The Ranking System is Backwards

[4RM3D]

The Ranking System is Backwards, I mean you go from 30 to 1. Oh, that was a bad joke. Ahem...

The ranking system is backwards and it has been bothering me (a little bit) for some time now. What do I mean? There are two reasons.

First of all, ranked play is friendlier for beginners than casual, which is counter-intuitive. I know it's difficult to fix the matchmaking, but there has to be some way. Furthermore, in the lower ranked you'll find a greater variety of decks. This seems logical because beginning players usually have makeshift decks instead of competitive decks. However, this leads to the second reason why the ranking system is backwards...

Once you make it past the beginner ranks, you will see increasingly more netdecks pop-up. I don't really mind because ranked mode is suppose to be competitive and anything goes. What bothers me is how completely different the "meta" is when you reach rank 0. No one seems to care much about winning (which is a different problem in its own right). This together with the fact that you'll have to play 4 factions to progress further up the ladder leads to much more variety of decks, including some weird home-brewed ones. I rather play on rank 0, than having to climb to rank 0 every time.

So, what can be do about this? There is no easy solution. And any one solution might not solve the whole issue. Instead, we need a few solutions bound together. One of those could be a suggestion I made some time ago: the Round Robin Deck Ladder. Another example is to incorporate an Underdog calculation to the casual matchmaking algorithm.

 

[helmutt]

Anything that would increase deck variety would be welcome.
The de-ranking feels punitive and after a couple of seasons trying to get to Pro-Rank, I have sat back this season and had a break while the meta changes again.
The focus on climbing the rank ladder seems to encourage specialising in particular decks so yes I am not sure of the answers but maybe a middle tier or veteran rank under pro rank with seasonal winners earning a spot in pro rank next month could be encouraging.

 

[Khithas]

One of those could be a suggestion I made some time ago: the Round Robin Deck Ladder. Another example is to incorporate an Underdog calculation to the casual matchmaking algorithm.

The idea of "Round Robin Deck Ladder" sounds intresting, could be a seasonal mode. Additionally you might add for some seasonal modes an "Underdog calculation", which motivates creative decks utilizing unusual cards.
I personally tend to set up optimized decks for Seasonal Modes to get achievements as quickly as possible.

Nevertheless, not for ranked mode.

The reason is quite simple. Ranked should be challenging, which surely includes that players use the strongest available cards striving for good scores. Even though I like creative decks it`s boring to play against bad once, which can only win in case you mess up the sequence of playing your cards.

In contrary we need, from my perspective, a ranked system motivating to achieve high win rates, which is currently not the case at all. For example it`s currently quite easy to get to rank 500 in Pro-Rank but theirs close to no benefit to proceed further.

*Edit: For some easy got posted twice.

 

[Mancoon1980]

I've commented before that using the deck share feature cdpr could take a meta snap shot and match netdeckers with other netdeckers. Players could then be matched with others who want variety and creativity. Also would help new parts have fun.Losing picture peices should be removed as well to encourage people to play.