Drysc says what's up with PvP gear for Season 4
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 24th 2008 at 11:30AM
Drysc has posted on the forums to clear up any questions about what's happening with PvP gear in Season 4. And while the rumors that Naxx gear was leaving the game marked the first instance of Blizzard removing content, here's the second: season one gear will no longer be available during Season 4. Not a big loss, since there is now other good PvP gear floating around, but a loss nonetheless.Season 2 gear, as expected, will move to honor, with no ratings requirements. And Season 3 gear will be released according to the ratings requirements and rules set out the other day.
Got all that? So start saving that honor and/or practicing for the good ratings now. You have to think that, with all of this news solidified from Blizzard about Season 4, the start must surely be right around the corner. But of course this is Blizzard we're dealing with -- we won't know when it's coming until it's actually here.
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, PvP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Phargo Apr 24th 2008 11:52AM
So, since S1 gear will no longer available. Can you use T4 tokens for merc gear once S4 drops?
brent Apr 24th 2008 12:02PM
sounds logical, i heard rumor of the vengeful going for t6 tokens as well, opposed to tier 5 and 6 being used for the same tier.
lol Apr 24th 2008 2:03PM
lol, say so long to welfare epics and hello to skill required to get the gear.
i rofflez at all the people who are crying b/c they cant lose 10 games a week and get shiny T6 equiv. loot once S4 starts.
start dueling, bg'ing, and practicing if you want the good gear scrubz.
/fart
Zor Apr 24th 2008 12:02PM
qoute from a 'Blue'
So we could essentially run into the issue of the top PvPers, the best and most decked out players, just sitting next to a battlemaster 24/7 (which still happens quite a bit). But, by peppering items around we can at least draw people into different aspects of the game for a while.
say WHAT? !!!
psst, why didnt they go in before? WHEN THERE WAS NO RATING FOR IT>?
your joking right?
THEY DID GO IN, (ahem) to round out their current seasons gear with the current seasons BG rewards
morons....
who thought of this ?, FIRE THEM
Flavas Apr 25th 2008 3:43AM
For the love of god, if you are running around battle grounds *ONLY* in honor gear. Some freaking boots, a ring, and bracers are not going make or break your PvP action. Because you suck if you're running battle with only S1 armor.
Anyone who is serious about doing well in BGs is going to go into arena for Season 3 and 4 gear! So you're already going to have the rating to wear these items.
1575 and and 1700 are not difficult ratings to get. All Blizzard is saying is that if you want the S4 honor gear, STEP UP YOUR GAME.
If you can't manage a rating of 1575 for the bracers, then the S3 bracers are going to be just fine for you.
But, yes, Blizz wants PvP people showing their faces else where in WoW. not just standing in front of the battlemasters all day.
Hence, some BG equipment, i.e. Season 4 gear, will be in Arena. Some Arena equipment, i.e. the Boots, ring, and bracers will be in Battle Grounds.
But, oh the horor, what if Blizz started to put more PvP items and equipment in PvE instances though?
*gasp* *horor* *lol* Then you'd have to do some "easy mode" PvE content for that uber resiliance gem or whatever.
Then the QQ would really flow... I mean, PvPer's doing PvE content? lol WUT? XD
pudds Apr 24th 2008 12:07PM
Ugh. So much for my hope that they'd back off the changes. Personal Rating for Honor Gear: logic = missing.
Zor Apr 24th 2008 12:08PM
i can surmise the move is because
pve is dead....
80%+ are doing mindless bg's over and over again
thereby if they were to attempt the raids, the gear was received through BG's/Arena - not Blizz intent
so if your to Raid they expect you to get the gear through PVE methods, now in essence they have separated the two by a large margin
spend time doing either - to maximise your rewards
but please dont play us for fools with these idiot explainations
Zameda Apr 24th 2008 12:10PM
"..And while the rumors that Naxx gear was leaving the game marked the first instance of Blizzard removing content, here's the second: season one gear will no longer be available during Season 4...."
That would make removing season 1 gear first wouldn't it? Season 4 is suppose to start before WotLK and the removal of Tier 3 is just a rumor until that happens while the removal of Season 1 gear is pretty much confirmed now.
Woolwort Apr 24th 2008 3:33PM
Sorry Mike, You have that wrong. Blizzard did remove the Level 70 Grand Marshal sets this past season.
Aticus Apr 24th 2008 3:33PM
No, they moved them; not removed. You can buy all 5 pieces through rep vendors in Outland at Honored.
-Aticus, http://www.paladintales.blogspot.com
Heraclea Apr 24th 2008 12:16PM
My thought on season 4 is to wait a while. I'd bet on a reset a couple weeks into the season, after the many and obvious consequences of this boneheaded decision become manifest.
