Blackrock TBC announcement

[Malaco]

Hello everyone,

We’re pleased to announce the launch of Blackrock TBC!
This server will follow the same progression through patches as Onyxia, ensuring a synchronized experience across both servers.

We’ve previously hosted a similar system on Frostmourne during its progression cycle, which had a positive impact on arena and BG activity.
Building on that success, we’re introducing a new approach for Blackrock TBC.

- Release date 20 November (phase 1 starts on onyxia)
- x1 Honor rates (same as onyxia)
- x2 Arena point flush rates (same as onyxia)
- PvE gear via Gear crates

Gear crates will be obtained through weekly PvP-related quests that simulate boss encounters by introducing challenging objectives in both arenas and battlegrounds that will boost activity.
Each completed quest will be the equivalent of a boss kill and the gear crates will contain the same loot table as each specific boss.
As in PvE raiding, there is no guaranteed chance of receiving a specific item on boss kill, therefore we’re introducing this RNG element.

We’re gladly accepting ideas for quest objectives.

A PTR server with the gear crate system will go live before the launch.


FAQ
- Raiders on Onyxia will have a shot at every boss for loot. Will something similar be implemented for Blackrock as well?
Yes. The idea is to create a weekly questline so you need to "kill all bosses" in order to progress through the quests.
Therefor limiting one boss per week as on Onyxia.
As for heroic gear (mid tier) it will also be obtainable through quests but not as challenging as the raid ones

- Gems, Enchants?
They will be available but a small honor cost.

- Engineering?
We will use 2.4.3 rules for engineering items in arena. It will limit most engineering items

- "magtheridon's head" quest?
We can include it in the magtheridon gear crate but with a 4% droprate so it would simulate a roll

- Will Blackrock get a store with a similar model as Onyxia?
It will mirror Onyxia

- Will Badge of Justice items be included in quest rewards or will they be distributed in a different form such as honor + mark combination or arena points?
There will be badge vendors and you can obtain the badges from the gear crates from heroics

[kekekee]

there will be a PTR ?

[kekekee]

does goggles, net, engi belt, skull offhand will be usable in arena ?
if yes will it be available on blackrock ?

[verksm]

Will we get an item store for coins, like Onyxia as well? If so, will it include Classic items too, as some of them are very strong for TBC arena too, would they be unobtainable on Blackrock?

What about professions, enchants, gems, reputation etc?

[PorkBacon]

- Release date 23 November (phase 1 starts on onyxia)

that's way too soon, should not be anywhere near onyxia before s2

[kekekee]

hope mqg wont be enable tho

[Blakeatron]

Hello everyone,

We’re pleased to announce the launch of Blackrock TBC!
This server will follow the same progression through patches as Onyxia, ensuring a synchronized experience across both servers.

We’ve previously hosted a similar system on Frostmourne during its progression cycle, which had a positive impact on arena and BG activity.
Building on that success, we’re introducing a new approach for Blackrock TBC.

- Release date 23 November (phase 1 starts on onyxia)
- x1 Honor rates (same as onyxia)
- x2 Arena point flush rates (same as onyxia)
- PvE gear via Gear crates

Gear crates will be obtained through weekly PvP-related quests that simulate boss encounters by introducing challenging objectives in both arenas and battlegrounds that will boost activity.
Each completed quest will be the equivalent of a boss kill and the gear crates will contain the same loot table as each specific boss.
As in PvE raiding, there is no guaranteed chance of receiving a specific item on boss kill, therefore we’re introducing this RNG element.

We’re gladly accepting ideas for quest objectives.

A PTR server with the gear crate system will go live before the launch.

This is great, thank you for all of the details. Here are some ideas and curious on thoughts of others. These are off of the top of my head so may not be perfect, but can hopefully start some good conversations.

**I also second the question around skull/belt/net. Are these items going to be in play and will there be a way for Blackrock players to get Skull if so?

