PVP and arenas big issue

PVP Arenas
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Solo shuffle -Systemic failures,unfair penalties,Wasted Time,and a completely broken support system.I’d like to explain in detail why I feel that Solo Shuffle, in its current form, simply doesn’t work — and why I’ve reached the point where it’s no longer worth playing, whether as a healer, DPS, or any other role. This isn’t the result of one bad day, but the accumulation of many matches, patterns, and extreme situations.
I’m not a new player. I’ve been playing World of Warcraft for 16 years, I’ve experienced every expansion, every meta shift, and I know exactly when a system works and when it doesn’t. What I’m experiencing now isn’t a “bad day” — it’s a systemic problem.
My biggest issue is that the system doesn’t reward or punish player performance — it punishes the quality of the lobby. If you get bad players, bad comps, poor synergy, bad cooldown usage, poor target selection, it doesn’t matter what you do. Solo Shuffle doesn’t distinguish between bad gameplay and a bad lobby. If the lobby collapses, you collapse with it — no matter how well you play.
Matchmaking is often not just “bad” — it’s outright broken. For example, when three players of the same class end up in one lobby (3 Rogues, 3 Warriors, 3 DHs, etc.). These aren’t balanced matches. They’re not “challenges.” They’re mathematically skewed comps that the system should never allow — yet Solo Shuffle builds them like it’s perfectly normal.
This is especially visible as a healer, but it affects every role. You can’t carry bad DPS as a healer. You can’t carry bad healers as a DPS. If the comp works against you, if the other side has better synergy, if someone griefs, doesn’t use defensives, or hits the wrong target — you’re done. And you pay the price as if you played poorly.
There’s a strong feeling of “MMR gravity.” No matter what I play, win, or lose, I always get pulled back to the same range. If I climb, I get extreme lobbies, a 0–6 or 1–5, and I’m right back where I started. It feels like you can’t climb because the system pulls you down — and you pay for matchmaking errors.
And here’s one of the most important points that few talk about: time loss.
In its current form, Solo Shuffle doesn’t just cost rating — it costs time. A broken lobby or bad matchmaking doesn’t just punish you in points, it wastes 20–30 minutes with nothing in return. If you get multiple bad lobbies in a row, you lose hours — not because of your gameplay, but because of system failures.
After 16 years of playing, I know exactly how much my time is worth — and right now, Solo Shuffle simply isn’t worth it.
Some might say “then play rated arena, M+, or raids.”
But those modes are practically dead — or at least not functioning normally.
Not because they’re bad, but because it’s nearly impossible to form a team.
Someone’s always busy, someone leaves, someone’s doing something else.
Whether it’s 2v2, 3v3, M+, or raiding — it’s always the same problem:
you have to wait for others to be available, and that’s often impossible.
That’s why I choose Solo Shuffle — it’s the only mode where I don’t have to wait for anyone, where I can queue whenever I have time.
That’s exactly why it’s so important that this mode works properly.
That’s why I feel that Solo Shuffle, in its current form, doesn’t reward good gameplay — but brutally punishes bad lobbies. It’s not about difficulty. It’s not about pressure. It’s about paying the price for system errors — no matter the character or role.

And now, today’s outrageous incident:
• Over 30 minutes of queue time
• Match pops
• Loading screen
• The game instantly kicks me out with no input
• Then immediately applies a 2-hour Deserter penalty
I didn’t leave.
I didn’t disconnect.
There was no internet issue.
I did nothing.
The game removed me — and still punished me.
And what makes this even worse:
The Blizzard Support system is broken.
The ticket page has no Submit button.
No matter what I do, I can’t report the issue.
I tried:
• Clearing cache
• Clearing cookies
• Incognito mode
• Different browsers
Nothing.
The system simply doesn’t work.

In summary:
• Solo Shuffle fails
• The game punishes me for its own error
• My time is wasted
• I’m locked out of the mode for 2 hours
• And I can’t even report it because Support is broken
This is completely unacceptable.
Until matchmaking handles broken lobbies separately, monitors class duplication, reduces extreme MMR swings, and treats player time as valuable — Solo Shuffle is not viable long-term.
Thank you for reading and responding.
Respectfully,
Pufinnyo

5 Likes
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Queue sniping happening at every MMR. How is it possible to always have exactly 2 russians in a team, every time there is a comrade in a lobby?

