Blizzard explains, apologizes for PVP Season 10 gear debacle
by Fox Van Allen 
Jul 7th 2011 at 7:00PM
In a rare moment of humility, Blizzard has taken to the official forums to address the pair of what the company is calling "mistakes." Specifically, Community Manager Zarhym (who looks adorable when posed next to a lifesized wyvern) had this to say:
i365 Vicious vs i371 Vicious - Comparison
Before getting into it, I want you all to know that we've maintained an open dialog with our developers over the past 24 hours regarding the way in which the PvP season transition went down since patch 4.2 (this includes relaying a lot of the feedback we've seen on the forums to them). We agree that the mistakes made were very unfortunate and unfair to a lot of players. We're currently exploring some options to try and alleviate some of the misfortune many of you experienced while purchasing PvP gear in the last week.
The full post, which is available after the break, gives a pretty good summary of the facts behind the case, and perhaps more importantly, what Blizzard intended to happen for the start of this and subsequent new arena seasons. In short: After an arena season ends, that season's PVP tier, previously available only via spending conquest points, will be available for purchase with honor points to give players one last opportunity to spend excess HP before the impending conquest-to-honor conversion (essentially, a one-week-only sale). When a new season begins, the old, sale-priced PVP tier will be taken off the market in lieu of new, better, current season gear.
i365 Vicious vs i371 Vicious - Comparison
Thanks for making a clear-cut thread summarizing why this is a big issue within the PvP community, Tauranewone. To keep communication on this as clear as possible, I'll try and clarify what has happened with the transition between Seasons 9 and 10, as well as give you our take. For everyone reading along, please do not create new threads on this issue. We'll be primarily watching this one and would prefer to keep our forums as easy to read as possible.
Before getting into it, I want you all to know that we've maintained an open dialog with our developers over the past 24 hours regarding the way in which the PvP season transition went down since patch 4.2 (this includes relaying a lot of the feedback we've seen on the forums to them). We agree that the mistakes made were very unfortunate and unfair to a lot of players. We're currently exploring some options to try and alleviate some of the misfortune many of you experienced while purchasing PvP gear in the last week.
First off, to be clear, we made two mistakes which led to the primary cause of frustration for players:
1) We noted that Conquest Points were going to be converted into Honor Points above the 4,000 cap with the release of patch 4.2, giving players one week to spend these excess points before the start of Season 10, at which point the 4,000 point cap would go into effect. Instead, the Honor Point cap intended to be enforced yesterday was applied at the same time Conquest Points were converted to Honor Points with patch 4.2. This led many players who saved Conquest Points up for the season transition to receive gold for any Honor Points above 4,000, rather than points above that cap. There wasn't a feasible solution for correcting the fact that the calculations had been run a week early.
2) We didn't notify players that we made a slight change to the way PvP gear is introduced each season. The change simply wasn't communicated among all of the other patch 4.2 changes, which was a big oversight on our part.
These two errors compounded each other. Players were left with no more than 4,000 Honor Points after patch 4.2, which led many players to farm more HP to buy Season 9 gear. Then, when Season 10 hit yesterday, Season 9 (ilvl 365) items were replaced with an HP tier of Season 10 (ilvl 371) items. Since players didn't know this would happen, many of you farmed HP and spent it on the Season 9 items prior to yesterday's maintenance.
Obviously most of you already know what happened and are very frustrated by it, but I just want to clarify the nature of the unrest, as well as the intended way this season transition was to happen. This is the way it should have worked, and how it should work going forward:
1) During any season, a low tier of current-season items will be available for purchase with Honor Points.
2) During any season, a high tier of current-season items will be available for purchase with Conquest Points.
3) At the end of any season, any remaining Conquest Points will be converted into Honor Points above the 4,000 cap.
4) In between seasons, the previous high tier of items become available for purchase with Honor Points, allowing anyone who could not previously afford them with CP one last chance to buy them using the excess Honor Points.
5) The new season begins. Honor Points are capped at 4,000 again. The previous season's sets are removed and replaced with current-season HP and CP items.
We've seen a lot of players ask what the purpose is of having Season 9 items available for purchase with Honor Points for a week, before replacing them with better items. The purpose was for people to spend their excess Honor Points on any leftover items, as once the next season starts players can't keep more than 4,000 HP to spend. Now, the reason why this intent wasn't evident to most players is because we capped HP a week too early, which made spending any Honor Points last week less than ideal. The reality is players would have been better off saving 4,000 HP for the start of Season 10 when ilvl 371 gear was released. But they had no way of knowing that.