Ideas for quests:

- Dungeon items and blue gear
- Simple, repeatable quests such as:
- Cap, defend or re-capture bases in AV/AB/EOTS.
- Attain X amount of HKs
- Either do X healing, or X damage in a single BG
- Deal damage to an EFC in WSG (not return or capture flags, I detail more below)
- Team flag captures in WSG (you don't have to be the one that actually caps)
- Play 10 arena games in any bracket

- Raid Gear
- There would ideally be several raid gear quests per week since there are several bosses that die per week on Onyxia. The easiest way to do it would probably be getting Raid Tokens per quest completed, then turning it in for a chest for X boss. Maybe awarding 5 tokens per quest complete, then 1-5 tokens depending on value of the boss crate. (ex. Illidan would be 5, first boss in Kara would be 1)
- Rewarding the chest itself could work as well. But as we get into later seasons, it presents a challenge of what to do if people still want previous season raid gear. First example I can think of is someone wanting Skull of Gul'dan in Season 4.

- Raid Gear Quest ideas (probably weekly for these)
- Win 25 arena games in any bracket
- Play 100 arena games in any bracket
- Win an arena game on each arena map
- Turn in 10 tokens for all BGs
- Complete 10 daily dungeon-level quests


Misc:
- Badge and rep gear should be available for honor. You grind out badges, you grind out rep, and you get guaranteed gear. You grind out honor on Blackrock, same thing. So, level playing field.


Things to think about avoiding:
- Quest objectives based on "Win X arena games in a row". This will encourage smurfing/remaking teams as this gets significantly difficult to reliably do at 2500+.
- In WSG, capturing or returning flags directly as quest objectives. This can be easily griefed and some classes will have an extremely hard time doing this. Instead, either assist in a kill of EFC, Team captures of X amount of flags, etc.

[pootang6969]

Yeah i'm extremely curious on how these crates are going to be handled. Raiders on Onyxia will have a shot at every boss for loot. Will something similar be implemented for Blackrock as well?

[verksm]

For the quests, please include 3vs3 as often as possible to encourage players to participate more often than once a week for 2 hours as it is currently the case on Blackrock, outside of sunday evening 3vs3 hour it is completely dead.

[pootang6969]

For the quests, please include 3vs3 as often as possible to encourage players to participate more often than once a week for 2 hours as it is currently the case on Blackrock, outside of sunday evening 3vs3 hour it is completely dead.

Yeah good point. 2s is always active on TBC privates regardless.

[Brutone]

Gear crates will be obtained through weekly PvP-related quests that simulate boss encounters by introducing challenging objectives in both arenas and battlegrounds that will boost activity.
Each completed quest will be the equivalent of a boss kill and the gear crates will contain the same loot table as each specific boss.

I think the quests shouldn't require a certain arena rating because classes in TBC are too unbalanced for it.
For expl, win 10 games on 2k rating in 2s is a easy task as Rdruide but a Hpala would have a very hard time.

[Obnoxious]

I think the quests shouldn't require a certain arena rating because classes in TBC are too unbalanced for it.
For expl, win 10 games on 2k rating in 2s is a easy task as Rdruide but a Hpala would have a very hard time.

Sounds very similar to how some classes/specializations are unbalanced in PvE and have a very hard time getting invited to any Raids, where they would have a chance at drops they need, doesn't it?

[strreamix]

What's the verdict on engi items in arena?

Net isn't terrible IMO, helps non meta comps early on.
Goggles are terrible, turns every game into spamming Shadowstep Sap 1/2 macro.
Belt is terrible, extra RNG for no reason.
Skull is 50/50.. as an RM player I'd obviously want it out, but I do think teams have a harder time without it early on. Would be okay with Skull available S1/S2 and removed S3/S4.

Pretty important that we get communication on these items IMO, sort of make or break for some peoples' decision to play or not.

Thanks.

[pootang6969]

What's the verdict on engi items in arena?

Net isn't terrible IMO, helps non meta comps early on.
Goggles are terrible, turns every game into spamming Shadowstep Sap 1/2 macro.
Belt is terrible, extra RNG for no reason.
Skull is 50/50.. as an RM player I'd obviously want it out, but I do think teams have a harder time without it early on. Would be okay with Skull available S1/S2 and removed S3/S4.

Pretty important that we get communication on these items IMO, sort of make or break for some peoples' decision to play or not.

Thanks.

Completely agree with this post. A lot of the engi items are just bad for the game, a lot of gear switching in the starting room to counter certain comps. Promotes unhealthy gameplay.

[kekekee]

Completely agree with this post. A lot of the engi items are just bad for the game, a lot of gear switching in the starting room to counter certain comps. Promotes unhealthy gameplay.

and MQG is unhealthy for the game too