Let me begin this super simply; I am NOT a top tier player nor am I someone who thinks flawless or any end game activity should be easy or just handed out. I do think there should be some work placed into going Flawless or completing raids, dungeons, GMs, or anything else labeled as “endgame”.
However, Trials matchmaking as a whole needs to be looked into heavily. Ever since they removed Flawless matchmaking and removed SBMM the matches are borderline -blam!- half the time. Very obvious of which team will win from the getgo and checking tracker afterwards (if the MMRs they show are correct) prove it exponentially more. Just as an example last night (6/22/24) me and two friends played nine matches; eight of which were labeled as us having a 94-98% chance of losing. Then the following morning I tried to solo queue to just work towards getting a roll on the pulse I want to try; and was met with better games, but ONLY the ones I managed to win. Losses were still a 80-90% chance to lose, while wins were around a 40-60% chance.
I’m already aware three-stacking trials is KNOWN to be a sweatfest, and I know solo queuing can also be a very difficult and frustrating thing. But I would be much more willing to accept my losses if my matches weren’t so lopsided and obvious on who was going to win off the bat. Is there a good reason SBMM was only added to flawed cards? (seriously who’s really continuing cards post flawed). Do other people always have matches like this or am I truly the most unlucky person in terms of PVP?
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If you have a Flawed Passage, you can still get more and better loot as long as that passage has 7 total wins. I've used this a lot to farm Trials loot. Putting SBMM on it should theoretically make it easier to farm. As for Passage of Persistence, I think it was made for people like me who will play just for loot and XP, even if I get stomped out along the way. Having said all that, I think the Trials lobby balance algorithms are working as intended. I'm guessing the idea is that "people who win all the time will get satisfied and leave", giving the rest of us some breathing room. What's actually happening is the opposite, in my experience.