SWTOR: Upcoming Matchmaking Changes

BioWares Eric Musco informed the community, that company is making changes to matchmaking.  This will be live with Patch 5.9.2.

Hey folks,

Matchmaking is another place that we wanted to make some pretty big improvements for Game Update 5.9.2. Below you will find our planned changes:

  • All Warzone and Starfighter queues are now cross-faction
  • The Unranked Warzone queue will now always prioritize Warzones over Arenas. An Arena match will only pop if there are not enough players to populate a full Warzone match at that time.
  • Role Balancing:
    • Matchmaking will never place more than 2 tanks or healers on the same team in a Warzone or 1 tank or healer for an Arena.
    • Matchmaking will always do its best to balance the amount of tanks and healers on each team. If there are 2 healers, each team will receive one if possible, the same is true of tanks.
    • In situations where there are an odd number of tanks / healers, matchmaking will do its best to place the combined number of tanks and healers evenly (example: there are 3 healers and 1 tank, matchmaking will attempt to make the teams 2 healers vs 1 tank 1 healer.)
  • Skill Balancing:
    • Matchmaking will more strongly take player skill into account when making teams.
    • Premade groups queuing for Ranked and Unranked Warzones and GSF will now have their matchmaking skill based on the highest rated member, not the team’s average rating.
    • Galactic Starfighter matchmaking has been improved to better account for player experience along with their currently selected ship loadout.

All of these changes have the goal of making Warzone and Starfighter matches pop more regularly and be more balanced overall. Let us know your thoughts!

-eric