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Hello,

I made the mistake of playing PvP with non-special gear and a non-special pet for a while. My rating went to zero. At first I thought my strategy was weak, but actually my strategy was solid. My gear was the problem. Because of the fixed (+16/-16) rating system, my rating gradually drifted to zero because I was playing people much stronger than me and I was losing 16 points a clip. It doesn't take long to get to zero.

But I really enjoyed PvP and so I beefed my pet and farmed waterworks gear. My stats now are comparable to most and I give EVERYONE a highly competitive match. Just yesterday, I beat more than a few warlords ranked 1500 and higher, including beating a 2000 ranked warlord TWICE in a row. I am a high level chess player, so I get understand the strategies.

So, what's my problem, you ask? My problem is that my RATING IS STILL AT ZERO, roughly.

How can that be? Well, think about it: despite my zero rating, I estimate that I'm a level 1000 or so player. So if I am matched throughout the day with 1000 level opponents, ON AVERAGE (which is my belief after 300 or so games), I should win half the time and lose half the time. See the problem now? With KI's fixed (+16/-16) rating adjustment, MY ZERO RATING WILL STAY AT ZERO even though I am winning against 1000 level players half the time! KI's rating system fails to take into consideration the level of the opponent played. If I lose to a 1600 level warlord, why am I losing 16 points and he gaining 16 points when my rating is ZERO?

Which brings me to my second and maybe more important point: why on earth, as a Private and level ZERO (or even 300 for that matter, for the sake of argument), am I regularly being matched up against Warlords? I do not check the box "Open to all players" when I quick join. After having played 300 or so games, I would say that ON AVERAGE, I am playing 1000 level players, many of which are equipped with special PvP gear that I am not entitled to acquire, ironically enough, BECAUSE OF MY LOW RATING! Why is this happening? This simple programming choice forces many players to drift BELOW their natural rating and leads them in many cases to SPEND MONEY TO BUY CROWNS to shore up their rating!

Forgetting for a moment about the money that power in PvP can buy, at it certainly can, my point is that even when one in my position (rating ZERO) is willing to put in the time and the expense, which I have, I cannot improve my rating.

A rating system which does not accurately reflect a persons level is a broken rating system. I am certain that I am not the first decent player with a rating well below my skill. I am certain that many like me have given up and stopped playing, some after spending good money to improve their rating.

KI needs to remember that players spend money to gain gear for PvP. They must know this because they market it all the time. Players should be able to play PvP and enjoy themselves without drifting lower due to a flawed rating system.

Thank you.

Ethan, I think you missed by points. Let me tell you why:

1. My point was that the relevant stat for matching shouldn't be the level of my wizard, but instead my PvP rank which reflects my skill level at PvP. The level of one's wizard reflects one's POTENTIAL and it makes no sense at all to use it to match players. That would be the same as giving golf handicaps based on the players years of experience and club quality rather than their performance and actual skill level. That is completely pointless.

2. I never said there was a way to buy "rating" using crowns. What I said was that you can buy "power" using crowns. There is a big difference between the two. You can't deny that one can buy "power" using crowns. This can easily be proven by remembering that probably 95% of top PvP players have at least one crown item in their gear. But that had nothing to do with my points anyway.

3. The level or school one is completely irrelevant to my two points, namely, 1) that if I am a private and I beat warlords half the time, I will always remain a private, and 2) privates should be matched only with privates or the next rank, not warlords, because it causes their rating to artificially drift lower and _often_ leads to crown purchases to fix the drift.

4. Gear dropped by dungeons IS actually better, but so what. The fact is that almost all PvP players have SOME crown gear. But again, this has nothing to do with my two main arguments I made (see above).

5. You are wrong here. Yes, I would be at 0 rating if I won half the time after 300 games if my rating was at zero when I started. That is simple math: (150 * -16) + (150 * 16).

I refer you back to my original post. But in short, a rating system which causes a private to remain a private after beating warlords half the time for 300 games is simply broken by definition. Further, it just makes no sense to match players based on anything other than their actual skill level.

Ethan is right,
I also believe that if you lose a bunch of matches at 0 rating instead of going negative you just stay at 0 and it takes longer to get back to actual numbers.