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Arena Matching

AuthorMessage
Administrator

The Ranked Player vs Player (PvP) matching system in Wizard101 is based on two very important factors: the Level of your Wizard character and the current PvP Rank of your Wizard character. The Level of your character is more important than the Rank, but your Rank is still a significant determining factor.

When you join a Ranked match, the system takes your information and tries to pair it up as closely as possible with other players who are currently waiting to compete. If no comparable players are waiting to compete, the system will widen the search. The longer you wait, the wider the search, and the bigger the difference between yourself and your opponent.

For matches of 2v2 or higher, the system will average out the determining factors for all the participants and attempt to match up players to the best teams and opponents that are available. The more players who are online and participating in the Player vs Player feature, the more closely the teams will be matched. When there are fewer players participating in the Player vs Player feature, the team members will be more varied and the differences between opponents will be larger.

{o,o}
  |)_)
 -?-?-
Defender
Jun 17, 2009
111
Survivor
Aug 13, 2009
11
Thanks Gamma for a very interesting explanation.

Do you have any idea of the best times to log on to play PvP matches? By that, I mean when are the most PvP players online?

I live in the UK and due to time differences and the odd times I can log on to play, I can't figure out the best time. I assume most players are in the US, and will log on during the day - but at what times?

Is it best to log on when kids come home from school, in the evening after they've eaten and done their homework, or to wait till later when the older players (who perhaps are more likely to be subscribers) are online?

Basically, when is the Ranked Arena busiest?

Defender
Jun 17, 2009
111
the most busiest during the weekdays in united states is after school hours from 3pm-5pm

your best chances for a pvp fight are weekends which i see incredibly a lot of players in pvp around 10am-3pm United states eastern time i meant...

Survivor
Sep 21, 2008
2
well whenever i play i fell unlucky because i always seem to face a grandmaster and a lvl one but i am a seventeen so the grandmaster knocks my team out one hit

Defender
Jun 17, 2009
111
practice match

you need to set the levels below 20 or something..

ranked matches it depends on what gamma said your level plus your rank is a factor in determining your opponent if your a warlord level um 18 you might end up fighting a level 45+ private.

Survivor
Oct 26, 2008
33
I have a major issue with the rank system.

The last two duels I had were against level 40 pyromancer who was a corporal, and a level 38 pyromancer who was a sergeant.

My character is a level 28 necromancer captain.

In the duel against the level 40 pyromancer I won, and gained 6 points of rank.

In the duel against the level 38 I lost and lost 25 points of rank.

How in the world is this system fair when dueling opponents 10-12 or more levels higher for little or no gain, yet losing costs more than four times the gain from a single duel.

In both instances the duel was matched in less than ten seconds, so it would seem the system thought they were very evenly matched.

At this point I am stopping dueling because to make up for a single loss I need to win 80% of the duels. It seems unreasonable to expect to win at that rate against higher level opponents.

Survivor
Apr 25, 2009
3


you sound very good dude i hope in the future i can play against you in the future.im a lvl 35 private but i use to be warlord and i think you might win cause i havent played in along time so the main this is that on 10/5/09 id like to fight you in a ranked match in realm ambrose at 1pm if you come i really hope you good luck

Survivor
Jul 09, 2009
16
i would like to fight dragon gem i myself am a granmaster of death and i have played for a while i always enjoy the game but i have been seeing myself sway from doing pvp cause i can never find someone good enough to fight senserly foebreaker p.s. that is my char last name on game

Survivor
May 12, 2009
9
I recently submitted bug-report on this subject (mismatched levels), and recieved e-mail that said, "We are aware of the problem and have people working on it".

That was a couple weeks ago, and my 5th level (Knight ranked) character is still facing 18th and 19th level players in PvP! Some of them are Knights and Captains, but even a 19th level Private can easily defeat me by sheer number of cards in their decks. My sole purpose for playing PvP with my 5th level character was to get enough Tickets and rank to purchase the Guardian PvP gear. Under the current matching system, this will never happen because I am forced to play such high level opponents. After much playing, I have most of the tickets, but can't get above Knight rank without losing massive points to 19th level Privates! It is bad enough when I lose to a 1st level player because they use Wild Bolt, but it is completely unfair to match me against players with so much better health, armor, and decks.

