Info On Season 4 Rating Requirements And Arena Changes
Season 4 is still supposed to be a long way off but again we get some more info about what to expect when it does come out. CM Slorkuz of the WoW-EU official forums gives us an early announcement:
While Season 3 is still going strong, we wanted to announce ahead of time the rating requirements that will be present for arena items once Season 4 begins. We also wanted to give everyone a heads up to some changes that will be in an upcoming patch, altering how points are gained and players are matched in the arena system. The patch with these changes is scheduled to release before the start of Season 4.
First though, the rating requirement changes:
When Season 4 begins, Season 3 items will be reduced in personal and team arena rating requirement to:
Shoulders: 1950
Weapon: 1800The new Season 4 items will have the below personal and team arena rating requirements:
Shoulders: 2200
Weapon: 2050
Head: 1700
Chest: 1600
Legs: 1550
Gloves: none
Off-hand: noneIn addition, some of the Season 4 quality items that will be purchasable with honor will also carry a personal and team arena rating requirement:
Boots: 1700
Ring: 1650
Bracers: 1575
Belt: none
Necklace: none
Trinket: noneThe Season 2 items, which will move to the honor system when Season 4 begins, will continue to have no rating requirement.
The changes to the rating requirements for these items reflect the nature of the items, their power, and the relative difficulty that should be had when attempting to obtain them. These items are comparable to those found in the newest 25 person raid zone, Sunwell Plateau, and should therefore also feel very challenging to obtain.
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.
We’re excited to see these changes implemented, which will continue to emphasize the strong competitive nature of the arenas, and the challenge in obtaining the highest end rewards available for PvP.
**Update**
* If a team does not enter an arena match that is starting they will lose points equal to the amount that would have been deducted if they had played and lost.
This change makes it less viable to participate in illegitimate team match-ups by requiring every game be played; not just those that are against a team’s desired opponent. source
I’ve been out of the arena scene for quite a while now but I’m quite sure that having high end arena quality pvp gear purchasable with honor is a new thing that will only be implemented when season 4 comes out. The announcement said that “some” of the gear will need team and personal rating requirements so that mean that the other pieces won’t, right? I bet a lot of people will be hitting the battlegrounds to pvp for these pieces! I know I’m going to try.
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POSTED IN: PvP - arena
12 opinions for Info On Season 4 Rating Requirements And Arena Changes
Dennis
Apr 23, 2008 at 8:05 pm
No way these changes will remain in place. Assuming half the teams (and/or personal ratings) are above 1500 and half below, the bottom half must have some incentive to continue playing Arenas (other than gloves and off-hand). Simplified scenario: The bottom half stop playing since they have no payoff. Now scores stop dropping for nearly everybody since it is mathematically impossible for every remaining team to stay above 1500. SO — half the remaining teams stop playing since they get no payoff. This is a short-sighted strategy and I’m disappointed Blizzard can’t see this far ahead.
Angelo
Apr 24, 2008 at 8:17 am
It’s this sort of arena disappointment that caused me stop doing it altogether. Maybe some day I’ll start doing it again. For now I stick to battlegrounds for my PvP hunger.
As for the arena changes, I read through them and I actually think they’re fair. You might not like it but I think the changes prevent any sort of abuse that might be done to tweak your ratings unfairly.
Dennis
Apr 24, 2008 at 2:59 pm
It won’t be long before people join you in leaving the Arenas in droves. The problem is the zero-sum nature of Arenas. The bottom half must have a reason to put up with the abuse. I’m not objecting to the abuse of ratings tweaking you refer to.
Note that battlegrounds are not zero-sum in that losers are still rewarded for participating.
You cannot have winners without losers and the losers will not stick around if there isn’t a reason to. That is my point. Blizzard is systematically removing these incentives and the Arena game will collapse mathematically.
Angelo
Apr 28, 2008 at 7:59 am
True, the first time I tried doing arenas I wondered why the losers didn’t get something. After all the losers of BG’s still get some honor and 1 mark of honor.
This is probably also the reason why I usually stopped at the minimum 30% for the week. Going further would just mean more chances of losing and ruining the rating.
Darkwhisp
May 2, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Well its a good challenge but I just dont think everyone will quit….just most ;)
Angelo
May 5, 2008 at 5:42 am
“just most”
Haha… exactly! In my current guild I don’t think any of us do any arena, We still do BG’s though.
john
May 13, 2008 at 9:52 am
yall are all just losers arena is hella easy if u just devote time to it stop whining and suck it up just keep playing you’ll get better end of story geez
Angelo
May 13, 2008 at 8:22 pm
It’s not as easy as you say it is and in no way am I whining. I used to do a lot of arena before and my most successful was actually my 2v2. We did arena every week and we never cracked the 1600 mark even with all that practice. True, we got better in time but still not good enough. That’s partly why we stopped.
Dennis
Jun 2, 2008 at 9:35 am
John,
I finished in the top 10 of my high school class of 600. It was very easy for me. Why couldn’t everyone do it? It isn’t skill, it is math!
Everyone cannot stay above 1500 end of story geez.
Angelo
Jun 3, 2008 at 7:54 am
“Why couldn’t everyone do it? It isn’t skill, it is math!
Everyone cannot stay above 1500 end of story geez.”
Exactly!
Wighty
Jun 5, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I started doing arenas from the release of S3 and have gone 50/50 wins loses and my 1500 rating has gone down! it sits around 1380s. why when you win half dont you stay even
Angelo
Jun 5, 2008 at 8:28 pm
@Wighty: I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the rating of your opponent. If you notice, at the end of the match your rating doesn’t go up or down by the same amount each time. If you win against a better rated team, your rating goes up by more than if you win against a lower rated team.
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