Update 44: The Death of Battlegrounds

Jierdanit

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Decimus wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

how would the change be anything different than it is now?

you technically can queue into the non-solo queue as a solo, it is actually still the fastest way to get into a match than going in with a preformed team of any size

i think the 8v8 queue will be fine, if there are sweaty premades in there, it will likely because they are either A) trolling, or B ) because they couldnt win in an actual 4v4 competitive match and want to feel some sort of self gratification

Fundamentally so. Right now solo queue battlegrounds are the only respite you have from having organized groups running after you... not having a solo queue as an option removes that.

i dont really see it changing much, especially if the max premade team size is 4, that means its likely only half of the opposing team might be organized, but you might have an organized team on your side too

i actually had the most fun in BGs when i queued as a duo, because going in solo was just boring

That is only in the 8v8 and even there any decent 4 man premade is going to be able to destroy 8 randoms (especially if likely at least half of those are pve players).
While in 4v4 theyre going to completely dominate every random group.

Also i think you seriously overestimate the want for competition by premade groups. Most smallscales i see now would rather farm unorganized players than fight other groups like them.

Necrotech_Master

Decimus wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Decimus wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

how would the change be anything different than it is now?

you technically can queue into the non-solo queue as a solo, it is actually still the fastest way to get into a match than going in with a preformed team of any size

i think the 8v8 queue will be fine, if there are sweaty premades in there, it will likely because they are either A) trolling, or B ) because they couldnt win in an actual 4v4 competitive match and want to feel some sort of self gratification

Fundamentally so. Right now solo queue battlegrounds are the only respite you have from having organized groups running after you... not having a solo queue as an option removes that.

i dont really see it changing much, especially if the max premade team size is 4, that means its likely only half of the opposing team might be organized, but you might have an organized team on your side too

i actually had the most fun in BGs when i queued as a duo, because going in solo was just boring

And you should absolutely be able to keep queueing solo into group BGs... but not all of us have had such good experiences.

The last few times I've queued into group BGs I've had 4-man premades with each person (whom I can dispatch with ease if I ever happen to see them in solo queue) in buff sets, 40k health and crossheals... and suddenly you cannot even move their health bars, nor survive the 3 2 1 ulti dump.

The last times I've streamed Cyrodiil or Imperial City these people also mysteriously appear with their group wherever I happen to be playing.


I would rather not be forced to fight people who have this kind of an advantage, and for that purpose the solo queue exists since people cannot queue in there as a group with coordinated buff sets and crossheals.

a lot of that, such as seeing sweaty premades, is due to the horrendous MMR system that is currently in use, along with a lower population

im not the best pvper, but im not terrible either, but it feels like whenever i go into any BG, even queued in with a full group, it still feels like im being matched against top tier MMR groups at times because the existing MMR is basically just "cumulative medal score"

MMR should bracket you based on skill level, such as being based on wins/losses, not a score value that only ever increases meaning even if your the worst pvper in the world you will eventually get matched against those sweaty tryhards

at least if they remove MMR for the 8v8 theres no guarantee you will be matched against typically high MMR groups, at that point its going to be more of a population issue

Urzigurumash

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

MMR should bracket you based on skill level, such as being based on wins/losses, not a score value that only ever increases meaning even if your the worst pvper in the world you will eventually get matched against those sweaty tryhards

Just speaking of the past and present, Wins and Losses haven't reflected ability since there was an option to choose DM vs Obj since people aren't really trying to win and haven't in years

Urzigurumash

@Decimus Another thing, about what we were talking about earlier, before the first split of Solo and Group Queue - regardless of specs / comp the TTK was much longer. At its all time longest probably in late 2019, during the NMA Potentates meta, I think maybe that was right before they split the queues.

These days on Xbox NA if all solos go against a comped pre-made for sure none of the solos are getting a kill, actually maybe not even being able to heal or block one single time, it's instant deletion and everybody quits. I think my average time from respawm to death in such games is roughly 2 seconds.

