WoW Classic is getting the long-awaited PvP Battlegrounds with Patch 1.13.3. However, the patch notes hide even more new features.
Blizzard has now published the patch notes for the WoW Classic update 1.13.3 with the PvP Battlegrounds in the official forum. It also includes a few interesting details that were not communicated before.
PvP Battlegrounds in WoW Classic Unlocked
When will the Battlegrounds be available in WoW Classic? The Battlegrounds will be released with the weekly maintenance on Wednesday, December 11, starting at 3 AM CET.
Blizzard originally planned the release of the Battlegrounds for Phase 3 of WoW Classic, but then brought it forward due to strong player feedback. Many players hope that the Battlegrounds will lead to fewer “Kill Squads” in the open world and that playing and leveling will become more enjoyable again.
Which Battlegrounds come with the patch? The update for WoW Classic brings Alterac Valley and Warsong Gulch. In Alterac Valley, you can expect a 40v40 Battleground where the goal is to defeat the opposing faction’s boss.
Warsong Gulch, on the other hand, is a Capture the Flag Battleground where you need to try to steal the enemy faction’s flag three times or at least capture more flags within the time limit.
Where can you sign up for Alterac Valley and Warsong? Unlike Retail WoW, you must visit specific sign-up locations in Classic. You can find these for the PvP Battlegrounds in your faction’s major cities. For example, in Stormwind, they can be found in the throne room.
Of course, you can also go to the entrances of the Battlegrounds and sign up there directly.
What level ranges are there for the Battlegrounds? You can play Alterac Valley and Warsong not only at maximum level.
The following divisions by character level await you: 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60
More Bag Space Thanks to the Keyring
With Patch 1.13.3, WoW Classic also receives the keyring. This was part of the vanilla experience and was originally announced by the developers for the first patch.
Now it is finally here, and you can store the keys for the various dungeons of WoW Classic in the keyring. You can find this special bag in the micro menu, and it has 12 slots. Bag slots are known to be very valuable in WoW Classic, and some players are looking forward to this.
Start of Elemental Invasions
What does this mean? In WoW Classic, elemental invasions will occur periodically in Kalimdor with the update. During these invasions, you will encounter elementals of air, earth, fire, and water. These elementals are scouts, testing how far they can go before the Horde and Alliance stop them.
The intervals at which the invasions occur are not known. However, you will encounter the elementals in these areas:
- Un’Goro Crater
- Azshara
- Winterspring
- Silithus
Good time for elemental farming: Many players are already farming the elementals in WoW Classic to obtain elemental fire or elemental earth. These materials are farmed for professions or for sale in the auction house.
Due to the invasions, there will be a large number of elementals in the mentioned areas, so farming on less populated servers could be advantageous.
Paid Character Transfers in Progress
Free character transfer for real money: Blizzard has suspended free server transfers worldwide at the beginning of December. At this point, no one can change their server anymore. However, with WoW Classic Patch 1.13.3, the groundwork is being laid to introduce paid transfers. Blizzard stated in the patch notes:
With this patch, the client will support paid character transfers, which may be introduced at a later date.
It can be assumed that you will then be able to change your server as you wish. The price is likely to be similar to Retail, where a server transfer costs 20 euros per character.
Faction ratios on servers are broken: Since the start of WoW Classic Phase 2, there have been problems on PvP servers. The free transfer has led to imbalances between the factions.
On the German server Lucifron, many Alliance guilds have left and switched to Heartstriker. There, the Horde’s dominance has been complained about, making the server practically unplayable.
This has led to the originally balanced server Heartstriker now having a surplus of Alliance players. Voices have been increasing from the Horde side in the forum, claiming it is unplayable. The player Merrydoc (via official forum) thus represents the opinion of several others:
Thank God! I will directly transfer my main character to a PVE server and level my twink for now.
It remains to be seen how faction ratios and server populations will develop with paid character transfers.
Not only German servers are struggling with faction ratio problems. The EU server Flamelash has been hit particularly hard.
The End for Addons like HonorSpy
A LUA change with a large impact: WoW Classic receives a LUA API adjustment with Patch 1.13.3. According to Blizzard, this will prevent “multiple addons from using communication channels in a way that contradicts the core philosophy of the game.”
In the US forum, Blizzard provided a bit more detail:
Addons can still communicate over PARTY, RAID, GUILD, and WHISPER in the same way as before. Additionally, we will be testing a change to allow C_ChatInfo.SendAddonMessage to be called with SAY and YELL so that their addons can communicate with players in their immediate vicinity.
Addons such as HonorSpy or Spy will thus be deprived of their basis. Spy, for example, is an addon that causes a lot of trouble in PvP and players have been calling for its ban for a long time.
Blizzard explains the LUA change: The developer wants you to use addons to improve your gaming experience. However, Blizzard is keeping a close eye on the overall experience in WoW Classic. They recently viewed this as threatened by the Spy addons.
Ultimately, we decided that the ability of addons to send invisible messages to large, arbitrary groups of players across Azeroth is something that poses a risk of undermining this social dynamic.
Official US Forum
Do you already know the warrior who kills level 60 players at level 36?
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