Blizzard surprised everyone yesterday by announcing the start of Arena Season 4, slaking the thirst of Arena junkies everywhere. Although Drysc's announced that PvP progression is intended to match PvE progression, it seems that Blizzard feels that enough Sunwell Plateau gear has trickled down to the player base for them to unleash a new Arena Season. Or it could be that they feel that the new personal ratings mechanic is enough of a bottleneck to slow down the flood of Level 154 items into the playing community.

At any rate, now is the time to plan for Season 4. If you haven't already started, it might be a good idea to bank some Arena points. With two weeks of point gains to go, that means players currently with 0 Arena points can theoretically obtain a maximum of one Season 4 Arena piece as the gloves cost 1125 points and, more importantly, require no personal ratings. Players will need to earn about 563 Arena points for the next two weeks to earn enough to purchase the item. This means maintaining a 1788 rating in 2v2, 1722 in 3v3, and 1671 in 5v5. It's not an easy feat, but for those who are only starting to save up Arena points, the reality is that it's an uphill climb. No matter how good you are, it is impossible to amass 5,000 Arena points in two weeks.

It's also always best to be capped with Honor points at 75,000 when the Season begins, allowing for the purchase of Guardian items. But not everyone has banked their Honor points these past weeks, and even players who have face the restriction of personal arena ratings. But take heart -- although some items will require personal ratings, the belts and neck pieces do not. A Guardian belt costs 17,850 Honor points and 40 Arathi Basin Marks of Honor while the amulet costs 15,300 Honor points and 10 Eye of the Storm Marks of Honor. Those two slots are the quickest ones to fill, even for those who have never set foot in Arenas (or have no plans to).

Players starting at 0 Honor have their work cut out for them, but it's not impossible like obtaining 5,000 Arena points. One would need to obtain roughly 5,770 Honor points a day for the next thirteen days in order to have maximum Honor by the time Season 4 starts. This can be done by doing the daily PvP quests as well as cycling through Battlegrounds for all the Marks of Honor. Concerted Efforts and For Great Honor are extremely efficient means of rapidly acquiring Honor points. It's even faster when you win all Battlegrounds, netting roughly 1,000 or more Honor points per cycle.

On the other hand, moderate targets can be set if players are only looking to get the personal rating-free belt and amulet. For the next thirteen days, players only need to hit a casual 2,550 Honor points daily to have enough Honor to purchase the belt and neck piece -- a total of 33,150 Honor. It will be the Warsong Gulch holiday weekend this coming June 13-16 while it will be Arathi Basin for the weekend prior to the launch of Season 4. You won't particularly need Warsong Gulch to purchase the belt and neck piece, but the extra Honor will help and you'll need the tokens if you want to do Concerted Efforts or For Great Honor. The announcement of Season 4 should see a mad rush in the Battlegrounds for last minute Honor grinding as well as extended Arena sessions for teams pursuing end-of-season rewards. Good luck to everyone, and happy hunting!

Tags: Arathi-Basin, Arena, Arena-points, Brutal-Gladiator, Guardian, Honor, Honor-points, Season-4

Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, PvP, Battlegrounds, Arena