The e-mail reponse said KI was "working" on it. Any progress?

Survivor
Jul 25, 2009
19
Michael161 wrote:
Thanks Gamma for a very interesting explanation.

Do you have any idea of the best times to log on to play PvP matches? By that, I mean when are the most PvP players online?

I live in the UK and due to time differences and the odd times I can log on to play, I can't figure out the best time. I assume most players are in the US, and will log on during the day - but at what times?

Is it best to log on when kids come home from school, in the evening after they've eaten and done their homework, or to wait till later when the older players (who perhaps are more likely to be subscribers) are online?

Basically, when is the Ranked Arena busiest?



Ncikup9 says:
I think during the afternoon on weekends.

(p.s. I Thought Gamma could only say "who"!)

Survivor
Jun 25, 2009
17
this "ranking system" doesnt seem to be as you say because i go to the arena all the time and lately i have been fighting grand warlords all the time its getting to annoying can you guys at KI make a better ranking system i am constantly loosing after i just get to the rank i want, like after becoming a knight i end up fighting a warlord

Explorer
May 12, 2009
53
And can you plz get rid of judgemant and wildbolt in pvp? I am not saying the whole game just pvp. i hate running in to adept commanders cause they use wild bolt and judgement. I only sometimes get killed by judgement casue trap, pip, and balance blade. And wild bolt should not be used by people who are not storm or, at the very least, think about NOT being able to trade their wild bolts and judgement treasures to noobs who get all snotty about it cause they have storm and balance grands. PLZ LET WHAT I SAID HAPPEN! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT KI!

Christo FireHeart LVL 43 Pyromancer Arena Rank: Private

( hmm my arena rank ... I wonder why it's that low...)

Survivor
Nov 03, 2009
33
couple of things.

1) tired of people saying "get rid of" this or that in PvP. i have a better solution for you - tower shield and pip boosts. every character has a killer spell or two and it all comes down to who has the best shields and who gets their pips up first. these are things that are accessible to EVERYBODY in the game, so there's not a problem. now, there are some things that should be reconsidered in PvP - namely, items that you can only get with crowns. there are a few pets and some armor that are very helpful in PvP and if somebody wants to spend $30 to $50 real life cash, they can get a great advantage in the arenas (especially at low levels). Without going too far into it, this is almost bribery. W101 gives extreme advantages to whoever gives them the most money. Trust me, I understand why... however, I think it has already backlashed (evident by the very low numbers in PvP) and may backlash worse (as in loss of subscriptions).

2) you need to provide more incentive for PvP. Like most other games (i've never fully understood the logic behind this), you use PvE to drive PvP - meaning, you have to PvE in order to level in order to get cards in order to fight in the arena. But, like most other games, there's no PvE advantage to PvPing. Okay, maybe a coulpe of the lower level captain armor pieces are okay, but not any better for PvE than what you can get in normal play... I think the assumption with game devs is that PvPers either (A) have everything they need (B) don't like PvE of (C) are content just going into jacked up round after jacked up round with nothing to look forward to except armor that you can't use for PvE. I think this is a misconception. I have a few ideas, but you guys are the devs and I'm sure you've thought of them. To keep it simple, you need to (soon) increase the incentive for some of the 5 million people to get in the arena... it's getting kinda boring in there alone.

3) this whole "leveling down" thing... i've been gaming for almost 10 years and I just have to double check something. So, every other time i step in the arena, I cast some spell and then the opponent says "gg" and disappears. As I understand it, they are leveling down so that they can fight little privates while still wearing their great armor and stuff. Okay, I dog it - I understand it - I'm cool with it. What I'm not cool with is giving me a W/L for the round. Now, I may be mistaken, but it appears that every time somebody leaves the round like that, I (the one who stayed) gets a Win and a Loss... this does not make any sense. If that's the way it works, it needs to stop.

