Wargames 100%
Stomping into levelers has always been pretty pathetic. Someone once best described going up against levelers as being like a guy in a Ferrari racing kids in Toyota Camrys and thinking he's cool. It's really just sad. In years of twinking, there are always people (usually newcomers) who don't get that, which is also kinda sad. But most people learn and grow out of that mindset.
Wargames/skirms are the only way to have competitive games that require skill and coordination; that people play not just their class well, but understand their teammates' classes. You can't get that in pugs, but for a lucky queue, and even then it's questionable.
Definitely agree with folks who are concerned that it can lead to saltiness and over-focus on comps (a few wargamers have offered/asked for more underrepresented specs in comps. I think we'll get there once people settle into it). That comes along with any genuinely competitive effort. Having said that, in the past month of wargames, I've heard mostly chill folks and the least amount of toxicity in years. People have their complaints, but it's not turning sour like it used to. 99% of wargamers have been pretty awesomely chill this expansion.
One thing that I think speaks to the integrity of warmers lately, is that the first thing out of a winning team's mouth when they stomp their adversaries isn't gloating or kek'ing or feeling badass like you often get with twinks pugging randoms; it's "who can we trade/find/class-swap to help out". There are games where 30 seconds into the opening team fight the winning team is unironically asking if they should afk the match because the comps clearly don't work and they don't want to just kek-smash their opponents for 15min. That's good sportsmanship. It's a sign that people care about player experience more than W:L. The same is fundamentally not true in pugs. It's not impossible in pugs; you'll just rarely see it both because of that aforementioned immature Ferrari vs Camry attitude, and also the logistical difficulties of regrouping or faction swapping or whatever and then having to roll the dice on the queue.
And let's not pretend that pugging into randoms doesn't lead to the same complaints about comps most of the time anyway. All you have to do is read posts here or in the in-game community chats. It's mostly complaining about X faction queuing hunter premades into pugs. Fair enough. One great way to never have to complain about premade imbalance is to stop queuing into trash. Wargames offer that path.
Agree that maybe sometimes we could get into wargames a bit faster. But with few exceptions, we've been pretty quick that past month or so. Keep in mind we're coordinating across timezones and continents. When you consider that, it's impressive how well it's working lately. We're at the point where on some nights, there are more than enough players, and people are offering to sit a game or two and then subbing in. That's a sign that wargames are healthy right now.
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Glance, I'll say here what we were all talking about in discord the other night when you were playing Hpal.
I didn't hear a single person who wasn't totally supportive of doing fun builds, and specifically you and your efforts. We were all saying it seemed like a fun setup for pugs sometimes. However, the Hpal speed build and play style just doesn't work in competitive situations like wargames.
Don't let those two games color your opinion too much. It wasn't you, or comps, or hpal. It was just the wrong build. You should definitely still hpal in wargames if you love the class. It'll just require swapping to a different set and you're good to go. Healers almost always have a spot if they want it.
