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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsSeason 3 Arena equipment change stops ratings abuse
by Dan O'Halloran 
Dec 11th 2007 at 3:47PM
Today's maintenance is over, but the Season 3 Arena gear drama has only just begun, or ended depending on your point of view. Late last night, Tyren posted that when the servers came back up there is a new change to purchasing S3 Arena equipment. Before the maintenance, a certain Personal Rating was needed to buy the S3 gear, but now the same gear requires the purchaser's Team Rating to be in the same range.According to Jagoex at Warlock Therapy, this was done to stop a practice of artificially inflating your Personal Rating. Our own Zach Yonzon explained this smurfing concept. Players would form teams with their main and alts, winning with their mains and losing with their alts, thus ensuring a slow and steady Personal Rating gain. Now that the equivalent Team Rating is required, those people working the system have to play the Arenas the way Blizzard intended.
Tyren also mentioned that though the new purchasing requirements are in effect as of today, they won't be displayed by the in-game vendors yet, but in an "upcoming patch." So though you won't see it listed in-game, the Team Rating is now required.
EDIT: Clarified last sentence.
Filed under: Items, News items, PvP, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Good_Idea Dec 11th 2007 6:10PM
I'd hate to say it, but this change won't stop the cheating. Here is the new plan:
1) Get your personal rating high by losing games with your alts and winning games with your mains. Just like before your personal rating can be extremely high.
2) Hire or get 2 friends who are very good at arena to blast your team rating to 2000.
3) Get your epics.
So instead of going to someone else's team to get epics, you'll have to get someone to play your team into a higher rating, which is a little harder but not impossible if you are really determined.
Abbot Dec 12th 2007 4:20AM
step 1 won't work anymore - if you're losing with alts and winning with mains then your team rating won't be high enough to purchase weapons/shoulders... right?
step 2.... well, ok... but don't come crying to me when your "friend" decides to log onto your accound and "borrow" some g etc.
Good_Idea Dec 12th 2007 11:18AM
You don't understand.
If you're losing with your alts, the TEAM rating goes down (to say, 1000).
You then play with your mains, assuming you can win, getting your TEAM rating back up to a good level (1600?). Your main's PERSONAL rating should and could be much higher (1800+, since it's based on your win/loss ratio). So you have the PERSONAL rating to buy the gear, just not the TEAM rating. If you quit your team and join another, your PERSONAL rating resets to 1500 and you'll have to start over.
The friends I was referring to don't play your account, lol. They are people with toons perhaps better suited to 2v2 and/or can play better. They can join your team and win the team's rating up to 2000+.
So then you have the personal and team rating to purchase your gear.
Dipstick Dec 11th 2007 6:55PM
This change isn't directed at the right kind of people.
It's going to force people who would have otherwise been sitting at the ~1800 rating to use win trading to get the requirements for weapons and shoulders, instead of *just* inflating personal rating.
These people aren't smurfs, they're just those playing with friends and so don't have the required 'set up' to win reliably in order to reach the higher ratings.
theRaptor Dec 11th 2007 8:20PM
No they are smurfs. No one is "owed" epics, you are rewarded them for good competition in the arena. If you and your friends don't cut it, to bad, you don't cut it.
You may as well argue that abusing mechanics in 25 mans is okay because you are playing with friends and can't get enough people/don't have the gear/skill etc.
Scrubs are not supposed to be on the bleeding edge.
Personally I think Blizzard should introduce a finals system, for the best rewards. Arena rating would only get you into the finals, and thus cheats would get creamed and never get the good rewards.
enkafiles Dec 12th 2007 1:17AM
I understood that to be playing _against_ friends ... just for fun, as a 2v2 or 3v3 duelling set up - and not fighting to win every match.
john Dec 14th 2007 8:18PM
Funny thing is I thought of this as a possible solution, but then I thought, whats to stop them from doing it, and then just switching over to a 2000 or 1750 rated team? Doesn't work
Adam Dec 11th 2007 7:22PM
Maybe I didn't fully understand the whole smurfing thing, but how exactly does this stop it?
I thought the point was to get a high ranked team by playing teams of your alts. So, wouldn't their team rating already be high and above this new requirement?
Delta Dec 11th 2007 8:35PM
I have not stared arenas yet, but I am in the BG grind for S1 gear. I have to agree with some posters who hate this "welfare epic" term, because it's used by whiners who are crying because everyone has the gear they think they deserve a pizza trophy for obtaining before everyone else. PvP rewards are not hard to get, I will grant you that, but they are not finger snapping easy either, you still have to spend hours/days/weeks/months in the same 4 BG's just to get enough honor, and after two weeks of casual (that's the daily and maybe 3-4 games, more on weekends) I've only gotten my helm, gloves, and shiv from S1. Don't get me wrong, I like PvP and it's a welcome break from PvE grinds and PuG's, but seriously, this is just like cell phones, the latest and greatest are snapped up by people who want to be the "cool kids" with the best gadget, and then 1-2 years later the same models are being sold for free with new service plans, because the next line is up for sale.
theRaptor Dec 11th 2007 9:02PM
The problem is that some people think this game is hard, and/or want to lord it over the peons. This game is easy, it is why it has 9.whatever million subscribers. Even high end raiding is relatively easy, all that is required is for you to be able to learn a plan and carry it off reasonably. It is like synchronized swimming. It is not the epic battle of "skillz" that high end raiders make it out to be.
This game took everything from EverQuest and took the suck out (made it easy for most people). That is why I play this game, I have played hard core MMO's, they become a job, not a game I play for fun.
Rashi Dec 11th 2007 11:01PM
@22
Reading your post made me think, if people are saying thinking I will be the ultimate ruler of the server, heres a thought for those players. (not you)
GTFO my server and get on an RPing one where you can be a douche thinking your uber pwnzor to the max because youz got teh 1337 gears rofl.
(How do you roll on the floor laughing and type at the same time? Last time I checked most people put their computers on a desk or table, not the floor.)
Althalas Dec 12th 2007 8:37AM
Great. Yet another change to help placate the top 10% that whine the most. For players in the casual realm getting 1 epic for about 3 months worth of work seems fair to me. Hell you can get epic gear from grinding rep, why not from grinding arenas?
How is it welfare when I get an epic sword in 3 months and you have a whole set of gear, trinkets and weapons? You could make the same argument for someone who went in as an alt for SSC got a hot drop and never went back. Is that "welfare" as well?
Why is it that the insecure "elite" feel they need to batter down the majority of players that have lives and enjoy the game? Are you all so weak willed and have such a flimsy manhood that you have to belittle people in your 15 epics, and bitch that a guy who worked his ass off got 1 weapon?
jay Dec 12th 2007 1:44AM
Pvp and raiding are totally different, what I fail to see is why it has to be such a big deal how people get their gear.
PvP for some - Raiding for others, does it really matter in the end?, just think when WotLK comes out they will all be useless anyway.
Amazing what purple words attached to graphical skins does to people.
alex Dec 12th 2007 5:21AM
You guys don't even understand what smurfing is. This article isn't about smurfing. Smurfing will continue, it is when two teams play late at night, one allowing the other to farm them. This requires seperate accounts to play each other at times when no other teams are playing.
What they have changed is your ability to push you own rating up by having your own alts (same account) on your own teams (the same team as your main). By losing on the alt and winning on the main you could artifically inflate your personal rating on your main as the system would see him as winning 90% of games. The fact that you were 1500 rated because your alt team was losing 90% of their games didn't matter then because only "personal rating" mattered.
This change will see that only high rated teams personal rating will matter to stop scrubs fiddling their s3 weapons / shoulders.