Russian and European Players to Meet in Battle!

The winds of change are blowing across World of Warcraft’s European Arenas and Battlegrounds. As the next step in what we started with Patch 5.4 and its changes to region-wide matchmaking, Russian and European players will soon be able to face off against each other.

Every player queuing for a Battleground or Arena will still join a team with players from realms with the same language designation – German with German, English with English, and so on. However, this change means that now a Russian-speaking team might be pitted against a team from anywhere in Europe.

Russian players will still be able to join a cross-realm group with their RealID friends from European realms, and queue with them for Battleground and Arena matches.

And finally, so you’ll know who cut you down just as you were capping that flag – players using non-Russian clients are now able to see character names in Cyrillic.

22/07/2014 09:57Posted by Sharein

22/07/2014 02:17Posted by Trámpoline

Coz its not a problem obviously.

Not a problem?

I dislike having to fight someone who drops target and warps across the playing field because his connection is too bad to play WoW, either intentionally or unintentionally. This is especially annoying as rogue, which has to be behind the target to do damage.

The lag is something we have seen reported by some players, and we're looking into.

Although Cyrillic characters are a big improvement from the original ????? that used to show up for Russian names, we're also passing on your feedback about the Cyrillic text. However, remember that Russian players see your Latin text names which they won't always recognise either, so they face exactly the same disadvantages.

22/07/2014 13:03Posted by Monkeymoo

I'm honestly struggling trying to figure out any real advantage to this merger that outweighs the several clear disadvantages.

Like honestly I'm fine with queues being marginally longer if it means not fighting against opponents that have a large chance of lagging pretty severely. Got nothing against Russians as players, but the latency thing is genuinely detrimental to the game.

Yes as I said, lag is an issue that a few people have experienced and we are looking into that for sure. What are the other "several clear disadvantages", besides the Cyrillic names?

22/07/2014 13:03Posted by Monkeymoo

Having said that, this is a social game; having players being completely unable to communicate with each other isn't exactly a positive thing, and lack of understanding can often lead to hostility. Maybe combining two communities who are often hostile, cannot communicate and have very different outlooks on honour, group mentality etc isn't the best idea.

You're unable to communicate with the opposing team no matter your nationalities. Maybe I misunderstood the point you're making, but not sure exactly what the issue is here. Players are free to communicate here on the forums, I've seen constructive threads where Russian and English speaking players have discussed tactics and learned from each other.

22/07/2014 18:39Posted by Tarmalina

The big problem with russians vs EU or germans vs EU is one side all speak the same language and have similar pvp goals and organisation where eu is 9 times out of 10 a motley crew who speak a few different languages and half of them are in boosted greens. The success rate against german and russian relms is terrible and has greatly lessened the fun factor in pvp this expansion.

22/07/2014 16:07Posted by Lyneriel

You know, every time most of us get into a ,supposedly random, battleground and its versus russians..most people just want to leave straight away. This is because of the following reasons:

1.) They all speak the same language, where as the 'english' realms do not, having a multitude of languages spoken. Latin is atleast in the same alphabet as the 'english' languages, cyrilic is not.

This is something that only affects English realms, French, German etc. obviously don't have this issue. Having said that, the vast majority of players that opt to play on 'English' realms do speak English, at least enough to get by in a BG. Many of you believe Russians can understand English just fine—if that's true the same should also apply to people playing on EN realms. More so in fact, because for the most part our "motley crew" all shares the same alphabet.

22/07/2014 16:07Posted by Lyneriel

2.) Cyrillic is unreadable for the majority of the players. i'd guess only countries near russia and 1% of other players would be able to read russian. This makes it impossible to targetcall and report for cheating once they are out of sight or in stealth again.

Yup, I've noted your issues with Cyrillic characters. I'll also point out though that target calling by name is problematic, not just against Russian players. You'll often come across characters with names such as "Uaaxjuuooc" (yeah I just made that up but you get the point). In theory, you could face a group of European players with names like this, or even names that are the same, with accents being the only difference (Dkrulez & Dkrúlez). Point is, unpronounceable names are not something that are exclusive to Russians vs Europeans. With all that said, I will of course continue to bring this up.

22/07/2014 16:07Posted by Lyneriel

3.) Russian teams are nearly always premades who have full prideful and are, once again mentioning it, are much more organised wheras the 'english' groups are not. This is unsolveable as a random group will more likely than not just not listen to any given person, even if this person clearly has for example a prestigious pvp title.

As others have already pointed out, Russian players don't have access to any advantage that European players do not in terms of game features. They're organised and they often go into BGs with friends, just as good European players do.

22/07/2014 16:07Posted by Lyneriel

4.) The fact that when you leave, you get a 5 minute deserter buff that goes up every time you leave is quite unfair simply because we are getting punished for not wanting to get farmed like crops in the summer (which happens regularly against those teams).

