World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

With Burning Crusade Classic launching only three weeks ago, we decided to postpone the Midsummer Fire Festival this year. It felt a little too soon to have players who might be taking their time feel the need to level up (or level up their alts) so they could make the most of Ahune, among other things. But we don’t want to skip a whole year, so we’ve decided to open the Midsummer Fire Festival in Burning Crusade Classic the week of July 20, 2021. It will return to its usual time coinciding with the real-world Northern hemisphere solar calendar in 2022.

Speaking of the week of July 20, there’s something else going on that week that we’re going to celebrate. The 2020 Summer Olympics is set to kick off that week, and we see that as the perfect opportunity to reintroduce the Spirit of Competition. This event only occurred once before in the history of WoW, to coincide with the 2008 Summer Olympics during the original Burning Crusade. We’re really looking forward to getting into the spirit again.

We’ll update the World of Warcraft blog with more details on both of these events in July.

Burning Crusade Classic

• A new upgrade to Auction House service responsiveness was implemented for all realms.
• Players who have completed the Trials of the Naaru without receiving the Tempest Key can now obtain one by speaking with A'dal in Shattrath City.

Over the first few days of ranked Arena play in Burning Crusade Classic, we’ve seen some feedback and inquiries from players that we’d like to answer with a brief explainer.

There are multiple PvP performance ratings used by the game. Every Arena team has a team rating that starts at 0 and increases as the team plays Arena matches together. Additionally, each player who is on a team has a personal rating that is calculated based on the results of the Arena matches they’ve played as a part of their team. If a player leaves a team, their personal rating associated with that team will be reset. If a player joins a team that has already played matches, the player will join with up to 1000 rating points of the team’s current team rating. These values are displayed in the PvP frame, and they are used to determine end-of-season awards and weekly points.

To keep players matching against opponents of similar skill, the game also calculates a matchmaking rating (MMR) for each character. After each match concludes, your MMR is updated to better reflect your skill level, and your team rating and personal rating are updated depending on the match result and the matchmaking calculations. This MMR follows your character from team to team, so when a player leaves a team and joins a new team, they will immediately face similarly skilled opponents, even if that new team starts at a team rating of 0.

Ultimately, the more games you play as part of the same team, the closer your personal rating will get to your MMR.