Good convo Ranik I don't agree with you on everything but you do make good points. Still I think I'd just like to see more competitive teams queuing ranked 4's and you guys would do fine if you chose to, who the other team is or what they are running shouldn't stop you. If you follow the $ the real pvp is League of Legends. The two sorcs comp was just to illustrate that perceived non competitive comps can do just fine with the right players. Kami in my opinion (take it for what its worth) lethality sniper is the best counter for AP tank, if you guys ran the mara, sniper combo with you spec'd as leth and put burst on the AP tank it would be hard to keep him alive. I got my sorc up now kinda been itching to try him out in a few comps, but my play time is going to have to come down soon so who knows if I'll be able to get in on the fun. Might be forced into yolo queue because of play time restraints. Weekends may see the resurrection of the feared Quadmando comp if we can get pops going

13 wins - 0 losses before the reset, haven't tried it since

I never said I didn't win most solo matches its just effort vs reward equation. If you like trying to drag an anchor across the finish line more power to you. (Assuming you don't just queue sync which is preposterously easy on this server) I don't need the comms, which is really all yolo queue is good for. No random dead weight in group queue, you bring what you want the better team wins. Team ranked has more complex strats and a need for higher execution (vs good teams), what you are saying is equivalent to me saying killing a boss in group finder is a better measure of skill then a progression kill. Solo queue = HM, group queue = NiM Question do you believe Zephyros, the highest ranked solo player on the server is the best pvper? the best marauder? Is double sorc the FOTM build thats got you so scared? It works just fine on PoT5 http://www.twitch.tv/mudclot/b/471447774 If you run a solid comp you should be able to adapt and still get wins. You will almost always win if your team is more skilled regardless of the comp of the other team. I've beaten comps that hard counter mine more than once. You run a mara, AP tank counters you, I've played plenty of teams and still won on a mara against an AP tank, good teams adapt. Saying you won't queue because of the other teams comp is just a cop out. You could have a competitive team from HMD, I don't see why you are so adverse to playing 4s.

AP comps rely on grouping people up to cleave them, ranged that spread out and support each other is the counter. AP tank counters melee and especially smashers due to AOE reduction. AP tanks however are vulnerable to direct damage, as long as you don't stun them, dot builds like leth sniper eat them up. Double sorc works fine too http://www.twitch.tv/mudclot/b/471447774

While I agree that better players will carry better records eventually if they suffer through terrible team mates long enough, the idea that the unorganized cluster F that is solo queue is the ultimate measure of skill is downright laughable. I'm sorry but when I'm on my deception sin and both rounds I out damage and out protect the three smashers on my team I don't see how my skill could have made up for their lack of ability. If you have the patience to suffer the downright awful play in solos more power to you, it's regs that reward ranked comms. Lottery queue is Lottery queue, and teamwork in a 4 man is also a skill. lol at crying about OP comps while you run a smash mara btw Hybrid tanks that get queued as dps say hi

I don't know who heads up the ranked channel saw a gmotd to join so I did. Pub side I see eternal and the guys from ID in the 4's queue Imp side Death Smile and KFT are the regulars with some others on occasion. It seems most other teams will only suffer one or two losses before throwing in the towel. Kickball style games are a good way to work on personal performance, and to experiment with comps. You really need to get a consistent group to take it to the next level (my team has 6 regular players who we can swap in and out as needed) If you just want semi random fun get 16 in an ops group and have everyone queue solo at the same time. People care less about solo ranking and I'm sure more people from the fleet would start queuing if they knew something like this was happening.

Truth^ Some comps will flat out roll others, but every comp has a counter. If you can't think of the counter mirroring a good setup you see is always an option. (I realize not everyone can just roll another class at will) The most important thing is to find something that works for you, and take playing a comp that counters you as a challenge. If you find yourself calling the other team hackers or making silly excuses why you get beat you'll never improve.

