair without effective matchmaking and elimination of advantages/ disadvantages offered by duo queue.

@Les.4872 said:

@BadMed.3846 said:You're trying to be too judgemental by declaring that I'm not any good now. At least it proves how terrible you are!

Did duo queue really bring back a substantial amount of players? Getting player statistics from Anet would be nice.

I would argue bringing back duo queue made it easier to reach Legendary; not really a population issue.You say duo queueing's only advantage is better coordination, but that's a huge advantage in sPvP. In game communication is limited to pings and targets, while voice comm is faster and clearer.Not to mention matchmaking doesn't prioritize balancing duo queuers, but prioritizes SR balance. Having two duos in one team while the other is all solo is not an uncommon experience.

I'm on the side of removing duo queue, but only if Anet makes 2v2 queue permanent and not just an automated tourney. That way duo queuers have a place to go, while separating the advantages from regular conquest.

gasp guess who saw this coming ;)

2v2 games can surely exist as another mode. That will be a very different game experience anyway.

Honestly at this point they need to make 2v2 Ranked a thing within itself and start using that new 2v2 map and introducing more of them. Ranked PvP took a swan dive when they removed the 5 man queing which I honestly think they did because they didn't want to bother making multiple que modes for Ranked. Feel free to correct me on that Anet, but it honestly just looked excessively lazy when it came to needing to fix your matchmaking in regards to group queing and solo queing. You have a cooperative, team oriented game mode and you don't even let people play the Competitive mode as a full group which allows for picking classes and builds to properly complement each other in a match and coordinate to appropriate levels.

Also take Conquest as a game mode in sPvP. Its outdated. When was the last time they changed anything about Conquest fundamentally? They removed the first version of the Capricorn map because Underwater combat is atrocious, that was the last time they did anything that actually "changed" Conquest as a game mode. Since then? Conquest hasn't changed. Yes I know, the mechanic in Revenge of the Capricorn with needing to capture the point for a burst of points, and Temple where you cap Tranquility and it caps all points, and blah blah. I know, but fundamentally Conquest has stayed the same. Yet classes...they've changed significantly over the years. GW2 year 1 the most AoE you saw was maybe a smearing of Symbols on the ground from a Guardian or Marks from Necro. It was rather sparse. Now? Necros wrap their AoE around the points like The Blob, Holosmiths have several AoE skills with radii that extend beyond the capture point radius, Spellbreaker Full Counter radius takes up all of a capture point, Mesmers vomit clones to the extent of flooding the capture point and so on. People talk about "power creep" a lot and I think its more appropriate to call it "AoE creep" because its a lot now...a lot and its made Conquest a nightmare.

Right now we can all tell that Anet is essentially ditching Ranked as a thing they care about and are focusing on moving towards the Automated Tournaments and the Tournament system in general. They did the same thing in PvE with Dungeons and just moved everything to Fractals and Raids. I played GW1 for years and I never saw this happen, even the Campaign story missions got attention with Hard Mode which had increased drop chances for Uncommon and Rare gear (Purples and Golds which were good) and increased Rewards at the end and even challenges with title rewards like Vanquishing and Guardian (go look them up for more details on that).

However now with GW2? It legitimately looks like they do this "Oh, we need to fix this? Make it better? Naw, we'll just do this new thing and ignore actually fixing and improving our game content". Didn't they legit have an ExtraLife stream where one of them said "I wish Dungeons were content people wanted to play more" Well uh...yeah so then do something about that. Not that Dungeons are the point here but the same basis of logic applies, we're going to get to a point where Ranked queing is just pip farm, and I mean entirely pip farm where no one gives a damn and anyone with any measure of care about PvP will either leave the game or the Tournaments system will be their go to place for actual competitive play, which has basically already happened at this point.

ArenaNet needs to evaluate their priorities and stop adding shiny new content and make what we have better or listen to the community on what it actually wants. GvG was a staple and amazing part of GW1, people loved it...and we still don't have it in GW2. No, WvW doesn't count, the Alliances system will barely count. Not the same.

Have made several new friends this season due to duoQ, and even brought some friends in with it. Would hate to see it go.

I miss solo queue only Ranked

I still think the best way to go about this is to double the frequency of ATs and make Ranked solo queue only again

Noone was legendary in NA while there was only solo queue. That's says enough about the unfair advantage duo queuers have on solo players.

@yanniell.1236 said:Noone was legendary in NA while there was only solo queue. That's says enough about the unfair advantage duo queuers have on solo players.

BUT WE JUST WANT TO PLAY WITH OUR FRIENDS...and farm pugs