WoW Classic Begins Testing Cross-Realm Play, Previews Retail Solo Shuffle Changes
Blizzard has finally decided to introduce cross-realm PvP in World of Warcraft Classic more than two years after the old-school servers first launched in August 2019. The feature is now available for testing which means that we’ll probably see it arrive on the live servers sometime in the next few months.
“We’ve implemented a system to allow you to group with players on other realms, and queue into arena matches and battlegrounds together,” said Blizzard. “We feel that this is a sensible change considering that arenas have been cross-server since their inception in 2007, and battlegrounds have been cross-realm since shortly after they were introduced back in original World of Warcraft.”
Meanwhile, World of Warcraft retail will be receiving some improvements of its own to PvP next week with particular emphasis on the 3v3 Arena’s Rated Solo Shuffle queue. The improvements will go live with Patch 10.0.5 and will make player matchmaking ratings (MMR) more visible on the scoreboard alongside changes to how MMR is calculated in rated matches with leavers.
“The format of Solo Shuffle is intended to have all 6 rounds completed, as there can be composition or skill imbalances between individual rounds,” Blizzard explains. “Now, when rating is calculated for incomplete matches (matches with leavers), gains and losses will be scaled linearly based on the number of rounds completed.”
The team is also looking into various options to encourage more healers to queue up for Solo Shuffle and thereby reduce the queue times for damage roles.
Meanwhile, Blizzard has rolled out a long list of class balance changes today, a full rundown of which can be found on the World of Warcraft official forums.
