The cross-server battleground experience

Vhal · 09/26/06, 5:10 PM

So, there's been a good bit of time since these opened. For us on Horde/Tichondrius, the queues are still instant during reasonable playing times (at least, any time I've tried to get in a BG).

I'm still loving it and thinking 1.12 is the best patch ever for WoW; anyone else have thoughts about it after the shininess has worn off?

• Fogbug · 09/26/06, 5:13 PM

our cluster is mostly new servers + one or two established ones. On one hand grouping up can get old because 80% of the BG's you get aren't even capable of delaying an organized Mal'Ganis team, but on the other hand it's fun queueing solo and being able to kill every UBRS-geared guard at an AB flag

Kalman · 09/26/06, 5:16 PM

I still love it. It took PvP from being something I did once a month to keep sergeant to something I actively enjoy doing after raids are done for the night (sometimes a little too much, judging from how tired I was this morning). I do miss playing the horde from my realm, but it's also nice to play different people. In the end, anything that cuts my queue times to 10-20% of what they used to be (AB is 4-6 minutes consistently instead of 40-60, WSG is 5-10 instead of 50-80, AV is 25-35 minutes instead of 2-3 hours) gets a thumbs up from me.

There's always a few games going, queue times are pretty consistent throughout the day (for a while this weekend we had instant queue times for WSG as *alliance*, which was freaky), and I get to meet and subsequently kill many new faces. What's not to like?

Nite_Moogle · 09/26/06, 5:17 PM

After the first AV holiday weekend Horde have lost probably 90% of the AVs I participated in on my way to Exalted on my warrior. It has not been pretty. However, it is a damn sight better to have a losing AV up at pretty much any time of the day than a losing AV up only on AV weekends.

Nite_Moogle · 09/26/06, 5:18 PM

Originally Posted by Kalman

What's not to like?

You're THE Kalman? :P

Pand · 09/26/06, 5:18 PM

there's a good thread about cross server battleground competition on the pvp forums.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...28326317&sid=1

Kalman · 09/26/06, 5:20 PM

Originally Posted by Nite_Moogle

Originally Posted by Kalman

What's not to like?

You're THE Kalman? :P

Ironically, I was the 15th (PUG) slot in a premade group of 14 that game. The rogue must have told his guildies to heal me, because I got entirely more heals than any PUG has a right to expect when coattailing a premade. There are benefits too.

• frmorrison · 09/26/06, 5:21 PM

It is a great change. Alliance queues were less, horde queues were still instant. The best thing is the wait time were almost accurate, so you know how long you have to wait (as Alliance, Horde don't wait).

However, the bad side is more people are active in the PvP honor train, so if you wanted to rank up you have to put more time into it.

Blizzard just needs to add different maps and then try to do the gear ilevel check in not just the Arena, but in normal BGs as well.

Whitemane · 09/26/06, 5:23 PM

Originally Posted by Fogbug

our cluster is mostly new servers which is neat + one or two established ones. On one hand grouping up can get old because 80% of the BG's you get aren't even capable of delaying an organized Mal'Ganis team, but on the other hand it's fun queueing solo and being able to kill every UBRS-geared guard at an AB flag

Yes, there's a strange satisfaction in having a mage empty his mana pool on you and not really making any progress on your hitpoints because your regrowth + rejuv are just that mean while you beat him into the ground with your staff ...

That aside, cross-server battlegrounds is a mixed experience. Instead of having a server h:a imbalance, it's now cluster h:a imbalances that determine queue times. It's nice to play against teams from other servers, because you no longer know what you are going to get. I'm not that often in BG's though, but I've heard the stories from both sides and it's indeed not a guaranteed success. All it seems to have done is alter the queue times.

Lum · 09/26/06, 5:23 PM

Being on a stupidly alliance heavy server, I've noticed a huge improvement. It used to be that I'd wait for an hour-and-a-half Warsong queue only to get a guaranteed game against one of the two honor farming horde teams. There was no such thing as a PUG if it wasn't Warsong weekend. The other downside was no competition; Alliance Marshal teams always outgeared horde Warlord teams.

Nowdays, things are consistently quick in Battlegroup 3. Generally 10~ minute queues for AB and Warsong, with AV hovering around 30 minutes. A wealth of PUG's to steamroll, but more importantly, competition. There's some brutal teams from Skullcrusher and Mannoroth that have been demolishing our former GM groups. It's fun to play again.

