In Vanilla the snowballs all caused a knockback/knockdown, not just the AV-restricted ones. They weren’t just a useless cosmetic event, they were an integral part of the world pvp experience as well as other festive foolery.
Xmas is ruined, Blizzard! Unchange the snowballs!
If you look at wow head it says "only party members "
But
This was done in 2.0 so it SHOULD NOT be in classic
Regular snowballs will no longer knock down groupmates in a Battleground. This only applies to Battlegrounds. The reason for this is that grouping is forced in the Battlegrounds and players were using the mechanic to cause grief to their teammates.
“Hardpacked Snowballs” – specific to Alterac Valley – can only be used against enemy targets. Again, the reason for this was due to negative player issues caused between teammates in Alterac Valley.
2.0 is NOT Vanilla and therefore should NOT be in Classic™.
I remember when these first came out, AV was in standoff mode. I used them to knock friendly players into the zerg.
It was fun.
How long will it take before everyone realizes that Classic Franken-WoW is definitely not 1.12 but some sort of weird hybrid, much of which is based on 2.x? There are far too many discrepancies to claim it is “1.12”.
Name some things in Classic you think are based on 2.x?
In addition to the snowballs, the removal of elites from various areas including Swamp of Sorrows, Onyixia’s lair, etc. There are quite a few things called out in the “bug” forums. Most of these changes can be traced to 2.x patches. Enough so I really question whether they had a reference client to use or, they’ve decided to make it more friendly for us, as a favor of course.
I think the snowballs are more of a greifing fix but yeah you got me on those elites in the Swamp.
It’s hard to argue against that change if it provides so much opportunity for griefing.
It wouldn’t bother me so much if they had announced the changes they were making, and I don’t really blame them for making the change to the snowballs, if it was done on purpose. But there are enough discrepancies that I’m left wondering what else has been changed and if they even know themselves what is different from 1.12.
griefing was a part of classic though so why remove it?
Don’t want to be a “killjoy” cause my idea of fun doesn’t match up with yours… but if i’m doing something in game that requires me to be focused on something or doing my own fun thing like fishing or leveling, or casting a big spell to kill a mob, or doing professions like crafting i rather not be knockback or stunned by snowballs, unless i voluntarily to be in a snowball fight. Much like if i want to PvP, i would voluntarily join a PvP server.
Outside of that, i think the only reason they nerfed it is how overpowered it is actually to knock people down, including enemy players, acting like another stun spell, stunlocking them even more, and even to mobs. Like dang, i wouldn’t want to get hit one of those while i’m killing another player.
Your not my real mom, Becky!
Snowballs once delayed our Onyxia run as when trying to summon we kept throwing snowballs at the warlock … and then the mage trying to make water and food. Was fun 
Phase two was nothing but griefing, same with safespotting, boat camping, FP camping, the MC duel exploit, etc…
Blizzard did nothing about any of that- but a temporary snowball event comes around and suddenly they need to make it TBC.
Whether you like the knockback snowballs or don’t- this frankenpatch looks less and less like Vanilla in any form every day.
it was late :\
if you greffer your group or guild in MC i wonde what would happen.
I got hit by a snowball by my own teammate and died. I laughed it off and went on about my day.
I also hit Balinda with a snowball and she flew backwards against the wall. Funny.
You would get kicked, or a stern warning. The problem isn’t organized group, it’s random bgs.
Gimme my snowballs.