When ranked goes live, there are a couple things I've seen in the test realm that I really like and hope is made permanent.

First, I like the fact that you have no idea who you will be facing, what class they are or what gear they have. This keeps it fresh and makes it necessary for you to carry a healthy mix of gear and companions so that you are ready for anything.

Secondly, I like the different sized battleboards. Having different sizes helps to prevent a certain class from having an advantage every time. I think a few boards even smaller than the ones available in the test realm would be nice for melee units, but I'm sure it's too late for that at this point. Maybe there could be some obstacles added so that melee units could position themselves out of the line of sight of ranged units. Obstacles could also benefit ranged units by making it necessary for melee units to navigate around them. This might offer some protection against Black Fog and Highland Charge.

All in all I like where ranked pvp is headed. I think this will be a great update and help spark interest in pvp for players who, until now, had not taken part in this aspect of the game.

I like it too! I also think that they should add obstacles. It gets kind of bland when there's just an empty battlefield.

The one thing I don't agree is a great part of Ranked PvP is the fact that we don't get a chance to know who we're going up against before preparing. I don't care about knowing who specifically, or what gear they have, but knowing the class of who you're about to fight is essential to the planning process.

Let me explain, I like to use different companions depending on the class of whom I'm fighting. I don't need to know their companion setup, or their gear, but knowing their class is pretty important. If I go in with a team I use against Swashies, and end up fighting a Musketeer, that would immediately put me in a bad position. This forces me to use only the companions that I think could take any class. An A-Team, if you will.

I don't want to use my A-Team all the time. I like to use different companions in PvP, and being able to change them based on the class I will be fighting is something I'd very much like to be able to do.

I like to use El Toro in PvP, but using him against a Musketeer is a BAD idea. That makes me hesitant to use him in Ranked. Because what if I do end up fighting a Musketeer (as I often have been)?

Another example is Subodai. He's great against Swashies and Musketeers, but using him against a Buccaneer would about as bad an idea as using Toro against a Musketeer.

Fixing this would take a lot of time and effort, and I don't think KI is going to go for it. But if they would, I'd like them to match us up with our opponent (and tell us what class they are) before we pick our companions.