The PvP patch is coming today and starting off the new arena season for World of Warcraft. With it comes the delightful addition of PvP armor and weapons that are sure to be on most player's Christmas lists. Still there are some changes to the way things works with the newest arena season. Blizzard has learned a lot about PvP rewards from the previous expansion and they're trying not to repeat any mistakes. In the Burning Crusade they made the season one arena gear a little too powerful compared to the gear from heroics. This sort of resulted in a dead period where people mostly ignored heroic dungeons. It really wasn't until the Badge of Justice loot started to get better that heroics and Karazhan started to see a resurgence in popularity.
This time around it looks like Blizzard is allowing multiple ways of getting the arena gear. Players will be able to use emblems, honor points, and arena points to gear up for their cage matches. Blizzard also seems to be using a more complex tier system this time around. The new arena season looks like it will have three tiers to start with. Most likely as new arena seasons are introduced the lowest tier will be dropped.
Main Set Pieces and Weapons (chest, legs, etc)
Tier 1 - Blue Arena Gear (Savage Gladiators)
(Honor and Arena points: No Ratings) or Emblems of Heroism
Equal to the Blue level 80 gear from Heroic dungeons
Tier 2 - Epic Arena Gear (Hateful Gladiators)
(Arena points: Ratings from 1600-1800) or Emblems of Valor
Equal to the Epic level 80 gear from Heroic dungeons
Tier 3 - Epic Arena Gear (Deadly Gladiators)
(Arena points: Ratings in the 1900-2100)
Equal to 25 man raid gear but with more PvP stats (stamina, resilience)
Secondary Set pieces and accessories (bracers, rings, etc)
Tier 1 - Epic Arena Gear (Hateful Gladiators)
(Honor Points: Ratings in the 1600-1800)
Equal to the Epic level 80 gear from Heroic dungeons
Tier 2 - Epic Arena Gear (Deadly Gladiators)
(Honor points: Ratings in the 1900-2100)
Equal to 25 man raid gear but with more PvP stats (stamina, resilience)
I must say that I was not a fan of the introduction of rating requirements to PvP gear. There were too many ways to cheat the early versions of the arena system. Even with rating requirements a lot of players simply bought spots on high end teams or created a smurf team. By the time Blizzard ironed out all the bugs the cheaters were already a couple tiers ahead of most other players. This gear advantage made it impossible to compete fairly and I found myself wandering to other games that promised PvP glory. The same thing could happen again, but not unless a new flaw in the PvP reward system is found. Otherwise I think Blizzard has a fair chance of keeping a static, but somewhat satisfying PvP game going for quite some time.
Some good Arena Gear Links:
MMO Champion and WoWhead
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Arena Season 5
Posted by Relmstein at 11:37 AM
Labels: pvp, world of warcraft
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9 comments:
Have they addressed the issue whereby you take your uber raid geared toon and race to arena rating 2k, buy all the top level arena gear then remake your team thereby PLing your friends with a 1500 rated toon wearing 2k rated armor?
From the 2.4.2 patch notes...
To help ensure that the challenge in obtaining these items stays true to those achieving these ratings, we'll also be implementing new rules with an upcoming patch to curb practices that undermine the core concepts of the arena system. These rules are as follows:
* If a character’s personal rating is more than 150 points below the team rating, they will earn points based on their personal rating instead of the team rating.
This means that a player cannot join a highly rated team and begin earning points based purely on the pre-established rating of the team before they joined it. They'll need to compete, improve, and gain a personal rating worthy of the points they would receive.
* If the average personal rating of the players queuing for a game is more than 150 points below the team’s rating, the team will be queued against an opponent matching or similar to the average personal rating.
This means that players cannot join a highly rated team and immediately face highly rated opponents, easily and quickly bringing their personal rating up. Instead they'll need to again compete, improve, and earn their rating.
So casuals that arent good at arena or dont arena and that don't run 25 mans are relegated to blue pvp gear.
I was waiting for this info on wether to resub or not. I can continue to save $15 a month. I'll check back at season 6 when they are giving away season 5 gear for honor only.
If a players personal rating is 2200, it instantly drops to 1500 the moment they leave and create a new team. At which point they have the ubar gear and smoke all the players struggling to get gear at 1500.