That is about all of the information I have to share on this subject at the moment, but I want to remind you that the issues with this season transition are well on our radar. We know we messed up in multiple ways. This not only made our intentions very unclear, but led players to make choices to spend their Honor Points they otherwise probably would not have made.
If everything went according to plan, you probably would've spent any HP over the 4,000 cap last week on any remaining Season 9 items you maybe didn't have. You then would have saved 4,000 HP to get started on the low tier Season 10 items. This is the way we're looking at it and will let you know if and when we have more information to share
Before getting into it, I want you all to know that we've maintained an open dialog with our developers over the past 24 hours regarding the way in which the PvP season transition went down since patch 4.2 (this includes relaying a lot of the feedback we've seen on the forums to them). We agree that the mistakes made were very unfortunate and unfair to a lot of players. We're currently exploring some options to try and alleviate some of the misfortune many of you experienced while purchasing PvP gear in the last week.
First off, to be clear, we made two mistakes which led to the primary cause of frustration for players:
1) We noted that Conquest Points were going to be converted into Honor Points above the 4,000 cap with the release of patch 4.2, giving players one week to spend these excess points before the start of Season 10, at which point the 4,000 point cap would go into effect. Instead, the Honor Point cap intended to be enforced yesterday was applied at the same time Conquest Points were converted to Honor Points with patch 4.2. This led many players who saved Conquest Points up for the season transition to receive gold for any Honor Points above 4,000, rather than points above that cap. There wasn't a feasible solution for correcting the fact that the calculations had been run a week early.
2) We didn't notify players that we made a slight change to the way PvP gear is introduced each season. The change simply wasn't communicated among all of the other patch 4.2 changes, which was a big oversight on our part.
These two errors compounded each other. Players were left with no more than 4,000 Honor Points after patch 4.2, which led many players to farm more HP to buy Season 9 gear. Then, when Season 10 hit yesterday, Season 9 (ilvl 365) items were replaced with an HP tier of Season 10 (ilvl 371) items. Since players didn't know this would happen, many of you farmed HP and spent it on the Season 9 items prior to yesterday's maintenance.
Obviously most of you already know what happened and are very frustrated by it, but I just want to clarify the nature of the unrest, as well as the intended way this season transition was to happen. This is the way it should have worked, and how it should work going forward:
1) During any season, a low tier of current-season items will be available for purchase with Honor Points.
2) During any season, a high tier of current-season items will be available for purchase with Conquest Points.
3) At the end of any season, any remaining Conquest Points will be converted into Honor Points above the 4,000 cap.
4) In between seasons, the previous high tier of items become available for purchase with Honor Points, allowing anyone who could not previously afford them with CP one last chance to buy them using the excess Honor Points.
5) The new season begins. Honor Points are capped at 4,000 again. The previous season's sets are removed and replaced with current-season HP and CP items.
We've seen a lot of players ask what the purpose is of having Season 9 items available for purchase with Honor Points for a week, before replacing them with better items. The purpose was for people to spend their excess Honor Points on any leftover items, as once the next season starts players can't keep more than 4,000 HP to spend. Now, the reason why this intent wasn't evident to most players is because we capped HP a week too early, which made spending any Honor Points last week less than ideal. The reality is players would have been better off saving 4,000 HP for the start of Season 10 when ilvl 371 gear was released. But they had no way of knowing that.
That is about all of the information I have to share on this subject at the moment, but I want to remind you that the issues with this season transition are well on our radar. We know we messed up in multiple ways. This not only made our intentions very unclear, but led players to make choices to spend their Honor Points they otherwise probably would not have made.
If everything went according to plan, you probably would've spent any HP over the 4,000 cap last week on any remaining Season 9 items you maybe didn't have. You then would have saved 4,000 HP to get started on the low tier Season 10 items. This is the way we're looking at it and will let you know if and when we have more information to share
For some of you, I'm sure this is all "too little, too late." Still, it's nice to hear a company own up to its mistakes and explain the process.
Was one of your characters adversely affected by either of these two mistakes? And if so, does this response take the edge off the pain?
