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Future of Battlegrounds

  • MincMincMinc
    MincMincMinc
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    xylena wrote: »
    The thing is you really shouldn't be making these changes out of order
    FWIW we as players don't need to get involved in the logistics of development, it just ends up like the heal stack thread, we simply stay focused on communicating to the devs that BGs MMR is the most severe pain point, with spawn and format issues as other major pain points.

    Sure we shouldn't have to, but at some point when you have zos thinking its better to prioritize resetting MMR to give everyone a chance at seeing their name on a monthly resetting leaderboard.......compared to having a functional more fun matchmaking experience with a working MMR. Ehhhhhhh they need a little more of a bump than us just all agreeing its broken.

    EDIT: ok imagine if we started mixing in everyone from the NFL to little league flag football skill wise. Creating absurdly unbalanced matches making people at both levels not have fun with the reasoning that we want everyone to get the chance at obtaining a participation trophy. This is the situation we are in essentially on live. Its a cozy thought to want everyone to get a chance at being on the top of the leaderboard, but in reality you are going to lose 10x the players because of the imbalance.

    Also if we all just agree that the mmr is broken, this thread would die in a day and look less appealing to zos to take action. Happens all the time on the PTS cycles where the threads we see acknowledged are ones with controversy causing back and forth discussion. So us being in agreement on MMR reset = bad should be the main point agreed on, but to keep the thread alive we need to discuss how to have a functional skill based MMR system in a non resetting system using the current BG data available like KDA, healing, damage, etc.
    Edited by MincMincMinc on March 2, 2026 3:05PM
    I only use insightful
    BG MMR should NOT reset, zos sponsored smurfing is a terrible design choice.
    PvP needs more incentives, even simple purple/gold mats would suffice.
  • xylena
    xylena
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    Also if we all just agree that the mmr is broken, this thread would die in a day
    Ironically it may be more effective to kinda do what Haki and Moonspawn are doing, but with a clear point, no bizarre lists, no project manager RP, something straightforward like "BGs MMR still broken and making lopsided matches" without making it about 2s vs 3s or whatever.
    PC/NA || Cyro/BGs || solo/smallscale || retired until Dagon brings a new dawn of PvP
  • Moonspawn
    Moonspawn
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    Decimus wrote: »
    Haki_7 wrote: »
    Chaosball 1, impossible to lose. We almost did because
    Haki_7 wrote: »
    Domination, impossible to lose. We did because

    How do you expect anyone to take you seriously when you're writing stuff like this for over 30 pages? These hyperboles only serve to undermine whatever it is you're trying to say.


    impossible
    /ɪmˈpɒsɪbl/
    adjective
    not able to occur, exist, or be done.

    He won't respond to you because you are not part of his echo chamber. Haki only responds to people he knows and already agree with him.

    @Major_Toughness It has already been explained that improving Battlegrounds and maintaining any of their critical flaws are diametrically opposing goals.
    Can you help solve any of the FOUR critical flaws of two-sided BGs ?

    Looking for feedback on How to fix the 3-sided objective modes
  • MincMincMinc
    MincMincMinc
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    xylena wrote: »
    Also if we all just agree that the mmr is broken, this thread would die in a day
    Ironically it may be more effective to kinda do what Haki and Moonspawn are doing, but with a clear point, no bizarre lists, no project manager RP, something straightforward like "BGs MMR still broken and making lopsided matches" without making it about 2s vs 3s or whatever.

    Oh agreed, what matters most for zos involvement is to keep the topic discussion going. Again I dont think their points are wrong. Just that for their points to matter zos needs to fix the other overarching issues first like the MMR system resetting and the MMR simply not being representative of skill.
    I only use insightful
    BG MMR should NOT reset, zos sponsored smurfing is a terrible design choice.
    PvP needs more incentives, even simple purple/gold mats would suffice.
  • Major_Toughness
    Major_Toughness
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    Moonspawn wrote: »
    Decimus wrote: »
    Haki_7 wrote: »
    Chaosball 1, impossible to lose. We almost did because
    Haki_7 wrote: »
    Domination, impossible to lose. We did because

    How do you expect anyone to take you seriously when you're writing stuff like this for over 30 pages? These hyperboles only serve to undermine whatever it is you're trying to say.


    impossible
    /ɪmˈpɒsɪbl/
    adjective
    not able to occur, exist, or be done.