4) last, there need to be custom matches. It's a very simple thing to do - if I can code it using C# on an 11 year old game, you guys should be able to do it pretty easily with this platform. Just make it where the person setting it up (this is where you can add incentive for NOT leveling down - make this arena limited to captain or above) gets to choose virtually everything - what schools, spells, pets, etc. are not allowed for the match. That would also effectively solve the people crying about legit spells like judgment, bolt, and the dogs. But you can't do this until you give incentive to go to the arenas - we need more targets in the arena before you go changing the way they operate.

thanks. good game here. hope it holds my interest for a while.

Quinn
Lvl 35
Record w/l: 37/15

Defender
Jul 18, 2009
160
You don't get a win and a lose for someone throwing the match. Plus the game doesn't care what your win loss ratio is.

Survivor
Nov 03, 2009
33
hiway1999 wrote:
You don't get a win and a lose for someone throwing the match. Plus the game doesn't care what your win loss ratio is.


cool.

Survivor
Jul 25, 2009
19
I have a problem with the PvP matchup system. When I play PvP ranked, I battle lvl 20 or higher.
My wizard is a level 15 rank 0 private. :(
The reason I am a rank 0 private(lvl 15) is because I am paired up with level 20s or higher! Please fix this admin.

Defender
Jul 18, 2009
160
ncikup9 wrote:
I have a problem with the PvP matchup system. When I play PvP ranked, I battle lvl 20 or higher.
My wizard is a level 15 rank 0 private. :(
The reason I am a rank 0 private(lvl 15) is because I am paired up with level 20s or higher! Please fix this admin.


You as the player can "fix" this already. If you don't like it then only join the queue for a short time, because the longer you stay in the queue the more "wide" the system will look to get you a match up.

Also if a higher level than you has a lower pvp ranking they will match up with lower levels.

If you want a more fair chance then level to 50 to insure you won't match up against someone higher level than you (since there is no higher level).

Explorer
Feb 01, 2009
64
Malhavoc wrote:
I have a major issue with the rank system.

The last two duels I had were against level 40 pyromancer who was a corporal, and a level 38 pyromancer who was a sergeant.

My character is a level 28 necromancer captain.

In the duel against the level 40 pyromancer I won, and gained 6 points of rank.

In the duel against the level 38 I lost and lost 25 points of rank.

How in the world is this system fair when dueling opponents 10-12 or more levels higher for little or no gain, yet losing costs more than four times the gain from a single duel.

In both instances the duel was matched in less than ten seconds, so it would seem the system thought they were very evenly matched.

At this point I am stopping dueling because to make up for a single loss I need to win 80% of the duels. It seems unreasonable to expect to win at that rate against higher level opponents.


I battle grandmasters with my friend cody all the time! He uses his lvl 28 Death Wizard and i use either my lvl 36 death or my lvl 37 myth. we battle and BEAT grandmasters all the time. The only way to get more exp points is to play a better match. Do not use extremely high end attacks or you will not gain as many points. I used to get killed all the time but only lose 0-1 points! Thats because i didnt use high end spells and the opponent did... Hope this helps!

Survivor
Dec 13, 2008
4
Ruppert wrote:
I recently submitted bug-report on this subject (mismatched levels), and recieved e-mail that said, "We are aware of the problem and have people working on it".

That was a couple weeks ago, and my 5th level (Knight ranked) character is still facing 18th and 19th level players in PvP! Some of them are Knights and Captains, but even a 19th level Private can easily defeat me by sheer number of cards in their decks. My sole purpose for playing PvP with my 5th level character was to get enough Tickets and rank to purchase the Guardian PvP gear. Under the current matching system, this will never happen because I am forced to play such high level opponents. After much playing, I have most of the tickets, but can't get above Knight rank without losing massive points to 19th level Privates! It is bad enough when I lose to a 1st level player because they use Wild Bolt, but it is completely unfair to match me against players with so much better health, armor, and decks.

