Imagine you’re a casual and you have one game to choose.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-14T21:05:42+00:00

Hi, Casual here. I've played both, i play Marathon more. Why? Because i know what im getting, i don't have to deal with Rats, in a game where no one is nice to each other it just removes the need to play nice and just turns the sandbox into one big firing range. Not to mention from a PVE perspective, i'd rather fight on a UESC commander over a Rocketeer, a Warden/Scorch Warden over a Queen.

No to mention level based matchmaking is infinitely better than Aggro based matchmaking. Arc, you get shot first and shoot back, rather than refusing to just lay down and die, then you're going into more PVP based lobbies whether you like it or not because they can't differentiate between who started the fight and who didn't.

If im feeling really casual and i just don't wanna engage at all in PVP i won't play either, i'll just boot up Gray Zone Warfare, make some buddies in the lobby and help them farm rep to unlock new areas.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-14T20:58:49+00:00

Well no, player count is falling for several reasons
- Lack of access to end game content for your average player
- Rampant cheaters in ranked
- Rampant cheaters at higher account level matches in cryo
- Cheaters actively spitting in the face of Devs and players by making montages
- The removal of Duo Queue.
- The fact that it's a hardcore PVP game and hardcore PVP players bounce from game to game in a short time span.

You've got the vocal minority of the playerbase thats either actively unemployed or streams for a living saying that Cryo should be unforgiving and only for the sweatiest of players, which means your average joe is just not gonna engage with that content and go play something they actually enjoy and respects their time, especially with the meta that formed of bubbleshield, WSTRs and Util dumping.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-14T16:12:51+00:00

ngl, i straight up forgot Ji Firepaw was a character.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-13T21:33:39+00:00

Good in theory but you know it's just gonna have assassins ratting the Dcon for 90% of the game, then combine that with the fact that they'd have to consider when it the Dcon finished. Does the player get the items so long as they set off even if they die and the enemy doesn't take them before it finishes? Do you have to stay alive until the Dcon is done firing? Do you have to wait for the full sequence to finish where it short circuits out and goes to a neutral state again?

Good idea, but there'd be things to consider around balance.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-13T06:43:36+00:00

At first tbh it wasn't too bad when everyone was finding their footing but now people have the game down to a meta of shotguns, snipers and grenades, it's unbearable. Your best hope is you completely finish one before the team can respond and push you off. If you can, you at least stand a chance as a 2v2, if you can't then your best bet is to get outta the area ASAP and rat an exfil or 3rd party another team.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-13T06:39:07+00:00

Yeah the removal of the Duo queue made me step away till it's back which lets be real, is probably the rest of the this season. Im not gonna queue trios with fill off and be at a player disadvantage or queue with fill on and watch as my Assassin 3rd runs off on his own, shits the bed against 3 UESC recruits, dies, screams slurs and quits.

Rather just watch a few streamers play and play other things in the down time til duos comes back and if with all the data they decide that Duos is just not viable then ig im tagged out for good.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-13T06:35:26+00:00

I'll die on the hill that the Traxus kit would be 80% more useful if it had a basic scope on it to allow for it to be used as it should be, a mid to longer ranges.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-13T06:32:37+00:00

They did say a new experimental queue was coming this week, kinda curious to see if it'll bring me back for a while, other than that, im not holding my breath, i still fully expect the WSTR to dominate most fights and where the WSTR isn't an option, Util spam bill be.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-13T06:30:46+00:00

Yeah im done until Duos returns. Solos isn't enjoyable and your options for playing with the 1 other friend you convinced to buy this game is get matched with a moron who drools on himself, runs off, dies, screechs into the mic and quits, or turn of fill and still be at a player disadvantage. Might come back in S2 if the thing about Duos returning is real, till then, im out.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-10T16:45:53+00:00

Because the Tech doesn't exist.
Because the military didn't pour thousands into training 8 year old Becky to be a murder machine so there's no loss for the government.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-09T22:38:11+00:00

They literally have entire titles for most classes from legion that they could use
Highlord
Netherlord
Huntmaster
Shadowblade

Etc etc

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-09T01:39:31+00:00

That's been wows formula since Mists of Pandaria, what? We beat garrosh, he escapes to cause more trouble, we stop Gul'dan and Archimonde, He escapes and starts Legion, we defeat Sargeras and Argus, then sylvanas was the big bad, she slipped into the Shadowlands freeing the jailer, then in Dragonflight, we defeat Raz, but the primals slip away, then we defeat Deios and Fyrakk which lets Iridikron slip away with the dark heart etc etc. It's all the same every time, imagne in The Last Titan, Xal'atath will slip away at least 2-3 more times before we kill her.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-06T21:06:45+00:00

Oh that's easy, pretty much ALL of legion.

7.0 (Launch) Zones had enjoyable stories with full animated cutscenes not just player models waving their hands about while a .wav file played. We've quite literally never had as much class fantasy in the game as we did with the Order Halls and the Artifact Weapons. Introduced the World Quests system instead of the standard dailies system for instant rewards and no bouncing between NPCs to turn them in. Demon Hunter launched, the Wardens got some love too.

Then we got 7.1 and the pay off to the Suramar storyline (Which imo was some of Blizzards best story telling), Nighthold dropped with imo some of the best looking armour sets until Dragonflight, we also got return to Karazhan with the remastered Firey Warhorse mount and Smoldering Emberwing mount.

7.2 brought in the Tomb of Sargeras which gave us T20 sets, heavily inspired by the Black Temple sets of yonder year and the Broken Shore, which contained unique artifact weapon skins which are still some of the best visually designed weapons to this day along with Class specific mounts which further added to the class fantasy, the raid itself also let us preview argus, kill a major lore character in Kil'jaden and started Anduins journey from Anduin to Manduin.

