UPDATED: Season 5 FAQ
by Zach Yonzon 
Dec 16th 2008 at 3:00PM
NOTE: Most of these answers are based on information taken from the Patch 3.0.8 PTR, such as gear availability and ratings requirements. If the items don't show up when servers go live today, this post will be updated when they finally do.
At what level can I join Arenas?
You can enter Arena skirmishes at any level, with brackets at Level 71-75 and 76-80. However, only Level 70 and Level 80 players may participate in rated Arena matches, acquire personal and team ratings, and earn Arena Points to purchase Arena gear. Only Level 80 players are eligible for end-of-season rewards such as titles and possible new 310% speed flying mounts, although none have been announced or found in the data files as of this writing.
How do I form an Arena team?
The steps in forming an Arena team are very similar to forming a guild. You can visit any of the Goblin Arena Organizers in any of the capital cities, Blade's Edge Mountains, Nagrand, or Tanaris and purchase an Arena Team Charter. Unless prices have been inflated for Level 80, a 2v2 Team Charter should cost 80 Gold, a 3v3 Charter is 120 Gold, and a 5v5 Charter is 200 Gold. Level 80 players might find it easier to talk to "Baroness" Llana or Kanika Goldwell in the Underbelly of Dalaran to purchase their team charters.
Simply get the appropriate number of players to sign your team charter (2, 3, and 5 including yourself) and submit this to any Arena Organizer to register it. You will be asked to finalize your team name and choose your team colors, after which your team becomes eligible to participate in Arenas. Team Captains can invite more players into your Arena team by typing '/teaminvite [2v2, 3v3, 5v5] [player]'. An Arena team can have up to twice its bracket size in members (e.g., 4 members for a 2v2 team). You can read more about the basics of Arena forming in this Arena primer.
When does Season 5 start?
December 16, or 17 if you're based in Europe or Asia. That means you should probably head to the Underbelly and register your teams now.
How long will Season 5 last?
Blizzard hasn't announced it yet, although Arena Seasons tend to last for several months. Season one lasted for 20 weeks, Season two lasted for 23 weeks, while Season three was inordinately long and lasted 29 weeks. In contrast, Season 4 lasted a mere 17 weeks to accommodate Patch 3.0 and the eventual release of Wrath of the Lich King. Even though end-of-season rewards were calculated at the end of Season 4, rated matches and Arena Points continued to be awarded for a month after that.
Arena Seasons tend to keep pace with PvE progression, staying a couple of paces behind. With this philosophy in mind, it's not unreasonable to expect Arena Season 6 to follow sometime after Blizzard releases the next major content patch, which is supposedly Ulduar. Expect most Arena and Honor PvP gear to saturate the player base before the next season begins.
When and where can I buy my Arena PvP gear?
As long as you have the Arena Points and appropriate personal and team ratings, you can head over to any Arena Vendor in major cities and see what they have to offer. Level 80 Arena gear are available in Dalaran's Underbelly, with Zom Bocom, the Apprentice Arena Vendor, selling rare quality Savage Gladiator items for a low combination of Honor and Arena Points. Zaxi Smolderpipe, the Arena Vendor, sells epic Hateful Gladiator gear for more Honor and Arena Points, as well as requiring a moderate personal and team rating. Nargle Lashcord, the Veteran Arena Vendor, sells epic Deadly Gladiator gear purely for Arena Points and steep personal and team ratings. Level 70 Vengeful and Brutal Gladiator items will continue to be available through the Arena Vendors in Outland.
Can I use my Arena Points at Level 70 to purchase Level 80 Arena gear?
No. The Season 5 Arena items require Level 80 to purchase as well as personal and team ratings at the Level 80 bracket, which means players can't amass Arena Points and ratings at Level 70 and purchase items in Dalaran. Arena points, ratings, and teams are also wiped the moment a character turns Level 71.
Are you excited about Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Guides, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Niklas Dec 16th 2008 3:14PM
/golfclap
VoLiTioN Dec 16th 2008 3:17PM
Listen baby, if you don't like the PvP, why comment?
Julio Biason Dec 16th 2008 3:17PM
All those Season 5 articles are making me wonder: I don't like to do arenas, but I DO like to do BGs. So far, it seems that the only way to get PvP gear is doing arenas. Is that right? Or can I still get good stuff just doing BGs?
