Did blizzard flat out lie about numbers in Ashran?

[Gumboy]

Let me get this out of the way first: I have actually had some fun in Ashran, sometimes. When the numbers are even, or close, and you have two solid groups, it can lead to some very fun situations, and even some tactical decisions.

However, recently they said that they were seeing all Ashran battles at 1:1 numbers. That is a flat out lie, or at least disguising the truth.

I have a one plus hour queue (Yay for being alliance before it was cool, and being accused of being a fotm race changer!) to get in, and we are still outnumbered by horde the last 48 hours. Heavily. As in, we get stomped at every corner, we don't even have one full raid group, and the horde are running around with at least one full group, and just stomping us at every event/flag/boss.

The damage/health increase does nothing to stop this, as a 20-30% increase means nothing if you still die in a single stunlock. Healing the damage is silly because any competent group is going to just murder the healers, and with the rampant cc they often times have no time to do anything.


So what could the "1:1" ratios they are saying they are seeing mean? I have not seen anywhere near even numbers in at least two days, and yet we still have at least an hour of queue every single day?

Did I just misinterperet the statement? I will try to find it again.

- - - Updated - - -

If anyone can find where they stated they are all 1:1 ratios I would greatly appreciate it. It was either on the official forums or one of their twitters

[GodEmperor]

It's just that the Ashran starts balanced. Like say 20 Horde Vs 20 Alliance. But 20 alliance run together winning events, wiping horde and doing Ashran right. While the 20 horde are spread out. The ones that die to alliance get upset and leave.

So eventually there's 10 horde vs 20 alliance. Alliance queues sky rocket because they aren't allowed to enter when they outnumber horde.

I've been on multiple Horde Groups and I can tell you it sucks. In a group of say 15 people, there's always like 3 or 4 who are there for PvE reasons. Another 3 who want to farm rares and then the rest who want to do events.

[Deleted]

Have you ever entered a lfr midway and its missing people and you see 3-4 stacks? You immediately know the group sucks so you just leave and so you have people constantly joining and leaving and you might never get a full raid again depending on the time.

Its the same concept in Ashran, if one side is getting stomped people are likely to leave the losing side, that means statistically your more likely to join a losing Ashran when queing, this raid will likely be short some and horribly organised as its constantly rotating people, everyone will be spread out so it will feel even more imbalanced in numbers but its usually just one side being grouped.

Its why the random grouping is such a bad system.

[Reveries1]

I play horde for starters. The changes they have made so far imho have made ashran a lot more balanced and enjoyable. Depending on the time of day you get in with 15 other players or during busy times you can have nearly the full 40 man. They said they enforce 1:1 but they don't do things like merge instances and such to make 40vs40. So if its 40vs40 and 10 horde leave its 30vs40 until more horde join. Or if its 20vs20 and 4 people leave its 16vs20. If the team that has less players is actually grouped up it may seem they have more players when in fact they don't. The team that plays together typically wins more consistently until the buff gets so high it counterbalances that number.

A couple ideas I had about how to make 40vs40 happen more often.

1. When there is multiple instances of ashran that can be merged to be closer to 40vs40 combined them.
2. After a set number of victories for one particular ashran the instance is closed and everyone is removed and forced to requeue

cons:
The first idea doesn't do anything to help queues. The second idea could cause issues with specifically alliance, like you join a ashran after waiting 30 minutes just to have it end quickly because the boss's have been cleared to that set number and you are forced to wait again.

pros:
The first idea results in larger battles because of more players. Personally not as big of a 20vs20 in ashran even if its balanced. The second idea results in faster rotations of standby alliance players and will also more likely result in full ashrans as the horde will likely run back in quickly.

On a side note it would be nice if doing the weeklys also awarded honor. Its kind of frustrating to be capped on conquest but still need honor gear and have the weekly repeatable not able to help me get it.

[Filn]

A couple ideas I had about how to make 40vs40 happen more often.

1. When there is multiple instances of ashran that can be merged to be closer to 40vs40 combined them.
2. After a set number of victories for one particular ashran the instance is closed and everyone is removed and forced to requeue

I have been having thoughts similar to your own, especially about number 2 but there seems to be downfalls with any option I have come up with. Since the queue is random now I feel there has to be some sort of time/victory/event limit but that goes directly against their ideology of an open world pvp zone that is a constant ongoing battle between horde and alliance.

I feel like Ashran right now is a terrible mix between random bgs and world pvp, but at least now they have a reward system that somewhat makes sense (you should still be able to buy those off pieces though, that is bullshit)

[Reveries1]

(you should still be able to buy those off pieces though, that is bullshit)

Or even a token type system so you don't buy a conquest piece just to have RNG give you the same slot with vers gear.

[Gumboy]

Another 24 hours later and every ashran I have been in has been heavily horde outnumberin alliance, while still having 45 minute plus queue....

[pinkz]

play both factions, my ally has a 1-3+ hour que. when i get in allies pretty much have a established 40 man team

when i roll my horde, i get into ashran instantly, i can also exit at will and surf ashran. what i see are teams that buffer 23-37 players constantly, they can never get established even if there is a stealth buff.

the buffering on horde side causes the long ques for the allies, when horde does buffer past 37 which is rare, that is when allies usually get qued into the BG

blizzard ques to match teams, which ends up being momentarily, but blizzards system does not drop players to reduce the mismatch, therefore the cycle of imbalance continues

allies win the road, and then focus on 4 events, while they are setting up and focusing on events, horde can win the road, but overall will not win a event until allies have completed the quest CP award, and then get back to the road. in that time horde win maybe 1-2 events, allies kill boss, and rule next 4 events. was this way before the patch, still this way after the patch

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Man you guys are really convinced Blizzard are liars here...

