Why is the SoloQ ladder rating so low this season?

[fs667]

Were some changes made regarding the rating earned per arena? Or it's just that the number of active players in the ladder has decreased?
I remember like 2-3 years ago, top players would have 2600 rating, even more. Nowdays they're not even reaching 2200.

Damn I really wanted to push 2.2k for the achiv this season, but if top players can't even reach that, how can I D: (I consider myself decent but far from top :P)

[jmsvanbuskirk]

The issue with Solo Queue is it's basically three different teams being paired with three different teams. On top of that you need 2 dps and 1 healer.

Pairing six players together with a similar MMR and having the proper roles makes the queue times really long. And then if you can hit those high ratings if you can even get queue then you play against the same players. It has issues. It can heavily be exploited as well which it was.

The compromise I guess is they match make with an average MMR between three players. So you get like 1400 and 1600 and 1800 players together. It significantly reduces queue time and pairs you with more different players, but you don't get much rating increase once you hit the higher end of the curve I guess. And it's just a formula that rewards less and less points the higher you get because of how it matches you. That's my understanding anyway.

[Baartleby2]

It's been slowly dying since they made changes to MMR. I've seen glad level players struggle to get 1900 rating these days.