One simple change would really really help RA

After entering a match, as long as they haven't used any skills yet, allow players to choose a new template. That's it. How many thousands of headaches would this solve???

My other proposal was kinda complex but not this. It's too easy. Why not do it?

Edit: Well crap, in my haste to post I neglected to remember that loading templates won't allow you to change your class, so yeah...

I propose a change where if you have a crappy teammate, the other 3 can change it.

I would actually enjoy being able to choose my build after seeing which random assortment of professions I get. It would make the random factor of RA less of a frustrating struggle to find a group of people playing builds that compliment yours and more of a challenge to come up with a winning strategy given a sub-optimal combination of professions.

ran·dom
   /ˈrændəm/ Show Spelled[ran-duhm] Show IPA
–adjective
1.
proceeding, made, or occurring without definite aim, reason, or pattern: the random selection of numbers.
2.
Statistics. of or characterizing a process of selection in which each item of a set has an equal probability of being chosen.
3.
Building Trades.
a.
(of building materials) lacking uniformity of dimensions: random shingles.
b.
(of ashlar) laid without continuous courses.
c.
constructed or applied without regularity: random bond.
–noun
4.
Chiefly British. bank3 (def. 7b).
–adverb
5.
Building Trades. without uniformity: random-sized slates.
—Idiom
6.
at random, without definite aim, purpose, method, or adherence to a prior arrangement; in a haphazard way: Contestants were chosen at random from the studio audience.


http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/random


I hope this can clear things up for you.

remove glad points

simple and effective

/notsigned

It's not going to help at all. The only thing this is going to help with is increasing the synergy of the team to counter the other side, nullifying the random in RA and making it much harder to fight against teams with a monk.

A bad player with a good skillbar is still a bad player.

Wait, wait. So you're telling me, that if I go in with a Bsurge elementalist, and I discover that I'm facing a party of two monks, a necro, and another elementalist, that I can change from Bsurge to another elite, removing the primary weakness of the skill (it's uselessness against anything that isn't a physical)?

No thanks. /notsigned

This would be my biggest complaint, because in some arenas you are able to see what professions the other team is using. /notsigned.

/not signed
Random Arena has it`s unique purpose and it is to teach you some basic tings that you might need in Heroes Ascent, Codex Arena or Guild vs Guild.
-Resurrection signet is a must in your bar
-Try to out kite most of the damage that might be applied at you
-Disable most of the enemies offense power
-Apply the right skills on the right targets
When you learn this you are ready to advance, and there is no reason for you to play Random Arena.
If you haven`t learn it so far you should revise the upper points one more time.

I think the main problem with random arenas is focused in a couple of main areas, some which can be addressed and some which cant.

Theres pretty much only on that cant be fixed and thats to do with the players themselves. Pure and simple idiots with bad builds, or just bad players are extremely frustrating to have on your team. In a 4v4 situation losing a quarter of your team is terrible sucks. On the other hand, a single strong player can make that much of a difference as well because the individuals job in 4v4 is much greater. This is mostly the definition of random arenas and so cant be changed.

On the other hand there are a couple of things that can be changed. First of all is the glad points. People get sick of joining a team that hasnt got a monk because the majority of the time it wont get to 5 wins. This results in large numbers of resigns, leaves, or people just afking for a minute till the match ends so that they can get on with it, and keep waiting for a monk. I believe that they should multiply the number of glad points required for the title by 5, and make it 1 glad point per win, and after every 5 wins the number goes up (so for wins 1 - 4 u get 1 point, 5-9 u get 2, 10-14 u get 3, 15-19 u get 4, 20-25 u get 5, and then you get sent out of RA (same system as now).

The other thing I would do is when a player reaches 25 wins, they get kicked out rather then the entire team. Ive been in teams where we got to 25 wins, however I missed out on those last glad points because I joined 1 game late. I would much have prefered to lose the other 3 players (who had reached 25 wins) and give me the chance to get that last tier of glad points before I get kicked out, even though chances are the team I get wouldnt be as good. However this is a minor concern, and something that anet shouldnt really waste their time on.

The next thing is to prevent more then 1 individual of each primary from being on a team. It is quite possibly the most frustrating thing for me in RA after a couple of hours of no monk to suddenly hit a team with 3 monks. By doing this the overall number of teams with a monk increases, even though the number of individuals monking at that time stays the same. I know this doesnt help with the healers of different professions jumping in, but it does help overall. It also helps to balance teams of 3 eles just ripping everything up with insane damage that the monks just cant keep up with.

There are individual problematic skills that need to be adressed as well, however i dont think they are too relevant.

The final thing is the amount of faction gained... the rate of gain is soooo slow. Iirc I got about 7.5k balth faction from doing a full 25 win run, most of which were flawless. This is ridiculously low considering the time it took. Either just increase the base faction gain in RA, or provide an incremental increase similar to glad points, maybe increase by 50 faction for each win, or double the faction gained at 5/10/15/20 wins.