The e-mail reponse said KI was "working" on it. Any progress?
Yes recently this has happened to me I was on my level 1 death wizard and I won three fights then on the fourth fight(at this point i was a coporal)I was up against a level 36 life wizard in full arena gear I would like to know how at that point it was also determined on levels. It was obvious he was ranking down to fight lower levels since it said he was a private but that shouldn't matter I was put up against a level 36 in full arena gear with my level 1 death wizard.
Sincerely, Edward Deathhunter (was using Angel Deathheart in the battle)

Survivor
Nov 27, 2009
15
ok let look at it like this ,if you pvp dont think you will win every match . lol 9 times out of 10 who goes first wins ,unless however you opponent dont know what they are doing.if you get paired up with someone higher make the best out of it . i was level 31 balance i won against 50 balance 46 death and a 44 death ,its all about timing and defense.

Level means nothing ,yes they may have access to the spells,but then again so do i,sure they have higher health,that why i put lots of shields rendering there attacks to well nothing,hit them with low pips attacks such as fire elf to kill there shields.also making room for the major attack,if you get paired wrong suck it up you may if you play right win.

Go into the match as a good sport however it comes out .suck it up... you may make a few friends. if you play good and i know i was way over you i most of the time give those players free cards.

Brandon Grand Ice, Storm, Balance

working on-Death&Myth

Defender
Sep 28, 2008
104
Go into the match a good sport? Make the most of it? GG? We are working on it?

The way I see it, KI has provided an excellent opportunity here. Its called "ARENA" for a reason. Kill or be killed. It all comes from the Romans and the arenas of old. Its not dueling. Its not a sport. Its not even school against school anymore. Wild Bolts are carried by all and Armor is worn by anyone from Private to Warlord. Enter the "arena" at your own risk. After all, its just a game so kill them all and let the devs sort out the pixels.

Explorer
Mar 15, 2009
65
delroy3 wrote:
this "ranking system" doesnt seem to be as you say because i go to the arena all the time and lately i have been fighting grand warlords all the time its getting to annoying can you guys at KI make a better ranking system i am constantly loosing after i just get to the rank i want, like after becoming a knight i end up fighting a warlord
yes it is a BIG must for this game i have a level 8 myth private and i only been fighting grand warlords i thought it said they pair us up with closest lvls and rank but why is the pairing for me WAY above both my lvls

Survivor
Mar 05, 2009
5
I don't mind other players using treasure cards from other schools.
I do beleive they need to make it though where a player can only use treasure cards that have a rank for the level the player is. I went against other level 10 players and they were using spells that grand masters get. So what I am saying make it were level 10 players can only use the lower spell treasures so it the rank of the card is matched to the level of the player it be lot more fair.

Survivor
Dec 08, 2008
7
tunerpw wrote:
Malhavoc wrote:
I have a major issue with the rank system.

The last two duels I had were against level 40 pyromancer who was a corporal, and a level 38 pyromancer who was a sergeant.

My character is a level 28 necromancer captain.

In the duel against the level 40 pyromancer I won, and gained 6 points of rank.

In the duel against the level 38 I lost and lost 25 points of rank.

How in the world is this system fair when dueling opponents 10-12 or more levels higher for little or no gain, yet losing costs more than four times the gain from a single duel.

In both instances the duel was matched in less than ten seconds, so it would seem the system thought they were very evenly matched.

At this point I am stopping dueling because to make up for a single loss I need to win 80% of the duels. It seems unreasonable to expect to win at that rate against higher level opponents.


I battle grandmasters with my friend cody all the time! He uses his lvl 28 Death Wizard and i use either my lvl 36 death or my lvl 37 myth. we battle and BEAT grandmasters all the time. The only way to get more exp points is to play a better match. Do not use extremely high end attacks or you will not gain as many points. I used to get killed all the time but only lose 0-1 points! Thats because i didnt use high end spells and the opponent did... Hope this helps!



no way. this is only possible if the GM are beginners in arena or/and your bolting.