What Can The New Queue System Do For PVP?

I think we can all agree that the new queue system that will be introduced with Neverwinter’s The Maze Engine is universally great for PVE. Being able to fully premade for Tiamat, Demogorgon or generally all content is one thing the community has demanded ever since Module 5. Timers and syncing instantly becomes unnecessary and those elite channels lose relevance, because you can recruit your whole group in /lfg. The only conceptional thing I don’t quite get so far is the private queue mentioned here. I would think that’s actually a part of the new matchmaking and not an independent system. You are however already able to premade existing content without any role restrictions, so mentioning it as one of two “big features” feels weird unless there’s more to it.

M9 Playtest Match Request UI
M9 Playtest Match Request UI

Next to PVE I have been thinking about what the system can do for PVP a lot lately. I haven’t read anywhere that PVP queues are included in the new queue system, but you would naturally think they are. So it should be possible to fully premade Gauntlgrym and Strongholds for example, which alone is an improvement as the game looks back to quite a few PVP disappointments and large guild fights are surely amongst them. Gauntlgrym has never developed into the system it was thought to be and was eventually discontinued, they artificially prevented or made it very hard for guilds to gather in the same instance in Icewind Dale (but let’s not get started with the open world failure anyway) and Strongholds has become a very casual environment as well where more solo players grind for gear than guilds measuring their epeen.

Stronghold Keep
Stronghold Keep

Part of the reason is that you can’t comfortably build your team for the fights and that is achieved with the queue system. But the change also comes with new challenges and doesn’t solve other huge problems of the PVP gameplay. First of all with the ability to fully premade Gauntlgrym and Strongholds, these are bound to become the same environment as Domination, in which you either premade or lose. A lot. There are already only a few queues going up for the larger scaled battles (so few, that a new channel has been created to fix it) and pugs and solo players constantly meeting a monster premade on the other end is not called an improvement for all parties involved. I have been a fierce supporter of separating different tiers of PVP and you might want to at least exclude the Gauntlgrym queue.

Furthermore bigger premades do not fix balancing and that the game completely lacks a competitive environment. Even if guilds feel motivated to assemble more players, they don’t have any ranking to climb. So bringing larger scaled comparisons to the table doesn’t really make sense if you’re not having a team, guild ladder or something similar. Plus there are currently no indications that the system will allow for matching opposing premades with each other, so this might still warrant syncing queues.

While the queue system is a big improvement for PVE, I don’t actually see much progress on the PVP front and am also inclined to believe that on the short term the system might cause more problems than it solves if it’s possible to premade for Gauntlgrym and Strongholds. But it can be a vital asset of a strong PVP package if a few other areas are fixed and extended.

What are your thoughts about the queue system related to PVP? Share it in the comments or visit our message board!

j0Shi

j0Shi plays the Neverwinter MMORPG since the open BETA in 2013 and is a regular contributor to the blog and the whole UN:Project. Originally a Guardian Fighter, he has built up ALTs of all classes and plays on BIS/near-BIS level.