    He won't respond to you because you are not part of his echo chamber. Haki only responds to people he knows and already agree with him.

    @Major_Toughness It has already been explained that improving Battlegrounds and maintaining any of their critical flaws are diametrically opposing goals.

    What does that even mean. Improving Battlegrounds, and fixing their flaws are opposing goals? Sound the same to me.
    MAKE AZUREBLIGHT GREAT AGAIN
    PC EU > You
  • Haki_7
    Haki_7
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    BG should be a place where everyone can play. Together. That includes a mixture of skill levels. Not just the top 5%. Grouping is random so everyone can participate.
    @CatalinaWineMixer2 Exactly. The problem is that these things don't allow it. Eliminating them is the only way we'll ever have the mixture of skill levels that was possible in 3-sided. Do you think you can help us figure this out?

    Relic 1 & 2, no way to lose. Spawncamping and giving up after losing one relic (fourth flaw):
    b1r54453o7pt.png
    87amftdtovjh.png

    Chaosball 1, no way to lose. We got 2 balls, they got one. Recipe for pointless staring contest:
    80174oszcsub.png

    Chaosball 2, no way to win. We couldn't even reach the chaosballs, let alone take them back to our base:
    elcxpislhi3q.png

    Deathmatch 1, no way to lose. Orange-1 ditched his team to go spawncamp some newcomers. First and third critical flaws of 2-sided at work:
    40628edk26io.png

    Deathmatch 2, no way to lose:
    5s5emai0jret.png

    Crazy King, no way to lose:
    rzi8mq5jevnp.png

    Destruction of Battlegrounds Chapter 150: Waiting 15 minutes for a lopsided match (Solo 8v8 PC/EU)
    Edited by Haki_7 on March 3, 2026 6:59PM
  • Arboz
    Arboz
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    Dont understand the drama.
    We dont have enough players to build several pools, so everyone ready to PvP just gets thrown in.
    There are always Elite Players and its always the responsibility of the rest to adapt and evolve or keep being the victim.
    If you Like PvP, you will do exactly that, die, learn, adapt, repeat.
    Otherwise you will keep dying and shouldnt expect that the devs can do anything about it.

    The format of BGs doesnt change anything about this.
    If you cant compete (yet) with good players, it doesnt matter if you play 4vs4vs4 or 8vs8.
    Edited by Arboz on March 3, 2026 12:17PM
  • xylena
    xylena
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    Arboz wrote: »
    Dont understand the drama
    There's 2 guys who think they solved everything, but they're really just obfuscating serious issues with spam, misinformation, and attempts to roleplay as project manager.
    PC/NA || Cyro/BGs || solo/smallscale || retired until Dagon brings a new dawn of PvP
  • Avran_Sylt
    Avran_Sylt
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    Arboz wrote: »
    Dont understand the drama.
    We dont have enough players to build several pools, so everyone ready to PvP just gets thrown in.
    There are always Elite Players and its always the responsibility of the rest to adapt and evolve or keep being the victim.
    If you Like PvP, you will do exactly that, die, learn, adapt, repeat.
    Otherwise you will keep dying and shouldnt expect that the devs can do anything about it.

    The format of BGs doesnt change anything about this.
    If you cant compete (yet) with good players, it doesnt matter if you play 4vs4vs4 or 8vs8.

    Exactly right.

    And Haki just wants MMR removed so they get matched faster and with even more inexperienced players so they can win more, while using 4v4v4 as a scapegoat.

