Details for Battleground Blitz Brawl (Solo Queue RBGs)

[Holycow-uldaman]

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/guardians-of-the-dream-preview-battleground-blitz-brawl/1666439

@Kaivax

Our first venture into a solo rated PvP in World of Warcraft was Solo Shuffle. Following its success, we’re now looking to experiment with a format we’re calling “Battleground Blitz”, for solo queue Rated Battlegrounds.

Battleground Blitz is an 8v8 solo queue Battleground experience, and our first foray into what could potentially become solo queue rated battlegrounds in the future. We learned a lot from Solo Shuffle that informed the gameplay considerations of battlegrounds in a solo queue environment for this brawl, which will be discussed here.

Design Considerations

We’ve been happy with how Solo Shuffle lowered the barrier to entry in rated Arenas and served as an accessible PvP game mode. The biggest obstacle we faced was the low ratio of healers to damage dealers, which was typically 4 damage dealers for every healer waiting in queue during the most active times. This leads to long queue times for damage dealers. It was an early concern when we first launched Solo Shuffle as a brawl, especially after shifting away from using tanks to be the anchors in Solo Shuffle matches.

We previously experimented with other formats for Battlegrounds, like the “Deep Six” Brawl in Legion. We felt the team sizes were too small for some of the available maps, especially the larger ones like Arathi Basin.

Additionally, we want to try some updates to map formats that we think will make a better solo queue experience in rated battlegrounds. For example, in domination maps (such as Deepwind Gorge), the role of being a base sitter can result in tension in a solo queue environment. We also think that shorter match lengths would be more fun for solo queue players, bringing in more frequent moment-to-moment gameplay and decision making.

Battleground Blitz Format

Our plan is an 8v8 format that can be queued solo, or as a duo if there is a healer in the pair. Map mechanics and pacing are adjusted to be quicker, with the goal of 10-to-12-minute average match lengths.

Team Composition

• The 8 players on each team will be made up of 2 healers, 5 to 6 damage dealers, and 0 to 1 tanks.
• Opposing teams will always have the same number of tanks (0 or 1).
• Matches that do not include tanks will not take place on Capture the Flag maps (Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks).
• Matches made with a tank on each team can take place on any map.

Our goal with the increased ratio of healer to damage dealers as well as healers having a duo queue option aims to alleviate potential longer queue times.

Map Pool and Mechanics

Initially, the map pool will be that of the Rated Battleground pool: Warsong Gulch, Twin Peaks, Temple of Kotmogu, Eye of the Storm, Silvershard Mines, Arathi Basin, and Deepwind Gorge.

In Battleground Blitz, there are some general mechanical changes made across all the maps.

• On maps where you cast to take an objective, the cast time has been reduced from 6 seconds to 4 seconds.
• On domination maps, control points are captured in 30 seconds after being contested (reduced from 1 minute).
• On all maps, players will gain a buff that provides a large increase in mount speed.
• On several maps, there are new power up runes.
  • Shield of Protection provides a large absorb shield.
  • Into the Shadows provides a player with stealth and increased movement speed.
  • Rune of Frequency increases cooldown rate.
  • Shadow Sight provides Stealth and Invis detection.

The goal with the changes above is to provide more moment-to-moment decision making while adapting maps to make sense for 8 player team sizes, while ensuring the macro strategy that players find to be fun in battlegrounds is still intact.

We looked at several factors for each map, including average game lengths, the size of the map, and individual mechanics to make some modifications to have them make sense in Battleground Blitz. Eye of the Storm, Arathi Basin, and Deepwind Gorge will have the most significant changes of the pool.

• Eye of the Storm
  • 4 nodes available, only 2 capturable at a time (1 per side) which award points, with the middle flag being available to capture.
    • Mage Tower or Draenei Ruins and Fel Reaver Ruins or Blood Elf Tower.
    • When the middle flag is captured, previous nodes move to neutral and reset.
    • 2 nodes (1 per side) re-activate, alternating.
  • Points for capturing a flag significantly increased.
  • When a flag is captured, the existing available nodes will become uncapturable. After 15 seconds, the other set of nodes will become available.

• Arathi Basin and Deepwind Gorge
  • 5 capturable nodes.
  • Increased resource acquisition.
  • After you capture a node entirely, you control it for 45 seconds. It then deactivates and can be captured again 5 seconds later.
    • To fully capture a node, you have to complete the 4 second cast then hold the point for 30 seconds without the enemy team recapturing.

• Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks
  • The flag carrier debuff, Brutal Assault, stacks 100% faster (each stack every 15 seconds, up from 30 seconds).
  • Maximum game length set to 12 minutes.
• Battle for Gilneas
  • Increased resource acquisition rate.
• Silvershard Mines and Temple of Kotmogu
  • No changes planned initially, these maps are fast-paced already.

As mentioned above, we are cognizant of the tension that can come from having dedicated defender roles within a battleground. The gameplay changes for Arathi Basin, Deepwind Gorge, and Eye of the Storm aim to alleviate that tension.

