Season 4 Arena Gear/Rating ChangesFollow

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: 1800

The 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: none

In 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: none

The 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.

Source:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=3778917992&postId=37785479177&sid=1#0

Meh, I don't agree with forcing the rating req ever higher when the system is as broken as it is. I guess S3 quality gear will still be available foir honour, otherwise some people will be left without a PvP set of boots at all.

At least this might kill point selling, although not boosting for gold.

So, does this mean that people who are good at PvP, will have better PvE-gear than people who do... BT?

And does this mean that the gear-gap between S4-gear and S2-gear will be much much larger than the current gap between S3 and S1 gear?

Edit: I guess the rating requirements should be higher. I mean, you'll "only" need a 1700 rating to have the very best gear for both PvP and PvP?



Edited, Apr 22nd 2008 3:28pm by Prikker

I don't think that's what it means. I'd bet that when they say "comparable", they just mean in terms of iLevel, not in terms of itemization. Thus S4 gear will be as good for PvP as Sunwell gear is for PvE, though I frankly didn't realize that was such a departure from current status as to warrant a bluepost mentioning it.

Tyrandor wrote:

Not like it matters so much to me, when this goes live, my arena career is more or less dead :(

I hear ya bro. I get so excited when we break 1600, even if it's only for one game or week.

edit: nvm Tyr, I misunderstood you. I read your posts on this topic in the main forum and see that it isn't the 1600 plateau that is your concern.

Edited, Apr 22nd 2008 4:01pm by AynLoD

Not sure if you were trying to poke fun at me or not ;p.

It's pretty damn annoying that I ended up as a duelist after S2, with over 2k rating in 2v2 and 3v3... but the rise of druids killed my comp in 2s and the rise of double melee killed my comp in 3s.

I haven't been able to 'adapt' (i.e. find the proper partner) since, and by now my old priest partner has quit the game.



It's not even the gear cap that annoys me, it's how they're basically totally killing off team switching.

Except shoulders. =p

Any new news on a release date of S4? My whole guild is going arena/honor/mark farming just waiting for season 4 to come. I haven't as much because i think its going to be 2+ months. Anyone know a date or month?