Cataclysm - The Shattering
I went through all the old zones pages and updated all of them with screenshots from the latest build of the beta (if you're wondering, that's a little more than 1400 screenshots). All these zones will be changed when Patch 4.0.3a is deployed on live servers, most likely next week or the week after. I also included links to Wowpedia for people who are looking for a few extra lore informations, etc ...

With the expansion getting closer, expect a lot of similar updates to Cataclysm articles in the next few days.

Kalimdor


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Eastern Kingdoms


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Wintergrasp Balancing in 4.0.3
Originally Posted by Zarhym (Blue Tracker)
In patch 4.0.3, Wintergrasp queuing was changed so that each battle attempts to match the factions at a 1-to-1 ratio. This is the exact system being used for Tol Barad in Cataclysm. While we understand that this inflates queue times for factions which are vastly overpopulated on select realms, we prefer this system over using Tenacity. In addition, the new system at least encourages playing on a faction that's better balanced against the opposing faction. With the old Wintergrasp functionality, players were almost encouraged to be on an overpopulated faction, further contributing to realm balance issues.

That said, we'll review realms with significant faction imbalances on a case-by-case basis in the event we need to take further action.

Rated Battlegrounds FAQ
The Rated Battlegrounds FAQ has been updated to what seems to be a final version.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is just around the corner -- and that means Rated Battlegrounds will soon be available. While Rated Battlegrounds will only be open to level-85 characters, we know many of you may still have some questions about this new system, so we’ve put together an FAQ to help address some of the more common inquiries we've seen.

Q. What are Rated Battlegrounds?
A. Like the Arena system, Rated Battlegrounds are an alternative way for players to battle against opponents of similar skill levels and accrue rating to purchase powerful PvP gear. Instead of competing in a 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 bracket, though, you'll be testing your mettle in familiar environments like Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm, as well as all-new Battlegrounds set to release in Cataclysm.

Q. How are Rated Battlegrounds structured?
A. Rated Battlegrounds are broken down into two brackets: 10v10 and 15v15. These brackets rotate weekly and can be viewed in-game via the calendar by activating the Battleground holiday filter.

Q. What Battlegrounds are eligible for Rated Battleground matches?
A. Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, Strand of the Ancients, Battle for Gilneas, and Twin Peaks.

Q. What happened to the 25v25 bracket?
A. We decided to remove this bracket. We don't feel it's feasible to ask players to coordinate a group of 25 players for Rated Battlegrounds. If any player happens to drop group just before a match begins, the raid group would not be able to enter the battle. We anticipate most players or guilds will stick with fairly dedicated 10-player groups, and making the jump to 15-player groups shouldn't be too difficult.

Q. How can I queue for a Rated Battleground?
A. Before entering the queue, you must first create a raid with the full number of players required for the weekly bracket (10 or 15). Any level-85 player on your realm and of your faction may participate in the battle regardless of guild association.

Once you have a raid of the appropriate size, simply open up the PvP window, click on the Conquest tab, highlight "Rated Battleground," and then click "Join Battle."

Q. Can I queue up solo and just be matched with a Rated Battleground team?
A. No. You will need to first join a raid of the appropriate size and level before you can queue up for a Rated Battleground. Individual queuing will not be available for Rated Battlegrounds.

Q. Do all players in the raid group have to be from the same guild in order to queue for a Rated Battleground?
A. No. So long as the raid group size matches the weekly bracket and is comprised of level-85 players, you can queue up for a Rated Battleground no matter what guild you are in. Guild membership has no effect on the formation of Battleground teams.

Winning a Rated Battleground with a team composed of at least 80% guild members, however, will result in the additional benefit of guild experience gain for that guild.

Q. How can I tell if my Rated Battleground team meets the minimum guild requirement?
A. If you join a Rated Battleground with the minimum number of required guild members, a special guild banner will appear in the upper-left corner of the in-game mini-map. This will let you know if you are eligible for the bonus guild experience.

Q. What are the normal benefits of winning a Rated Battleground?
A. When you win a Rated Battleground, you will be rewarded Conquest points, up to your weekly cap. Weekly caps are individual for each player and are based on your highest single PvP rating from the previous week (the cap resets on Tuesdays). This rating can be derived from your 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 Arena rating or your Rated Battleground rating.

Q. What Rated Battleground rating do players start out with?
A. Players start at zero Rated Battleground rating and progress upward from there. If you lose a battle, your Rated Battleground rating will only be reduced if that rating is currently higher than your Match Making Value (MMV). For the most part, a rating only goes up.

