[PTS] Patch Notes 19/11/2025 - Matchmaking

[CustombyCody]

These all sound fantastic. Great QoL improvements. Great direction, looking forward to trying these out.

[Demonito]

What's the incentive bonus please and where can we see it ?
(Test serv is offline rn)

I'm really sad about this 2-2-2 ;
It's much less fun, full random is always a new scenario
Sc can already take forever to proc, especially during NA
It won't solve anything regarding premades, might be even worse
A nooby healer/tank in mercenary gear will be less helpful than any dps sov

More simple > Premades could be for ranked / Sc for solo/duo only

Other news are cool ; unified random queue especially
Please don't add any blacklist

It would be better to address the fact the tank and healer archetype are overpowered and allow teams with more dps to flourish.
I suspect if you enforce this then it will just result in longer Qs and people will log.
Also playing endless games vs the same 2.2.2 healfests isn't fun. Even supposed leet players avoid doing it in ranked cos its boring and takes forever.

The only fear that I have, is that I don't see any mention of Premade against Pug, As in my opinion, is the major issue of sc in RoR. Premade should end up with premade, solo pug should end up with solo pug. As Coordinate, Discord premade, will always win against pugs.

Mixed realms teams will end it for me. I hope i wont see that in game ever

I agree with Atahualpa, the premade groups should be premade vs premade, and not premade vs ramdoms

We have been down the enforced 2/2/2 setup road before. It will mean endless ques for all in low pop hours and pretty much always for dps.
Also, scenarios are not bad mainly because of matchmaking. There are plenty of more pressing issues which make scenarios a terrible experience in general (barriers, scenario redesign to killfests, reward structure and surrender to name a few).

+1

[JohnnyWayne]

I remember the 2-2-2 scenario balance matchmaking change was attempted in the past as well, but reverted after a too large increase in queue times.

I hope it will go better this time. It is not clear to me yet how exactly the UI informs players that other classes are needed in scenarios.

It might be useful to add this information to the website as well, at least for T2-3 and T4 scenario queue data. If it's not too difficult.

I mean, a whole new website would be great too (you guys probably have enough web devs playing to make a quick team for it).

It says so in chat. You get estimated queue times and an announcement which archetype has been lacking for a while. If anyone of that archetype queues up for SC, they get a renown boost of 50% for the duration of the scenario.

[Jajcek12]

Although these are much-needed and very welcome changes, I do worry that they'll kill off /5 sc groups.

Despite what the '#nevergroup' crowd believes, most groups are not 80+ BiS discord premades, but rather randoms that form on /5 to get a 2-2-2 setup.

We know that a lot of the playerbase prioritizes low effort over reward, and how staunchly opposed to grouping many of the playerbase are, with many choosing to be farmed for hours over joining a group. So if every match is always a 2-2-2 with no effort required from the players, what incentive is there to form a /5 group?

Forming a /5 group not only requires more effort than solo queue, but it also prioritizes you against other groups, potentially increasing the effort required to get kills and win scs. It's already a Herculean task to get players to group; with their incentive gone, I fear getting players into a /5 group will be next to impossible. This is especially true for tanks and healers who could be losing extra rewards by not queuing solo.

If /5 groups die, I fear one of the few places that players can learn to play the game and build social connections will be gone. The game needs some kind of meaningful reward locked behind engaging in PvP content as a group, and it has to be something that is good enough to offset the prioritization of low effort and aversion to grouping. A PvP equivalent of PvE dungeons.

Before a #nevergroup accuses me of defending sc pug farming, I'm not. This change is much needed and will hopefully breathe new life into the game. It'll be great to see scs thrive. But few things have no consequences, and this could be one of them. Another could be that solo players start to feel the spotlight on their play when in a 2-2-2 setup, something they're not used to while being an anonymous pug. That self-consciousness and pressure to perform while others are watching may drive some players away from scs, and potentially the game.

What insentivise players to form /5 grp??
Simple- effectivnes of team of players you pick to group.
System didnt know player that choose for 2/2/2 setup, but player who look for players to fill/5 know names and can pick what he want.

This system " cut the sharp edges" so lets dont look on it from ideal.
Solo tank who will get bonus over tank in a group, is already on loosing position. So imo/5 groups will not disapear and i didnt see proposition to create dungeons done by solo players - if you get methaphor.

