Pet battles match-up are fixed/padded by blizzard

[Rellyne]

The good move on the nerfs is to remove the huge amount of players using these easy comps, because lets be honest, it doesn't matter who is playing... the thing almost plays for itself. The good players will only squeeze a little extra victories when facing the RNG goods or a very good oponent (probably with the same comp) and thats all.

It's a combo of mistakes when creating these pets between skillsets, skill dmg, stats (speed, etc...), miss chances, etc. that makes it goes well even with bad players on it. I can recall I only see one miss from swap wich doesn't even helped anyway.

Yesterday I laughed for the fact that I just lost to another of these teams where the guy didn't even bother noticing that I only had one pet left... he kept with the "rotation" and decided to swap my only pet... the thing is that it doesn't matter, because the swap just do a stupid amount of damage anyways. No need to crit, no need to check strong/weak bonuses for it... just a huge dmg by itself alread.

There's a little bit of extra tweaking that they could do with it, but it's a start to lower it.

[Shikon01]

The op just doesn't bother me anymore..it is what it is, but the misses drive me insane. For instance last night was awesome and the most frustrating if not shocking. I played one team 2 times and not once but TWICE we got down to our last pet with each having one health point on each pet...I get the last hit on my Tonka toy ( it had already been killed and recharged when we get to 1 heath each) and I'm thinking add another win...when ...yes wait for it...IT MISSES !!! REALLY ???? Are you kidding me I wanted to scream and pull my hair out if not throw the computer across the room. With the exception of 2 battles and most w/ what everyone considers op pets the battles were literally down to the wire all night long. Maybe I'm game play is improving but I still consider myself a noob in the pet battle world. Wish I had some of those battles recorded...they were epic !!

[Yamum]

The strange thing about it is that depending on the time of day these pet combos that are all too familiar to me now are not played the same way. I should prolly say they are NOT played as skillfully and definitely not consistently at certain times of the day.

My guildie and I run the same comp. We both use Son of Animus, but I use Interrupting Jolt and he uses Extra Plating. You could be encountering something like this.

My conclusion is that game masters are heavily involved

It's certainly plausible that Blizzard tells it's GM staff "when you are not busy we encourage you to queue for pet battles".

If I can add my own fuel to the fire, I am completely certain that there is some kind of hidden mechanic that effects balancing and/or matchmaking.

With regard to matchmaking, it is all too common after making a quick 20-odd wins, to suddenly find yourself going up against hard counters. Let's say you run humanoid, mechanical, beast; it's not uncommon after getting a lot of quick wins to suddenly get matched against undead, elemental and mechanical comps. This could just as easily be a frustrated opponent trying to get back at you, but I also think there is sufficient grounds to believe there is some hidden matchmaking system (hereafter referred to as MMS) involved also.

Secondly, how many terrible players do you see with Stunted Direhorn? Heaps! How did they get 250 PvP wins if they are so bad, especially WITHOUT the help of the DIrehorn? Hidden MMS.

Do Blizzard have the ability to implement a hidden MMS? They certainly do. There is already a MMS in place for arenas, I don't see why the system couldn't be adapted for PvP Pet Battles.

Is there a motive for Blizzard to put in a hidden MMS? There certainly is. If beginners or lower-skilled players lose too much they are less-inclined to keep playing. If you win you have more fun than if you keep losing. There are plenty of Pet Battle YouTube videos where you can watch terrible players with terrible pets and terrible comps getting lots of wins. You wonder how they win as you facepalm their moves. They win because they are getting matched against similarly terrible players. This also perfectly explains why you will read on this forum, and others, people bragging about their "unbeatable" comp that wins them 95% of games while actual skilled pet battlers wouldn't go near such a comp.

A second motive exists for a hidden MMS: Pet Battles are supposed to be a fun pastime that casual players can enjoy too. They are not meant to be semi-E-sport like arenas. By keeping the MMS hidden it makes the game less competitive with less pressure to win. It also makes players feel like they better at the game than they are.

