Cataclysm to bring region-wide battlegrounds
by Alex Ziebart 
Jun 11th 2010 at 9:00AM
How this managed to slip past us, we'll never know. Wednesday night, Kalgan (also known as Lead Game Designer Tom Chilton) hit the official forums to drop some news regarding rated battlegrounds in Cataclysm.
KalganWe're currently expecting both normal and rated battlegrounds to be cross-battlegroup (within a region) for the launch of Cataclysm. So, players queueing from anywhere in North America (for example) could play vs players on any North American battlegroup, etc. This applies to all regions, not just North America.
Yes, battlegrounds will no longer be locked to battlegroups in the coming expansion. The pool of players to pull from is going to grow dramatically with this change, which can only be a good thing. It also has interesting implications for PvE content. Cross-realm battlegrounds came long before cross-realm 5-mans via the dungeon finder, so cross-battlegroup battlegrounds could potentially suggest that the dungeon finder will pull from the entire region eventually as well. With the Battle.net revamp and the incoming Real ID features, what realm we play on may become less and less relevant for anything but the guild we're in and which faction holds Tol Barad.
[via World of Raids]
Filed under: News items, PvP, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
Her Jun 11th 2010 11:20AM
Awesome! When Cata hits I can stop worrying whether or not that one warrior is in my BG.
>.> I'm her absolute favorite target.
Noid Jun 11th 2010 11:26AM
Lets see a Cataclysm release date already. Im sick of this.
newyorkwku Jun 11th 2010 11:40AM
Finally! No longer will we be forced to lose battlegrounds because our particular battlegroup sucks. I hail from Onyxia originally and let me tell you Nightfall is terrible. This new feature might actually encourage people to PvP, those that aren't on PvP realms already.
PvP realms are where it's at, people! :)
Elmouth Jun 11th 2010 3:57PM
Now you'll only lose because you rolled alliance :D
Socialcockroach Jun 11th 2010 11:46AM
Well, I have to say, I haven't really had any problems with BG queues as they currently stand. I remember back when BG's were new and the queues took hours. That being said, this change is biggest for those who like to twink and for rated battlegrounds. I think blizz saw the problem that happened to twinks once they got their own bracket and felt that introducing rated BG's with 4 hour queues was not the way to go, especially when that is one of the big posterboy features of cata.
alex Jun 11th 2010 11:52AM
thank you from everyone at Ruin (Emberstorm) EU
Budukahn Jun 11th 2010 11:50AM
This is deffinately a shot in the arm for PVP on the European Realms. Unfortunately, a while ago, Blizzard had the idea of making cross language battle groups. Problem was, the English Realms in Europe aren't really English. They're basically where anyone who doesn't speak French, Spanish or German plays. There are entire realms dominated by a particular nationality, creating unofficial language realms where English language speakers are actually persecuted by indigienous savages who consider it their God given right to have an Italian language server.
Thus, not everyone who plays on an English language realm speaks English so communication is haphazard at best and frequently devolves into country against country infighting at worst. Pair that up against a battle group united behind a single tongue and frequently a single nationality as well, and the perception heavily becomes that the odds are stacked against the EN battle groups.
zweitblom Jun 13th 2010 12:47AM
"persecuted by indigienous savages"
The irony...
David Jun 11th 2010 12:08PM
Yes yes yes!!! I love battlegrounds, and seeing the improvement to them in the expansion makes me very happy! See you all in Eye of the Storm this weekend!
Justin Jun 11th 2010 12:28PM
And yet, somehow, every time I go into a BG, I'll end up with the exact same stalker/healer in my group.
I have literally not gone into a BG in the past 9 months without him being not only in the BG, but in my party. And I PVP a LOT.
Joe Jun 11th 2010 12:37PM
OMG I-DON'T-CARE, sorry but I could really careless about PVP and all the BG and PVP news lately. Blizz needs to start with the new PVE content again. Thumb me down.
, cuz' I know there are way to many people that care about PVP.
Nathan Jun 11th 2010 12:42PM
No, it's just that we don't are that you don't care about PVP. If you aren't interested in it, that's fine, but making a comment like this is just asking to be rated down.
Baba Jun 11th 2010 1:05PM
And in this case, he's literally asking to be rated down ;)
Nissl Jun 11th 2010 12:51PM
I'll be honest, not a huge fan. Mostly because I just deliberately moved to what is widely considered to be the best BG in the US, heck Horde actually loses almost half the time and queues are under 10 minutes, and now I expect it'll be largely be boring Horde faceroll outside of the rated battlegrounds just like it was on my last two battlegroups.
Same with LFD; groups on just my battlegroup are *great* and I never see queues on my tank. Now the talent pool will be diluted.
wdm+hall Jun 11th 2010 1:01PM
Yay!
1. Quicker queues, and later into the night!
2. A chance to finally try out a twink!
3. [School of Hard Knocks]! Seriously, two hour queue times on Eye of the Storm are a big reason I don't have a purple proto.
Jack Jun 11th 2010 1:03PM
They better exclude the Latin realms here I hate that Spanish talking players that mostly kill every battleground fun! :(
tehaxe Jun 11th 2010 4:05PM
Dude you're just racist.
Jack Jun 11th 2010 5:05PM
I am not I do not have any problem with the people behind it. The problem is there connection to the server that mostly is lag and behind others and take out the fun of bg! Also there is a nightmare to get in a random with 4 others talking Spanish and you not understand anything...
Zanathos Jun 11th 2010 5:20PM
It's a nightmare to be in a random dungeon with 4 people speaking a language you don't understand? You have very tame nightmares. Drop group or suck it up, it won't kill you
Marshal Jun 11th 2010 1:19PM
These will make the queue's much quicker, thus getting the return of the Grand Marshal/High Warlord titles quicker to get! Can't wait!