So I'll go back to an idea tossed around on this forum over the past few years. Lower Damage and Healing by 90%.

Solariken

Honestly it would be fine if they'd just nerf 3rd party healing, or make healers squishy... But it's clear they have no desire to balance this game whatsoever.

CameraBeardThePirate

Decimus wrote: »

What I see over on EU and on the NA streams I watch is ball groups and "smallscales" running after solo players and unorganized randoms, streamers getting streamsniped by groups of 4-5 gankers and then promptly tbagged etc...

Whenever I see two ball groups on EU at the same location, they just ignore each other and just attack the randoms around them.

I should have specified: most people queueing into group BGs are not looking for steamrolls, they're looking for good fights. Queues are way to long to get a steamroll match. No one enjoys sitting in queue for 15 minutes just to run through a random team in 5. Comped groups that are queueing into BGs are typically the ones looking for other comped groups to fight.

Open world is a bit different; there's a lot of people grouping up to to zerg down groups smaller than them.

peacenote

PeacefulAnarchy wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Also, am I the only person who remembers that BG queues were much healthier before ZOS disabled group queueing? It’s almost like all of the people who want to play games with their friends just left BGs when that was disallowed.

While I’m sure this will disadvantage those who only queue solo, do you think this might actually being those people back to BGs who stopped playing specifically because they couldn’t play with their friends?

You know group queueing in BGs has been back for a long time, yeah? Why didn't those people come back many patches ago?

Anecdotally I too remember and agree that BG queues were much healthier before ZOS disabled group queuing. I loved BG's back then and I played them a lot, often as a duo.

As to why people didn't come back, while I can't speak for everyone, I can speak for myself and others players who might be like me. I'd say there are at least three reasons why the restoration of the functionality didn't bring back all of the players:

1. Some players did quit the game because of ZOS's choice to remove group queuing, especially the people for whom it was the primary thing they did in the game. I'm sure the threads with "proof" are still kicking around somewhere. It was a while in between when it was removed and when it was restored, such that it's unlikely the players who quit would have come back for it. I'm sure they found other games or things to do.
2. I very much got out of the habit of thinking of BG's as something to do in ESO, so even though I had loved them, because it took so long for the functionality to be restored and it was a bit too little, too late for me. I had already started filling my play time, which is limited, with other ESO activities. There are definitely consequences when habits are disrupted... not everyone goes back to their old habits so easily. Even today I often completely forget that BG's exist, because for me they basically stopped existing when my favorite mode was removed, even though there is a part of me that knows I could try queuing with my friends again. I know, but I forget. Honestly the long disruption just totally ruined them for me.
3. While some PvP'ers, I'm sure, are Cyro-only or BG-only or IC-only, I enjoy them all and I tend to choose PvP over PvE when I specifically want something out of PvP... for example if there is an event going on. Which means I'll choose one of those three environments based on potential rewards (or what my friends are doing). I'm not 100% sure but I think the implementation of transmutes for T1's occurred when group queuing for BG's was not available (or, I learned about it during this time or after when I kept forgetting that BG's existed) such that NOW, my go-to is Cyro because I have a lot of characters and I like to get my T1's. BG's were my go-to when that wasn't a thing, but I was in the mood to PvP. Now, the transmutes are a big carrot for me, and I am always drawn to activities in ESO where there are multiple benefits, again because I have limited time, so even when I do remember about BG's, likely I"m always going to turn to Cyro first now unless I have to T1's on all of my characters. At this point, since I am a trial and dungeon player first and PVP player second, it's unlikely I'll spend significant time in BG's unless the rewards improve and/or there is a direct T1 equivalent where I can spend approx the same amount of time in BG's and get 50 transmutes.

I don't know if this will resonate with anyone else, but that's what happened to me, and I personally feel it was an extremely horrible decision for ZOS to remove the group queuing feature the way that they did. Probably I'm not the only person who enjoyed them but never found their way back when the functionality was restored.