Yes, ringers are still a problem.
Then again they did earn their gear fair and square, its just they tend to have an overwhelming effect when they join a lower ranked team. This probably won't be a problem until a couple months from now. Still, Blizzard needs to look into some sort of special rule for when a 2200 rated player joins a 1500 rated team.
a way to stop the boosting is pretty simple imo for example shoulders need 2200 rating, player X gets said rating and equips the shoulder. player X drops rating to 2199, he can now "no longer" wear that item in ranked arena until he gets a rating of 2200+ again. seems like a no brainer to me but then this is blizzard we are talking about so lets face it we are fooked!
Relmstein seems there is three ways to get PvP gear. Now that I'm home I researched it.
Before you freak out on honor prices that are 3 times as much, remember you earn 3 times as much honor in BG and also you get honor in some PVE.
From the PvP Venders in major cities(Stormwind/Orgrimmar):
Savage Gladiator Sets(5-piece Rare ilvl 200, Tier 1 PvP Gear)
Chest/Legs/Helm: 60,000 Honor
Shoulders/Gloves: 50,000 Honor
No Rating Requirements
Hateful Gladiator Items(Misc Epic ilvl 200 Tier 2 PvP Gear)
Boots/Belt/PvP Trinket: 49,600 Honor
Neck/Cloak/Ring: 38,000 Honor
Bracers: 31,600 Honor
No Rating Requirements
Deadly Gladiator Items(Misc Epic ilvl 213 Tier 3 PvP Gear)
Boots/Belt/Offensive PvP Trinkets(+Whatever/Use: Health Boast): 60,200 Honor
Neck/Cloak/Ring: 47,400 Honor
Bracers: 39,400 Honor
Rating Requirements on Misc Deadly Gear:
Trinkets 1800
Cloak: 1750
Boots: 1720
Ring: 1690
Bracers: 1660
Belt: 1630
Neck: 1600
From Emblems of Heroism/Valor in Dalaran:
Savage Gladiator Sets(5-piece Rare ilvl 200, Tier 1 PvP Gear)
Chest/Legs/Helm: 45 Badges of Heroism
Shoulders/Gloves: 30 Badges of Heroism
No Rating Requirements
Hateful Gladiator Items(5-piece Epic ilvl 200 Tier 2 PvP Gear)
Chest/Legs/Helm: 45 Badges of Valor
Shoulders/Gloves: 30 Badges of Valor
No Rating Requirements
From Arena Vendors in the Dalaran Sewers:
Savage Gladiator Sets(5-piece Rare ilvl 200, Tier 1 PvP Gear)
Chest/Legs/Helm: 12,000 Honor, 350 Arena Points
Shoulders: 9,600 Honor, 275 Arena Points
Gloves: 7,200 Honor, 200 Arena Points
No Rating Requirements
Hateful Gladiator Items(5-piece Epic ilvl 200 Tier 2 PvP Gear)
Chest/Legs/Helm: 12,000 Honor, 700 Arena Points
Shoulders: 9,600 Honor, 550 Arena Points
Gloves: 7,200 Honor, 400 Arena Points
Rating Requirements on Hateful Gear:
Gloves: 1615
Legs: 1645
Chest: 1675
Helm: 1735
Shoulders: 1775
Deadly Gladiator Items(Epic ilvl 213 Tier 3 PvP Gear)
Chest/Legs/Helm: 2,250 Arena Points
Shoulders: 1,800 Arena Points
Gloves: 1,350 Arena Points
Off-Hand/One Hand Fast Weapons/Caster: 1,350 Arena Points
Main-Hand/One-Handed Slow/Caster: 3,150 Arena Points
2-Handers/Ranged: 4,500
Shields: 2,250
Totem/Idol/Relic/Sigil: 1,200
Rating Requirements on Deadly Gear:
Gloves: 1850
Legs: 1910
Chest: 1970
Helm: 2090
Shoulders: 2150
Everything Else: 2030
Oops meant to say 4 ways.
you are all forgetting that acheiving gear and arena rating requires a degree of skill. IF you want 2200 rating and gear, practice, read forums, get better at pvp, dont blame blizzard. lol
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