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 3 of 4)
babywhiz Jul 7th 2011 11:07PM
I too was AV farming, and happy for it, because I hadn't had time to do it since Cata came out, and it was a 3 day weekend for me. The rush I had for finally finishing a set came to a crash Tuesday when the people that gave me a hard time all weekend because I wouldn't do Troll heroics with them because I was farming AV sat for 2 hours straight making fun of us.
Not just a disappointment because of the gear, I had to live with people giving me crap all weekend, and then on Tuesday.
Murdertime Jul 7th 2011 11:28PM
The worst part of this is that my rogue goes back from his awesome roguish black set to a brown set composed entirely of shame.
Seriously, when did Blizzard decides rogues really liked dressing in brown?
WrecklessMEDIC Jul 8th 2011 1:19PM
Haha I hear ya. Loved that black Vicious set. Hate the brown one...lol.
Daikaiju Jul 7th 2011 11:36PM
Personally I'm pissed that all my honor points gets me now is the same damned hunter's "Junk Shredder" outfit. FEH.
kuri Jul 8th 2011 12:14AM
It's not unreasonable to assume that everyone who bought S9 gear during the "gap week" would have saved 4,000 Honor Points (or as close to it as possible) for the 371 gear and just spent their excess Conquest Points to not waste points.
If Blizzard had a way to log what players' Honor + Conquest points were at pre-patch, they should simply allow the maximum Honor Points to be exceeded by the number of Honor + Conquest points a player had before 4.2 the new season dropped this week. They could strip the gear away, and I feel most players would still be okay with this.
Alternatively, auto-upgrade the S9 gear bought in the 1-week gap to S10 and have players incur the cost of re-enchanting and gemming. Provide the Honor shoulder/head enchants in players' bags if those were purchased as well, or provide Honor refunds for those pieces. Or log which enchants were present on gear during that gap and mail the player mats / scrolls / gems to replace the previously-implemented items.
It all depends on what kind of technology they have in place to track gear / enhancement / point acquisition during time periods.
Voltron Jul 8th 2011 4:20AM
Im guessing Trade-ins or a 1 week sale on the gear
Matthew Jul 8th 2011 1:49AM
Ya know, it said season 9 on the gear you were buying. You knew season 10 would be around the corner. Why did you buy the old gear? I still don't understand. Did you think you'd need conquest for s10?
Blizzard goofed up, but so did players who bought gear they knew (or should have known) would be out of date.
Now the real gripe I have is this: my gear I conquested for all season 9 is LOWER than honor gear season 9. Thats just weird.
Cyno01 Jul 8th 2011 3:44AM
Maybe they should just give up and abolish arenas.
noel mcleod Jul 8th 2011 9:35AM
No, I think a 3:1 HP-to-CP conversion would work. Here's the scenario for me and a lot of other people - you can play BGs and if you have to bail - for a support call, for example - no big deal, the system fills in the missing player.
If you're in an arena and you have to bail, you won't keep a partner.
If you're in a dungeon - and especially if you're healing or tanking, and you have to bail, you annoy a lot of people. Don't even TALK about raiding ...
BUT RANDOM BATTLEGROUNDS ... THAT you CAN do!!! It's a short queue, you can often team up for the day with people from other servers who are doing the same thing, but if that call comes in ... no big deal, g2g sorry guys. I've had to drop the flag in WSG because of a call, can't imagine doing that to an RBG team (the people in the BG weren't really impressed with me either ...).
Except, with Blizzard's asinine rules about gear you will always be at a disadvantage to the kiddies with no responsibilities who can grind conquest.
Stray Jul 8th 2011 4:12AM
Well, albeit unfortunate, this does actually resolve a side-problem I have. I just got a new character up to 85 for PvP and started her off with PvP gear before the season turnover--when Vicious was still king. I outfitted her with what non-honor offered slot pieces from stored Justice and some Bloodthirsty, and now she has a mixture of Vicious and Bloodthirsty. The issue I ran into was that, suddenly, I enjoyed PvEing with her, and yet couldn't find viable substitutes for some of her Bloodthirsty gear (namely head and shoulders--difficult to replace). Now I can temporarily upgrade them to the new PvP tier until I get some nice PvE counterpieces for that side of the game.
While being behind the curve is never fun, at least grinding BGs is something I enjoy considerably more than grinding the same old heroics.