West93

Premades won't just only play 4v4. They will also join 8v8 to steamroll randoms and this will happen a lot.

50% of 8v8 matches will have premades who will run out to chase solo players.

Its funny to read comments here. You guys really think that 8v8 will all be just some casuals light attacking each other and facing premades will happen very rarely?

Solo queue was best thing implemented and I say this as someone who plays pvp together with my girlfriend. I would love to join as duo with her and pvp against others who also play in solo builds, but expectations never meet reality.

I play pvp daily since 2016, mostly in cyrodiil, played battlegrounds at first release in morrowind up to now, but if option to solo queue is removed I won't ever queue into battlegrounds again and its pretty sad to lose one of reasons I play this game for.

silentxthreat

I just worry that in a casual focused 8v8 we will have groups of 8 queue in to form mini ball groups and make everyone else's lives miserable like they do in cyrd. need to have something in place to stop that or its dead on arrival

MidniteOwl1913

BGs are most miserable experience I've had playing ESO. And I did the grind for the staves! Most of the time it's one or two well-coordinated groups farming the solo players. Those groups stay together, they are focused, they are familiar with the layouts. They will kill you in less than a minute every time. Run to battle, die, respawn, run to battle instant die, respawn, rinse repeat. No fun, no fun at all.

On the very rare occasions where there are no coordinated groups, it's chaos, but fun chaos. Unfortunately those are so very very rare.

The last BG a participated in the play on one of the other teams said outright. you know we are farming you, right? You all don't have chance. So for me never again.

Urzigurumash

MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »

BGs are most miserable experience I've had playing ESO. And I did the grind for the staves! Most of the time it's one or two well-coordinated groups farming the solo players. Those groups stay together, they are focused, they are familiar with the layouts. They will kill you in less than a minute every time. Run to battle, die, respawn, run to battle instant die, respawn, rinse repeat. No fun, no fun at all.

On the very rare occasions where there are no coordinated groups, it's chaos, but fun chaos. Unfortunately those are so very very rare.

The last BG a participated in the play on one of the other teams said outright. you know we are farming you, right? You all don't have chance. So for me never again.

Well you're basically talking about 1v4ing coordinated players so. Everybody gets wasted in this scenario. That's why strict MMRs based on experience do count for something, nobody with experience is running around like a squirrel if they're trying to win - unless that's the only option because the other 3 are.

In other words you could've been the best player on your team and this still would've happened.

Bashev

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

90% of the groups queueing will be queueing into 4s

@CameraBeardThePirate This is where you are wrong. The easiest way to bully player is if I make a group and queue in 8s. I will find more easy target to kill and have fun.

Why will I want to queue in 4s? Because of rewards? I ve never seen good rewards from the leader boards and I dont believe that we will have ever something good that will motivate me to go there because of the reward.

The main reward in PvP in this game is the fun the you can get while playing it and most of the time is by killing others. And what is the best way? Make a group and slaughter newbies.

CameraBeardThePirate

Bashev wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

90% of the groups queueing will be queueing into 4s

@CameraBeardThePirate This is where you are wrong. The easiest way to bully player is if I make a group and queue in 8s. I will find more easy target to kill and have fun.

Why will I want to queue in 4s? Because of rewards? I ve never seen good rewards from the leader boards and I dont believe that we will have ever something good that will motivate me to go there because of the reward.

The main reward in PvP in this game is the fun the you can get while playing it and most of the time is by killing others. And what is the best way? Make a group and slaughter newbies.

You realize the whole point of the competitive 4s queue is that they're adding good rewards right?

And I think you're vastly overestimating the people that are solely playing BGs to bully people. Queues are far too long to steamroll a match that ends in 5 minutes.

Bashev

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Bashev wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

90% of the groups queueing will be queueing into 4s

@CameraBeardThePirate This is where you are wrong. The easiest way to bully player is if I make a group and queue in 8s. I will find more easy target to kill and have fun.