People who derided the folks who were willing to lose arena matches for a chance to eventually be able to buy arena gear as recipients of "welfare epics", and who would prefer that this gear be reserved for l33t folks like themselves, have suffered a failure of mathematical intelligence. A rude awakening is theirs. It's how ladder systems work. Regardless of where the curve gets set, 50% of the players are going to wind on the bottom half.
Their high ratings in season 3 came from the fact that folks like myself, who played without expecting to win all that much, still got rewarded in the end. And in season 4, we won't be motivated to bother. At least half of those folks who were on the high side of 1500 and who expect to be able to get at least some of this stuff will be sadly disappointed. Truth is, they need us "scrubs". And we won't be there for them.
Enjoy your queue times, champs. We'll talk again after your rating sinks to three digits. Those of us who had no high hopes, and played for "welfare epics", will laugh at you in the end.
Hank Apr 24th 2008 12:19PM
WoW is dying as a PvE game. Wrath will wake the patient from the coma, but it is still no better than a respirator. I'm so sick of the morons on my server (PvE) who scream how good they are at PvP. You want PvP? Go roll on a PvP server. Then you can scream about being good.
It's like finding money on the street, and then saying you earned it.
BitterCupOJoe Apr 24th 2008 12:35PM
Hah, PvP servers aren't about being good at PvP: they're about ganking lowbies and (occasionally) engaging in a minor skirmish outside of battlegrounds. That's almost entirely it. There might be a minor skill difference, but I've met more terrible PvPers on the PvP server I play on than I ever met on than the PvE one I do. World PvP is a joke in WoW; 9 times out of 10, it's nothing but ganking, and given that, gankers are the type of folks that tend to play on PvP servers.
Ryan Apr 24th 2008 12:58PM
Well, when you no longer wish to take up 30 hours a week to raid the same instances over and over again just so you can roll the loot treadmill over a couple times, there really isn't much to do. I'll get Wrath just to check out the new zones and run some new instances, but I don't think it'll have much to keep me around. The only thing I can think of that would really keep me around is to add some sort of laddered BG system with new maps for each objective-type (ctf,AB,EoTS) coming out every couple months to keep things from getting stale.
darian Apr 24th 2008 12:28PM
Season 1 gear won't be available anymore, but what about the honor rewards that don't require arena ratings?
makishima Apr 24th 2008 1:07PM
Season 2 gear will be there for that
peaglemancer Apr 24th 2008 12:36PM
Why do people keep saying the PvE game is dying in this thread? Did I miss the memo?
BitterCupOJoe Apr 24th 2008 2:16PM
Seriously, I'm on a PvP server, and even there, the PvE game is alive and well. I don't know what they're talking about.
brittwilson Apr 24th 2008 12:41PM
I guess we both did. I'm on a low population RP server, and yeah we are way behind, but PvE is not dead by any means. We have one alliance guild who has Illidan down, and there is one other alliance guild besides mine going into hyjal(though we are both 3/4 and 5/6 TK and SSC) and we certainly don't find it a dead place to be.
Salty Apr 24th 2008 2:12PM
I see their angles but really don't think there's any data to back it up... I think a lot of people have blinders on and think that because they're in an active battlegroup with low queue times and that all they ever do in the game is PvP that nobody is running instances. On my server there are dozens of guilds happily progressing through raids with a healthy supply of eager new players and PvP on my server (outside of BGs) is virtually dismal.
The other logic I've seen is that people will "get their epics" from PvP. Sure... all of the people who think the game ends when you have purple gear in every slot will find PvP a nice way to achieve that without the effort of raiding. And they assume every player has this mentality because it's theirs and can't fathom and/or don't value other motivators. I have also seen the _opinion_ that all top-end raiders feel the game has gotten easier and undervalues their achievements because the broader player base is no longer chained to strictly hardcore playstyles to have access to (read: different from effortless success in...) the entire spectrum of content in the game. It's funny seeing all of these confident, anonymous, sweeping, unjustified claims of social trends that haven't been demonstrated in any statistical way (forum trolls are vocal, but absolutely unrepresentative of the broad population).
As for what I have observed within the population on my realm is that PvE content still has the greatest selection of top-end equipment undiluted by resilience budgeting and with a wide selection of mechanics (armor pen, haste, glass cannon crit) and attracts the broader spectrum of players. And if you're like me and focus on min/maxing, the selection of resilience gear is unsufficient and resilience as a stat is pretty useless to a DPS or Healer class who should never be getting directly hit by anything other AoE/debuffs if they're playing well.
Oh yeah, there's also the aspect of playing (and competing) amongst a large group of friends within a regular, ongoing, goal-oriented, collaborative environment with progressive rewards. Now queue everybody who will follow up saying PvE is boring/easy/scripted, and that all of those goals of the game can be achieved through PvP with faster/easier rewards. Whatever floats your boat, buddy, just don't fabricate the lie that mine is sinking.