As bad of an experience as pug vs premades are (for both parties involved), I still think it is a better solution than having a separate pre vs pre queue (without additional measures) and will explain why.
First of all, queue times will be longer as a result of the split. Couple that with the fact that pre v pre are harder, it won’t be a reliable way to farm rep for the average trade chat premade anymore. This will reduce the amount of premades, which will lead to even longer queue times. So even for the sweatiest premades it won’t be worth no longer, and on top of that it will also destroy the experience for those who truly like to play the game as a group for fun.
The pug experience isn’t going to be much better either. Since there is no role queue (which is impossible cos of hybrid classes, a thing that is even more pronounced in SoD), it is basically a complete RNG fest of who gets the most OP classes in their group. This means that forfeit culture is going to be more prevalent in pug v pug (since more ex-premaders will be pugging). So in the end the whole thing will end up as a lose-lose situation for everyone.
While there isn’t a perfect solution, I think Blizz shouldn’t implement one or more of these changes:
1). Have a separate pre v pre queue, but also drastically increase rep and honor gains to compensate. This also incentivizes group play, which is obviously a good thing (unfortunately it will have the side effect that prerequisites for joining a group will go up but it is what it is).
2). Make it so that you still get 50% rep from the ashenvale event, or only get rep on wins or smth. Some might argue that it isn’t pvp, but the current WSG situation can hardly be called pvp either.
What do you all think? Can you think of better solutions to this problem? Curious to hear your thoughts on this.
I would rather wait a bit longer for good content than get worthless content instantly.
I agree, but as I explained in the post, the quality of the content is still going to be just as bad.
I don’t see how this is a problem.
As I explain it is a problem because:
1). longer queue times
2). you get penalized for wanting to play as a group
3). PuG quality will go down because more ex-premade min-maxers will join pugs and forfeit at the slightest amount of resistance to get rep faster.
You’re saying playing a premade is only worth it if you can stomp pugs. Pathetic tbh.
If that’s your takeaway, you have to read the post again.
That’s part of the fun in my opinion.
There I completely disagree. It is maybe fun for a few games, but it gets boring really fast. It’s kinda like how Overwatch was before they implemented a role queue but even worse, since you cannot swap classes mid game.
Make queues separate, no benefits to premades. Don’t like it? Don’t do it.
So basically you want to disincentivize group play even though it is an MMO? Having a separate premade with added rep/honor is actually a win-win so I don’t understand why you are so against that.
No, you get the queue times you get because that’s how long it takes to find another group. It has nothing to do with penalizing you for playing in a group.
Then the rest of the group can report them.
Well if you want the perfect comp every game you’re free to make a group and queue as a premade.
Not at all. There’s plenty of incentive to run a premade even with separate queues. Better gameplay, more challenging, playing together with friends etc. If none of that interests you and you’re only after the best honor / rep per hour and you can’t get a better result as a premade than as solo queue, it’s just a matter of git gud.
You do not list incentives, do you even know what the word means ?
Getting extra honor for premades, that’s an incentive, getting epics is an incentive. Listings things that happen automatically when you join a premade is not an incentive, it’s just the advantage you gain over not being in a group of headless chickens, ie the solo queue.
If you want more competitive, challenging or just better gameplay you are incentivized to play as a premade, as you will find that kind of gameplay there. What is or is not an incentive is in itself subjective. What might be an incentive to you might not be to another player who might not care at all about getting loot. In other words, your claim that only loot etc can be an incentive and not what I mentioned is your very subjective opinion on the matter.