Now that the BG rework has made it to the Live server and we've had a chance to try them out, I believe it's time for feedback.

First of all, the team vs team format definitely feels like a step in the right direction - there's been some really fun matches already, particularly (and maybe somewhat surprisingly) in 8v8!

8v8 kind of feels closer to a Cyrodiil fight, but more balanced and with some surprises that allow for fun, memorable moments like bombing stacked players with the Damage Sigil active.

4v4 also feels more balanced than the previous 3-way deathmatches, but perhaps suffers slightly more from bad matchmaking (more on that later) than the 8v8 format.

The new maps are great in both 4v4 and 8v8, I don't find many points of criticism there (yet)... maybe in the medieval town 8v8 map there could be fences or terrain instead of invisible walls to prevent movement to unintended areas.


The issues:

1. Leaderboard based on time spent (medal score farmed), rather than average performance. We shouldn't be competing over who can spend the most time doing the content (on one character only, as the score is character based as well), we should be competing over who has the best performance.
2. Matchmaking. See above - there's been statements about win/loss ratio affecting MMR, but remains to be seen if this is actually functional or not. Last patch this system was not functional, so unless it was changed we'll run into the same issues where playing enough = you're in "max MMR".
3. The meta. Some games can become incredibly grindy and slow, usually as a result of there being a lot of healers and crosshealing in the battleground.
4. "Ball group tactics" in 8v8 - people stacking in one spot (usually below opponent team's spawn) and no one dying because of the amount of heals and crossheals.

The solutions:

1. We need a rework of the medal score system, or having something else for leaderboards. There already is an actual competitive leaderboard in the game: Tales of Tribute leaderboard. When playing ToT, you lose rating when you lose - based on your opponents rating. BGs could use a similar system, where rating is determined by a combination of KDR, Healing Done, Damage Done and Damage Taken (this last part is not currently visible on the scoreboard) and you gain/lose rating based on opponents' average rating.
2. A properly functioning MMR system would already improve a lot of the one sided matchmaking issues where you either stomp the opponent team or can't do anything. Another thing that could help is considering a "shuffle" system in the 4v4 solo queue deathmatches, where players in the lobby get shuffled between teams between rounds. This gives more individual agency to do well and have fun for the solo queuer, where the amount of fun to be had isn't determined by the lobby before the game even begins.
3. A lot of the issues with no one dying in 4v4 because of the amount of defense and heals can be solved with something a lot of other MMOs use to combat this problem: a heal dampening effect that gets stronger the longer a match is going on.
4. The heal/crossheal issue in 8v8 deathmatch could be alleviated by having damage sigils spawn in their usual spots during this game mode. Damage sigils should allow for people to get through all the healing and have fun in the match even if one team is dominant and camping the spawn of the other.

I hope over the coming updates these new battlegrounds keep being supported with positive changes - I understand not everything can be perfect straight away, but since we're moving in the right direction let's keep doing so and BGs will be fun and thriving!