It would be nice if PvP win percentages were calculated per school so that players could see what percent of the time various schools are winning in PvP on average and for this to be shown per table type 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4.
As such figures aren't displayed and provided, I'm creating this thread asking people to post what percent of the time they see and believe most schools to win given they are average to decent players.
When playing in the normal game I've been looking at the PvP records of balance and storm players. From my observation of their displayed PvP records the following seems to be about right:
Balance School: 2:1 win to loss record Storm School: 1:1 win to loss record
If everyone posts their observations, perhaps we can get a good understanding as to the average PvP records of the various schools.
Because of downranking, win/loss ratio is a poor measurement of skill.
This just reeks of more balance-slamming.
lol... the only way balance would be slammed by examining PvP win to loss records is if balance typically always wins more than it loses, at which time balance should be adjusted to make play more fair. As far as downranking goes, all schools can downrank so it is unlikely that downranking would be much of an impact at all in terms of how often the various schools are winning against one another in arena play.
the sad thing is, a lot of people are suckish, and a lot of them are noobs. so "average" players would have to actually be fairly bad :-P
"if balance typically always wins more than it loses... balance should be adjusted to make play more fair."
now the problems here are: first, the ever-so-infinitesimal grammatical error (i am really good at catching these... they tend to lower my opinion of the poster... just saying) of including the unneeded word "always"
second: if one wizards in one particular school win more often than their fellow wizards not of that school, all that really indicates is that more people in that particular school are able to form powerful strategies. so win/loss ratios are really just a farcical tool used often by haters of sorcery (by the way, what exactly IS downranking? i have no idea, and i'd be able to get a clearer understanding of this thread if i knew)
third and final: even IF balance has a higher amount of pvp victories compared to their number of losses, making an already balanced school weaker will detrimentally affect sorcerers where combat skills are actually necessary: outside the arena. can you imagine? i'll answer that for all those who hate balance: no. because all you lot consider is whether or not you can consistantly win in the arena.
ps: just because all players from all schools can "downrank" DOES NOT mean they do.
Seasnake, you're not accounting for human error. The one thing I will say is that balance has the lowest learning curve. Although fire, storm, ice...heck, almost any other school can - in theory - outperform a balance wizard with optimal situations, a balance wizard is a school someone can learn without developing too much strategy or trial and error tweaking.
That's where the problem is. Amongst the best, balance is no more viable than almost any other school. It's just a favorite amongst the weaker PvPers on W101. Unfortunately, this game has so many of them.
If I were to isolate all non-warlord games from both my balance and fire grandmasters, I would say that my fire wizard has a better record. Then again, I know how to play the game and am good at strategy and deck construction. Aw shucks.