[pinkz]

they are

DEV A at MOP end going into WOD said they would have flying at 100 ....first major patch

DEV B says prior to 6.1 flying would not be implemented

DEV C says 6.1 is not a major patch

DEV B announces there would be no flying in patch 6.2 .....players revolt

DEV D announces there will be flying....if you do reps, quests, explorations, etc achieve, not 6.2 later mini patch

DEV E announces 6.2 was the last major patch of WOD, and that this was a TWO PATCH expac...now they count 6.1 as a major

there is actually alot more, you get the point

[Gumboy]

Man you guys are really convinced Blizzard are liars here...

What other explanation is there? They said they are only seeing 1:1 ashran's, and I and others see real life proof of otherwise...

[Super Kami Dende]

I have the opposite problem.

I play Alliance yet after waiting in Queue for 1-2 hours I get put in a group with 39 other people, 10 which stick together, 19 which do random things, 10 that are afk. While the Horde team seems to just steamroll constantly.

Haven't completed the Volrath quest yet this week..

[Cobaltius]

It's just that the Ashran starts balanced. Like say 20 Horde Vs 20 Alliance. But 20 alliance run together winning events, wiping horde and doing Ashran right. While the 20 horde are spread out. The ones that die to alliance get upset and leave.

So eventually there's 10 horde vs 20 alliance. Alliance queues sky rocket because they aren't allowed to enter when they outnumber horde.

I've been on multiple Horde Groups and I can tell you it sucks. In a group of say 15 people, there's always like 3 or 4 who are there for PvE reasons. Another 3 who want to farm rares and then the rest who want to do events.

Odd the polar opposite is the norm for me, on Alliance it took over 4 hours yesterday to complete the 200 kill quest and win 4 events and kill Vol, they ONLY way we won those 4 events was when one popped while they were busy killing the Alliance boss, and killed Vol via the back door, otherwise they ran over us at will, it was actually depressing.

But that has been the norm for over a decade now should be used to it, the only BGs Alliance wins on a regular basis is AV and IOC and this is because they don't have face the Horde head on to win them. Now that Blizz has forced confrontations in Ashran, the Horde will dominate Ashran, and will easily out gear Alliance the rest of the expansion.

[GodEmperor]

Odd the polar opposite is the norm for me, on Alliance it took over 4 hours yesterday to complete the 200 kill quest and win 4 events and kill Vol, they ONLY way we won those 4 events was when one popped while they were busy killing the Alliance boss, and killed Vol via the back door, otherwise they ran over us at will, it was actually depressing.

But that has been the norm for over a decade now should be used to it, the only BGs Alliance wins on a regular basis is AV and IOC and this is because they don't have face the Horde head on to win them. Now that Blizz has forced confrontations in Ashran, the Horde will dominate Ashran, and will easily out gear Alliance the rest of the expansion.

I play in the US. Things have changed since last week. Yesterday after reset day, I joined a group on my horde main and straight up steamrolled alliance boss and won 3 events in a row. Then the horde group split up, people started leaving. I left eventually too, tried other groups since Horde queue is instant. Wasted hours for that last event, each time not even getting close to winning since either the Alliance outnumbered us or had artifact or both. Got frustrated and left. When I was done I noticed I wasted 3 hours doing something I absolutely hate and didn't even get crap.

Today morning, gave it another go and eventually won an event after an hour and got a box. Aaaand guess what, it's the same fucking chestpiece I got last week. I'm done with this crap. Not doing trashcan even if the ones that do it completely out gear me by week 3.

[Raugnaut]

Ashran IS capped at 40v40 atm, it is impossible to get more players in a single Ashran instance.

Now, if you are only seeing, say, 20 players in your raid group, and you are counting 40 players in the alliance group, then yea, the 1v1 balance is messed up, as your ashran group should be on the top priority for horde players queing in.

[Filn]

I'd imagine on a large scale that blizzard is looking at it, with all servers at all times of the day it is pretty close to 1:1. That doesn't mean that the couple hours you spend on it might not be even close to 1:1, but that is the problem they are going to keep running into when it is a random placement and no ending to the instance

[Reveries1]

most the ashrans I did yesterday on horde had 20-30 horde on there. Blizzard cant fix your team mates not grouping up or AFKing in different areas of the map at times horde players do it as well.

Horde if you get a ashran that is farming rares and you want events just leave the ashran area and come back. Its usually instant or 30 seconds to get back in and I have yet to join the same ashran instance I left.

[Kallisto]

Odd the polar opposite is the norm for me, on Alliance it took over 4 hours yesterday to complete the 200 kill quest and win 4 events and kill Vol, they ONLY way we won those 4 events was when one popped while they were busy killing the Alliance boss, and killed Vol via the back door, otherwise they ran over us at will, it was actually depressing.

But that has been the norm for over a decade now should be used to it, the only BGs Alliance wins on a regular basis is AV and IOC and this is because they don't have face the Horde head on to win them. Now that Blizz has forced confrontations in Ashran, the Horde will dominate Ashran, and will easily out gear Alliance the rest of the expansion.

In my experience of 6.2 Ashran it's been Alliance dominating on all fronts including fighting between horde and alliance whether in middle or at events. Also I have seen Alliance win basically all BGs these days except Stand of the Ancients. (Playing in US)

[Gumboy]

most the ashrans I did yesterday on horde had 20-30 horde on there. Blizzard cant fix your team mates not grouping up or AFKing in different areas of the map at times horde players do it as well.

Horde if you get a ashran that is farming rares and you want events just leave the ashran area and come back. Its usually instant or 30 seconds to get back in and I have yet to join the same ashran instance I left.

They aren't split up or afk, they are not even in the zone...

[Reveries1]

They aren't split up or afk, they are not even in the zone...

then after 30 seconds they would be removed.