Q. What’s MMV?
A. Match Making Value (or MMV for short) is our best measure of an individual player's skill. MMV is the skill rating per format (2v2, 3v3, 5v5, Battleground) and per character that is used for matchmaking. It exists to help the matchmaking system create great matches as quickly as possible for all players. It's generally not a rating we show, with the exception of an average MMV for Arena teams.

Q. Will my MMV go down in the event of a Rated Battleground loss?
A. Yes; however, unlike Arenas, all players in a Rated Battleground team will win or lose the same amount of Rated Battleground rating per match depending on its outcome.

Q. Does MMV for Rated Battlegrounds function the same as it does in Arenas (i.e. does it go up more when you beat a higher-rated team, and go down more when you lose to a lower-rated team)?
A. Yes. Your MMV will go up faster if you defeat a Rated Battleground team with a higher average MMV.

Q. What’s the plan to prevent your Rated Battleground rating from skyrocketing at high win ratios? If your rating only goes down when it is above your MMV, it seems that ratings will just be high on average (compared to Arena).
A. If your Rated Battleground rating gets inflated much beyond your MMV, you’ll only receive a minimal amount of points when you win. Similarly, you’ll lose many more points after a defeat, until your Rated Battleground rating gets back in line with your MMV. This will prevent inflation.

Q. Can consumables and engineering items be used in Rated Battlegrounds?
A.Yes, but they will follow the same rules and restrictions as Arenas.

Q. Will Rated Battleground teams only be matched against other teams in their Battlegroup?
A. No. Rated Battlegrounds will be region-wide, meaning that when you queue for a Rated Battleground, you will have the opportunity to be matched against a team from any of our North American World of Warcraft realms.

Q. Are there any plans to reward players with the highest Rated Battleground rating, similar to Arenas?
A. Epic ground mounts will be rewarded at the end of each season to the top 0.5% of players according to Rated Battleground rating. Titles are also available as you gain rating in the system. The titles are rewarded directly from achievements earned from gaining the required rating.

Fan Arts
The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with 4 new Fan Arts.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 4.0.3a Shattering preview, Wintergrasp Balance, Rated Battlegrounds, Fan Arts started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 110 Comments
  1. Sevantha's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by lios View Post
    And that's exactly why this change was needed. At the moment everyone flocks to one side so they always win WG, causing severe server imbalance. Now the need for imbalance is removed, balance will return and WG will be fine again.

    I'm sure Blizzard will offer free transfers or faction changes for realms with balance issues. Before no one took these offers, because they wanted to be on the winning team. Hopefully now they will understand balance is better and do take the offer.

    You only have the community to thank for this change. If they hadn't created the imbalance just to win some stupid PvP event, this would not be needed.
    This change may be good on some servers but all servers that are low populated are screwed. On my server there is 3 horde players that can join every time wintergrasp is up and sadly they are not even able to win it so we just dont get wintergrasp at all anymore. Not that at this point wintergrasp is important or anything but it will be just as bad for tol barad. Sure tenacity was lame if you got killed by someone with 20 stacks of it but at least you could get into the battle, do your quest, get some honor and win so you can do VoA.
    There should at least be a minimum amount of players that can always join, like they first announced. I don't know if this change will help fix the imbalance on high or normal populated realms but it sure wont do any good on low pop servers because if players can't even do wintergrasp or tol barad in cata they will just transfer away.
  1. Enumarva's Avatar
    Just as a head's up you have the wrong WotLK map in on the Stranglethorn Vale page, it's showing Hillsbrad Foothills Great post, thanks!
  1. mmocc3cc39bf64's Avatar
    good job blizzard with 4.0.3 patch
    - 5v5 wintergrasp over whole day because alliance is lazy on my realm (they always played with 15+ tenacity) || sometimes never receiving invite ... In that case its almost impossible to take base with few players to kill and few that helps. I'm punished because somebody else is lazy?
    - ok... 1:1 ratio balancing system in wg ... then implement same into battlegrounds. Just lost 3 last IoCs because 40 alliance vs 30 hordes