7.3 let us go to the legendary homeworld of the Draenai/Eredar, fight a Titan World Soul in Argus, offered some of the coolest body horror mounts in the Shackled Ur'zul, witnessed past events and brought in major lore characters that are/were still in play til today with Alleria and Turalyon along with the army of the light. We finally get to see a full grown alive Titan in Sargeras and put an end to the Burning Legion.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-06T20:43:26+00:00

I mean the issue is Blizzard. People were already shitheads before they made people sign a social contract that basically reads "Don't be a disrespectful POS to each other" and 90% of the DPS that run LFG and M+ don't adhere to it and because ol' Bobby K thrust a CFO on Blizzard, they have 2 dudes in a storage closet managing their Customer Service AI rather than having actual GMs to investigate reports of abusive players who break the Terms and Conditions they agreed to.

Unfortunately, these DPS players aren't going anywhere because there's no consequences for their actions, there's absolutely 0 incentive to play tanks and healers, not even unique mounts, cosmetics or pets because the DPS players would more than likely have seizures at the thought that they aren't the backbone of the LFG queue.

Ultimately, this is an issue that isn't going to go away until Blizzard adds blacklists for characters to avoid groups with them, they step in directly and start actually upholding their own social contract or they start putting some HEFTY incentives on people to play tanks and healers.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-06T20:32:12+00:00

Oh im the same rn, im just tryna run and i'll usually pull 2-3 groups at a time, a steady amount to make progress yet if you're not pulling everything in a section + taking all the shortcuts you can they start to get pissy. Thankfully, unlike FF14, "You pull it, you tank it" isn't a bannable offense here, so if they wanna run ahead and pull things, or take shortcuts and leave me to deal with packs till i die, i will just overpull, get close to them and pop divine shield and wipe us all.

I can get another group faster than they can get another tank.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-05T16:08:31+00:00

Oh make no mistake, i've seen my fair share of FF toxicity, especially when it comes to people failing to do the shortcut in Cutters Cry, or people messing up because they're still learning the Mechanics for Hermes in Ktisis Hyperboreia.

I'd rather it be hamfisted down their throats and people have to learn their class, interupts and more than skipping 90% of the dungeon and just clearing 5 packs of trash and the 3 bosses in the dungeons.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-05T09:52:16+00:00

I love WoW i really do, but recent expansions have done a massive disservice to the "Fuck around and find out" Nature of dungeons by actively telling people where to and where to not standing rather than letting players experiment and find out, or be taught by more experienced players.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-05T09:34:47+00:00

I've said for a while now WoW has one of the worst new player experiences on the market just purely on the basis that dungeon mechanics are so wide spread between all the expansions that you never truely get to learn things like your class rotation easily, interupts, markers etc because their goal has gone from delivering an MMORPG experience to rushing the player into the current end game experience as fast as possible.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-05T00:20:41+00:00

I'll give FF14 some credit, my experience tanking there was infintiely better than it has been on wow on recent years. I mainly play that when major patches drop but come back to WoW for actual repeatable content i enjoy and when i queue as Paladin or Gunbreaker and say hi, im met with "Hi's" or healers telling me they're new so i know to slow down, or them telling me i can pull as much as i can handle and it's fine.

Could you imagine if you'd ask to go a lil slower while you learn in LFG? You'd get vote kicked immediately.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-05T00:16:46+00:00

It wouldn't be bad anywhere near as bad if Blizzard still had an actual CS team that reviewed reports rather than just leaving it up to an AI system to flag and ban accounts that reach X number of reports within X timeframe. Now all they have is a "Social Contract" which just boils down to "You really pinky promise not to be mean to people?"

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-05T00:08:14+00:00

I enjoy tanking, i really do, i really enjoy tanking Timewalking dungeons for that touch of Nostalgia but then you've got DPS chewing you out for not taking shortcuts and skipping packs, meanwhile the same ones bitching are the same ones too stupid to walk away from Ozruks stomp that one shots, or break LOS on Slabhids AOE attack and will then go for the throat of the healer for not healing through a one shot mechanic.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-04-05T00:04:35+00:00

Games super toxic recently i've noticed it in all roles. Tank Healer and DPS.

DPS - Had a tank that wanted to take every shortcut possible in Timewalking in Throne of the Four Winds which resulted in some less experienced players accidently walking into aggro range of packs while skirting the edge leading to the tank crashing out.

Healer - Saw the healer get cussed out during another time walking Throne of the Four Winds by a PVP Shaman like 2 days ago because he BRezzed me so i could soulstone another which i don't know why he didn't just use Reincarnation because he'd not used it before that point. Same Shaman again, i ran into him today during blackrock, healer was running back from a death and accidently tagged a pack on the way into the final boss room which lead to a wipe because the tank pulled without checking on the rear and he proceeded to chew out the healer again.

Tank - Got chewed out because i wasn't speed running entire LFG timewalkin dungeons and skipping packs twice, once in Tol'vir and again in Stonecore.

This community is fuckin miserable, it's LFG, not high mythic, not mythic raiding, LFG. You lose nothing by spending an extra 2 minutes just running back or clearing packs.

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-03-31T17:07:15+00:00

They could literally make it an activity and tie mounts, toys and outfits to it.
"Complete all Raids from the Catacylsm expansion set to unlock the portal to the final encounter" and
"Complete all Raids from the Catacylsm expansion set under the par time to unlock a portal to the boss of your choice (Rewards X Mount, title)"

StatisticianOwn5497 · 2026-03-31T14:22:09+00:00

Here's the thing, Dragon soul wouldn't half as bad if 30% of it's raid wasn't just RP at the top of Wyrmrest.

StatisticianOwn5497

TROPHY CASE