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How long are you willing to wait for a group to form?
In the leveling homestretch, I tend to follow a pattern. My main goal is to boost my ilevel as soon as I hit 90 to get in on Raid Finder. Although, once I get there, I end up feeling bitter because waiting in a Raid Finder queue isn't fun. Even if you're not into Raid Finder, WoW presents players with plenty of opportunity to wait around at some point -- battleground and dungeon queues, or even sticking around for a PUG to come together. As a tank on my main, I groan when thinking of entering Raid Finder, mainly because of the wait. There are only two tank roles, after all. With the new loot specialization coming to 5.3, players looking to win tank gear have hope of a less painful wait in a DPS role, at least. Even if you're used to the long wait, everyone has a limit. I remember waiting as a tank in a Raid Finder queue for an hour and forty minutes. I'm not usually willing to wait that long. I'm relatively comfortable with waiting about thirty to forty minutes before moving on. When it comes to PUGs, I'm quite patient, usually waiting longer than I probably should. In a PUG, I tend to have a personal connection to at least one of the other players in the group, so I'm not quick to leave. How long are you willing to wait, whether it be for a dungeon, Raid Finder, battleground, or a PUG? While in queue, how do you pass the time? I usually find myself completing dailies or battling pets. But at what point do you throw up your hands and leave?
Battleground queue changes save us from ourselves
OK, own up. How many times have you done it? You know what I'm on about. You get your friends together into a group, you're planning to do a few battlegrounds, you check everyone's ready, hit the queue button and wait. The queue pops, you take it, and there you are in a battleground all by yourself. You've accidentally queued for a solo battleground, not queued as a group with your friends. Reddit user Daithe obviously had the same problem, as they posted about this change on Reddit last night. And WoW Insider is so excited about the prospect of no longer abandoning our friends in the relevant Shrine, that we thought we'd share it with you all. You can see that the PvP interface has had a considerable facelift with the patch, and yes, the screenshot uses ElvUI, but the Join Battle button is still front and center, while the Join as Group button slopes off to the side. But, if you accidentally hit the Join as Party button when in a group, you now get this error screen, asking if you're sure you want to queue as solo. WoW Insider thinks the warning could be a bit stronger, calling the PvP columnist a muppet for yet again clicking the wrong button, or something. We love it when these little quality of life changes sneak into the game, so own up, are you as grateful as we are for what might be the mysterious, revolutionary, world-shaping, game-changing feature Ghostcrawler was talking about?
Patch 5.1: No automated PvP queuing for groups greater than 5 people
Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri has taken to the US forums to announce an important step taken with patch 5.1 to help prevent Battleground pre-made groups. Daxxarri In patch 5.1, we resolved some issues regarding how Addons interact with the Battleground queue system. It is no longer possible to automate queuing for standard or random Battlegrounds in groups larger than 5. We decided to make this change in order to improve the experience for all players who are queueing into random groups normally and expecting to face similarly random groups, only to find themselves crushed by a full team of coordinated opponents. We understand that players want to enjoy coordinated team play, and we invite those players to queue into Rated Battlegrounds or play Wargames to have that experience. Players can continue to use Addons to queue for Rated Battlegrounds as well.. source The issue with groups over 5 people queueing up is just as Daxxarri states, that pre-made groups have such an inescapable advantage over random groups. The enjoyment of the genuinely random group facing the pre-made in a battleground is massively hindered, and Daxxarri is quite right when saying that players who want to play as a pre-made group should move into rated battlegrounds and wargames, or arenas. This is a very welcome change, which will no doubt aid players' enjoyment of random battlegrounds. If Blizzard can beat the bots, which Daxxarri has posted about in the past, random battlegrounds will be a great place to have some PvP-focused fun again, but, of course, that's a far larger task. This is a great first step. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Official site updated with new UI additions
The official World of Warcraft website updated recently with an addition to their Under Development section. Call it a preview, reminder, whatever you want. They've added a listing of all of the new UI features coming in Patch 3.1, and I'm willing to say that there's more UI additions in this patch than in any content patch before it. Am I wrong? Possibly, but I can't remember this much coming all at once before.If you've been following WoW Insider since patch 3.1 hit the PTR, not much of this stuff will be a surprise to you, we've tried to cover the UI additions as they were pushed onto the test realm. Regardless, the new UI page details all of the following: Talent Dual Specialization Equipment Manager Updated Objectives Tracker Looking For Group Improvements Queueing for Battlegrounds From Anywhere Go on, give it a read, and make sure you're not caught off guard by all of the shiny new UI elements slapping you in the face the day you load up patch 3.1. You can also check out the galleries below that we've done previously, which will walk you through a few of these things. If you're the type that likes surprises? Well, don't look at them!%Gallery-45754%%Gallery-45780%%Gallery-45755%%Gallery-45767%