    At least that's what I assume, since like with Call of Duty the only players that moaned about MMR were the sweaters that were angy about not going on massive killstreaks anymore while pubstomping.
  • xylena
    xylena
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    Avran_Sylt wrote: »
    At least that's what I assume, since like with Call of Duty the only players that moaned about MMR were the sweaters that were angy about not going on massive killstreaks anymore while pubstomping.
    This is what we meant saying Haki and Moonspawn are obfuscating serious issues, like the seriously busted resetting MMR that blocks competitive players from finding competitive matches.

    MMR has been broken since the beginning, in 3s any vet sweatlord who wanted to pug stomp just had to make a new toon, boom they're down in Low MMR again.

    Now in 2s the game does some sort of wacky reset that deliberately puts all the vet sweatlords back down in Low MMR every week (?) or whatever. No High MMR bracket even has time to form, you get maybe a day of competitive matches, then it's back to lopsided noob matches.

    Players like Haki and Moonspawn seem to miss certain easy tactics and 2nd place rewards. I've seen serious players say they miss 3s, but I think what they really miss was being able to reliably queue into High MMR for a competitive match (at least when the queue was populated).
    PC/NA || Cyro/BGs || solo/smallscale || retired until Dagon brings a new dawn of PvP
  • Major_Mangle
    Major_Mangle
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    xylena wrote: »
    Avran_Sylt wrote: »
    At least that's what I assume, since like with Call of Duty the only players that moaned about MMR were the sweaters that were angy about not going on massive killstreaks anymore while pubstomping.
    This is what we meant saying Haki and Moonspawn are obfuscating serious issues, like the seriously busted resetting MMR that blocks competitive players from finding competitive matches.

    MMR has been broken since the beginning, in 3s any vet sweatlord who wanted to pug stomp just had to make a new toon, boom they're down in Low MMR again.

    Now in 2s the game does some sort of wacky reset that deliberately puts all the vet sweatlords back down in Low MMR every week (?) or whatever. No High MMR bracket even has time to form, you get maybe a day of competitive matches, then it's back to lopsided noob matches.

    Players like Haki and Moonspawn seem to miss certain easy tactics and 2nd place rewards. I've seen serious players say they miss 3s, but I think what they really miss was being able to reliably queue into High MMR for a competitive match (at least when the queue was populated).

    Gonna highlight the bolded part here. A MAJOR difference between 4v4v4 and 2 team BG´s is that back in the day the average count of proper/actual PvP players were way higher. With more competent players you automatically get more competitive matches more often. The format isn´t the problem but the lack of actual PvP players. The majority of players these days (at least PCEU) are PvP tourists with zero interest to PvP. Most just do BG`s for the same reason you do a daily random normal dungeon: For some bonus exp to level up skills/morphs. If you took the old PvP population and put them into the current format it would look way different than it does. The key to keep BG`s alive is to actually accommodate to the veterans and give them what they want:

    A decent/proper competitive MMR/matchmaking system (aka deathmatch, because that´s what the actual PvP population wanna do in BG´s)

    Can´t wait for 200+ more comments, sorry, spam, of cherry picked nonsense.
    Edited by Major_Mangle on March 3, 2026 4:49PM
    Ps4 EU 2016-2020
    PC/EU: 2020 -
  • xylena
    xylena
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    The format isn´t the problem but the lack of actual PvP players.
    Terrible negative feedback loop from the MMR resets, which drive away serious PvPers who are sick of wasting time in lopsided noob matches, which then makes it harder for the remaining serious PvPers to find competitive matches, again driving away more serious PvPers...

    Repeat until all you have left is noobs, pug stompers, and maybe a few frustrated diehards. Same thing happened to Cyro with the ball group strat monopolizing the large scale meta.
    PC/NA || Cyro/BGs || solo/smallscale || retired until Dagon brings a new dawn of PvP
  • Radiate77
    Radiate77
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    I’m surprised I haven’t been seeing Role-Queue mentioned. All of this talk about MMR this, and MMR that… none of that matters if you fail to restrict group composition.

