MMO-Champion was able to take a sneak peek at some items released on the official
WoW Armory and discovered some truly brutal news: if the items go live as they appeared on the armory, the new personal rating requirement to wear
Season 4 shoulder pieces will now be 2200. This is a steep ratings increase from Season 3, where shoulder pieces required a personal rating of 2000. As of this writing, the two items that MMO-Champion was able to scope out cannot be searched for on the official WoW Armory -- either hidden from searches or removed from the database entirely. The
Brutal Gladiator's Mooncloth Mantle and
Brutal Gladiator's Ornamented Spaulders no longer appear in the item database although MMO-Champion was quick to take screenshots. [EDIT: Apparently, the items are viewable in the EU Armory, you can view the
Mooncloth shoulders and
healing plate shoulders. - Thanks, BaboonNL!]
There is no guarantee that these item changes will make it live or if the weapon requirements -- currently 1850 for
Season 3 -- have also been raised. Although Tharfor has gone on record to state that it's likely that Season 3 items'
ratings requirements will be lowered in Season 4, Blizzard didn't mention raising the rating requirements for
Brutal Gladiator pieces. According to
Realm History, this means that roughly 12% of players rated 2000 and above in 5v5 teams will qualify for the shoulder pieces; 11% of the 3v3 bracket; and about 9% of the 2v2 bracket. That means an even smaller percentage of the general population. As much as
Patch 2.4 catered to casual content, if these details make it live, it seems as though
Arena play has become even more hardcore than ever.
Tags: Arena, Brutal-Gladiator, Gladiator, Items, MMO-Champion, Patch-2.4, Personal-rating, PvP, Rating-requirement, Season-4, Shoulders, WoW-Armory
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Arena
Apr 14th 2008 at 1:30PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Zanjati Apr 14th 2008 1:36PM
About damn time, to be honest. Now fix the win trading exploit and nobody will be able to cry "welfare" again.
turkeyspit Apr 14th 2008 1:49PM
Actually, this will just encourage win trading and arena point selling even further.
On my server, the going rate for 850+ Arena points per week is 500g, and the guy (in trade!) is still taking better offers.
Arena is a joke, plain and simple. Sure there are many people who get their 2200+ ranking through good group builds and coordination, but who is to say that a player earned their gear, or just paid an IMBA team to carry them to the rating they needed?
The difference between Arena Welfare Epics and Battleground Welfare Epics is that the former can be aquired through gold instead of time.
The very fact that Blizzard puts a Rating on the shoulders, for no other reason then they know it has the greatest asthetic impact (ie. Epeen enlarging) on your armor set shows you the 'real' reason people want Gear.
To the 5 of you out there that really enjoy the competition and PvP aspect of the Arena, my sympathies; quit WoW and buy something that is actually PvP. The rest of WoWdom don't care, and only want to look cool in IF or UC.
Epic Fail Blizzard...truly Epic.
Charlie Apr 14th 2008 1:55PM
turkey, you forgot to type /rant off
Manatank Apr 14th 2008 2:01PM
Lol turkeyspit, are you serious? It isn't like PvE epics should be considered to be any less welfare with these standards. If a crappy player put together enough gold they could pay a top end raiding guild to take them to get high end epics too. Doesn't that mean that by your standard all epics are welfare?
And I'm sorry, it is just easier to have skill than to farm all that stupid gold for gear that "welfare" players wont be able to get the most out of anyway.
turkeyspit Apr 14th 2008 2:13PM
@ Charlie
oops, my bad.
/rant
@ Mana
That Bear mount you see...did that person grind their way and gear up to do ZA in the time required, or did they drop 20k to be given the mount, as was reported here on WoWinsider?
The difference of course is scale. Sure there are some people who pay their way into Raids for Tier Tokens, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't come anywhere near as the amount of people who /afk in BG's or who win trade / buy Arena points, which just makes sense! Why would you spend gold for the RNG system of PvP when you get guaranteed rewards from PvP? I also think its easier to get 2-5 people on board to cheat on Arenas then it is to convince a guild to let you 'waste' a slot for mere monetary rewards. (really, if you're farming a 25 man, most people couldn't afford the amount of gold that would catch the attention of such a guild)
Does someone who runs Heroic Ramps up until the 1st boss 150 times deserve T6 quality Badge loot?
The real question is: why does it matter?
The Arena is a mere symptom of a bigger problem, and that is, people judge each others abilities and accomplishments based on what pixels adorn their character.
The guy walking around with full S3 Armor might be awesome at PvP...or he might be good at farming / gold buying. Assuming anything else beyond that is stupid.
Nick S Apr 14th 2008 1:42PM
YAY!
gear that's genuinely exclusive!
i am so happy about this, not even joking. those who put in extra effort deserve something truly unique to show for it.
Breezer Apr 15th 2008 10:46AM
Except that people can and will take advantage of the system to effectively "buy" that exclusivity, which only makes it harder for people who want to earn them legitimately.
I happen to think it's bulllshit that Blizzard allows arena to be completely corrupt and then puts requirements on things that just encourages more corruption which in turn discourages honest players from participating in arena at all.
Arena is such a hopeless mess, rating requirements don't help.
Charlie Apr 14th 2008 1:54PM
Of course, there are still 3 other pieces of s4 to go around.
I think the most important thing is the Weapons having the requirements. Getting an item that is equivalent to 120 badges while having a sub-1500 rating for 2 months seems a bit unfair to me.
BaboonNL Apr 14th 2008 1:56PM
http://eu.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=35056
pudds Apr 14th 2008 2:07PM
Wrong move, IMO. The ratings should be removed, not raised.