Why will I want to queue in 4s? Because of rewards? I ve never seen good rewards from the leader boards and I dont believe that we will have ever something good that will motivate me to go there because of the reward.

The main reward in PvP in this game is the fun the you can get while playing it and most of the time is by killing others. And what is the best way? Make a group and slaughter newbies.

You realize the whole point of the competitive 4s queue is that they're adding good rewards right?

Do you really believe this? I am really looking forward to the update, but ESO PvP rewards always were nothing major. People PvP because this is fun for them and not because there are good rewards.

Necrotech_Master

silentxthreat wrote: »

I just worry that in a casual focused 8v8 we will have groups of 8 queue in to form mini ball groups and make everyone else's lives miserable like they do in cyrd. need to have something in place to stop that or its dead on arrival

zos already posted the max premade group size is 4, even for the 8v8 queue

Urzigurumash wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

MMR should bracket you based on skill level, such as being based on wins/losses, not a score value that only ever increases meaning even if your the worst pvper in the world you will eventually get matched against those sweaty tryhards

Just speaking of the past and present, Wins and Losses haven't reflected ability since there was an option to choose DM vs Obj since people aren't really trying to win and haven't in years

i think some of those issues might be resolved with the new format, 4v4 removing capture relic and chaosball, and being only 2 teams instead of 3

i assume more competitive people will end up playing the 4v4 instead of 8v8

tomofhyrule

Another way to fix this would be if they actually do fix the MMR system, which it sounds like is coming.

Currently, it seems that MMR is based on lifetime medal score, so if you're going solo and losing one match a day, the game still sees you as a top BG player and pits you against top players.

A proper MMR would decay over time (which they said is coming) and also be based on things other than just amount of time spent in the mode (like K/D ratio or wins). That means that if you are solo and get stomped by premades a few times, then you'd eventually have an MMR that would prevent you from seeing premades since they'd be on a different level.

They addressed the MMR in the ESOLive as well as one of the issues with the current BGs. A proper MMR would really help to make this much less of an issue since then the only people who get put up against 'sweaty premades' would be at a skill level to handle them. And players who are running around uncoordinated will eventually find their proper place with others at their skill level.

Necrotech_Master

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Another way to fix this would be if they actually do fix the MMR system, which it sounds like is coming.

Currently, it seems that MMR is based on lifetime medal score, so if you're going solo and losing one match a day, the game still sees you as a top BG player and pits you against top players.

A proper MMR would decay over time (which they said is coming) and also be based on things other than just amount of time spent in the mode (like K/D ratio or wins). That means that if you are solo and get stomped by premades a few times, then you'd eventually have an MMR that would prevent you from seeing premades since they'd be on a different level.

They addressed the MMR in the ESOLive as well as one of the issues with the current BGs. A proper MMR would really help to make this much less of an issue since then the only people who get put up against 'sweaty premades' would be at a skill level to handle them. And players who are running around uncoordinated will eventually find their proper place with others at their skill level.

from what i saw about it, is that the new mmr was initially planned on still being based on medal score, but would feature the decay and more frequent resets (probably monthly)

tomofhyrule

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Another way to fix this would be if they actually do fix the MMR system, which it sounds like is coming.

Currently, it seems that MMR is based on lifetime medal score, so if you're going solo and losing one match a day, the game still sees you as a top BG player and pits you against top players.

A proper MMR would decay over time (which they said is coming) and also be based on things other than just amount of time spent in the mode (like K/D ratio or wins). That means that if you are solo and get stomped by premades a few times, then you'd eventually have an MMR that would prevent you from seeing premades since they'd be on a different level.

They addressed the MMR in the ESOLive as well as one of the issues with the current BGs. A proper MMR would really help to make this much less of an issue since then the only people who get put up against 'sweaty premades' would be at a skill level to handle them. And players who are running around uncoordinated will eventually find their proper place with others at their skill level.

from what i saw about it, is that the new mmr was initially planned on still being based on medal score, but would feature the decay and more frequent resets (probably monthly)

Anything is an improvement over "I played exactly two BGs in 2016 and lost both, but because I scored the highest number of medals on my team at that point, I only can get matched against super-sweats in 2024."