You'll get a debuff if you desert a game against Russians or any other European group. Russian players also get a debuff when they desert a BG, too. Not sure how this is a disadvantage for Europeans specifically facing Russians.

22/07/2014 16:07Posted by Lyneriel

Lastly i'd like to say that i hope the European blizzard-people who are in charge of this are aware of this glaring problem that hits so many of us who enjoyed pvp up untill this......change. This merger hasn't brought any fun to pvp and has infact drained it from the 'english' groups and pumped it straight into the russian ones, since they are probably (and judging from the rude emotes of them against enemy corpses) laughing and enjoying slaughtering the unorganised mass of people that blizzard decided to put up against them. Frankly, i don't think many people would mind a slightly longer queue if it means to no longer go up against russian premades.

I've seen and passed on your feedback, and that from others who share your views, yes. I've also seen feedback from players who enjoy the changes this has brought to PvP. Russian teams have certain tactics which Europeans certainly found challenging at first, but the tide is definitely turning...

22/07/2014 15:04Posted by Jito

I have a question though. Do you know how, or if, this is going to relate to Ashran in WoD? I mean with connected realms, cross-realm stuff, and EU and RU players being paired against each other in PvP, is that going to extend to Ashran somehow?

I'll seek clarification on that.

22/07/2014 16:13Posted by Evaze

you seem to think that it's not possible to have russians ON our team

ever heard of oQueue?

The majority of feedback in this thread is about Europeans facing Russians and the challenges they face when doing so. Having Russians mix in with English groups without the use of an addon is actually something I've seen suggested by players who find Russian tactics difficult to fight against, but I'm not sure how that would go down with everyone.

22/07/2014 16:31Posted by Noctus

But to turn Takralus question the other way instead of asking us what the disadvantages are. What are the advantages of doing so that can outweigh the Cyrillic problem.
Is there perhaps a pilot period. Let's see how it goes got x months and if there are many negative reports turn it back as easily

The queue advantage is quite a big one. Some of you haven't noticed much of a difference but there was a huge improvement for others.

24/07/2014 18:57Posted by Lyneriel

ding ding ding! we've reached a 100 pages of unsatisfied customer feedback! time to split up russian and european realms! admit your mistake and move on blizzard Europe! :)

A large portion of the comments in this thread, especially in the last few pages, were discussions between the same handful of people who are for and against Russian vs. European battlegrounds, which hardly matches your description.

We're continuing to monitor the situation, not just for EN but all the other European languages. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to give your thoughts. If you could keep it on-topic and avoid personal arguments though, I would very much appreciate it :-)

25/07/2014 10:04Posted by Mongoku

Well this thread is just useless. The blue posters won't take any disagreement about the merge into consideration, and they'll just try to come up with excuses and counter-arguments, instead of trying to address the issues, or testing turning off the merge for a week or something, or create a poll.

If the negative reception about this merge isn't taken into consideration, I don't know what's the point of leaving this thread open for discussion honestly.

Hmm, I did actually say a few times in my last post that the feedback is being taken into account and looked into >_>

25/07/2014 10:04Posted by Neyreen

hi, i don't have much problems with the cyrilic symbols. The only things that bother me since russians are possible enemies are that the tooltip takes up 1/5 of the screen with no additional font installed.
thats atleast irritating while fighting against (now comes the real problem) lagging opponents. Russians that kick me on cast while they are around 2 corners, enemies you cant backstab unless they are stunned (even then they sometimes move half the stun duration), enemies you can't kick because they are somewhere else.
i dont have to point out all the possible scenarios that lagging brings with it. all while i have around 15-20ms.
when it comes to interrupt hacks, orb bots or whatever else they bring. i dont think russians are the only cheating people, but a large amount has cyrilic symbols as names. this may be because there are more russians or whatever.

i always played rogue and i dont want to stop pvping on her, only because the realy viable spec i can play cant compete against lagging opponents.

long said short: i dont care who i slay, if its fair and not screenblocking

Great feedback with specific examples, thanks very much :-)

25/07/2014 10:22Posted by Mongoku

25/07/2014 10:15Posted by Takralus

Hmm, I did actually say a few times in my last post that the feedback is being taken into account and looked into >_>

Well, you said feedback is taken into account, and yet I see no action or anthing else torwards this. All I see are blue posts defeding the merge, and basically telling us to deal with the pre-mades, cheats and lag issues all by our own.

25/07/2014 10:15Posted by Takralus

Great feedback with specific examples, thanks very much :-)

Seriously? If you have actually read the pages now far behind, those issues were mentioned countless times. That post basically resumes all that is wrong with this merge. Now that you said that was a great feedback, will you try to address the premades, hacks, lag issues?

Mongoku, please feel free to email us at [email protected] if you have issues with how this is being handled specifically.