Sharkhunt Dec 16th 2008 3:19PM
You can get PvP gear without going into Arena. Take a look a page two of the article for a more detailed answer.
Von Franko Dec 16th 2008 3:20PM
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=13392255320&sid=1
According to Bornakk everything will take either Arena Rating, Arena Points or a combo of both. So arena is a must do.
Von Franko Dec 16th 2008 3:24PM
Well I should say as far as buying with honor goes. There are pieces from Elblems but it seems you can't just farm bg honor for gear and avoid arena.
Cowy Dec 16th 2008 3:34PM
A LOT of people are unhappy about arena ratings being forced upon them by Blizzard. TO add an exta element to this, we're going on season 5 of arena. For people being forced into the ring for the first time, it'll be a slaughter. How are the "new" people supposed to get their ratings up when they'll be up against seasoned vets, i wonder. The playstyle is different, and if you don't regularly duel... you're going to be out of your element for a while.
IMO its like back in the day when blizz would toss the freshmeat (ie the below 70 players) into AV with the rest of the overgeared 70 crowd expecting them to enjoy the experience as they were forced to stroke someones epeen over and over.
comradesean Dec 16th 2008 3:42PM
I dunno. Maybe the fresh meat will actually learn something and not be fresh meat for long? eh? It's not like the "seasoned vets" have any advantages coming into this season. -_-
Hangk Dec 16th 2008 3:44PM
For one thing, there won't be nearly as much gear disparity between veterans and new Arena players as there was towards the end of BC. Said veterans will be forced to rely on their skills to pwn the newbies rather than simply donning their S4 and facerolling, which is a bit of an improvement don't you think?
Furthermore, the leet and uber will quickly rise in ratings and have to deal with other leet and uber teams. Those of us who are not so blessed by the Skillz God will face opposition similar to ourselves in the lower brackets.
Finally... yeah, those who know what they're doing will probably beat those who don't. That's sort of the way it's supposed to work, isn't it?
Sharkhunt Dec 16th 2008 3:49PM
Quote: "How are the "new" people supposed to get their ratings up when they'll be up against seasoned vets, i wonder."
By sinking to a rating appropriate to their skill level and then playing against similar opponents. This might mean playing in the 1100s or so and gearing up over time, but the only way to learn to play is to practice.
And please stop repeating that arena ratings are being forced upon players. Crafted res gear is available for gold, savage gear has no rating requirement or can be bought for Emblems of Heroism. Hateful gear also drops from 10-man Archavon, Deadly gear also drops from 25-man Archavon.
Jan Dec 16th 2008 3:48PM
But it will be possible to buy level 70 gear with my level 80 arena points right?
tack Dec 16th 2008 3:53PM
When's the patch to make the arena's actually fun?
Dunwich Dec 16th 2008 6:29PM
I admit, I laughed hard. You win, sir.
corvaal Dec 16th 2008 3:54PM
I liked the old system where you could turn in marks from a particular BG and X honor and get gear. I think that senario should be kept, but I don't think it should be inferior to arena gear. I think hardcore BG folks should have the same shot at the same gear an arena person has. Both are different genre's of pvp and one should not be shortchanged over the other.
Brady Dec 16th 2008 4:03PM
The article says that lvl 70 characters can play in rated matches and receive arena points. However, a blue post from over a month ago states that lvl 70 players will only have access to skirmishes once season 5 starts. So is the author of this piece wrong, or has Blizzard changed their mind?
Dillon Dec 16th 2008 5:27PM
Pvp in wow is pretty sad given the dps output of some classes right now. Two of which have you down to 20-30% health before you even have a chance to fight back.
I'm not excited about S5 at all.
Cookalooka Dec 16th 2008 10:50PM
Yup, this merge with so much arena and rating dependancy along with too much Honer needed to purchase items, i'm quitting
I loved WoW for PVP, and now that Blizz is taking all elements of fun from casual players, i'm just done
No way in hell am i spending 2 weeks to get arena points, and spending around 2 weeks of casual PVP Honer to buy an imaginary helmet which will only be moderate in comparison to Arena only players who are hardcore all-the-time players
See yah WoW players!