If " solo random pug" play game because he could abandon its rules by being in random pug. Pug that hide mistake/ignoranc behind system?? Did they que sc to destroy sc for other X players ??
I leave conclusion to you.
With new system players will be more responsible and see their effort in sc because there will be effort to make.

Greate step forward to better sc expierience for everyone.

[Deadpoet]

The only essential change needed is anything that prevents any premade ever getting into contact with any pugs. If solo players could only queue discordant all the frustration and pointlessness would finally disappear. Archetype balance in comparison is just a ripple in the ocean.

[Sadsong]

Nice changes to come. I really enjoyed everything, but the random queue. Will I be possible to blacklist the scs I don't like to play, or i'll be obligated to join them?

[gisborne]

I personally think this will end up being the worst change to the game, ever. Here's some thoughts as to why:

a) The problem with scenarios is not composition. It is premade vs. pug. There are 100 threads about this issue for every 1 on "not enough healers". You completely misread the room.
b) The class distribution is 1 tank - 2 dps - 1 healer. Enforcing 2-2-2 is unfair to dps. I say this as someone who has 0 dps classes above T1.
c) How can you tell what spec a "healer" is? DPS healers are going to exploit this to get into the queue.
d) Queues will end up being significantly longer. So long that I think people will just give up on scenarios altogether.

T2-3 scenarios in this game are fantastic. You know why? There's almost no gear disparity and there are few premades. Not because somehow T2-3 has a 2-2-2 composition already.

[Avernus]

We are discussing allowing certain players the ability to blacklist a certain amount of maps. Design hasn't been finalised.

Yes, the ability to ban scenarios with barriers/no way back to your spawn would be good...

[Scragmuncher]

Thank you for the update.

I would like to ask for 1 clarification if possible:

If you click “Give me a minute”, you’ll be automatically teleported in when the timer ends. This helps avoid missing the start and getting a quitter debuff.

Does this bypass the in-combat state? By this I am asking if a player will be ported into the scenario regardless of if they are engaged in combat or not (in orvr or pve).

In any case, thank you for the information and best of luck with the implementation of the new system(s).

Yes. As it was back on Mythic.

Random map queu on theory sounds good but since ill map layout altering (barriers, layouts favouring only certain realm, random spawns and so on) make many maps if not unplayable at least quite hated by the community.

So scenario mode need map layout rebalancing quite urgently

We are discussing allowing certain players the ability to blacklist a certain amount of maps. Design hasn't been finalised.

Does the Archetype Balancing system mean that scenarios will only be allowed to pop with 2-2-2 setups on both sides or just that both sides are required to have equal number of archetypes? Is it possible to launch a scenario when both sides have for example equal 1-4-1 setups?

I think it is important to allow other than 2-2-2 setups to qualify for scenarios. Compositions like 1-3-2, 1-4-1 would help with que times immensely as well as bring much needed fun into scenarios at the same time, as long as both sides are stuck with same number of archetypes. I get the feeling the game isn't really balanced around 6vs6 with equal 2-2-2 compositions, too many stalemates or uneven matchups, which means especially maps with smaller number of players required will suffer hardly in fun departement.

I guess you are allowed to queue as group with whatever comp you want. It only fills 2-2-2 from people who queue'd less than 6, which imo is good sense.

Great changes, looking forward to see them develop.

Right now you can queue in any combination you want. It will fill other slots around you to average it out.

I see a lot of QoL improvement there and a lot of "obvious" but right choice, that are refreshing to see.

The only fear that I have, is that I don't see any mention of Premade against Pug, As in my opinion, is the major issue of sc in RoR. Premade should end up with premade, solo pug should end up with solo pug. As Coordinate, Discord premade, will always win against pugs.

( This is just an opinion, it's debatable of course. )

At the moment it will prioritise premades vs premade. However, we need to make some more changes to be stricter on premades vs premades. It just didn't make it in to this play test unfortunately. It should be in before release.

At what point is a group considered a 'premade'? Does 2 people count as a premade group in this system or is it a full 6?

[Cherusk]

Praise be, praise be. Somebody got whipped into working on SCs. How about we get SC currency back now?