Cross-Realm is coming to Battlegrounds and Arenas in Wrath of the Lich King Classic. When will this feature be available on official servers?
The Arena and Battlegrounds have been some of the best features in World of Warcraft because they are the primary PvP content in the game. While open-world player combat is an option, most hardcore PvP gamers tend to participate in all-out brawl instances where they can get rewards or ratings aside from WotLK Classic gold. While the game’s population has been going down for quite some time, devs have decided to ramp up the player-versus-player scene by allowing Cross-Realm into these two features.
Cross-Realm PvP Instances
In the original World of Warcraft, cross-realm PvP was already available to the Arena content since 2007. Battlegrounds also enabled players from different worlds to queue up together shortly after it was implemented. Now, it looks like devs have finally relented to the players’ demand to implement this system in Arena and Battlegrounds after the number of champions doing WotLK raids went down.
According to the dev post, the lack of a cross-realm feature has severely hindered the players’ ability to utilize team-less Arena. Servers with smaller populations tend to have a more challenging time picking up matches since there have been fewer people queueing up. Players are hopeful that integrating cross-realm PvP play will make queues more bearable and faster.
Unfortunately, gamers must wait before using cross-realm play for Arena and Battleground on official servers. The feature is only available in PTR worlds since devs are still testing how to optimize this system due to WotLK’s cross-realm restrictions. It is unclear how long the system will remain in the testing phase, but players should be patient as devs work on it to ensure an optimal experience when it launches.
Current Status of Cross-Realm in PTR
Currently, the feature is still in its early phases as there are still some missing options when entering Arena or Battleground. While players can now enter matches with gamers from other realms, queueing up or grouping up for cross-realm pre-made parties is not yet available. Developers are taking things slow to optimize every potential setting.
How to Queue Up for Cross-Realm?
Eventually, players will be allowed to create parties with cross-realm members. This system will likely work similarly to how it was used in the original World of Warcraft. To invite a player to a group, players will need to request them with the following chat command:
- /invite playername-realmname
Gamers should note that this command will only work with characters in the same faction. While cross-realm will be allowed, cross-faction will still be restricted, so Alliance players can only team up with other Alliance people, and Horde can only join up with fellow Horde members. In addition, cross-realm will only allow people from different worlds to play with each other and engage in part chat. Other functions to interact with each other will be unavailable.
Cross-Realm Play to Save WotLK Classic
Players have noticed that the active population in Wrath of the Lich King classic has gone down a bit, especially after the release of Dragonflight. The latest expansion has been so popular that most gamers prefer the original to the Classic. With the player base slowly decreasing, PvP and Raid content queues became longer.
The introduction of Cross-Realm intends to revitalize player activity, particularly in the PvP scene. While it won’t guarantee an increase in users, it will ensure that those who are still actively playing can do Arenas and Battlegrounds without waiting too long. At the minimum, this feature will curb the number of champions leaving WotLK Classic.
No Cross-Faction
Cross-Faction has been a source of interest for many players. While this feature is now available in Dragonflight, it is doubtful that we will see it in Wrath of the Lich King classic. Cross-Faction was only made available to the original WoW’s latest expansion, so it wouldn’t make much sense to introduce this system in Classic, which is still in its Wrath of the Lich King phase. However, players should not lose hope since it might eventually make its way to WotLK.
While waiting for the release of the Cross-Realm play, players can also try out Ulduar in the PTR servers. There is yet to be a release date for when these features will get implemented, so it might take some time before champions can start farming WotLK Classic gold in these more complex pieces of content. In the meantime, gamers should focus on getting their characters to level 80 to prepare for the upcoming releases.