There is a "Ranked" chat channel already on the server, it doesn't get much use though. Solo queue isn't a bad place to find players, it should be obvious pretty quickly who can handle themselves in an arena. If you want to get a team going reach out to those good players you see and get them on your friends list. Separate advice rant about ranked 4's below When you first start ranked the more experienced teams will stomp you into wanting to quit, this is normal and all the players on those teams went through it themselves, the key is persistence and learning from your games. In my experience ranked success comes in stages Step 1 - Get horribly stomped, and feel like you can never match up with the other team. (round loss in 1min) Step 2 - Hold your own against good teams, make some plays but still a little short (round loss 3-4min) Step 3 - Win rounds against good teams Getting from step 1 to step 2 is where most people get discouraged, this is the largest hill to climb. Once you get to Step 2 you'll find it easier to get your group going, the competitive fires will be burning. If you want to improve, after a loss try to analyze what happened. What did they do that was effective? How can we counter it? What mistakes did we make? Ask yourself lots of questions. Take a look at your composition, what are you trying to do with it? Are you trying to cc and burst, spread them out with ranged, bunch them up for splash damage? Do your classes compliment each other? A dot spec paired with a heavy cc class like an assassin is probably not the best idea. What utilities do you have? off heals, taunts, cc's, pulls, kbs? How can you use these effectively without overlapping? Are you using medpacks, adrenals, and grenades appropriately? Bring a class that can guard You need to have a guard in ranked 4s if you want to beat an average team, you will only beat teams you already out-skill without one. If you want to be serious stay away from sorc heals right now, I don't like that they aren't viable but they just aren't. Sorc dps can be very effective if you set up your comp to maximize it. Check out Glory or Mudclot's streams to watch top sorcs having success in arena. I do think ranked in shadowlands could be more than it is right now, I'm too cheap to xfer my mains (plus I really don't want to reward biowares mismanagement with anything other than the monthly sub) but I've been leveling an alt on PoT5 because the lack of pops can be discouraging. I'd love to not have to play on another server to get ranked games. TLDR - Ranked is hard at first, it gets better if you want it to. When you see good players reach out, see what you can do.

Charlie sent me this pic of Malrak irl

When I get 2 sorcs, 2 mercs vs 3-4 warriors it feels pretty random, What i meant was sometimes you get comps that work well together but most times you don't. If you get a sorc healer and the other team has an OP for example. The skill matching seems no where to be found, maybe after more people establish rating. KFT, and DS are mostly trying to do 4s, I see the occasional imp guild like veritas and ten inches. Haven't seen a pub team since the day of reset. I get the draw of solo for comm farming but it is usually not very competitve, can only really use the most basic strats (kill that guy) combine that with the faction split (seems way more pubs que) and 1/4 matches seems to get a d/c for me. yolo que I just use to farm ez ranked comms

You'd think a 4s team could be found in there somewhere, shoutout to the teams doing 4s KFT, death smile, ten inches unbuffed, CAE, and Veritas

but solo queue really does mean nothing Random groups, random compositions, and random skill levels =/= competitive matches and on this server its super easy to queue sync

The guy who carries you

Shout-out to frequencyz and harrisonford for joining kickball ranked, good games. Wish we could get more teams in the 4s queue because the solo queue is awful.

The people in the upper level range of low level warzone will always have the advantage of more abilities and more passives added from the skill trees. You went from top dog in the 10-29 bracket, to freshman in the 55-30 bracket, as you level it will get better. Bolster makes your health and stats similar, but the abilities and points in the skill tree you get at higher levels do have a noticeable effect.

Has anyone addressed the main raging issue here? What is a commnitty?

The AH we really just needed one more good dps on our side, ent and I were both at 1.2 mil next guy on our team was half that, we still got some focus kills but 3 heals and a full jugg tank was just too much in AH for the group we had. My fav part of the huttball was the sniper giving Ent full resolve then using his KB, and /s "pos hacker" after it had no effect.

AP Ion tank counters melee heavy comps, run something else.

The one where we beat the eternal super que 5-2? that was lawl worthy

Any PvE gear level 63 and below will give you max expertise. The only reasons to use it are - You don't have conq gear yet - You like the specific PvE set bonus better

If you want to test mettle you do ranked not regs, pug vs pug is only a contest of which team gets randomly assigned the least dead weight. So my other option, que solo ranked seems to fit the bill of what you're after

Although KFT has no official affiliation with Tal'rindar his troll methods have my approval, you can fill my pug 4 anytime.

Respecing to turtle matches, huttball click macros, indefinite suicide runs to stop caps, trading AOE cc bombs hoping to get a lucky cap. This was the "skill" rewarded by 8v8s, arena requires far more actual ability playing your toon to consistently win. Not saying 8v8 wasn't fun or didn't require skill, just saying it's silly to say 8v8 requires more skill than arena. Mistakes are less forgiving in arena and you can't hide the bad in 4v4.

option D) use the /inv command available to all players option E) use the existing solo ranked que and never face pre-mades again

In regs you're probably right, I know I switch to republic when the imp derp is too high. In rated 4s the only 2 good teams are both imp (KFT and Death Smile A teams) haven't seen another team that can compete.