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new tier 12 armor!Filed under: PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP), The Art of War(craft) (PvP), Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Joker Jul 8th 2011 8:56AM
@scherbaddie. It was around 5k or 6k gold I spent on enchants and gems. It was their mistake so they better refund every bit.
jonham013 Jul 7th 2011 7:42PM
I didn't start PvP-ing untill a month before Season's end, this meant that I had very few Season 9 pieces purchased with Conquest. I saved up 4000 honour and 4000 JP before 4.2 dropped and used it to get my PvE and PvP gear I didn't have yet. I was still left with 5 pieces of Season Nine to get. Ground out the BG's till I had it all, started gemming and enchanting and then Season 10 dropped.
I'm not fussed that there's now a new set I can upgrade to, but if Blizzard had communicated their changes correctly, I could have spent the gap between Season's 9 and 10 saving up another 4K HP and JP.
I don't feel cheated, I don't blame a whole company for what is most likely someone not reading a single line of a memo. But I do, like many others, feel that my week was kind of wasted. And that makes me a little sad.
Goregasm Jul 7th 2011 7:50PM
Lol, take the sting off it? I spent a week straight farming over 10,000 honor on my Rogue to buy gear I just had access to. And now it's replaced by better gear, and worst of all I was never even informed it was going to happen. I'm not raging or "OMG BRO", I'm not going to quit or QQ. I'm just disappointed.
It seems this company is making more and more "mistakes", and it's beginning to get annoying. I don't want an apology from them, I want either a gear exchange or full honor reimbursement that goes above the cap. BOTH of which should not be impossible for them to do.
You figure a company that has 7 years of experience in this game, on top of two decades worth in general wouldn't make simple "communication" mistakes.
arkhan Jul 7th 2011 10:13PM
"You figure a company that has 7 years of experience in this game, on top of two decades worth in general wouldn't make simple "communication" mistakes."
That's like saying an airline that has 50 years of experience in flying planes will never have an accident. You can never fully eradicate human error, no matter how much experience you have or how many checks and balances you put into your system.
perasitewow Jul 7th 2011 7:52PM
Blizzard has a track record recently (maybe for a long time, but it's directly affected me multiple times recently) of very poor internal communication in addition to very poor customer communication.
First (for me) I posted a thread the day before the Cataclysm content patch dropped to ask if I would still be able to get the free 310% speed flight from the mount drop from the ICC achievements if I waited until the next day to complete the final achievement. I was assured (by Zharym I believe) that I would indeed still be able to do that, so we didn't raid that night and decided to wait until the next night to finish it off. Lo and behold, the patch drops and I get my mount only to discover that it only goes 280% speed and that I still had to pay 5,000 gold to get the 310% speed. They tried to play it off that they just misunderstood my question, but my question was clear, and their response was just wrong.
Then I save up a bunch of gold on my Goblin, checking the vendor prices on him ahead of time to know how much to save, finally got all the gold gathered, and went to purchase the mats for the Sandstone Drake. I go to buy them, and all of a sudden they are quite a bit more expensive. I realize they say it was a bug, but it was a bug that lasted for months, so it was reasonable to assume that the price would be the same as it was previously unless they made some sort of announcement. They finally announced the hotfixed change 2 days after it had occurred. They need to stop hotfixing things without then following up immediately with notes as to what changed, not waiting 2 days before passing it on.
Now this. They had to have known it was going to occur, they created 371 PVP gear after all. They screwed up on the Conquest/Honor conversion and that sucked bad enough. Then to not bother to note this change until AFTER it had occurred, it just goes to show how absolutely terrible the company is at even basic internal and external communication. If the "patch note writer" was unaware that this change needed to be in the notes, then whoever was supposed to communicate it to the writer failed in a big way. If the writer got the info and forgot to put it in, then they failed in a big way. Blizzard needs to make this right. They need to fire whoever was at fault and replace them with someone competent. I know thats a sucky thing to say, but we pay them a fortune and we deserve better than this. There are plenty of people with the skills necessary to correctly do these jobs, but are currently unemployed, that would be perfectly willing and capable of taking over for those who failed.
clegane Jul 7th 2011 8:04PM
Sad to say, but this is grown up stuff and it really affects lots of people's lost time. Someone needs to be canned. If I did something like this at work, I'd be gone.
noel mcleod Jul 8th 2011 10:08AM
@clegane
I spent a LOT of time, and a LOT of gold 9gems, enchants) gearing up two toons and in particular the one where I converted all my JPs to HPs. But ... mistakes happen, andit IS just a game ... entertainment, diversion, something to take my mind off my responsibilities. Taking away someone's employment, disrupting their family, impacting them in countless untold ways for something like this would be totally out of line
Amaxe Jul 7th 2011 8:00PM
Maybe it's just a case of time making past events seem less bad than new ones but it seems that Blizz has essentially been screwing up badly in the past few months either arbitrarily or accidentally (or "accidentally") making changes which piss off everyone affected.