Blizzard's focus for PvP should be to ensure the playing field is as balanced as possible. Class balance is obviously a difficult factor to control, but access to gear is not.
High ratings should not be a barrier to fair competition. If they want to reward high ratings with status items, they should be in the form of non-combat items, such as mounts, tabards and pets.
The tournament realm is the correct implementation; even gear ensures the most skilled players rise to the top. Restricting access to high level items is a mistake, and has been from the start.
Richard Apr 14th 2008 2:12PM
Bravo.
Manatank Apr 14th 2008 2:16PM
The shoulders are more ornamental than functional. You can get by just fine with 4 other pieces of season 4 gear. Not having season 4 shoulders wont make or break teams. The weapons on the other hand are a bit of a different story. The difference between season 2 and season 3 weapons are significant in many cases, and I would imagine the gap will widen with season 4.
If fair and equal is the goal, then I suppose the requirements on weapons does go against this. It creates a situation where those who have proven their skill are given a slight advantage over those who haven't yet done so. Those who were either late to start the arena grind, or perhaps even starting out with new alts for PvP have to display even more skill than those who came before them. It isn't impossible at all, but the barrier to entry certainly exists.
Zanjati Apr 14th 2008 2:28PM
You're effectively arguing for WoW to become an FPS, which is contrary to MMO design philosophy. I'm not sure what the answer is, to be honest - but the ease of access to these items has had a damning impact on every other facet of this game. I'd rather see Blizzard correct class imbalances than hand out even more candy.
turkeyspit Apr 14th 2008 2:31PM
@ Mana
The fault in your logic is that eventhough you need an Arena Rating of 2000+ to 'buy' the S3 Shoulders, you do not need an Arena Rating of 2000+ to 'wear' the S3 Shoulders.
It kind of makes the requirement pointless, no? Especially when you can form a new team (ie. pay people) and get a 2000+ rating in one night, buy your gear with banked points, and go back to sucking at Arena.
I think everyone would agree that forcing someone to maintain a 2000+ rating for shoulders is unfair, since we can all have a bad week. But then what does the rating indicate? What does it mean? All it means is that you were able to hit a 2000+ rating, one time, and then went immediately to the vendor. It doesn't say anything about your skills as an Arena player. (cant tell you how many 1500 ranked players I've seen running around in 5/5 Vengeful)
If the system is that flawed, it shouldn't be there in the first place. Be honest: epeen aside, why should it matter if some scrub loses his way to 5/5 Vengeful? Based on Blizzards logic of 'earning the right' to your gear, ALL current Arena gear should have a Ratings Requirement on it.
But then they know the vast majority of players wouldn't bother with Arena, as they are unequal to the task of getting above 1500-1600, and then they wouldnt play / pay their $15 a month.
I repeat, Arena is a joke.
pudds Apr 14th 2008 2:40PM
@Zanjati
I'm really not. If I were, I'd be suggesting that racials be removed, or all classes be given similar spells/abilities.
I do believe that certain classes should be balanced up or down, but overall, I like the fact that certain strong comps become FoTM, only to be supplanted at the top by other comps that effectively counter them. The ways that classes counter or compliment each other is what makes MMO PvP interesting to me.
Gear is an entirely separate scenario. This is gear that is available once you meet a requirement. Making it available to everyone doesn't make WoW more like an MMO, it ensures that new players or comps have the opportunity to compete on their own merits, without a barrier to entry.
If it were my decision, I'd implement a free PvP set of gear, obtainable upon hitting 70, and only usable within the arena or one of the battlegrounds. I'd make it the best gear available for PvPing, and keep PvP rewards to non-combat items only, thus removing the gear grind (and gear barrier) altogether.
Tarb Jun 19th 2008 3:46PM
I agree
Elmo Apr 14th 2008 2:45PM
very fair.
let the better players get the better loot, just like it's supposed to be.
mindmaster Apr 14th 2008 2:49PM
Dunno I thought the point of arena was to pvp not to grind ratiings. Alll this system accomplishes is that the people already running in S3 will have immediate access to S4 or new- immediate anyway. And if you don't have that well, screw you having any chance to compete. They're basically attempting to turn arena rewards into the stupid "we need 5 people to play this one guy to hwl" situation we had before this crap. Obviously, blizzard isn't learning crap from their previous mistakes and I'm about tired of wasting my time. Grinding arena points is boring, and uneventful. You are either instantly slaughtered by people wearing gear 3x better than yours or the other team is free kills. This isn't arena this is ap grindfest 2008 and it's not about who's a great fighter it's about who has less of a life irl.
heartless_ Apr 14th 2008 2:59PM
Remove gear from the Arenas equation. Switch all Arena fights to a Tournament Realm where everything is equally balanced gear and class wise. Any team can build any setup for gear and classes, which puts the winning in the hands of the skilled.
Remove Arenas from the normal servers. First, it solves the gearflation that Arena seasons cause. Second, because it is a highly exploited and abused system as it is on normal servers. Thirdly, it makes it a far more lucrative e-sport opportunity.
Then, if a team wins on the Tournament Realm, they can be given an "eye candy" reward on their main characters on the normal servers, not a game-changing, set of retarded epic gear.
I hate to admit it, but I liked it a lot better when PvE had to be accomplished to compete in PvP. I fought to get better PvP rewards and easier access to them for the longest time, but as it is now, it is a joke.
Badger Apr 14th 2008 4:08PM
I'm probably the only person who will say this, but ...
Keep Arena on RP servers. It does offer a chance for some really unique RP legends to unfold.