I want to mention here three problems. Could mention more, but let’s start with the most important ones.
MMR system should be definitely changed. As overall item level is the absolute dominant stat in the game, which nearly always means the difference between two teams, it can’t be simply neglected when counting MMR. If someone didn’t start at the beginning of the season, or - let’s say - wants to climb the ladder with an alt, has nearly no chance to break even the “magical” 1400 barrier because of fully armed and geared teams joining from PvE content in 220+ gear. Such teams can not be beaten even with the best - and fully followed - tacticts, as they can literally one-shot everyone. And in PvP - as it’s a complex teamplay - tacticts should be the decisive part. Brain and good coordination should be more important than raw power itself.
So my solution would be a new MMR counting system, which should be based on: rating, overall item level and gear stats (with priority on versatility). An example: with my warlock I started at the beginning of the season, and I reached 1800+ in no time, as I climbed the ladder with the main wave. However my paladin - which is considered a better class for PvP than warlock - is stuck between 1100-1300. And it is not the consequence of being in bad teams or following inadequate tactics, it’s simply because of the item level differences.
Deal with boosters. An other urgent problem, as they’re ruining the PvP brackets up to 1600. This problem is however in connection with the above mentioned, as boosters arrive to RBGs with relatively low CR but high item level (probably from PvE aswell). How could they have such high item levelled gear without higher ranking if not from PvE? Yesterday with my team we met an opponent, where 8/10 players were above 1,4 CR and about 215-220 item level, while the remaining 2/10 had significantly lower CR (under 400) and item level. They ruined us in no time. It was clearly a booster team. And it isn’t a unique one, the frequency of such cases is increasing. It simply ruins the game experience as you literally can’t do anything to avoid it. Blizzard could, and should.
I have to say, that I don’t have problem with boosting in PvE content, as it hurts noone. But in PvP it ruins the game of those who simply want to play, and it’s simply frustrating and unfair.
PvP gear should be significantly better for PvP than PvE gear. As conversely PvP gear is literally a rubbish in PvE content. Efforts invested in PvP shouldn’t be neglected and devalued by letting players with PvE gear ruin the game of those who spent lots of hours building up their PvP toon. It would help to avoid the above mentioned situations as well.
All in all: the system should be reconsidered as it literally doesn’t have any catch-up system for those who didn’t join at the beginning, or want to play with alts as well. At the same time, current system provides the opportunity to unfair and game-ruining phenomenons and practices which shouldn’t be allowed.
MMR is all about rating and it should be.
It reflects your overall winrate/experience in pvp.
If you take gear into account, that would mean sending 220+ ilvl pve team to the slaugther vs 1k8+ rating real pvp players. => that’s a new issue
For boosters they probably find a flaw like queuing with low ilvl then switch during prep time or anything like that… => still an issue with boosters
You could probably use something like curent season max rating reached to force boosters going back to their high rating faster/losing rating slower, but this would lower pvp standards by much because defeat wouldn’t be that important…
Since ages mmr has never been a problem, the actual issue is gear being too much of a gap, especially for late starters or alts.
Quick fix would be a better catchup mechanism for alts, like honor being uncapped/shared for characters on same realm.
Better fix would be to fix the fact that +7ilvl makes you world apart …
The WoD scaling solution seems okayish but not sufficient if it’s something basic like :
+pve gears keep their ilvl in pvp instantiated context/war mode
+pvp gears gain +15ilvl in pvp instantiated context/war mode
There’s still an issue about progression. How the upgraded conquest items would work ? If the upgrade as it is now, the issue would still be there…
Something like adaptative gear with rating could be nicer :
pve items in pvp instantiated context => downscale to 200
conquest pvp items in pvp instantiated context => downscale to your current rating depending of context (2s’ rating in 2’s, 3’ rating in 3’s, etc.)
*Let’s say i have full 226 items from rbg, if im playing in 2s’ my gear would downscale to : 200 during 0->1399 rating, 207 during 1400->1599, etc.
It’s only downscale, so being ungeared would remain a thing.
But progressing and upgrading would also remain.
Boosters cant abused their gear in low rating because of downscale.
Looks like a fair thing.
There are almost no boosters up till 1600. The main reason for that is that the boosters are high MMR. And they need to be to make the boosting fast and easy.
So when 2-3 1400 MMR players get boosted by a real boost team their MMR is typically around 2100. Each win the 1400 rated players will gain like 100 rating up ill 1800-2100. The MMR of the boosted players will shoot up. …so in a few games the team avg mmr will be 2400-2500.
At 1400-1600 you whont see any boost teams since that would mean the boosted ppl only gain 10-20 points per win. Which means a boost would take a week to complete.
What you do see is (pvE or arena) geared players who just started doing RBGs.
If you take gear into account, that would mean sending 220+ ilvl pve team to the slaugther vs 1k8+ rating real pvp players. => that’s a new issue
Actually it wouldn’t. What I suggest is a system which prioritizes matchmaking not only by actual MMR but as a secondary principle by the teams average item level in the same brackets.
Let’s say: there are 4 teams with nearly the same MMR, but average item levels are eg. Team A: 201, Team B: 203, Team C: 215, Team D: 217. Than the secondary organizing principle would pair the teams based on the average item level, so Team A vs. Team B and Team C vs. Team D. That way it would be available to avoid unbalanced slaughters in the same brackets.
Something like adaptative gear with rating could be nicer :
This one seems to be a fair method as well, I admit.
won’t make a big difference
let’s say im 220 ilvl from rbg i can stomp arena under 1400 just because oneshoting noob is fun
that’s the average kid thinking…
also about CR, you usually try to make a group with all cr close but MMR is hidden and quite different from CR if you manage to win/loss 3 in a row or more … (the fact that this is used instead of cr/hidden outside of rbg/arena is annoying too)
Something was suggested here earlier… And that was simply give players a few games penalty free when you lose as an incentive to actually try some games in hoping they’ll stick together and climb. Can be as simple as 3 games until you start losing rating.