Big Shoe Jul 8th 2011 6:34AM
Blizzard puts a lovely PR spin on the whole apology angle, but if they were at all serious about it, they would patch in a method for people who bought gear during the week in question to trade it in for the newer gear. So far, Cata has been a long series of apologies for truly boneheaded mistakes that a competent designer or QA team should have caught before going live.
Bossy Jul 8th 2011 7:05AM
I will probably be down graded, but who cares ?
Hey guys , I thought this was a ... video game you all very much like to play ...
I play BAttlegrounds for FUN (and well for achievements and that cool Justicar title).
So the same guys wanting back their honor from the last week wiil be the same dudes complaining about MORE gear when they have done spending it in a few weeks time.
--- It is time you all play for FUN and play BG's because you LIKE doing PvP.
If you just play BG's because of the gear, I think it is time to play another game ...
And yes I am lucky, I play a paladin in Holy and Retri so by the time I have both specs filled out, I hardly have any time left for my hunter and rogue.
And YES, the the PvP part is why I PLAY this game 3 hours a day ...
Blizzard missed this one, yep, but we are already all on WOW crack so a little more fun and a challenging overcome won't hurt, will it ?
Scorfula Jul 8th 2011 12:19PM
Some of us dislike Battlegrounds, but have to play in order to be on even footing at the start of a new arena season.
Having said that the difference between the S9 and S10 sets isn't going to be a game breaker for me, skill is much more the deciding factor in arena so that +100 extra resi/sp/str isn't going to mean much.
I can see where BG players might be upset though because it's fairly easy to lose out in random BGs through gear differences between your team and the enemy team (because co-ordination and strategy are almost non existent.)
Saikoujin Jul 8th 2011 8:28AM
My biggest gripe is that the new S10 honor gear breaks the continuity that pvp sets are known for. At least they could have made the 371 (vicious) set look like the 365 (vicious) set, and not the bloodthirsty set. I think this is what bothers players the most, aside from having to refarm.
I think a wise remedy to the situation would be for Blizz to reduce the price of all 371 honor gear by half for one week, and one week only. It would be easy to hotfix, and all they would have to do is send out sever-wide mailings to all players notifying them of the sale. After one week, hotfix it back.
Spleenrippa Jul 8th 2011 8:35AM
All I can say is: Was this some kind of Vicious Joke!?
TonyKP Jul 8th 2011 8:44AM
The apology is nice and all, and it's a good developmental step for the Blizzard staff to take in light of their typical "everything is fine, don't look behind the curtain" stance, but this is sort of emblematic of how a lot of Cataclysm has gone. It has seemed very disjointed and chaotic to me.
I know that the current set of developers is doing their best, and that would probably be good enough for any other MMO out there, but they sometimes seem a bit overwhelmed and let things like this fall through the cracks. I suspect that in this particular case there was a lack of communication internally about what was going to happen and a lack of supervision and coordination by whomever is supposed to be riding herd on the PvP developers.
Jamie Jul 8th 2011 9:00AM
I read some people farming AV and it was an AV weekend...it was fun for me too to farm AV. I think I got lucky though. I spent my honor on a few pieces that were not bloodthirster or pvp yet. I picked up the weapons in that weekend too. When I was at around 2200+ honor this week I knew I was replacing my bloodthirster helmet and expected a 365. I was plesently suprised that it was il371. I figure that I round out the rest of the replacements with this and start replacing the stuff I bought last week with the conquest I am getting now. There is no reason why you can not earn conquest in full 365 and replace it with the new conquest gear. Good luck and Happy Hunting.
noel mcleod Jul 8th 2011 10:35AM
You CAN'T earn conquest in a random BG - except at the incredibly stupid 25-50 per day rate, which means you might buy ONE item in a season. THIS and especially THIS is SOOOO stupid.
jhayes425 Jul 8th 2011 9:14AM
I think they could simply flag the gear that was purchased in that week as vendor sellable again for two hours. Enact this when that toon logins in next and send them an email letting them know about it. That way it's up to the people if they want to re gem/enchant, but they can reclaim their honor if they want. Sucks losing a *lot* of money on gems and enchants (I surely have) but at least we can get the main thing that we want... our gear.
Antiquity Jul 8th 2011 10:42AM
Of course they could fix this in literally 15 mins.
Go into the data base and change all 364 gear to 371 and just give it a different name..that way there is no database issues.
Keep the new 371 as is. Make the old 364 a new 364 and call it Vicious Victorious Gladiator's XXX or whatever.
They screwed people over with this. And they are lazy f's.