    One group with all bruisers will lose to a group with three bruisers and a healer, every time. That is just one example. There are several group compositions that slant you towards winning before a match even begins.

    New World had role-queue for their arenas and it worked great, any update to Ranked in ESO needs to begin here. Then we can talk about MMR.
    Dragon Priest [Restoring Light, Draconic Power, Grave Lord]
    Death Knight [Grave Lord, Winter’s Embrace, Siphoning]
    Pyromancer [Ardent Flame, Dawn’s Wrath, Earthen Heart]
    Summoner [Living Death, Grave Lord, Daedric Summoning]
    Ranger [Animal Companions, Green Balance, Shadow]
    Druid [Earthen Heart, Animal Companions, Stormcalling]
    Elementalist [Stormcalling, Winter’s Embrace, Ardent Flame]
    Dawnguard [Dawn’s Wrath, Restoring Light, Ardent Flame]
  • MincMincMinc
    MincMincMinc
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    xylena wrote: »
    The format isn´t the problem but the lack of actual PvP players.
    Terrible negative feedback loop from the MMR resets, which drive away serious PvPers who are sick of wasting time in lopsided noob matches, which then makes it harder for the remaining serious PvPers to find competitive matches, again driving away more serious PvPers...

    Repeat until all you have left is noobs, pug stompers, and maybe a few frustrated diehards. Same thing happened to Cyro with the ball group strat monopolizing the large scale meta.

    Bingo, I tend to only play a couple days each month now because I am busy and honestly there is nothing for me to play towards long term. Normally I would have popped in more to play a match or two a night, however with MMR resetting as an older player it takes me just as long to get my MMR back to real PvP matches.......Just to have it reset on me. So I literally have to spend half my month ruining peoples daily BG just so i can farm MMR.

    Its simply not fun for me, or for any of the newer players being taught that PvP sucks and they shouldn't bother learning it. Not having a functional MMR system that is based on player skill leads to smurfing and a declining PvP population, no other BG change matters until you stop the ship from sinking. You can setup role que, but its not going to stop players like me coming back to the game after a SHORT break and going 40/0 each match for a week.
    I only use insightful
    BG MMR should NOT reset, zos sponsored smurfing is a terrible design choice.
    PvP needs more incentives, even simple purple/gold mats would suffice.
  • xylena
    xylena
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    Radiate77 wrote: »
    I’m surprised I haven’t been seeing Role-Queue mentioned
    You've seen the countless "fake role" threads in General right?

    Probably no good way to enforce a role system, nor any good way to test competency.
    Edited by xylena on March 3, 2026 9:02PM
    PC/NA || Cyro/BGs || solo/smallscale || retired until Dagon brings a new dawn of PvP
  • Radiate77
    Radiate77
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    xylena wrote: »
    Radiate77 wrote: »
    I’m surprised I haven’t been seeing Role-Queue mentioned
    You've seen the countless "fake role" threads in General right?

    Probably no good way to enforce a role system, nor any good way to test competency.

    Then perhaps it’s time for ZOS to determine what a Healer, Tank, and DPS actually are for the sake of role-queue? Other games have requirements like, “must have a Restoration Staff and 30,000 magicka” or “must have a shield and 35,000 health” and then proceed to pair people against teams that share the exact same composition.

    A team without a healer should not be fighting a team with a healer, same goes for tanks.
    Dragon Priest [Restoring Light, Draconic Power, Grave Lord]
    Death Knight [Grave Lord, Winter’s Embrace, Siphoning]
    Pyromancer [Ardent Flame, Dawn’s Wrath, Earthen Heart]
    Summoner [Living Death, Grave Lord, Daedric Summoning]
    Ranger [Animal Companions, Green Balance, Shadow]
    Druid [Earthen Heart, Animal Companions, Stormcalling]
    Elementalist [Stormcalling, Winter’s Embrace, Ardent Flame]
    Dawnguard [Dawn’s Wrath, Restoring Light, Ardent Flame]
  • Moonspawn
    Moonspawn
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    xylena wrote: »
    @Haki_7 thanks for updating your images, have you ever considered switching from Support to DD to be able to carry 2s? Some of those would become winnable if you were on DD.
    Which ones?
    Can you help solve any of the FOUR critical flaws of two-sided BGs ?

