Season 6 weapons as good as Ulduar drops
by Zach Yonzon 
Feb 8th 2009 at 9:00PM
He promises they won't make the same mistake in Season 6, and that the new Furious Gladiator weapons would be equivalent to the items in Ulduar. Kalgan explains that the aim is to balance the accessibility of the items so that the number of raiders who have access to the best raid weapons is roughly the same as the number of Arena players with access to the best PvP weapons. He even goes so far as to say that Blizzard will make two tiers of PvP weapons if necessary. This might have been in the original plan as Hateful Gladiator weapons are in the game files but not available in the game.
Kalgan also explains that the Matchmaking Rating (MMR) is hidden because Blizzard didn't want to confuse players with a third rating, particularly because players don't need to make decisions based on the MMR. Players only need to know their personal and team ratings to know if they qualify for the purchase of an Arena item or how many Arena points they'll earn for the week.
Finally, he shoots down arguments about Arenas being a place where gear is the determining factor for wins or losses. He's quick to point out that the same players who dominated the Arena realms, where the same gear was available to all players, are the same players who climbed to the top of the ladder in live realms. Skill, he says, is far more significant a factor in success in Arenas more than gear or team composition.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
dominace Feb 8th 2009 9:11PM
I was happy at first, but then he said 2200 rating :(, prob allot easier for me just to get the Ulduar weapons. Oh well.
Eisengel Feb 9th 2009 2:06PM
Given the current state of Arena, if you aren't one of the top classes, it may be easier to solo Ulduar than meet the weapon requirements.
Nadril Feb 8th 2009 9:12PM
Two tiers of weapons for season 6 would be great, from a PvPers perspective. I would rather not have to raid Ulduar just to get a weapon so I can do arena. Having two tiers available (a 10 man and 25 man equivilent) would be great.
really anything that lessens the need to raid before being geared out for arenas is great in my book.
Oh and Incomming arena QQ, I'm sure of it.
Kakistocracy Feb 8th 2009 9:14PM
Hmm, as far as that closing "refutation" goes, I think it is a bit weak. Sure, gear is not the sole factor, and I wouldn't hope no one says it is, but to say that given that best people in even geared matches being the best people in open geared matches means gear is not particularly important on any level of play is a bit much. Further more, taking this initial claim apropos to gear and extending to cover team compisition is simply absurd.
Demi Feb 8th 2009 9:15PM
" Skill, he says, is far more significant a factor in success in Arenas more than gear or team composition."
Ha, something that the majority of commenter's of Wowinsider will never accept, hopefully people start to get rid of their idiotic notions and realize that skill in arena does exist, whether you think it does or not.
Mediator Feb 8th 2009 9:20PM
I don't think anyone truly believes there isn't skill in the arena, the problem is that skill isn't the primary determining factor in fights and that's whats flawed.
Nadril Feb 8th 2009 9:27PM
Skill certainly is a huge factor in the arena. However, players need to remember that
A. You aren't going to compete against even level teams with bad gear. What you can do with skill is overcome the face rollers in lower brackets until you get up higher.
B. the comp you run has a huge effect. Some comps do take more skill and timing than others, while some have more leeway for mistakes.
The game still takes skill though, no matter what any players might try to say about WoTLK and arenas. Yes, people die faster. HOWEVER they seem to forget that EVERYONE dies faster, and it puts more of an emphasis on quick thinking and reaction skills other than planning out a strategy like in TBC where fights might last 5-7 minutes.
chad Feb 8th 2009 10:26PM
@Nadril
'Skill certainly isn't a huge factor in the arena.'
NOW your comment is correct. 2200 is piss easy for anyone to get to.
Raagthe Feb 9th 2009 3:54AM
Absolutly unfair from a raiders point of view.
We need to have the skilled people, coordinate them and spend hours a week in those raids hope the damn thing drops and that we get it.
Now this E sport starts can just walk in with the right class of the month McMenu combo coordinate what? 3 or 4 guys for minutes.
I dont mind equality, everyone does the same work everyone gets paid the same but this is not fairness.
Make blizz give us swords after succesfully raiding for a few weeks and then maybe its deal.