Necrotech_Master

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Another way to fix this would be if they actually do fix the MMR system, which it sounds like is coming.

Currently, it seems that MMR is based on lifetime medal score, so if you're going solo and losing one match a day, the game still sees you as a top BG player and pits you against top players.

A proper MMR would decay over time (which they said is coming) and also be based on things other than just amount of time spent in the mode (like K/D ratio or wins). That means that if you are solo and get stomped by premades a few times, then you'd eventually have an MMR that would prevent you from seeing premades since they'd be on a different level.

They addressed the MMR in the ESOLive as well as one of the issues with the current BGs. A proper MMR would really help to make this much less of an issue since then the only people who get put up against 'sweaty premades' would be at a skill level to handle them. And players who are running around uncoordinated will eventually find their proper place with others at their skill level.

from what i saw about it, is that the new mmr was initially planned on still being based on medal score, but would feature the decay and more frequent resets (probably monthly)

Anything is an improvement over "I played exactly two BGs in 2016 and lost both, but because I scored the highest number of medals on my team at that point, I only can get matched against super-sweats in 2024."

definitely agree, but i think still trying to base the MMR on medal score is not a great way to go about it, which is what it sounds like they will continue to do

Parasaurolophus

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Another way to fix this would be if they actually do fix the MMR system, which it sounds like is coming.

Currently, it seems that MMR is based on lifetime medal score, so if you're going solo and losing one match a day, the game still sees you as a top BG player and pits you against top players.

A proper MMR would decay over time (which they said is coming) and also be based on things other than just amount of time spent in the mode (like K/D ratio or wins). That means that if you are solo and get stomped by premades a few times, then you'd eventually have an MMR that would prevent you from seeing premades since they'd be on a different level.

They addressed the MMR in the ESOLive as well as one of the issues with the current BGs. A proper MMR would really help to make this much less of an issue since then the only people who get put up against 'sweaty premades' would be at a skill level to handle them. And players who are running around uncoordinated will eventually find their proper place with others at their skill level.

from what i saw about it, is that the new mmr was initially planned on still being based on medal score, but would feature the decay and more frequent resets (probably monthly)

Anything is an improvement over "I played exactly two BGs in 2016 and lost both, but because I scored the highest number of medals on my team at that point, I only can get matched against super-sweats in 2024."

This is definitely not the case and I have taken long breaks from BG many times. Every time I returned I noticed that the skill of my opponents dropped significantly.

Regarding those who say that the group queue was removed. It was not removed, it was simply separated from solo. But since the pvp population is small, the group queue was too long.

the1andonlyskwex

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Another way to fix this would be if they actually do fix the MMR system, which it sounds like is coming.

Currently, it seems that MMR is based on lifetime medal score, so if you're going solo and losing one match a day, the game still sees you as a top BG player and pits you against top players.

A proper MMR would decay over time (which they said is coming) and also be based on things other than just amount of time spent in the mode (like K/D ratio or wins). That means that if you are solo and get stomped by premades a few times, then you'd eventually have an MMR that would prevent you from seeing premades since they'd be on a different level.

They addressed the MMR in the ESOLive as well as one of the issues with the current BGs. A proper MMR would really help to make this much less of an issue since then the only people who get put up against 'sweaty premades' would be at a skill level to handle them. And players who are running around uncoordinated will eventually find their proper place with others at their skill level.

from what i saw about it, is that the new mmr was initially planned on still being based on medal score, but would feature the decay and more frequent resets (probably monthly)

Anything is an improvement over "I played exactly two BGs in 2016 and lost both, but because I scored the highest number of medals on my team at that point, I only can get matched against super-sweats in 2024."

