IMO, at this point, this has nothing to do with the matchmaking algorithm, your personal skill level, or other players cheating/tanking. Let me explain...
In any game where matches are short and teammates are mostly random, there will be a natural fluctuation to your personal ranking.
You will go on both winning and losing streaks, based largely on things other than your skill.
Before this massive update happened, personal rankings were mostly settled out (most players who had been playing a while were probably ranked about where they should be).
Whenever a player gets a new piece of gear, or invests in an upgrade, they get a little stronger, and their ranking may rise a little as a result. But others are buying/upgrading gear too, so you may also not see any rise in ranking...
Since the massive update, I think we can all agree that gear, perks, and resources are all coming in faster than before.
This, unsurprisingly, has a bit of a 'shakeup' effect on all rankings across the board.
Now, ranking changes that may have taken weeks previously, may only take days now.
Think of this as someone tapping a fishbowl to create some ripples... (perhaps an aggressive tap if a player gets a legendary!)
But seeing more legendaries pop up doesn't mean they're cheating. It just means players are getting these things faster than before, and the system hasn't sorted them [up] yet.
Guild quests...
Players EVERYWHERE are now using ships and weapons, that are not their best, to accomplish guild quests.
In some cases, the ships/weapons being equipped are so vastly under-powered compared to the average for their ranking, that... well... you can guess what happens.
Now, the matchmaking is still pairing people who used to be ranked closely together, but it doesn't take into account anything like a "currently equipped gear score".
(Quick note: I do not want to see them implement anything relating to gear score!)
So, based on nothing more than "luck", you may or may not be paired with one (or more) teammates sporting sub-par gear in each match you play.
This isn't a problem with matchmaking.
This doesn't mean you're a bad player.
Even if you lose 800+ infamy!
It simply means that, as long as people are prioritizing guild quests, and as long as matchmaking doesn't take that into account, this new effect of performance variability will have a pretty severe shakeup effect.
Think of this as a toddler picking up the fishbowl and shaking it.
The result? Streaks can happen more frequently, can last longer, and can have a far greater net gain/loss than before.
The only way to convince the toddler to put down the fishbowl? Get rid of weapon-specific guild quests.
IMO, I'd just have 6 guild quests per board, make them all non-weapon-specific, but scale the completion criteria accordingly.
That would settle things down a LOT.
Click to expand...