Season 3 changes: Success or Failure?

[RH92]

Hello,

In Season 3 Blizzard decided to scrap groups from Hero League and allow 3 + 2 player groups in Team League. At first it seemed like a good change, but as always it has it's benefits and negatives. They also tried to redistribute players across the Leagues.

Hero League:
In general I feel like my HL games greatly improved with removal of groups from the game mode. I feel like it made Matchmaker work better as it doesn't have to work with huge disparity in hidden rating between players in a group, which also helps with point gain and loss after a game be it victory or defeat. I really hope it stays this way.

Team League:
At first I was glad they are going to introduce this, but I feel it is horribly implemented. I will ignore the queue times as I don't think they are relevant to the topic. My issue is the quality of games, I always find myself guessing as it feels totally random. One game I play against Bronze 5 and next game I play against high Platinum or low Diamond player. You have no idea how to ban or draft because you are unsure about the skill level of a team.

Without making a hard or soft reset just for TL, the Matchmaker seems in a massive stress of trying to juggle average hidden rating of players while also trying to reduce queue times. On the other hand, I have no idea how would a phase of teams and groups finding their place go. Blizzard also had to temporarily remove restrictions just to allow players place themselves and play together, which I don't think is a good sign.

I just know, the current system doesn't work properly for sure. Also the psychological effect of groups makes decision making really hard. When in a game of 2 + 3 groups, when you oppose a certain decision, you are basically making a massive rift in communication as the players will bond with their friend instead of right decision. If I remember correctly, all the TL games were mostly one-sided and pretty bad in quality.

It might be too early to comment on this, but please share your opinions.

[Deleted]

Well there is no real change. Everything they did was simply without any system-count. It's all for player's place - placebo. You can do your placement matches and MVP with full player votes and yet it will do nothing.

[Deleted]

FCFS does not work for 2+3 TL.

I had quite a few games were people would lock in their mains regardless of time in draft, map, or otherwise sensibe decisions. Some are even bold enough to be like "oh lulz i forgot that you lock in instantly xd".

My favorite were the duo queue that basically hammered their zeratul and tracer heroes so that they locked in in draft round 1 and 2 without any communicaton or reaction to chat.

The fact that some players seem to draft against their team instead of with it is really annoying.

But I have to admit that i just finished my placements, so i only have a small sample size of ~11 games.

[RH92]

FCFS does not work for 2+3 TL.

I had quite a few games were people would lock in their mains regardless of time in draft, map, or otherwise sensibe decisions. Some are even bold enough to be like "oh lulz i forgot that you lock in instantly xd".

My favorite were the duo queue that basically hammered their zeratul and tracer heroes so that they locked in in draft round 1 and 2 without any communicaton or reaction to chat.

The fact that some players seem to draft against their team instead of with it is really annoying.

But I have to admit that i just finished my placements, so i only have a small sample size of ~11 games.

Yeah, this too. I think they should give more time before actual draft starts just to discuss what kind of comp you want to play.

[ttak82]

I have not tried HL yet so I can't comment on that. But as a solo player, it's harder to get a TL group now. No one seems to be looking for a 5 man and I am finding it harder to even get another random to join as a 2-3 party. Tried to queue with a friend but go no game for 11 minutes and we just went into QM instead. So that is one downside. But it is the start of the season. Maybe things change a bit.

[Deleted]

I love the changes to HL. It feels like the playing field has been equalized. I am back to winning more than losing like I was in the preseason and season 1. During the last season I noticed more and more 2party teams joining my games and this most of the times led to weird games. Had so many duo players refusing to pick healers/tanks because they wanted to combo... so the tracer/tass, diablo/tyrande, guldan/auriel and so forth were ripe when you didn't need those combo's but needed a tank or a healer and you didnt get one.... and in game they refused to play together with the other 3 players. (I play at gold/plat).

[Deleted]

Yeah, this too. I think they should give more time before actual draft starts just to discuss what kind of comp you want to play.

Punishing people who instalock their main no matter what should be punishable too. But I dont think Blizz wants to sit and watch that.

[Dizzeeyooo]

not noticing any difference in diamond, most games are still horrifically one sided, especially with the new diablo/rehgar/raynor/thrall ezmode press your heroics and win lolol meta

hopefully they patch some changes after xmas quickly, probably the least fun/most boring state of HL overall since beta

[Deleted]

HL was already decent last two seasons, but so far, for me it has improved further. Still in placements, I had only close 24+ min games so far. Getting rid of duos seems to have made things easier for the matchmaker. Havent tried TL yet, but things will have improved per definition for 5-mans (more opponents to match) and 3-mans (who couldn't list before). Looking at reddit and the official forum 2-mans on the other hand are complaining about unholy queue times.

[Tenjen]

progress leading towards more changes

[Ryme]

I feel like my match quality is way down, I suspect the population changes in ranks is to blame. Even my unranked games don't ban Samuro anymore, but every hero league game (plat for lyfe) I have does.

Also, having the 'Exodia' comp exist and people still not even recognising it is getting tiresome.

[Kjalar]

My only problem so far is Earthquake. It's just way too annoying, since it's very easy to land on the entire team and pretty hard to counter.

And yeah, it's really funny that low tier players (playing in Gold, which I consider low) don't seem to have a clue about the Thrall-Rehgar-Diablo-Raynor easy win combo. People keep banning Samuro and Ragnaros for some reason, I don't know why. Guess not many people read patch notes.

[Deleted]

Even though I don't think this is the right thread to complain about current balance issues, my biggest gripe so far is Raynor's late game OPness with Bugperion. He just gets super strong and you basically have to dislocate your entire team when the Ulti starts to fly.

[Raugnaut]

HL changes are glorious - Complete pugs all-around.

TL changes means a higher winrate when I do my 5 man coordinated runs.