I don't PvP, so i wasn't affected, but if I put in all the work to get there, I'd be pretty pissed off myself.
kia Jul 8th 2011 3:54AM
Agreed. It's not the changes themselves, it's the lack of notice and communication. The "sorry we dun goofed" explanation is getting a bit old. Either they're lying and they just want to push through changes without warning now, or their systems and procedures need auditing.
Kakume Jul 8th 2011 9:48AM
There is another change since the old days which one needs to take into account, though - Blizzard is clearly more communicative now about these sorts of changes than they were before. This introduces additional opportunities for exactly this sort of miscommunication. If this were a couple of expansions ago, the complaints would be that they weren't giving info, not that they gave the wrong info.
trefpoid Jul 7th 2011 8:43PM
I bought two pieces. Lots of guildies farmed the whole week and bought a whole set only to discover what happened next tuesday. It was pretty bad. We now feel like we got pwned pretty bad. I have 0 intention of buying the new 371 gear after what happened, I'd rather wait for ruthless pieces with conquest points. So yeah, this was a big messup. Hope we get some sort of refund or something.
Molly Jul 7th 2011 9:18PM
Ugh. This is the first time I've found myself seriously annoyed by a Blizz mess-up. If I'd known about the gear change, I would have sat on my points until this week. I only just got into PVP, so I thought I was doing well getting through the honor grind. Guess not.
thebitterfig Jul 7th 2011 9:39PM
Perhaps this is too callous a view, but if it took a week's worth of honor farming to get the 365, it'll take a week's worth of farming to get the 371.
Should bliz have explained the process clearly before hand? Of course. Allow refunds? If it's easy enough to code. However, this is a half-tier difference in gear (about ~6% higher stats per piece, before gems and enchants), and it won't be hard to replace with more honor farming. I'm sympathetic on the gold wasted on gems and enchants, but folks did get upgrades from their previous gear, just some *barely* worse than if they'd waited a week, and by the end of next week, they can probably have better gear still.
Valorum Jul 7th 2011 10:00PM
A weeks' worth, maybe. But this was on an AV weekend. I don't know about you, but that's my best weekend for honor. It's not like this was a WSG weekend. Tons of people earned a ton of honor, myself included. I think it will take me a bit longer than a week to replace those roughly 7k honor points I wasted.
scherbaddie Jul 8th 2011 4:04AM
You didnt waste 7k. You wasted at most 4k. Any excess would've disappeared at the start of this week. The other 3k would've been spent (on the gear you have) or never earned in the first place.
noel mcleod Jul 8th 2011 10:25AM
What Valorum said. I play Alliance, I'd get a run of 9-10 victories in a row. Twin Peaks, 9-10 losses in a row. And it IS a 7K waste, or over 10K for me, because I would otherwise have been tanking instances for JPs on another toon.
thebitterfig Jul 8th 2011 2:15PM
I guess what I mean is that, yes, it was a problem from bliz that ought not have happened, but the difference in the gear (6 ilvls) is fairly small, and not that hard to upgrade. I can't get outraged. Mildly annoyed, but not outraged.
arcaniadia6 Jul 7th 2011 10:07PM
I'd be pretty pissed of this happened to me aswell, As someone who went through a complete pvp grind earlier this xpac, knowing that all the time and gold spent on my gear was almost worthless just like that. I sympathize with every one affected, and hope you guys get some sort of retribution!
vocenoctum Jul 7th 2011 10:30PM
I think it'd be best if they simply upgraded the stats of the items to the new one, but I'm still not clear on why they need a new Season Honor set instead of last seasons honor set...
Either way, while it's a mess up for sure, and I understand things, I've got to ask what folks are grinding all this gear for if not to just keep doing BG's anyway. And if you're doing the BG's anyway, you'll get more honor and it won't really matter. (Aside from gems and enchants of course, not talking "gold" so much as "time".)
Hopefully it all works out to everyones mutual almost satisfaction.
Ridiculousa Jul 7th 2011 11:01PM
I think the kind of fix they're going to implement will depend completely on what is feasible given technical requirements. Of course they don't want everybody mad and dejected.
What this really does point out with glaring precision is how stupid the gear treadmill is. They should just automatically upgrade everyone's honor armor right now, even if they can't tell who bought what when.
But they won't do that, because that would cut down on the grind that keeps people playing...