Blizzard warns WoW Classic players not to jump between worlds to find your friends in Burning Crusade

WoW Burning Crusade Classic has arrived, as Blizzard's multi-pronged World of Warcraft cycle brings its first expansion back around for a fresh run, once again. It's yet another chance to step through the Dark Portal into Outland and battle the Burning Legion, and you'll probably want to team up with some friends to do so. But with the return of the layering system, the MMORPG has been pushing players apart in many cases. Blizzard has already taken some steps to solve this, but it warns you not to try and force the issue, as it can actually make things worse.

Layering is World of Warcraft's solution to open-world overcrowding. The MMO can get pretty busy in certain areas, particularly at the launch of big events like WoW Classic's return to the Burning Crusade this week, and separating people out into various layers ensures things don't get overly chaotic.

However, the idea is that if you're in a group then you should all be put into the same layer automatically; not being able to see the people you're playing with rather breaks the whole experience, after all. Unfortunately, it's been a little broken since release.

"For the last 24 hours, we've been aware of and working to solve multiple issues affecting players who form parties intending to play on the same layer together," community manager Randy 'Kaivax' Jordan writes. "Today, we deployed some changes that we think helped the situation, and we're continuing to look at every report we receive to hopefully find more adjustments or fixes that we can make."

Jordan does caution, however, that you shouldn't try to force the issue. "If you don't see your party after walking through the Dark Portal, we strongly recommend that you stay on one side of the portal and do not continually walk back and forth through the portal. We've noticed players doing this and it appears to make you increasingly unlikely to get on the same layer!"

It's certainly tempting to just try and constantly refresh the area until you arrive in your desired layer. But it sounds as though, for now at least, this can actually cause more confusion for the system that allocates you a spot. Jordan says Blizzard is "developing a fix for this particular issue and we expect to implement it next week, after thorough testing." For now, you'll just have to go about your business while you wait for it to resolve.