Looking Ahead

We’re approaching this idea in a tempered manner, as adding a new format to PvP is a big commitment. Our intent is to implement this feature as a PvP Brawl first, so we can experiment with the format, discover any problems, and consider player feedback. If the format is well-received during the brawl, we can dig into additional details on the plan for a rated mode, including rating changes, how the ladder will work, rewards, leavers, and additional team matching, such as limiting the number of a single spec per team.

We will host a PvP Brawl with the Blues event focused on Battleground Blitz on the Guardians of the Dream PTR on Friday, September 15 from 3:00 – 5:00 pm PDT. Keep an eye out for an upcoming post with additional details for the PvP with the Blues event.

Please share your thoughts and feedback with us here. We’re eager to hear it!

[Holycow-uldaman]

Oh look:

@Kaivax

Our goal with the increased ratio of healer to damage dealers as well as healers having a duo queue option aims to alleviate potential longer queue times.

@Kaivax

increased ratio of healer to damage dealers

@Kaivax

ratio

Although they wrote it backwards.

It should be “increased ratio of damage dealers to healer”.

[Durkda-anvilmar]

I think tank balance needs to be actually good or the tanks need to be the exact same spec for flag maps

[Holycow-uldaman]

Yeah, especially on FC maps.

It would be unfair if one team gets a guardian druid and the other team gets a prot pally (or whatever tank spec is bad at FCing).

[Talaminon-moon-guard]

I’m assuming this is Cross-Faction because of Solo shuffle… but did they say it was cross faction?

[Anathemae-demon-soul]

by the looks of it eots is still gonna be which team has the most warlocks/ knockbacks

[Holycow-uldaman]

I guess we’ll see, but I’m assuming it will be cross-faction so they can minimize queue times.

Plus, healers would be able to play with their opposite-faction friend when they duo queue.

Do normal RBGs have cross-faction teams?

[Talaminon-moon-guard]

@Anathemae-demon-soul

eots

I like the dynamic map changes. Curious to see how it plays out, people who didn’t read the note will be confused at first.

[Anathemae-demon-soul]

The changes all look enjoyable, I’m just hoping the meta isnt battle over mid and lock warp you down to the evoker that knocks your whole team off

[Talaminon-moon-guard]

Since the bases are opposite it would be good to zerg the other side tower and only send 1-2 mid. Unless the meta will be zerg through the middle, overpower other team and Spawn/GY camp them.

[Opalshine-barthilas]

Thanks for the info Holycow. I always knew there was a reason I like you

[Unemployed-cenarion-circle]

I dont like the changes. It rewards people with low bg awareness by having less objectives and people. I can live with 8v8, but the locking of bases seem dumb.

[Leynia-emerald-dream]

I like the changes myself but we’ll need to see how it actually feels in game.

[Deso-terenas]

Inactive nodes, deactivating nodes, 12 minute timer on flag maps. Not feeling these kind of changes. Like they are trying to force maps to work differently with a small team and keep games short to reduce queue times.

The 4 second timer on flag captures is off putting. This is to be a war of who can CC ninja the most nodes? Single defending a node would be almost impossible. A lot of classes would repeatedly be sap/blind combo by rogue. Is this to be offset by the possibility of eventually killing/CCing the rogue to retake it? Having a node go inactive during fights is going to be weird… Like it sounds more similar to capturing nodes in Seething Shore than our standard flag nodes.

Surely, they would give us rated version of EoTs if they are going to emphasize mid flag even more while keeping active towers on opposite corners like that. It doesn’t specify this but I think it’s safe to assume. I still hate EoTs and the “walls” in rated are a weak fix. The 3 tower strategy was always a counter threat to flag competition, but I think that goes out the window with only 2 bases. Trying to control 2 opposite corner bases is likely futile, changing the dynamic of the map a lot.

[Talaminon-moon-guard]

@Unemployed-cenarion-circle

It rewards people with low bg awareness

I can assure you those people will be fighting at inactive bases.

[Talaminon-moon-guard]

They are right to change it because how do you force someone to base sit in a solo-q. You can’t in randoms unless you do it yourself, but you might be a healer.

The rotation in AB/DWG is 4sec cap, 30sec control, 45sec hold. I’m really curious to see how it will work. The fact that you have 45seconds to not worry about the flag is great. you can focus on clearing the enemy team or going to another node.

[Kïtanä-sargeras (Kïtanä)]

IM SO EXCITED FOR THIS

INSERT EXCITED PIKACHU GIF

[Snowcrest-cenarius]

However this rolls out, I have a feeling it will be not at all what players asked for.

[Deso-terenas]

Probably not but I’ll still give it a shot. Can’t be much worse than normal bgs that are a mix of try hard premades and fresh 70s with 300k hp

[Culsu-wyrmrest-accord]

@Snowcrest-cenarius

However this rolls out, I have a feeling it will be not at all what players asked for.

Still nice to see them try to something in PVP scene to shake things up and it is needed, will certainly give it a try. But feels a bit over-engineered to push it into faster action/esports, whereas most people probably would have been happy with solo queue checkbox.