@SelfNonSelfRanked Arenas sounded like a great concept pre-release, but it does not address the fact that this game has several huge issues. Matchmaking being the biggest in Arenas, and some usually crippling gun/legend balance issues. Some guns are so hard meta you can't fight in ranked without them, and some guns are so use-case-specific or weak you just don't buy. Same with legends as well. I used to enjoy Arenas ranked and normal, but the matchmaking punishes me for doing well and puts me up against Masters/Pred even if my "rank" is gold (Diamond in BR normally). The matchmaking is a joke due to low player counts and it just throws the mode further into a toilet.
I'd like to highlight that I love the fact that the developers are trying to give us new ways to play Apex, as the best parts of this game have nothing to do with being a battle royale and finding the last ring. I think Ranked Arenas was really rushed out regardless, as the Arenas matchmaking issues were prevalent before Ranked came out. Same issues that cause high rank (Masters/Pred) players to avoid pubs as the matchmaking gets so reactive, it consistently pairs you up with higher MMR players game after game until you stop getting several kills per game. Arenas has the same issue but it appears worse as you're fighting one team instead of 19, so the service only has to find ONE higher team than you instead of finding an average of higher teams including good and bad players (as in, winning a pub with some good damage and kills and dropping into a "pro lobby" the next game).
AP gain/loss is super arbitrary in Arenas (if you get more kills for killing a higher rank, why doesn't the game tell you their rank???), Matchmaking is definitely driving players away from any arena queue as this same issue occurs in casuals, and for the last few seasons (I think we are ok right now but pre-balance L-STAR was terrible to fight against in arenas) there have been crippling gun meta differences that all but took over the arena queues.
@papahandsoap I don't think weapon meta in the arena is a problem right now (apart from maybe the Wingman in the hands of good players) because everyone has access to the same weapons. The real problem is that queue times are limited to matching as quickly as possible. In games where people are put into skill based lobbies there should be a reasonable period of waiting to establish fair matches. Apex appears to match via queue times rather than ping or skill level and as a result the game is unbalanced most of the time and makes a mockery of being a skill based game. This is exemplified by Arenas because the poor matchmaking makes fewer people play that mode, which then even worsens the options for finding players of equal skill. I think if there was more transparency regarding their matchmaking it would encourage people to participate in the mode. In fact more transparency would encourage people in both modes, but the way it is now it makes Apex almost impossible to improve in any kind of linear way because you're never climbing an even hill.
Fix the matchmaking and make it skill based and Apex could be a competitive game (within the constraints of the BR RNG). As it is now it just encourages dissatisfaction.
Daily request to fix Ranked Arena matchmaking and AP loss/reward structure....it's so crazily broken right now.
Dear Respawn Dev in charge of Ranked Arena's,
When i get put against players with Master badges of course I'm going to check twitch....and find that I'm playing against Arena Masters. If makes no sense to fine me any points when i inevitably lose against them if i am not yet Master or even Diamond.....It's a stupid system to penalise a team for being worse than a higher ranked team, and then when an equally ranked team is overcome rewarding me with 14 points because my MMR is messed up because i lost games that i was SUPPOSED TO LOSE...whoever thought that it was fair, engaging or even a reflection of skill needs to think about how it works in practice.
Just lost against a guy with a 46 Arena wins in a row badge Pathfinder with 46k kills...-22AP...yep, seems fair...my highest is 10, so not shabby, but he's better then me by four and a half times and yet still i get punished but would get +14 for a win. Someone explain this system?
Yeah man I don't think this season's weapon meta is bad, but it has been prior. I remember last season's 3 stack L-STAR teams like no other lol.
The matchmaking issues are no joke though. Zero point to calling it "ranked" if you're going to match against everyone just for fun anyways. On top of that, they hide everyone's rank as if I can't tell when a top tier player is double tap strafing on me with a wingman/mastiff.
Community ManagerCommunity Manager