25/07/2014 10:42Posted by Резель

Takralus, what about this?

1) Russians at most understand english, few prases, but it`s enogh to communicate on BG(locations, base tactics, groups etc.). Many russians players play eng. games and/or eu Wow before migrate to russian reservation. And we can use "translit" (write russian words with eng. alphabet), we may not switch eu/ru.
2) Blizzard can add 1 more graph on character creation`s name list - English name, and problem with Cyrilic will be done. At russian client will be russian name. At eng - eng.

Yeah I saw you bring this up before, thanks Резель :-)

29/07/2014 09:52Posted by Gombaa

Why did you merge EU with the RU in the first place? PvP and que worked perfectly even without them.

Actually, that was not always the case. Many players were experiencing long queues, so this merge is highly beneficial for them. They can now log on and get into a few battlegrounds within a short space of time, instead of spending most of it in a queue.

19/08/2014 13:36Posted by Zta

Wow........anyone else but me notecing a lot of commets here on the last 2 pages has been deleted?

A while ago I asked that people keep this thread on topic, and to avoid personal discussions. It goes without saying that insults, flame-baiting, trolling, and otherwise nonconstructive comments have no place here either. Besides the fact that all these things derail the thread, it makes it a lot harder for me to find the solid feedback I come here to gather.

Feel free to continue talking about your experiences in regards to this topic, but please remember that any posts which contain insulting language, off-topic discussion, or nonconstructive comments will be removed.

Edit:

So many negative responses and still we are facing them cheaters

This sort of language is what I am referring to. Posts like this will simply be removed and repeatedly posting in this tone may unfortunately result in a forum suspension. Posting precise examples of any experiences you have had with as many details as possible is useful, name-calling is not.

I dont get it Takralus. Calling a certian players cheaters are not against any rules? Nor harsh language. If so..... I think you can remove the entire thread, because almost most of the comments here has the word "cheat / exploits " in it ?

Using a derogatory term when referring to an entire nation of players is actually against the rules:
http://eu.battle.net/en/community/conduct#harassment
http://eu.battle.net/en/community/conduct#national

Ive been facing a lot of cheaters, or "exploit users" in BGs and most of them are russians.

While this feedback itself is of course taken on board, we need specific examples of what exactly you faced, such as the precise circumstances, the number of occasions it has happened, the skills used etc. Unfortunately, just stating that you have seen cheats going on mostly by certain people isn't very helpful :-/

As a side note: If you believe you have witnessed cheating, you should also be reporting it in-game so it can be checked out by our agents. Alternatively, you can report suspected exploits here: http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/submit/hacks.html

20/08/2014 10:07Posted by Thunderßuns

19/08/2014 16:47Posted by Takralus

As a side note: If you believe you have witnessed cheating, you should also be reporting it in-game so it can be checked out by our agents.

Using the in game tool (right click portrait) to report cheaters/bots makes me d/c very often.
I stopped doing it, I reported it as bug, but it still exists.

This happened to me and it turned out to be an addon issue, funnily enough. If you can try it without addons running and see if it still happens, it'll help us to narrow down the cause. Thanks for reporting it as a bug though, obviously it's very important to us that we receive these reports.

20/08/2014 21:05Posted by Gombaa

Its cool to see Talakrus gave ous some feedback instead of just /ignore.. But why did you redirec this thread to "Battleground and Wpvp" section?

I just figured that most of the feedback related more to random Battlegrounds than Arenas or rated BGs, what with the premade issue coming up a lot. If y'all hate it I can move it back ^^

20/08/2014 22:00Posted by Archvaldor

She basically cut and pasted the t&c out.

What the what...?

For people who still don't know what I'm talking about, here's some videos of lagswitching being abused in BGs to maintain speed buffs for a LOT longer than their intended duration and teleport around the map without being hit.

<snip>

I removed the links because we ask players not to link to cheats or hacks here in the forums. However, I will be passing them on to the relevant team, so thanks :-)

21/08/2014 13:54Posted by Gombaa

Okay. But as far Ive seen its about arena / Rated PvP as much as Random BG. The issues is not different. They remain the same. Arena with pillar kite lag, random BGs with the "Shadowstepping" all the time. And about the by removing comments that blame russians for cheating and exploiting, cant player give their feedback about it?

It is like when im commenting the subject about the lag / MS different, and exploits being used our comment is getting deleted because of fact? I find it weird because we have been rabbling on for...yea soon 130 pages how much we dislike this merge.

We fully encourage feedback with examples and details, like many people here have done—thanks to everyone that has done so, it is genuinely appreciated!

However, we will be removing posts that are made purely to discredit people based on nothing but rumour or suspicions. Without any facts to back up what you say, it's not helpful in any way. Any posts that drift too far off the main topic will also be removed to keep the thread on track.

Please see source post at http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/8965477907?page=159 for detail.