This is definitely not the case and I have taken long breaks from BG many times. Every time I returned I noticed that the skill of my opponents dropped significantly.

It's not that far off. There have been MMR resets, but they only happen when a new patch directly affects the BG queues, so they're pretty rare (i.e. less than one per year). That said, every character has a different MMR, which could affect your perception of what's going on if you only play BGs rarely and have a bunch of alts.

I know I've also had problems because I tend to level new characters in BGs and then when I hit level 50 I immediately get dumped into a high MMR queue that I'm woefully unprepared for (because I haven't yet fully leveled my individual skills or geared up).

Personally, I'm very skeptical about the new BGs being fun (and I like all of the current modes except CTR a lot), but pretty much any change to MMR will be an improvement, at least.

Vulkunne

BGs is a cool feature however in my opinion its main problem has almost always been with putting the Teams together. For example, if there are (3) factions in BGs what almost always happens is (2) Teams have a full Team and stand a chance, with one doing well, another almost as good and the third having less than a full Team and getting 'torn apart' between the other two. Its hell being on the third Team but also a pretty good challenge.

So, because of this I can kind of understand them wanting to move in another direction. But at the same time, just like before the IA changes went into effect, I'm running BGs constantly to get the last of what I need out of there just in case.

moderatelyfatman

I believe that these new changes are going to be an overall improvement for PvP.

But at the end of the day, all MMOs have a version of BGs but there is only one game with Cyrodiil (although GW2 gets close with a smaller version capped at 50 players).

We need a proper Cyrodiil upgrade.

Sylosi

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

But at the end of the day, all MMOs have a version of BGs but there is only one game with Cyrodiil (although GW2 gets close with a smaller version capped at 50 players).

GW2's WvW is not capped at 50 players, that is simply the cap for their raid groups (compared to 12 in the alleged mass scale PvP game that is Cyrodiil).

Their map cap is roughly 76 per "faction", it used to be higher, ESO is not the only game that has reduced population caps. But then in WvW each "campaign" is made of 4 maps, so the population cap for a "campaign" is roughly 912 players, it has been some years since Cyrodiil's was higher than that.

And as for there is only one Cyrodiil, not really, DAoC did this sort of thing years ago, GW2 has a similar thing, Planetside 2 is a shooter version and so on. And the most telling thing is Cyrodiil isn't even really successful in comparison, last time I played these games (18 months or so ago) I would say over a month there were more people playing a single campaign in WvW than all 3 Cyrodiil campaigns combined (at least on EU PC), and they have 5 "campaigns" in GW2 EU PC...

WolfCombatPet

Why not simply have premade teams go up against premade teams?
And solo players go up against solo players?

I don't know enough about this subject so please enlighten me.

fizzylu

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Also, am I the only person who remembers that BG queues were much healthier before ZOS disabled group queueing? It’s almost like all of the people who want to play games with their friends just left BGs when that was disallowed.

This. So many people I knew quit ESO when they got rid of group queue for BGs and never returned fully even when they brought it back as a separate option. I also took a very long break myself after it's initial removal, and while I do play the game pretty off and on regularly now, BGs are far from being what I spend most of my time doing now (I used to play BGs like crazy, all day every day level).

And it's hilarious because even with solo queue the majority of matches I see are still the kind where one team is just completely dominating the other two, just with longer queue times.... and yet people swear solo queue has somehow made the BG experience better. Who knows though, I'm just hoping that people will at least start caring about objectives again because currently there are so many times you get matches where one (or more) team is just on a killing spree.... and maybe it's just me, but I question how truly separate solo and group queue actually are because a lot of those "let's just murder" teams definitely give off premade vibes.

Jierdanit

fizzylu wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Also, am I the only person who remembers that BG queues were much healthier before ZOS disabled group queueing? It’s almost like all of the people who want to play games with their friends just left BGs when that was disallowed.

