BlizzCon 2009: Blizzard announces cross-server instances

In what will certainly be the be-all end-all solution to "additional instances cannot be launched", Blizzard announced cross-server instances and LFG at the Dungeons and Raids panel at BlizzCon 2009.
By taking advantage of brand-new hardware separate from your realm's instance servers, not only will you be able to find groups from pools of players in your entire battlegroup, your realm's specific instance servers will be free of the stress of mass heroic-running.
On top of the convenience factor, Blizzard says that rewards will be in place for players who lead groups through instances successfully. The nature of the rewards is currently unknown but Blizzard promises more information soon.
Blizzard says that the feature will be used for 5-mans only at this time. It'll be launched with 3.3, not with Cataclysm.
Fantastic news! No more "additional instances" errors, a larger pool of players to choose your groups from, and rewards for good party leaders. Great news for everyone.
BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!Filed under: Instances
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Reader Comments (Page 5 of 5)
Aerows Aug 23rd 2009 2:47PM
This is wonderful because you can PuG from people your group recommends - you have a larger pool of players now. -GreatHealer or Dontkeybind from your own realm.
Gee, I played against Greathealer in a BG and she knows how to heal. Dontkeybind is the only person on at 7am and I already know he is a ninja and has less throughput than a Shadow Priest. I'll take Greathealer, and Dontkeybind can find other hapless victims.
Aerows Aug 23rd 2009 2:42PM
OMG, a dream come true. I hope this supports raids, too. I can't tell you how many times I want to play in the morning, and there is like 3 people in LFG at 7:00am.
It won't be any different than the way it is now, imho, you will still learn who the scoundrels are, and know who the great players are. You log in and get invited to tank a raid like EoE simply because the healer you worked with in the past is leading it and trusts you to MT, when that raid is successful, the rest know that both the healer who invited you and you as the tank are good people to run with.
That's the way it happens on great servers like Feathermoon who have always PuG raided due to our RP guild structure. This is fantastic - I don't have to know you to PuG, we get to know each other as we go, and we get to know who is a good player and who is not. Cross Server friends list FTW, and if not, irrelevant we remember who is good in BGs, too, the old fashioned way :D
This is GREAT!
Walynds Aug 23rd 2009 11:47PM
Rewarding the leader is a BAD idea. EEEEVVVVIIILLLL!!!! Abe Simpson style
hpavc Aug 24th 2009 4:23PM
rewards: awesome, a good step into reping characters socially and actually i think the 'leading' means the party that enters LFG, so if you have 4 characters that are lookin for one more, the 4 characters get a perk
benevan Aug 25th 2009 6:54AM
this is horrible, i got in the #1 guild on my server with a pug now you will have problems recruiting people even more.
Tank Sep 8th 2009 12:42PM
This has some serious issues if the rewards have any real value (ex a mark of conquest) then this will become a argument fest.AS bad as thing are now with people needing everything or ex the healer needing the hot dps ring from toc for this off specand getting it despite the mage and warlock. I’m starting feel like It takes loot master to run a 5 man anymore. People DEing for the group will run with the shards and no GM’s do nothing when that happens. playing with people on another server it going to happen for more….
What you have is noobs who want the reward starting the groups so they can have lead that it all. Then the argumentswill ensue. Some people say the tanks shouldn’t automatically get lead But keep in mind we are the one that have to know every pull, every ability from entry to end boss. You can make it threw a heroic with a lousy healer and bad dps you cannot make it with a bad tank.
So should the dps who running it for the 1st time get lead and the reward everyone ha an important role in the group? No. Rewarding just the group leader is really lame….
So arguments and cross loot issues, sounds fun…. Either reward the group or no one
FlipWilson Sep 23rd 2009 1:45AM
Maybe they'll bring a rating system for each group. You get points at the end of the dungeon (Final bosses death) and whoever has accomplished more (you could take an average gear level score into account as well as level, so that an 80 helping doesn't necessarly get the reward) gets a bonus.. This seems like it could get too complicated... .. . but Blizzard is a company with loads of technicians and people who work there for problems such as this.
montymint Sep 23rd 2009 12:18PM
In all fairness I PUG Heroics for badges, the only one I like the loot from is TOC, which is very easly to get a guild run for.
I for one won't have any issues with the ninjas.
As for the leader? I hope it's random, Like when you join LFG you tick what you do (tank, dps or heal - and only one) then the game pops you in a group automatically (1 tank, 1 healer 3 dps) with one as a random healer. That would remove the LFM problems.