Neverwinter Combat League Only Masks Problems

So far, every addition for PVP has failed. You can’t possibly judge differently.

The original Gauntlgrym is already gone and will probably be somewhat replaced by Module 7: Strongholds, the open world PVP areas are still abandoned although they tried to repopulate Icewind Dale in Elemental Evil and matchmaking and the leaver penalty boomeranged right into their face and contributed to what is now by far the lowest PVP population ever. Next up: The Neverwinter Combat League?

Sure, Neverwinter’s overall population has experienced another sharp decline in Module 6 (Steam has it at 3.5k currently after it hovered around 5k since Module 3), so it’s only logical that PVP has suffered as well. But in addition the decisions have driven off fellas from that particular game mode, confirmed by longer Domination queue times and a player base that quickly jumped on the more casual 10v10 Gauntlgrym without a true leaver penalty and matchmaking.

The reasons are simple: High-end players have no environment to test out their skills against each other and low-end players are not efficiently protected by the matchmaking from being stomped. This leads to frustration and losing interest on both ends. Which worsens the situation. A vicious cycle.

The ELO rating needs way more players to work in a satisfactory manner. The devs are aware of the problem. Producer Panderus recently stated:

With our current tech, we could improve the matchmaking further at the cost of greatly increasing queue times especially during off peak hours. We do not currently feel this is a good solution.

This means matchmaking will try to find equal opponents, but in case it is unable to due to low queue population, it will match up anybody. The devs think that any match is better than no match, which is debatable to say the least. In such a state, creating an event which should bring more players into the queue doesn’t seem like a bad idea, but it only cures symptoms, not the problem. A system based off the lackluster matchmaking neither creates a competitive environment, nor does it help low-end players. And people are not dumb, they realize over time. The devs are trying to revitalize a system that was already dead. Nobody cared about the leaderboard in Module 6. True, it was bugged and exploits and design errors made PVP a hellhole, but the magic had long worn off anyway.

Was the overall leaderboard meaningful, the highest ranked player actually the best one? No. Will the NCL leaderboard be meaningful, the highest ranked players the best in their respective Paragons? No.

It’s even worse, because winning and a high ranking now comes with significant rewards. Rewards handed on a silver platter to everyone geared and willing to premade. Not because they are more skilled than anyone else, just because the matchmaking will grant them the occasional free win against PUGs that don’t know what just hit them. Or two wins. Or three. You might rightfully say that geared players taking an effective approach in any other event are also better rewarded than the average Joe, but it’s a huge difference whether it’s done at the cost of the environment or other players.

As long as the leaderboard and matchmaking do not effectively measure skill, any event based on that is bound to fail over time. You currently experience a spike of queue population and more balanced games that come with it, but it won’t last because it hasn’t lasted. It’s repeating history. On some of my chars I already hit the threshold after which matchmaking has problems producing even matchups and it’s standing around or camping most oft the time again. We’ve seen that before. I’m still amazed how a single player rating does not require a single player queue, which would instantly make PVP competitive and queue times faster. At this point, also considering the quote above (“With our current tech”), I assume it’s something that simply can’t (easily) be done.

There are some bright spots though. The rewards for all tiers are nice. A piece of BiS PVP armor for 100 tokens is very reasonable and the event is also a shortcut to the pirate fashion set of the PVP campaign. It might help to close a little bit of that enormous gear gap. Players that don’t need the armor set can go for other rewards and get more out of their matches than they normally would. And after all more players pvping are more players pvping, even if its only temporary, because it means more campaign progress and glory for everyone.

But with the underlying problems I doubt the event will accomplish something long term. If anything, players that discovered PVP because of the event could be very disappointed about the dull queue reality afterwards. PVP does not need another blood infusion, the bleeding itself must be stopped. The devs have to find answers how to effectively separate competitive from casual PVP or fully commit to one, because the current system doesn’t serve anybody. The NCL is a neat event, but it’s far away from becoming the savior of PVP.

It’s even far away from living up to its own name. It’s no competition and most certainly not a league.