This. So many people I knew quit ESO when they got rid of group queue for BGs and never returned fully even when they brought it back as a separate option. I also took a very long break myself after it's initial removal, and while I do play the game pretty off and on regularly now, BGs are far from being what I spend most of my time doing now (I used to play BGs like crazy, all day every day level).

And it's hilarious because even with solo queue the majority of matches I see are still the kind where one team is just completely dominating the other, two just with longer queue times.... and yet people swear solo queue has somehow made the BG experience better. Who knows though, I'm just hoping that people will at least start caring about objectives again because currently there are so many times you get matches where one (or more) team is just on a killing spree.... and maybe it's just me, but I question how truly separate solo and group queue actually are because a lot of those "let's just murder" teams definitely give off premade vibes.

If you queue solo you're going to end up in a solo queue BG.

I've done a lot of BGs over the last 2 years and can't remember a single time where I ended up in a group BG after solo queueing.

the1andonlyskwex

Jierdanit wrote: »

fizzylu wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Also, am I the only person who remembers that BG queues were much healthier before ZOS disabled group queueing? It’s almost like all of the people who want to play games with their friends just left BGs when that was disallowed.

This. So many people I knew quit ESO when they got rid of group queue for BGs and never returned fully even when they brought it back as a separate option. I also took a very long break myself after it's initial removal, and while I do play the game pretty off and on regularly now, BGs are far from being what I spend most of my time doing now (I used to play BGs like crazy, all day every day level).

And it's hilarious because even with solo queue the majority of matches I see are still the kind where one team is just completely dominating the other, two just with longer queue times.... and yet people swear solo queue has somehow made the BG experience better. Who knows though, I'm just hoping that people will at least start caring about objectives again because currently there are so many times you get matches where one (or more) team is just on a killing spree.... and maybe it's just me, but I question how truly separate solo and group queue actually are because a lot of those "let's just murder" teams definitely give off premade vibes.

If you queue solo you're going to end up in a solo queue BG.

I've done a lot of BGs over the last 2 years and can't remember a single time where I ended up in a group BG after solo queueing.

How would you even be able to tell?

fizzylu

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Jierdanit wrote: »

]If you queue solo you're going to end up in a solo queue BG.

I've done a lot of BGs over the last 2 years and can't remember a single time where I ended up in a group BG after solo queueing.

How would you even be able to tell?

Exactly, thank you.

That all being said, reading the U44 patch notes somehow makes the new BGs sound even worse than the live stream did. Crazy to think that the feature that brought me back to this game after it's first release might become something I never want to touch again.

Jierdanit

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Jierdanit wrote: »

fizzylu wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Also, am I the only person who remembers that BG queues were much healthier before ZOS disabled group queueing? It’s almost like all of the people who want to play games with their friends just left BGs when that was disallowed.

This. So many people I knew quit ESO when they got rid of group queue for BGs and never returned fully even when they brought it back as a separate option. I also took a very long break myself after it's initial removal, and while I do play the game pretty off and on regularly now, BGs are far from being what I spend most of my time doing now (I used to play BGs like crazy, all day every day level).

And it's hilarious because even with solo queue the majority of matches I see are still the kind where one team is just completely dominating the other, two just with longer queue times.... and yet people swear solo queue has somehow made the BG experience better. Who knows though, I'm just hoping that people will at least start caring about objectives again because currently there are so many times you get matches where one (or more) team is just on a killing spree.... and maybe it's just me, but I question how truly separate solo and group queue actually are because a lot of those "let's just murder" teams definitely give off premade vibes.

If you queue solo you're going to end up in a solo queue BG.

I've done a lot of BGs over the last 2 years and can't remember a single time where I ended up in a group BG after solo queueing.

How would you even be able to tell?

Because the playerbase in BGs is so small that you barely get BGs where you dont know at least most of the players.

And as someone who has done both solo and group queue over a longer amount of time the difference is pretty noticeable.

Much more likely than you getting into a group BG while queueing solo is that the people you're up against are simply better and actually know how to play together without being premade.