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I think this is more about matchmaking patterns than actual queue sniping.
Players from the same region tend to queue at the same times, so the system naturally groups them together more often.
It looks intentional, but most of the time it’s just coincidence.
Pufinnyo

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Yes… and 1 + 1 is 11 as well…

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I can’t really give a meaningful answer to that assumption. :smiley:

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Thank you for the feedback.

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I completely understand you. The solo system is very poorly designed and doesn’t work at all.

I’ll give my personal (frustrated) opinion on this.

And first of all: I’m usually totally against removing anything from the game. But the whole solo thing is completely backfiring. They should come up with a better tool for finding players instead of trying to turn a multiplayer game into a solo player game.
Too many different game brackets further divide the already small PvP community.

I recently came back after a break and have been trying out the solo thing for a few weeks/months now. First as a DPS, which for me meant: out of 3 hours of playtime, 2 hours of standing around and waiting because you just wait forever for the queue to open.

Logged in as a healer, instant queue. I can tell you, that’s 10 times more frustrating than DPS.
But now comes the big problem: in 9 out of 10 games, there always seems to be someone who either comes in PvE gear, is AFK, is completely new to WoW, and has no idea what’s going on. (Strangely enough, the starting MMR for new players is 2.1k-2.2k MMR, but that’s another story).

As a result, that player leaves the game with a score of 0:6 or, very rarely, 1:5.
For the healer, that means 3 wins, 3 losses = 0 points and the same MMR.

Then there are players who absolutely refuse to listen to others or can’t read English and always go for a different target. This player loses 3 rounds with me and loses 3 rounds with the other healer. The same goes for the aforementioned M+ Andys who come into the game with 0 Versa. It’s simply impossible to keep people alive. Just one attempt to stun the enemy healer and Andy is sleeping with the fishes.

Rogues who sap something 3 times without an opener, Rets who pop bubble at 100% while everyone is still out of combat. Players who run behind pillars and die, No CD use, no use of Kicks, some of them not even walk and tanking every global like a boss. … etc. etc. etc.
I wonder how other healers seem to manage to play higher than 2.3k in this solo thingy.

this gameplay is like on 500mmr, and it feels like you can not really carry much unless the opponent healer is bad.

Although I also don’t understand how some people play at 3k+ with hundreds of games and got 0 honorable kills as DPS.

1 Like
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I understand what you’re saying, and you’re right about a lot of it — Solo Shuffle really is full of completely unpredictable situations, and healers feel that chaos even more than DPS.
But my post wasn’t about a specific example, and I wasn’t saying the mode should be removed.
I just wanted to highlight how inconsistent the system can be, and how strangely it evaluates healer performance sometimes.
I’m not blaming the players, and I’m not saying everyone plays badly.
I simply pointed out that as a healer you often have very little control over the outcome, and the MMR can show something completely different from what you actually experience in the match.
Everything you mentioned — AFKs, PvE gear, 0 versa players, random target selection — these are all part of why Solo Shuffle feels so chaotic.
And that’s exactly why the system often struggles to properly reflect a healer’s real impact.
So I absolutely understand your frustration — I just wanted to point out how weird the system can behave, not analyze a specific match.

10

I think we mean the same thing.
But the question is, what would be the solution? Apart from removing the solo and thereby making the “real arena” more active again, among other things?
Maybe give every healer at least +5 Rating or MMR when they go 3:3?

1 Like
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I think we’re definitely talking about the same issue, and I fully understand what you mean.
But I don’t think the solution is as simple as “remove Solo” or “give healers +5 rating for every 3:3”.
The core problem is that the system treats healers and DPS completely differently.
DPS MMR is extremely rigid, while healer MMR is extremely volatile — and that mismatch creates all the strange outcomes we keep seeing.
Giving +5 for a 3:3 would help a little, but it wouldn’t fix the underlying issue, which is that:
healers have far less control over the outcome of a match, yet the system expects them to carry the entire lobby’s mistakes.
A real solution would need to address things like:
• better detection of AFKs and griefers
• not throwing brand‑new healers into 2.1k+ lobbies
• adjusting expectations for how much impact a healer can realistically have
• making 3:3 not feel like a complete waste of time
• reducing the rating swing difference between healers and DPS
So yeah, +5 for 3:3 could be part of the solution, but on its own it’s not enough — the system needs deeper changes.

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