Posts with tag Duelist

Happy New Year, everyone! It's 2009, and this marks our first post of the year! I specifically locked everyone else out of the WoW Insider HQ so I would have the honor of writing it. Not before I asked them an important question, though. What were their New Year's resolutions for 2009? No, no, not those boring resolutions like "don't drink soda" or "watch less TV" or "stop eating babies." Nobody cares about that stuff. I mean their WoW resolutions!

My resolution? Get better at PvP. I'm shooting high and want an arena title. I've never really been into PvP, whether it be battlegrounds or arenas, but it's really the one area of play I haven't had much success in. So I'm gonna give it my all, and I'm not going to do things halfway. I'll settle for nothing less than Gladiator. Okay, okay, I'll accept Duelist, but that's as low as this fella goes.

As for the rest of our team...

The top arena teams of Season 4 have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of their rewards since the launch of patch 3.0.2, but things haven't turned out quite right. The Customer Service forum is full of reports of titles not being handed out correctly, and an ongoing Blizzard investigation into the matter. A little digging of our own (and a firsthand account from our Rogue guru Chase Christian) confirms that there's a problem, but obviously we don't know the cause.

In a lot of cases, the top (the tippy-top, the #1) team in a bracket is receiving the title of Duelist, when they should be getting Brutal Gladiator and their Netherdrake pets. Players with a rating of 2100 or higher are earning only the Challenger title in some cases, and I think it's very, very safe to say that those players would be in a bracket higher than just the top 35%. Season 4 is not exactly known for having a glut of people nearing the 2200 needed for shoulders.

Vims has already speculated on when Arena Season 4 will arrive, pegging it somewhere around early to mid-June. I tend to agree with that statement as Blizzard has noted on several occasions that Season 4 isn't coming anytime soon. Considering that none of servers worldwide have even opened the second gate in Sunwell Plateau, it means that equivalent level PvE items won't be cascading into the player base for quite some time. This gives players roughly around a month and two weeks to prepare for the next Arena season, if not longer.

Banking ahead
Because Arena points are capped at 5,000, players with enough Arena gear can start banking points in preparation for the new season. If gear prices remain the same (which is likely as prices have been constant through Seasons 1-3), players can open the Arena week with 3/5 Brutal Gladiator pieces: the gloves, which are priced at 1,125 Arena points during the current season; and any two of the chestpiece, headpiece, or leg piece, which go for 1,875 points. It is also possible to purchase the 1,500 points worth shoulder piece on the first week if players manage to raise their personal rating to a highly restrictive 2200 if the speculated changes make it live. Because personal ratings are calculated directly after each game, it is possible to purchase the personal ratings-limited shoulder pieces or weapons provided the player has enough points during the first week.