The only thing I don't like is that our queues seem to get messed up more often. Since we got new Hardware a few weeks back, there have been at least three times I could count that no BG's would be up at all, in the middle of peak hours. It gets annoying, and it's caused trouble for more than a few people trying to grind ranks. It could be an isolated thing, but it's still obnoxious.

Overall, I like it.

probiscus · 09/26/06, 5:24 PM

Refer to my sig >_<

But Q's on Kilrogg (A) are up to 5-6 minutes for AB, that plus a little for WSG (for some odd reason) and maybe 40-45 minutes for AV.

I've seem times like those pretty consistently when I go to check out the non-Test Server BG's (been doing more of those lately, as witnessed by my last weeks 24 HK's or something).

Horde side on Kilrogg they're still insta-que so nothing's changed there, pre X-realm or post.

Sedulous · 09/26/06, 5:25 PM

For me personally, it has been a bit of a down turn. I really miss the server's pvp culture for one thing. Secondly, my queue times went from instant to 15+ minutes as I am on a low alliance population server, but obviously the cluster as a whole has more alliance than horde. Also, I get to run into much more geared Horde, whereas before the PVE guys mostly stuck to PVE and it was just PVP guild v PVP guild in the preforms and not much gear difference.

That being said, I know I'm in the vast minority with it getting 'worse' post cross-server, so I'm still happy with the changes even though I personally got the shaft a bit.

Vhal · 09/26/06, 5:39 PM

Originally Posted by Pand

there's a good thread about cross server battleground competition on the pvp forums.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...28326317&sid=1

Wow, that's some serious Tichondrophilia.

If BG9 is that good, we're better than I thought. ;) My guild group ran for ~12 hours over the weekend and never lost a match in WSG. Never got capped on the six hours or so I was present. We really don't have the gear to compete with the top-end PvP guilds, but when we're out in the BGs and don't run into Eminence or Notorious, we tend to do quite well. BG9 has its superstar teams, but the vast majority of red names I see in the BGs don't put up much of a fight.

ildon · 09/26/06, 5:43 PM

Ironic that you would post this now. This week, on Dalaran Alliance, I just started having average queues longer than 2 minutes, going as high as 9 minutes before midnight (used to not see these higher queues until around 2 am). Also, I was extremely worried about not getting rank 8 this week, but for some reason, the number of people pvping on Alliance on my server took a server drop-off, so I made standing 117 with a measely 150k honor. The past 3 weeks (or however long since 1.12) this amount wouldn't have made top 250 standing. Maybe it was due to it not being a bonus weekend, but I think it's more that the shininess has worn off on near-instant queues and being able to select any BG, no matter the holiday weekend. I also think a lot of people who thought their grind would be much easier now, found it was even harder due to the huge number of people they were now competing against, and the ballooning rates of honor gain.

I had planned to stop at rank 8, but after gaining so much more rank than I had expected, I'm tempted to go for rank 10. My guild isn't in BWL yet, and the PvP shoulders would make a very nice holdover until I can get Draketalon Pauldrons. We'll see how this week goes.

And for those who think I'm being naive about getting rank 10, I've already ranked up 2 other characters in the past. I know how the honor curve works, etc.

Anyway, my point was, cross server battlegrounds are probably the best thing to happen to BG PvP in WoW so far. Too bad the world pvp objectives were so crappy and tacked-on.

Edit: I don't know how that person on the pvp forum determined what the best battlegroups were, but I found that back when I played on Shattered Hand Horde pre-cross faction bgs (and pre-DNT/Drama transfer, although a ton of other excellent PvP guilds/players were on that server, too), I felt I faced much more skilled opponents more often than I do queueing up for BG5 from Dalaran Alliance...

Trazhenko · 09/26/06, 5:43 PM

I PvP more now than I used to, for several reasons:

1: Thanks to the review, my PvE (combat dagger) build now has some PvP friendly talents (AR, Imp. sprint/Endurance).

2: Queues are now ~1 minute on Illidan Horde-side for all BGs. They used to be horrible. 20-40 minute on AB, longer for warsong, lucky if an AV was even up.

3: I hate to admit it, but since I'm not an avid PvP'er, I'm guiltily enjoying my newfound ability to shred people in BGs who are undergeared by comparison. Prior to x-server BGs, the few times I did PvP I'd wind up against an Illidan Alliance honor farming group, which really sucked if I wasn't in a group of my own.