Cross-Realm-Battlegrounds
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Blizzard MVPs create Cross-Realm Rated Battlegrounds site
First, we had a cross-realm raid group site. Now, Blizzard forum MVPs Eldacar and Cyaga have created The LFG List, a cross-realm group finder for players to get involved in Rated Battlegrounds. Part of the group's Battlemasters site, The LFG List is currently active in the United States only; other versions will be rolled out after the U.S. version has been running smoothly for a while. How do you get onto the list? Well, that's simple! If you are ready for a Battleground or two within the next hour, head over to the start page and choose your faction. That will take you to a page with an IRC window and an entry screen below it. Type in your realm and your character's name in the entry screen to retrieve your basic details from the Armory. You can add in notes and doublecheck that your main spec and off spec are correct. Note the IRC Name section -- this is where you fill in the name that you're using in the live IRC chat above. This way, you can give yourself an IRC name of your choosing and seek out Rated Battleground buddies with any character. Other IRC users will see your name in the list and can contact you directly -- and you're off! Your entry stays up for an hour, so if you're looking for groups further in advance, you can head over to the Battlemasters Forums and make a post. As an aside, the Horde chat seems currently rather more popular than the Alliance chat, hence the split channels. As a mainly Alliance player myself, I'm not OK with this! So I'm putting the call out to my fellow humans, dwarves, draenei, worgen, gnomes and night elves: People of the Alliance! Get on over to The LFG List and get involved!
Is choosing a server becoming obsolete?
Let's hop in the wayback machine for a minute, because I enjoy doing that. Once upon a time in the days of vanilla WoW, players who had just purchased the game were faced with a choice upon logging in for the first time: What server would they call home? There were three different server types, each with their own flavor: PvP, for those that wanted to log in and have the opportunity to whale on the opposing faction at any given opportunity; PvE for those who would rather avoid fighting with other players and simply enjoy the content; and RP, for those who wanted to create character stories and roleplay with other characters. Later, the RP-PvP realm was introduced for roleplayers who really wanted to whale on the opposing faction as well as roleplay. But the choice went beyond a simple matter of what type of game you wanted to play. Each server had its own cast of characters, and as the years went by, these players turned into friends and foes alike. Servers weren't just about how you wanted to play; they were a collection of people you interacted with on a daily basis. Guilds were composed of people with the same ideas in mind, but those guilds weren't the be all and end- all of your interaction with people in the game. Every server had that one guy who was always cracking jokes in trade chat. Every server always had a ninja or two. And of course, there was always the guy who didn't seem to get what social interaction was all about. These days, we have cross-realm grouping via Real ID, the Raid Finder for those who don't want to bother with joining a raid guild, and now we've got the up-and-coming feature that will allow us to group with players cross-realm for raiding old content as well as the new stuff. So the big question is this: Do servers even have a purpose anymore?
Cross-realm Real ID Battlegrounds now available
If you like Battlegrounds and you like friends, there's important news for you. As of patch 4.3, you can form a party and queue for a Battleground with your Real ID friends just as if you were queueing up for a random dungeon. There are some restrictions, of course. Kaivax - Cross-Realm Real-ID BG grouping is now available A few reminders about this -- You're going to see the limitations as you do in Looking-For-Dungeon and Looking-For-Raid. You can't invite Real-ID friends to a raid. If you have Real-ID friends in your group, you can't convert to a raid. source It's not surprising that the tech works the same as the Dungeon Finder and the Raid Finder. While I'd love to see that get expanded so that you can form a raid with friends on your Real ID list, for now, it's still a nice development for those of us who have managed to scatter our friends hither and yon across the servers. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
WoW Archivist: Patch 1.12, Drums of War
The WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? I'm not ashamed to admit when I've made a mistake. Which is good, because today's Archivist would be awkward otherwise. Last week's classic WoW recap was a smidge premature. I haven't covered patch 1.12 yet. Why? Because I thought patch 1.12 was patch 2.0. Patch 2.0 would go with the Burning Crusade-era patches. Patch 1.12 isn't patch 2.0, however, so we're mired in classic WoW for one more week. Patch 1.12, Drums of War, released in August of 2006. It contained the feature that has set the standard for all group content in World of Warcraft: cross-realm Battlegrounds. In addition to cross-realm Battlegrounds, patch 1.12 also included sanctioned world PVP (which didn't work) and a number of UI improvements that you probably take for granted all these years later. Let's dive in, shall we?
Are cross-realm dungeons necessary?