Now, as for hidden balancing. Ever notice that you'll beat someone fairly convincingly then face them again, only to get crit, or miss an attack at a crucial point? For example, you have your Fiendish Imp's Nether Gate ready to switch out a low-health Giant Bone Spider, so that he dies on the back line. Everything is going fine, you have all your moves planned in advance and it looks like an easy win. What happens? Your Nether Gate misses and your Imp dies. You bring in your next pet and it misses too and dies. What was an easy win becomes a stupid loss. Another example: a common team I face is Fiendish Imp / Direhorn / Direhorn. I fight this guy so much I know exactly what he'll do but it's certainly not a guaranteed win. Fighting him the other night we are both down to our last pets, both Fiendish Imps, except his is on low health and mine is on high health. We both know exactly how this is going to go. There's nothing he can do to win. We both cast Nether Gate. Mine miss, his crits. It's OK, I'm still on more health than him. We both cast Burn. Mine miss, his hits. I lose. RNG? Or hidden balancing mechanic?

Another example. My guildie, who is probably the best PvP Pet Battler on my realm, reported to me the other night that in one battle vs an Anubisath Idol, his opponent landed 6 (SIX!) Demolishes in a row while under Sandstorm. Anyone good at maths can say what the probability is of landing an attack 6 times in a row that has a 40% chance to hit?

Thanks to the OP for getting this conversation started. I'm fired up!

[Dazer]

his opponent landed 6 (SIX!) Demolishes in a row while under Sandstorm. Anyone good at maths can say what the probability is of landing an attack 6 times in a row that has a 40% chance to hit?

0.4^6~=0.0041
one in every 244, so not too rare. Bound to happen eventually, I'd say

You are more likely to remember the times in which RNG didn't favor you, that's all. Confirmation bias on your side. Of course, you could present evidence for us to analyze, but any attempt to do so has failed so far. It's a nice conspiracy theory, but I'm going with no hidden balancing.

[Yamum]

Firstly, it's not a conspiracy theory. You're using that term incorrectly.

Secondly, I think I presented enough compelling evidence. If you choose to ignore it or brush it off that's up to you.

[Kpb321]

Nope Dazer is right. It's something that statistically speaking isn't that rare when you consider the number of Anub idols that are being used in PVP so I wouldn't be surprised if this happens every couple days. WOW is the ultimate example of if you do something often enough the really rare occurrences happen.

You didn't provide any evidence. Evidence would be stats from tracking your the hit/miss chances of abilities and analyzing that. You provided anecdotes that you claim support a paranoid theory that blizzard is intentionally messing with hit rolls to affect wins and losses.

[Yamum]

Paranoia - baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others.

My suspicion is not baseless, nor is it excessive. You people sure like to throw around words whimsically.

I don't keep hit stats of every battle, that would be going to excess.

The evidence I provided includes consistently observed phenomena combined with reason to reach a rational conclusion. Besides, there would be no way to prove anything based on hit stats as you don't know who you're matched up against.

If you can show that my observations are false, or that my reasoning in unsound then you may have something. Until then I think you're just in denial.

I'm skeptical of skepticism.

[Kpb321]

Paranoia - baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others.

Seems like a pretty accurate usage of the word but I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. Your "evidence" is exactly what I said anecdotes of those "rare" things happening but it couldn't possibly be that there are so many people pet battling that statistics say it has to happen to someone. No it has to be some hidden manipulation by blizzard to make sure people don't loose too much.

[Yamum]

Missing my point entirely. They're not rare occurrences, they happen every day, generally at a crucial point in the match. The Demolish example was just an extreme case.

As I explained, Blizzard have good motives to implement such mechanics. You haven't explained why this would not be the case or that my reasoning is at all unsound.

If you like, we can place a friendly wager. Say, 200k?