    Looking for feedback on How to fix the 3-sided objective modes
  • NxJoeyD
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    @MincMincMinc is 100% correct. MMR has nothing to do with skill factor or gameplay competency. It’s questionable how much MMR was ever really reflective of that in the past but we know now that it’s worse than ever.

    MMR is reflective of match outcome more than it’s reflective of player skill factor. Given the current state of mechanics this is a major problem for all levels of PvP, not just newcomers.

    Even skilled vets who PvP are tired of the continuous growing swarms of players who are either just spamming uncountable mechanics or making new toons to take better advantage of said mechanics.

    Does anyone here really think that BG matches that are nothing but repeats of the same 5 or 6 skills on spam constitutes good combat? IMO it doesn’t.

    My friend group and I run a side game placing over/under bets on how many times we’ll see. Deep Fissure or Merciless Resolve crit or how many times we’ll get stuck in the Charm bug … all are more guaranteed than taxes.

    For right now, yes, a non-resetting MMR is a good thing. I will separate out those who are running consistent match outcomes. I haven’t seen any evidence, currently, that the PvP population couldn’t support this, at least not on XB NA.

    Honestly, nobody wants to play an overly broken game except one who’s benefitting off of the game break. Minor breaks are one thing but what we’re looking at now is pretty major.

    Edited by NxJoeyD on March 4, 2026 3:54AM
  • CatalinaWineMixer2
    What's to stop someone from jumping on another character and sacking the level 50s? You know it'll happen. Let's assume we entertained this notion of grouping. If that really is something to consider, it's going to have to be ranked account wide at a very minimum. After that, they will just use their alt accounts. And do the same thing.
    Im still convinced the only way is to fairly balance everyone. Each class is the same. If you're that good, you're that good. They all have the same skills, health ect. It might have been possible to enforce role requirements this way. Its not possible with Subclass.
    I think the objectives are OK, capture the relic, get the ball, ect but they are all in the rear view mirror bc the entire game has devolved into a dps sludgefest. The only thing in between are cheap exploits and lag.
  • Haki_7
    Haki_7
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    Haki_7 wrote: »
    Haki_7 wrote: »
    xylena wrote: »
    Haki_7 wrote: »
    But isn't what you're asking for already included in all of my posts?
    No.
    But it is. If you carefully examine the scoreboards, you'll realize I've been underlining the matches that were impossible to win.

    What is your point though, that the mmr system is broken? We all know that already.

    Again we should just be repeatedly screaming at zos to stop resetting MMR
    @MincMincMinc but if they did that, would people even believe that the resets have truly stopped?

    Bro you gotta stop spamming those random screenshots without making a substantial point.
    I think they're pretty substantial. Each and every time they happen, BGs become a little emptier 😢.
    Yeah I would probably know that resets have stopped when every other week I get to play I am not stuck fighting cp200s who don't know how to light attack. .
    @MincMincMinc I probably wouldn't even notice if the resets stopped.

    Destruction of Battlegrounds Chapter 151: Waiting 17 minutes for a lopsided match (Solo 8v8 PC/EU)
    Crazy King, no possibility of losing:
    y2g2pyikfag5.png

    Chaosball 1 & 2, no possibility of losing. Opponents couldn't arrive at the objective:
    2zyqui1r6yoa.png
    xipdhs198ffb.png

    Relic 1 & 2 , no possibility of losing. One of these was already about to end when I joined:
    6cz22yugazfq.png
    sprf2k295llz.png

    Deathmatch 1, no possibility of losing. Spawncamping from start to finish:
    cqdi985mcwhj.png

    Deathmatch 2, no possibility of winning. Same as the previous match:
    r7a90f8nstb8.png
    Edited by Haki_7 on March 4, 2026 10:32AM
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