Prolific MMO commentator Tobold writes about a possible problem with Blizzard's plan to speed up the level grind in 2.3: it could make getting a dungeon group together even harder. His solution would be to institute cross-realm dungeons that would resemble the current cross-realm battleground system. He also mentions some improvements to the LFG system (setting aside slots for dedicated roles, so that if you need a tank you don't end up in a group with three mages and two priests, for example) and the commenters come up with some good points, including worrying about how to deal with cross-realm ninjaloots.Generally, the cross realm BG's worked out and I'm a fan of the much reduced waiting times for an AV run. Even with the anti-AFK measures it still only takes a few minutes as opposed to the upwards of an hour it could take before. But I do see some logistical problems in setting up a similar system for instance runs: no more summoning stones since everyone is on a different server, for example. Everyone would have to make their way to the dungeon themselves like they used to in the dim, barbaric past when cavemen first played WoW.What do you think? Would we need 'Instance Groups' similar to Battlegroups, or would you just extend the Battlegroup to also be the pool your cross-realm LFG pulled from? Is this even an issue or are folks overestimating how much faster level will effect instancing?
More on the Battlegrounds Matching System
There have been whispers of some sort of battlegrounds matching system in the past, without any real information on what such a system would try to match. Today, Drysc responded to a post with some additional hints on the kind of the system we can expect. The system will only be viable with the new cross-realm battlegrounds system, due to the increased size of the player pool, and will attempt to match people with specific levels of gear together. It seems like such a matching system would be darned complicated, but if this really works, my Zul'Gurub-geared priest will be quite happy to not again be one-shotted by Ashkandi-wielding warriors. [Thanks, Tommy]
Cross-Realm Battlegrounds... or not.
It seems like just yesterday (or was it actually yesterday?) that the cross-realm battlegrounds were the talk of the town. However, something seems to have gone wrong with the system, as illustrated in the screen-shot to the right, which was taken last night. One Arathi Basin up? One Warsong Gulch? One Alterac Valley? And interestingly enough, they're all full of players from my realm and only my realm. Now, I can't find anything about this on any of the official forums, but it seems to me that cross-realm battlegrounds are... well, not! Are cross-realm battlegrounds down for the count? Blizzard, say it ain't so!
Extra Extended Maintenance for US Realms
It looks like today's maintenance is being drawn out because of "concerns that have arisen with Cross-Realm Battlegrounds" (at least according to the current login message). So instead of coming back up at 11:00 AM PDT, we're looking at a 1:00 PM PDT uptime for all US realms. However, as of the time of this writing, several US realms have already come back online, so if you're wanting to play, it doesn't hurt to check. Online by the usual 11:00 AM are: The Forgotten Coast, Anub'arak, Cenarius, Lightbringer, Uther, Cenarion Circle, and Hyjal. The rest of us are just going to have to wait!Update: While numerous realms have come back online, officially, maintenance has been extended until 4:00 PM PDT.
Patch 1.12: Cross-Realm Battlegrounds System
It's old news that we'll be seeing cross-realm battlegrounds in the next patch, however, Blizzard has recently let us in on additional information regarding how the system works. After 1.12, when you enter a battleground queue, you won't be entering a queue with players from every realm - simply from a select few. Each realm is part of a "battlegroup" consisting of five to twenty realms, and you will only compete with other players within your realm's battlegroup. There's already speculation on which battlegroup will contain the toughest competition, so place your bets now...![Thanks, obo]
Patch 1.12 Preview
After the release of patch 1.11, Blizzard has wasted no time in posting an overview of what to expect in the next content patch. On the agenda are cross-realm battlegrounds, a completely new world PvP system (which suggests to me something along the lines of Arathi Basin, only un-instanced), and (of course!) the rogue talent review. I'm quite interested in seeing how these PvP changes flesh out, but this is all the news we have for now. Stay tuned for more news as it becomes available![Thanks, spencer]
Cross-realm battlegrounds on the way
Gaming Steve brings us the long-awaited information that cross-realm battlegrounds, of a form, will be coming to Azeroth. By patch 1.12 or 1.13 "at the latest", battlegrounds will span sixteen realms, allowing for shorter queues and new opponents.There are also some more exciting BG changes planned for the future, turning WoW PvP into a truly competitive sport with tournaments, ladders and worldwide rankings to take part in. It looks like we'll have to wait for the Burning Crusade to see most of the changes, but bringing cross-realm combat in sooner rather than later is something I'm definitely looking forward to.[Via Joystiq]