MeanGreen Feb 8th 2009 10:12PM
I believe the thing your thinking of is...
can't think of it hmm...
Badges of V, V, Valor?
ya thats it!
The GARUNTEED drop from every boss that you happen to sleep through! Huzzah!
chad Feb 8th 2009 10:26PM
@MeanGreen Hey genius, let's think about the Valor tokens for a bit. It still takes weeks to get enough for any of the decent gear. And on top of that, said gear is still subpar compared to what drops in Naxx.
Angelofwar Feb 8th 2009 10:30PM
Whats that? That sound? It's the WAHHHHHHMMMBULANCE.
"Wait, you mean to tell me that people who are good at pvp....get pvp oriented weapons....and people who are dedicated (good is too strong of a word) at PvE, get PvE oriented weapons? NOOOOO WAYYYY.
Seriously, this isn't how it was in s3/s4, people aren't gearing up with pvp epics and facerolling all over raids. Even if that was true, it would probably be harder to grind the honor than to actually raid these days, what with the difficult level where it is and all.
Satn Feb 9th 2009 2:26AM
PvP is a joke, just bring your paladin/DK combo and win everything. Raiding STILL takes work, hell of a lot more work than facerolling some fotm class in arenas.
and pvp weapons aren't different from pve weapons, they just lose a bit of one stat to gain a tiny bit of resilliance, they're identical in every other way and so should be as hard to get. 2400 rating at least.
Taladan Feb 9th 2009 3:15AM
@Satn: I see that you have NEVER done any arenas.
It's not easy. It's not faceroll. You need to understand your partner and your enemies. There is no stop, there is no "ok, let's try a little bit different this time", there is no "Ok, do you guys remember what we did last week? Try to do that again so we can win."
From a PvPer point of view, it takes a lot more skill to face a human player than a NPC.
Satn Feb 9th 2009 5:46AM
picking the weakest target and smashing your face into the keyboard isn't skill.
Raagthe Feb 9th 2009 1:28PM
Valor marks are the posible fariness in all of this but guess what, the rewards from them are limited and inferior right now. They suck.
My problem is bigger now with weapons.
They are the biggest part of a melee class and as I said they are hard to really get in pve.
You tell me now brocken esport game is handing em out in a completly diferent way thats much easier, thats not cool.
Sure arena players need good weapons for their gam that I understand but the super sword that DK is getting, hes also using it outside of arena.
Blizz is having a hard hell time balancing 25 classes on PVE, we raiders understand but the PVPers really believe its balanced for 2,3 or 5. Its not.
Without real equality there shouldnt be rewards as big as this.
Jagoex Feb 8th 2009 10:06PM
While "skill" exists, it is probably the most over-used word in Arena-related conversations.
That isn't the main issue, however. The problem is HOW the ratings are calculated in the first place, and as we all know, even Bliz has problems with that mechanism.
And sadly, this is even more evidence that their Arena design team has some serious issues.
Any how, I wrote a bit about this today on the General Forums. Take a quick peek if you're interested, under Problem #3:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14990460796&sid=1
The Claw Feb 8th 2009 10:29PM
I strolled into the arena yesterday, for the first time at level 80. I have almost everything you can get from honor, emblems of valor and Wintergrasp marks - 22k health self-buffed, 807 resilience.
My partner was quite well-geared too.
But we lost more than we won, and I can tell you right now, we lost because I was outplayed by more skilled opposition. I looked some of them up on the armory and they did not outgear us. I just have a lot to learn and a lot of relevant SKILLS to work on in order to be competitive.
Jagoex Feb 8th 2009 10:56PM
You do not stroll into an Arena for the first time at 80, and say the other teams beat you because they were skilled.
You lost because you lack experience. For all you know, the other team was terrible, but had the upper hand due to experience. Since you lost more than you won and were in the 1500s bracket, my guess is exactly that.
The Claw Feb 8th 2009 11:16PM
I think you're splitting hairs to say that they beat me because they were "more experienced" rather than "more skilled".
What's your definition of "more skilled"? To me, it's having the awareness of what's going on and the knowledge of what to do to counter it - skills which are learned and honed through experience.