I think we all agree that if there are not enough players online of appropriate skill and gear to put together a ranked PVP match that's actually fun and competitive, no match should be created. Some on this thread want to achieve this by restricting who can queue so that only people at the top level of gear can participate, and I want to achieve this by fixing the matchmaking so it stops putting newbies into matches with experts, but still allows all players at max level to participate. It simply should not be possible to "troll the queue" by entering while undergeared or inexperienced, because if you do so, you should only be placed in matches with other people who are also undergeared or inexperienced. My view is that if you believe that the ranked PVP player pool simply is not large enough as currently constituted, you should be looking for reforms to the rules which will lower, not raise, the barriers to entry.

For three reasons: 1. Because it's called "ranked" and the implication is that the game is using a ranking system to put together competitive and fun matches by filling them with people at or around the same rank. 2. Because endgame PVP in both ranked and unranked provides rewards in the form of gearing. Why does Ranked PVP (or PVP of any kind) reward players with any kind of equipment, mods, or crafting materials? The implication of providing those rewards for completing matches and daily or weekly quests is that you should be improving your gear while you PVP. 3. Because the game doesn't stop you from attempting very hard or impossible things, it just kills you. These forums aren't full of people who are massively undergeared or underskilled wandering into ranked PVP and complaining that it's "too hard" and "ranked PVP isn't fun", the forums are full of people who shouldn't even be seeing those people in ranked matches complaining that those people are "not good enough".

My expectation of a mode called "ranked" would be that you start out at the bottom of a ranked ladder, having matches against people with ranks similar to yours. As you win, you would begin to climb the ladder, facing people with increasingly high skill and equipment levels. Eventually you would reach a level commensurate with your skill and equipment level above which you would be unable to climb, either because you were at the top, or because you couldn't reliably beat anyone above you. In a reasonable "ranked" system, you wouldn't be paired in a match with or against anyone who is totally out of your league in terms of skill or equipment, so it wouldn't matter how badly you were equipped or cruddy your skils were, you'd mostly be playing against people who were at a similar rank to you. That would be what I would expect the whole point of "rank" to be.