Sleepless4life Dec 17th 2008 4:04AM
OMFG! I'm Really getting tired of this *****crap for realz yo! Retired wow/pvp player here. I like to keep up to date with wow pvp as much as i can. All i want is to read wow insider's insight on pvp and such. Not this frigging constant whining bout " wtf! I hate arena. F U! Blizz for ruining PVP shit". Ok one, two three times complaining is ok.I get it! You don't like Arena/rating system/BGS etc etc. Why are you even commenting on this blog if you hate it so much? If you want to rant to your liking plz get out of this blog go read some of Mat Rossi's blogs. Geez! I'm guessing that be more to your liking.
I'll give some insight to my exp with wow pvp. Cuz really i was a true pvper if i say so myself. My first duel ever was when i just dinged 30. Scared for shitz to even try out bgs. But that duel changed my my whole perspective on wow. Needless to say i got beaten real bad. I looked at my self hard as to what i did wrong and what i could do to make it better. that's when i knew i'd be a pvper for life. Not that i thought pve content was lacking or anything. I just thought i liked pvp a lot better. Coming from playing Unreal before WoW it wasn't such a big leap of faith at all. The point of what I'm trying to make is not all people r cut out for pve content. WE i.e: me and others like me live and die for pvp. I never cared for gear as much i cared for the competitiveness of the game to me gear was alwayz second to that and having fun of course. I remember doing av at 60 for months didn't want to ding60+ lvl to go to outland, also being in greens for crap sake in 70's bgs when season 2 arena was still going on. I didn't care how OP/Geared ppl were in bgs i'd still fight you. No matter how many times i died or got pwned cuz i knew i'd be on equal lvl one day. Be it skill, gear, addons or whatever. And i bet most pvpers had exp something like that when they first started out.
And now all i hear is ZOMG !!! Gear Gear Gear... What's the point of pvp if that's all you care about. And from reading all the complaints, whining,criticism some of you aren't pvpers at all. Or don't care. That much is obvious. If you want the best gear your gonna to have to work for it. Nothings free. Not IRL not in Wow. I don't expect to be decked out in T7.xxx or better when not pveing why not use the same measurement for pvp? And don't tell me you can't get gear. Cuz Blizz went out of it's way to make good gear for everyone not just people that just pvp all day or raid all day. But of course if you want to have the best gear your goin to have to be the best. There's nothing wrong with that. Nobody is forcing you to do nething, you don't like it don't do it. Plain and simple.
All this hate is really frustrating to see. Why should i leave for WAR or whatever just to pvp ? I have friends in wow, i loved playing Wow even with all it's problems. Am i less entitled to play Wow becuz i pvp/arena? No, but sadly that seems to be the overall sentiment around here.
Ok that's all for now on this topic not just this blog Zach ;). Just got tired of seeing all the hate. Had to give my 2 cents.
Forgive my English/typing. Not my first language after all.
Neph US Velen or used to be ='(
Steve the Steve Dec 17th 2008 5:52AM
I belive you are seeing a lot of negativity to these posts because people are feeling left our of an aspect of the game they enjoy.
Most players play WoW for progression=fun. Gear is the route to progessing in the PvE and PvP game.
The flaw with arena is that the matches are not skill based. With gear/class/spec disparity other, more skilled players, may find themselves unable to obtain high ranks due to them even entering the system at a later time than other PvPers and they will have to face better geared opponents.
As an arena player I hate the system since it excuses my losses against higher geared players and it cheapens my wins against lesser geared teams. I probably will switch to playing more PvE in Wrath primarily because of this.
I would applaud Blizz if they simply sold PvP gear purely from honor/marks and let all players compete in Arena matches with equal pre-made gear sets. At least this change alone would solve the largest issue with the Arena. Most of all I would know that my team actually earned a 2k rank instead of rolling over lesser teams.
jay Dec 18th 2008 9:07AM
It looks like Blizzard wants to force people into a WoW addiction if they want the good gear. My wife and I spent a lot of time playing arenas only to give up because we just could not compete with the uber reflexes and setups of many of the teams. We were able to get some of the gear which was nice, but no shoulders or weapons. I personally tried to hand with a raiding guild, but could not sacrifice the time with my family so I got kicked out.
I guess if you want good epics you must spend 4 or 5 hours a night. This is going to get Blizzard on the bad end of some Washington lobbyists. You watch and see.