Suggestion: Enable Rated Battlegrounds on WotLK Realms for Fresh Content

I wanted to throw out a suggestion that I think could bring some excitement and variety to our WoW experience on the 3.3.5 WotLK realms—introducing Rated Battlegrounds (RBGs) with unique rewards!

I know we all love Warmane for sticking to the classic WotLK experience, but it's been over 10 years now since WotLK was released. Many of us have experienced just about everything this expansion has to offer, from arenas to PvE raids, several times over. To keep the gameplay fresh and give players something new to work toward, adding Rated Battlegrounds could be a fantastic enhancement to the current PvP landscape. Here’s why I think this would be a positive change:
1. Diversity in PvP Gameplay

Right now, arenas dominate WotLK PvP, and while they’re awesome, adding RBGs would allow for more strategic, large-scale PvP battles that involve teamwork and coordination beyond just 2s or 3s.
It’d give PvP-focused guilds something to rally around and make PvP more accessible to players who might not be into arenas but love battlegrounds.

2. New Progression and Rewards

Introducing a rating-based system for RBGs would give players a new form of progression. Imagine working toward high RBG ratings and earning exclusive rewards!
Transmog sets, mounts, or titles could be awarded at certain rating milestones, giving players a tangible reason to improve and stay active.
We could even keep it balanced by offering these rewards only on Warmane servers, meaning they wouldn’t detract from the “blizzlike” experience but would provide an incentive for those who want to try something fresh.

3. Enhanced Community Engagement

RBGs would help foster a stronger sense of community and competition within and between factions. More players would be forming teams, finding new PvP friends, and experiencing epic battles that we don’t currently get from Random battlegrounds.
Also, by making PvP content more dynamic, Warmane could attract new players who are looking for a unique WotLK experience that goes beyond the traditional offerings.

4. Potential Concerns

Yes, some might argue that this isn’t “pure” WotLK, but Warmane has always been about creating the best possible experience for players. By implementing RBGs in a way that keeps them optional and balanced, Warmane can bring fresh content without disrupting the core experience that makes WotLK great.

Plus, given the customization options, it wouldn’t need to affect any part of the core PvE experience, allowing those players to carry on as they prefer.

TL;DR: Adding Rated Battlegrounds with a rating-based reward system (like transmog sets, mounts, or titles) would introduce exciting new progression options, create new PvP dynamics, and keep long-time players engaged. It’s been 10+ years, and this would be a perfect way to spice up the experience without straying from what makes WotLK great

What do you guys think? Would you like to see Rated Battlegrounds in Warmane?

Instead of implementing rated BG as a additional bracket I think that BGs in general should be rated on max level so the BG playerbase isn't divided in two isolated queues. That would give fully decked out players and premades a incentive to win BGs and focus on BG objectives instead of HK farming and GY camping.
In addition to the normal BG rewards that we already have, the reward for reaching a certain rating could be cosmetics such as tmog, mounts, companions. The cosmetics rewards could be changed each season.
Rated BG shouldn't reward any arena points because it would lower the activity of the arena brackets.

Also rated BG could be a opt in feature just like tmog.
Ppl who wish to make BGs rated would see a additional column in their character info which displays their BG rating.
In addition to that the reward for rated BG could be a recolored Tmog set which otherwise doesn't exist in the game.

Amazing Idea, I totally agree they should make a poll on this.

The only few changes I would have is like someone suggested, make all bgs rated, for those who opt for it on website, so they could gain or lose bg rating in bgs, would make bgs a lot more play to win instead of play to farm HKs.

In terms of the gear based BG brackets I see three options to integrate them into rated BG.

1) Keep gear based brackets as they are and allow rated BG only in the high gear bracket.

2) replace gear based brackets with BG mmr. The BG matchup would be based on the player mmr and item lvl doesn't matter.

3) Hybrid system of mmr and item lvl. BG matchup would be based on a mix of ilvl and mmr.

I think the first option would be the best solution. Players in the low and mid tier bracket have already a incentive to win BGs because they need honor to gear up. So there is no need to make rated BG available to them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brutone

In terms of the gear based BG brackets I see three options to integrate them into rated BG.

1) Keep gear based brackets as they are and allow rated BG only in the high gear bracket.

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Probably the way it should go. This is to avoid making lower bracket overrun by twink min-maxers. Leave the lower bracket for the players who should be there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brutone

2) replace gear based brackets with BG mmr. The BG matchup would be based on the player mmr and item lvl doesn't matter.

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Sabotaging rBG's to drop your own mmr as higher ilvl player, so that you can go stomp on lower geared low mmr players? Salt mine.
But why, or who, would do that? People kill low level players that aren't a threat to them, do I need to say more?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brutone

3) Hybrid system of mmr and item lvl. BG matchup would be based on a mix of ilvl and mmr.

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If this was the case, it should be about 80% about the gear, 20% about the mmr to avoid similar abuse as point 2.

Regarding OP's extra rewards for rBG's: Something in line with other achievement rewards from PvP, maybe? Transmog sets would be no. A title, and maybe some mount at best.

I agree with you as I also see the issues of option 2 and 3.

However, if rated BG is only for high geared players, I think that there still has to be a player mmr to determine the match up of rated BGs.
Players with a high win rate should be placed against each other. That would also increase the chance that premades are placed against each other.
In addition to that I think that we need forced mercenary mode on all realms for rated BGs because allys have more premades and ideally they should be placed against each other.

When it comes to the rewards of rated BG I'm not sure if titels and mounts would be enough incentive for players to care about their BG rating. If rated BG would be a opt in feature then I think that it would also be fine to reward tmog models for it.

Too bad nothing from this will be accepted here.

Well, 310% fly mount speed suggestion was accepted, but idk why they dont implement something that is actually good.

But I agree with your suggestion.