The fate of Season 1 gear in Season 4
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jun 11th 2008 at 6:00PM
A lot of people -- including John, who asked us about this by email -- are a little confused about what's happening to Arena Season 1 gear when Season 4 goes live on June 24th. Season 1 gear for honor is being replaced by Season 2 gear, but at the same time, Eyonix has posted to say that they don't have plans to switch around the PvE tokens for PvP gear system implemented with patch 2.4.
So wait, is Season 1 gear available during Season 4 or not? The answer is yes, but only from Tier 4 PvE tokens.
When season 3 went live, as you will remember, Season 1 gear went over to Honor, and bumped the old level 70 High Warlord and Grand Marshal gear completely off the vendors. You could not longer get it. Likewise, when Season 2 gear moves to honor, it will completely knock off the Season 1 gear from the honor vendors, and you will no longer be able to purchase it for honor.
However, if you have Tier 4 tokens, you'll still be able to head to the Isle of Quel'danas and turn them in for Season 1 Gladiator gear. If you want Season 2 Gladiator gear from PvE, you'll still have to turn in Tier 5 tokens from Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep. This might be Blizzard's attempt to keep the balance, although it seems like anyone with the ability to go take down Magtheridon for a Chestguard of the Fallen Hero could get Season 2 much easier and faster by grinding honor. It seems in this case that the dev team either felt that it wasn't worth it to go in and switch up the gear vendors or wanted to keep the amount of balance and challenge they implemented for the PvE token to PvP gear conversion.
So is Season 1 gear going away? In short, no. You'll not be able to buy it for honor anymore, but you will be able to buy it with Tier 4 tokens.
Filed under: Blizzard, News items, PvP, Battlegrounds, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
John Cessna Jun 11th 2008 6:08PM
...hey...that's me!
JohnC Jun 11th 2008 6:26PM
liesss it was me you fools!
J. Cessna Jun 11th 2008 6:34PM
What are you talking about? It was ME!
Doz Jun 11th 2008 6:07PM
Honestly I'm surprised they didn't replace the reputation pvp sets with S1 gear. Not saying that'd be good, but there's been a bit of gear inflation it seems.
zappo Jun 12th 2008 8:57AM
Yeah, I got my priest to 55 yesterday, and will probably make 70 in 2-3 weeks. I'm planning on running a few battlegrounds to obtain some pvp gear for high stamina (and for fun yes :) I am however not looking forward to the fact that arena people will be pushed into battlegrounds and I'll be stuck with the same junky honor gear against them. I'll probably have a ratio of one death per honor point earned. yay.
Jack Jun 11th 2008 6:39PM
Magtheridon is Tier 4. You'd need to down Kae'thas in Tempest Keep to get a Season 2 chest. And yes, grinding honor would be a lot easier than downing Kael'thas.
jrb Jun 12th 2008 3:56AM
is this the age old argument that amount of 'skill' to take down a boss is more significant that the amount of time it takes you to earn pvp rewards?
they're not the same thing, are they?
Angus Jun 12th 2008 9:30AM
To jrb
Fact: You can go into AV and in less than a week have a S2 chest piece by just playing the game.
You cannot magically have 24 other people show up, do their jobs properly in a 5 phase fight where placing the bosses as you kill them, having a warlock tank, having a hunter tank, making sure everybody loots a weapon in time, and having someone with a dagger nearby to stab buddies that have been mind controlled work. While the skill in PVP is still important, it does not completely rely on people doing more than killing the enemy. If they fail to loot, or use shield wall, or an item, at the proper time, you will not die a few dozen times taking gold hits and failing to see loot. And even if the raid does manage all that, 25 people do not get a token.
It IS harder to get the T5 token. It's not a matter of skill, it is a matter of dependability. Put in your time, do okay, and you will get your S2 chest piece eventually. Kael is not so forgiving.
No one said T5 was easier than Arena, but the BGs only incentive for skill is how much faster you get the gear. Kill more people, play better and you will have it sooner. Even if you suck and aren't much better than being afk, you will eventually get it.
PeeWee Jun 12th 2008 9:31AM
You can't afk your way to a T5 token the way you'll be able to afk your way to S2.
jrb Jun 12th 2008 12:35PM
i'd disagree, and say that in a week you can't earn what ever pvp rewards you want. I'd argue that the same amount of dedication and time is required to kit yourself out in pve gear as it is to gear yourself out in pvp. Guess what, blizzard agrees, and they're the ones with the metrics.
Now, i understand that you obviously pve, so have a certain bias towards that way of doing things. That's great. And my hat goes off to you for doing what you want to do. Personally, I have a life, and therefore no time to dedicate to hardcore end-game raiding, or a tireless persuit to pvp'ing the latest epic, but i do want some form of progression on my character that i can play for a few hours a week, without having to rely on 24-39 obsessive, opinionated, short-sighted progressive raiders.
and despite what you think you know about pvp these days. simply going afk for an hour doesn't get you a full season-x outfit sent to your in game mail. Seriously, the pvp vs pve argument was old when the honor system was first introduced years ago. Get over yourselves, especially in a pvp article.
animathias Jun 11th 2008 7:52PM
I somewhat agree with Doz. Maybe add the S1 gear to the rep vendors for Exalted status or something.
I actually think I'm a little confused here. It still seems like a bit of a chore to go for T4 tokens to get the S1 gear when S2 will be readily available for honor. Note that I'm not exactly a hardcore player (but not casual either, more of the in-between) so I could be completely off my rocker here.
jay Jun 11th 2008 8:01PM
So let me get this straight.
Season 1 gear removed from honor rewards.
Season 1 gear still available by turning in tokens (T4)
My question is "why", this is a little weird to me, I'm sure blizzard have their reasons, but wouldn't this gear be better served being moved to the rep vendors (like someone suggested earlier, what I mean is ... why would someone with an over abundance of T4 tokens want to trade them for s1 gear.
Then again why would someone have an over abundance of T4 tokens anyway, unless they were badge farming.
SaintStryfe Jun 11th 2008 10:08PM
It's nice for Hybrids - I have S1 sets for Enh, Elemental and Resto from unused tokens
Ikarus Jun 12th 2008 1:58PM
could you imagine the outcry from all the hardcore/elitists if you could get epic gear (S1) for just gold and no honor requirement? Peoples heads would probably explode
Kadamon Jun 11th 2008 8:34PM
Actually, the Exalted idea doesn't sound to bad, though, it'd still be faster to farm up Honor on an AV weekend or something.
spectre Jun 11th 2008 10:38PM
perhaps they should put s1 up for reduced honor cost and still have s2 up for normal honor cost, like the lvl60 warlord/highmarshall sets, their's a cheaper blue set and a more expensive epic set, it could be sort of the same concept. or i could just be an idiot, who knows lol
Reinard Jun 12th 2008 12:36AM
Aw, damn. I've been saving up for the Gladiator's Slicer. I got the offhand already.
This means I should save my honor points and marks until the S2 sword becomes available in it's place, huh? Think it'll be the same price, too?
Daniel Whitcomb Jun 12th 2008 12:39AM
It should be the same price as the current Season 1 gear, so if you can stand to wait 2 weeks, you probably should.
Reinard Jun 12th 2008 12:42AM
I absolutely can. Glad you posted about this today, otherwise I'd have been in AV and EotS all night trying to get the S1 sooner... XD Now I can spread the otherwise-mind numbing honor grind.
Thanks for the reply :)
Daniel Whitcomb Jun 12th 2008 1:21AM
You are certainly welcome.