Rated Solo Shuffle has HUGE problems in the state it released in pre-patch. It cannot continue like this to DF.
Problem #1 “Tanks can que into rated solo shuffles.”
Tank shuffles are not fun or balanced especially in a rated scenario. Protection paladins win all other tank matchups and even with a protection paladin it feels bad to play as DPS. Nobody plays rated arenas with a tank instead of a healer at a high rating.
Problem #2 “Arena leavers”
Today I had 5 rated shuffles with my feral druid and I got 0 rating because people who lost kept leaving the shuffles resulting in no rating for anyone in the shuffle. End screen didn’t show any loss of rating for leaver and I assume no rating loss happens because leaving is so common (I tested this, you lose no rating for leaving). You only get a 15 min que prevention
Leavers should recieve a rating penalty counting all remaining rounds of shuffle as losses and taking that amount of rating from their current rating. I know this will affect people who get dc’s mid arena, but its better than a leaver meta where you basically can’t lose rating.
Problem #3 “No rewards (YET atleast)”
Rated solo shuffle has no Achievements or Titles to be gained from rating. I hope they add mounts, titles and all the rewards from normal rated arena into solo shuffle. Including Gladiator mounts and titles.
the leaving is just unreal… nice to see feedback on the beta forums being completely ignored. can someone name another game with a ranked system where you can avoid rating loss altogether by just quitting the match?
leavers should lose the same amount of rating they would have lost going 0-6. only CR, not MMR to curb smurfing. this NEEDS to happen for the gamemode to be playable. make deserter account wide while you’re at it, and solo shuffle has a chance.
It fundamentally goes against the purpose of a rating system when such a thing is possible. And it’s not just about other games, there are different kinds of rating systems. But no rating system can function as intended by not counting abandonment of a rated match as a loss for the player(s) who abandoned it, and a win for the player(s) who didn’t.
Purely from a theoretical perspective of what a rating system needs in order to function, it should definitely count the shuffle abandoned as lost for the player who abandoned it. However, the tricky part comes for the rest of the players. If everyone gets a win for the rest of the rounds unplayed, then it’d lead to a surge in inflation since it’s essentially a new place where the system inflates. It’d also lead to more instability in the theoretical accuracy of the ratings (this matters in the deepest part of the functions of rating systems, even if it might not matter to people on a superficial level).
But at the same time, punishing the player with losses while not awarding the rest with wins would instead create a new place for deflation. However, the place where it deflates would then be limited only to the player who abandoned (and the ripple effects from that, but they’re minor), instead of inflation happening for 5 players each time a player abandons.
So not awarding the rest with automatic wins for unplayed rounds and counting the shuffle itself as lost for the player who abandoned may cause a little deflation, but it’s the lesser of two evils and should demotivate abandoning games a lot more than just a slowly increasing debuff that prevents queuing again.
Right now you get honor from the rounds played & won when someone else abandons a shuffle, but without the “completion bonus” which is what awards the conquest and extra honor. If it would function like that for the rating for players who didn’t abandon, when someone else abandons a rated shuffle, then it’d have minimal impact on the stability of the rating system.