Hello Warmane Community,

I’d like to revisit the issue of instant 80 characters queuing into battlegrounds alongside leveling realm players. While the instant 80 system offers a convenient way for players to jump into endgame content, the current implementation creates significant imbalances that harm the leveling realm experience.

The Current Issue:
Gear Disparity:
On the leveling realms, players spend countless hours grinding for gear as they level. Battlegrounds are often seen as a reward for their progress and hard work. Instant 80 players, however, start with full relentless PvP gear, which not only bypasses the grind but also gives them a significant resilience advantage. This gear isn’t even the appropriate tier for battlegrounds—it’s arena-tier gear that typically requires active arena involvement to acquire.

Comparison to Onyxia (TBC Level 70 Realm):
On Onyxia, instant 70 characters queue into battlegrounds with leveling blues. While this still bypasses the grind required by leveling players, it is far less impactful since it doesn’t include resilience gear or the same item level disparity. By comparison, instant 80 players queuing with full relentless gear create a far more imbalanced PvP experience for leveling realm players.

Impact on Leveling Players:
Leveling players are repeatedly overpowered by instant 80s, making their battleground experience frustrating and unrewarding. The significant item level and resilience disparity devalues the time and effort that leveling players invest in their characters.

Flawed Gear Matching System:
The current system attempts to match players by gear level, but this approach is flawed. Most leveling players do not queue into battlegrounds with full leveling greens; instead, they grind dungeons like FoS or PoS to gear up first. As a result, these players are matched against relentless-geared instant 80s. Even if the algorithm deems them equally geared, the playing field is far from fair.

Proposed Solution:
1. Adjust Starting Gear for Instant 80 Players: Instead of full relentless gear, instant 80 characters should start with a more reasonable gear set, such as leveling blues or early PvP sets (e.g., Savage or Hateful gear). This adjustment would align instant 80 players more closely with the progression level of leveling realm players while still allowing them to be battleground-ready.
2. Separate Battleground Queues: If possible, keep instant 80 players in their own queue to prevent gear and progression discrepancies from impacting leveling players.
3. Match Gear to Content: Ensure that instant 80 gear reflects battleground-tier PvP gear (e.g., Furious), not arena-tier relentless gear. This aligns gear rewards with their respective PvP content.
4. Remove Queueing with Instant 80s If Necessary: If gear matching or changes to the algorithm cannot address these issues, instant 80 players should not be allowed to queue with leveling players at all. Even realms with as few as 200 players online can sustain battleground and arena queues for instant 80 players independently.

The Goal:
The goal is to create a fair and fun battleground experience for everyone. By addressing the imbalance between instant 80 and leveling players, these changes would make PvP rewarding for those who’ve put in the effort to gear up while still giving instant 80 players a chance to enjoy competitive matches on an even playing field. This way, we can ensure battlegrounds are enjoyable and welcoming for all players on Warmane.

Thank you for considering this suggestion.

Signed,
Gankalliance, a Horde rogue who now spends his time killing levelers in Borean Tundra (he wishes he could PvP at 80, but it is super unblizzlike).