Arena not active now or has the standard been lowered?

[YUPPIE]

Really fast post. I personally don't mind overly so since I can budge to victory, but why in the hell am I playing at 1900 MMR for 2s and 2kish for 3s and running into Gladiators and Rank 1s so often? Just want to know honestly, I remember it was much different in Cataclysm when this shit only cropped up in 2.4 range and rarely even 2.2.

To say the least, it's not a pleasant wakeup call for someone returning to the game and trying to learn.

[Rorke]

The ladders have less people playing and the season just started. It'll inflate as time goes on and will exponentially increase near the end of the season when people are trying to push or cheat for titles.

[BLunsford]

What Ryan said. Smaller community involvement right now.

Don't get too excited, though. Even low MMR groups are doing shady things now.

[Krowus]

There is NO mmr reset after the season ends. There is only a rating reset. The MMR stays but is a little bit deflated because it will inflate again during the season.

[stickyjam]

There is NO mmr reset after the season ends. There is only a rating reset. The MMR stays but is a little bit deflated because it will inflate again during the season.

mmr inflation was a good couple of hundred, that dropped everyone by that at least...

[Caolela]

A lot of rated play is down because people have given up to the cheaters/scumlords. It's pretty rampant now not just in RBG but arena too.

[zenga]

The smaller ladder argument is complete bullshit compared to Cataclysm. For the simple fact that there are no more battlegroups, everyone is playing in 1 big pool nowadays (since mid MoP patch 5.4).

[Lochton]

Is dumping MMR still a thing? You know, lose on purpose for a bit, then wreck what is infront to come up again?

[Thunderbleem]

Is dumping MMR still a thing? You know, lose on purpose for a bit, then wreck what is infront to come up again?

Not only is it still a thing, it happens so frequently that even below 1500 you're likely to face 2k+ experienced players at least 50% of the time.

[Lochton]

Not only is it still a thing, it happens so frequently that even below 1500 you're likely to face 2k+ experienced players at least 50% of the time.

Ugh, they should really find a way to close that gap, thought it was slowly found with the removal of teams.

[Stormspellz]

The smaller ladder argument is complete bullshit compared to Cataclysm. For the simple fact that there are no more battlegroups, everyone is playing in 1 big pool nowadays (since mid MoP patch 5.4).

numbers don't lie something like 30 characterse have done 3s, that was the activity of a smaller battlgroup back in the day.

[Thallidomaniac]

Is dumping MMR still a thing? You know, lose on purpose for a bit, then wreck what is infront to come up again?

It's slower to do because you have to deal at least 1 point of damage in an Arena before leaving, or else you'll be stuck with the Deserter debuff.

[Saladfork]

Is dumping MMR still a thing? You know, lose on purpose for a bit, then wreck what is infront to come up again?

It is possible, but I don't think anyone does it to climb ranking. They just do it for shits and giggles. It isn't a viable climbing method since it takes a lot longer to climb, and your MMR will almost always catch up to your PR pretty quickly.

@OP: Climbing is a lot slower, MMR behaves much differently than what it was like before, and the battlegroup merge changed things quite a bit. You have to win consistently, and that changed who ends up where. The people who would've normally bounced around 1900 are probably around 1600-1700 with similar win ratios. Just try to find people that you can play with consistently, and try to find a strong comp.