    This is what I call - finding problems there where they are none. Wintergrasp is world PvP. You can make it instance right now, because after 4.0.3 it lost the last signs of world PvP zone.
  1. Alraml's Avatar
    Nice artwork. I think the last one portrays just how hard it would be for a warrior to hit a gnome rogue.
  1. mmocaad390b93a's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hexme View Post
    Was looking at the zones (not all of em) and I noticed....the lack of quests from 80-85.
    Thats because for level 80-85 there is a whole new world being put into the game that is at the centre of the map. The zones shown above are still the questing zones for lower levels
  1. Zathrendar's Avatar
    First one is atrocious (I hate anime-influenced artwork in WoW), it doesn't even remotely look like a WoW elf of any description, other three are nice.
  1. Sevantha's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by tube View Post
    good job blizzard with 4.0.3 patch
    - 5v5 wintergrasp over whole day because alliance is lazy on my realm (they always played with 15+ tenacity) || sometimes never receiving invite ... In that case its almost impossible to take base with few players to kill and few that helps. I'm punished because somebody else is lazy?
    - ok... 1:1 ratio balancing system in wg ... then implement same into battlegrounds. Just lost 3 last IoCs because 40 alliance vs 30 hordes

    This is what I call - finding problems there where they are none. Wintergrasp is world PvP. You can make it instance right now, because after 4.0.3 it lost the last signs of world PvP zone.

    Its sad isn't it. that they make this happen for world pvp zones (or what are supposed to be) but not make it happen in bgs as well. I mean you get really long queues sometimes 20 to 30 minutes and then you just lose anyways because the other side has more players.
    World pvp was never about balance. There was no balance when alliance and horde were fighting in hilsbrad over southshore and tm and still it was fun. What blizzard is doing now with those changes is turning those zones into a simple battleground like they used to be before crossrealm bgs were released.
    I haven't been able to get into Wintergrasp at all since the patch and I haven't seen more than 3 players in there since then either
  1. darkfenix_rizen's Avatar
    Don't feed the furry artists!
  1. Tokas's Avatar
    orc and gnome fan art looks sweeeeeet
  1. Exerionx's Avatar
    Maybe they might resolve the login issues by next week
  1. Aroam's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by balir View Post
    Take that all you female worgen haters! /rude
    Yeah, a yifftastic piece of art.. that's sure to make the horde jealous. Take a look at the next picture with the orc and gnome, that's much better.
  1. Howard Moon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Demona3 View Post
    1st of all: lol also!

    2nd of all: Ursius lives in a cave now? Or has that always been a part of his wandering path? God, such a pain in the **** to find that bugger!
  1. mmoc83df313720's Avatar
    That orc & gnome artwork is amazing! One of the few artworks I've ever downloaded to my machine
  1. Thergal's Avatar
    Oh, so there was a reason for us defending wintergrasp 5 times in a row then, finally !;D
  1. Cowt's Avatar
    Bustwallow Marsh, anyone?
  1. mmoca8d0948a41's Avatar
    Good to see they are getting rid on tenacity. It was broken, sure i'm one shotting hordes with wrath but good luck doing that when 20 horde are silencing/stunlocking/fears you.
  1. valiorik's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by lios View Post
    And that's exactly why this change was needed. At the moment everyone flocks to one side so they always win WG, causing severe server imbalance. Now the need for imbalance is removed, balance will return and WG will be fine again.

    I'm sure Blizzard will offer free transfers or faction changes for realms with balance issues. Before no one took these offers, because they wanted to be on the winning team. Hopefully now they will understand balance is better and do take the offer.

    You only have the community to thank for this change. If they hadn't created the imbalance just to win some stupid PvP event, this would not be needed.
    I don't think it will work out.. It's not only about winning WG. If several guilds will re roll to alliance, they will find themselves pawned, since there's always a lot of rogues and druids hunting humans in SW, Ironforge, Darnasus.. Basically only very large alliance player base would change situation, but our server is high populated and it would require a hell lot of people. Otherwise they won't be able to play, dominated in own cities. There are people who enjoys it and they are playing alliance, but ask yourself if you would love to go trade in AH with raid, so you would have firepower to cover?

    It may help realms with 1:2 or even 1:4 ratio, but as for realms with total domination it means we will never be able to play WG.


    P.S.: Maybe it's even right to make world pvp not eligible for us since we won the war against alliance in our realm. However it would be logical then to destroy theyr cities or at least occupy 'em. Goblins would find a use for Ironforge
  1. Soldan's Avatar
    worgen fan art looks great ;D
  1. Kreuz Kontrol's Avatar
    Really digging the Female Worgen fanart. :x
  1. Eleveneleven's Avatar
    The first pic just looks like some random anime art. What's it doing here? Also it's BS you are restricted to a bracket every week. Why don't they do that to Arena? It's bullshit.

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