Judging from the posts on the forum, it looked like most players were confused about what rated battlegrounds really are and how to interact with them. Hopefully this FAQ can help clear up some of those questions. Feel free to respond with any other questions you might have and we will do our best to post up the answers in this thread.

Rated Battlegrounds are broken down into two brackets. 10v10 and 15v15. These brackets rotate weekly and can be viewed in-game via the calendar by activating the battleground holiday filter.

Players must create a raid with the full number of players required for the current bracket before entering the queue. Any level 85 player of your faction may participate in the battle (regardless of guild association).

When players win a battle, they are rewarded conquest points, up to their weekly cap. Weekly caps are individual for each player and are based on your highest single pvp rating from the previous week (the cap resets on Tuesdays). This rating can be derived from your 2v2, 3v3, 5v5 arena, or your rated battleground rating.

Players start at zero rated battleground rating and progress upward from there. Rating is only reduced after a lost battle when the player is above their internal matchmaking rating. For the most part, a rating only goes up.

Epic ground mounts will be rewarded at the end of each season to the top 0.5% of players. Titles are also available as you gain rating in the system. The titles are rewarded directly from achievements earned from gaining the required rating.

Winning a rated battleground with a team composed of 80% guild members will result in the additional benefit of guild experience gain for your guild. The UI will display a guild banner near the minimap that lets you know if you are eligible for guild achievements and experience.

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Q u o t e:
I love the idea of this. My only problem is the 80% requirement for 25v25 though. I've been playing in a small, close ten man guild throughout Wrath. Infact, it's the only reason I came back to WoW after SWP, as I was promised we'd be small and casual. I doubt we even have 15 active players, yet alone 20 for the 80% requirement.

With 10 man guilds playing a larger part in Cata, wouldn't it be reasonable to drop the 80% requirement here to say 60% for 25v25? Not the biggest issue in the world, we can always recruit more players, but we like our close guild and want to avoid inviting anyone who might disrupt things.

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Your guild can participate in the 10 and 15 brackets without any issue. You would only need 8 or 12 guild members to earn guild experience with a win.

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Q u o t e:


So if I'm in a guild with 10 or 15 people who like to do rated BGs, I can't even do a rated BG on the week that it's 25 v 25?

How does that make sense? You don't see 10-man raiding guilds being forced to take a week off or pug an additional 15 people to raid. I understand you don't want people to only do the 10-player BG, but couldn't you buff the rewards for larger BGs?

I was planning on getting a rated BG group together for my guild once Cataclysm came out... but we're a 10-man raiding guild, we can't support a 25 or even 15-man rated BG. You just basically said "you won't be successful at rated BGs".

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You can do 25 player BG's anytime you want. You will just need to pickup additional players to add to your 10/15 from your guild and queue up. You will not be eligible for guild experience but all other aspects of the rated battleground system would work as normal.

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Q u o t e:


Does this mean they would sit out (or PuG) for the 25v25 week and not get guild exp from RBGs that week?

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That choice is up to the players. We provide guild experience to all brackets in hopes that we are covering all guild sizes. 8, 12 or 20 players from the same guild. All guilds are not going to be able to earn experience in all brackets. This is the choice of each individual guild based on their size.

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Q u o t e:
What is going to be the stance on Consumables and Engineering in rated battlegrounds?

It would seem that Swiftness potions, Free Action Potions, Rocket Boots and other items not allowed in arena already would be enormously overpowered in a rated battleground setting, to the point where they become mandatory.

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Rated battlegrounds follow the same rules as arena for consumables and engineering items.

A few more answers, in line below.

Does your internal matchmaking rating go down in the event of a loss?
Yes, but different than arenas, if you are higher rated than most of your team, it will go down less. Likewise, when you win, it will go up more. This way, if you are an established good player, there’s less risk in playing with less skilled team mates. It does make the assumption that the better players tend to carry more of the weight, which may not accurate in every game, but is accurate on average.

Does MMR for RBGs function the same as it does in Arena? I.E. - goes up more when you beat a higher-rated team, and goes down more when you lose to a lower-rated team ?
Yes. MMR goes up faster if you defeat a team with a higher MMR.

What is the plan to prevent your rating from skyrocketing at high win ratios? If your rating only goes down when it is *above* your MMR, it seems that ratings will just be high on average (compared to arena)
If a team’s rating gets inflated much beyond their MMR, they will get only a few points when they win, and lose many more points when they lose, until they are back down to their MMR. This will prevent inflation.

After much though and deliberation, we have decided to remove the 25 v 25 bracket from rated battlegrounds. We felt that overall, it created too many logistical issues for players and that in the long run, most players would just skip that week in the rotation.

Thanks for all the feedback on this issue, we are listening. =)