Good Afternoon everyone, sorry I didn't post last night, I got involved with raiding the Undercity, and after relogging and hearthing out, my computer overheated en route to Dun Niffelem (it does this way too much, I don't have the money for a new computer right now, but if anyone has some tips other than unplugging, using a stand, and opening up the vents, I'd like to hear on how to keep a laptop from overheating). This post is going to outline the key points of the arena system, and the pvp system in general.
Arenas were implemented in the Burning Crusade as a way to stop PvP from being about grinding HKs. Instead, it became about weekly games in the arena with a team of a certain size. The arena comes in three forms, 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5. Under a (I believe it's a 1600) rating, you will get a set amount of points each week for playing 30% of your team's games, and the team must play at least 10 games. This means you need to play at least 3 games in a week to get your points, and if your team plays more than 10 games in a week you need to hop on board and play a few more until you hit 30% played. The set number of points is 250 for 2s, and 344 for 5s and 302 for 3s I believe.
There are always three tiers of PvP gear avalaible in the Champions' Hall, Hall of Legends, and the other arena vendors scattered about. (I'll be referring to both the Hall of Legends and Champions' Hall when I say 'In Stormwind' and am discussing gear.) This season (season 8) the tiers are (in descending order) Wrathful, Relentless, and Furious. Furious can be bought with just honor points (from killing other players, pvp quests, and BG objectives) in Stormwind, and both Wrathful and Relentless can be bought in Stormwind for honor, the catch here is they both require a certain rating (how well you've done, there's an algorithm for it...) from arenas. In Dalaran you can get Wrathful at a reduced price, with the catch it will cost some arena points, and it still requires rating. The same applies for Relentless with one exception-it requires no rating. This makes arena points highly valuable and useful for anyone gearing up.
Now the pieces I just got done discussing are what's called "Mainset" pieces. They have a set bonus (shared between tiers) and comprise the Pants, Chest, Helm, Gloves and Shoulders. As I have mentioned before (I think....) you can get shoulders from Wintergrasp for marks of honor that are about the same as Relentless Shoulders, with the exception it doesn't count towards the set bonus, and it has hit instead of crit on it. The set bonus is not important if you're only missing one slot from it, because it's in 2 and 4 piece increments. Now the word mainset implies something with it. That there's what's called an "offset," and there is. It contains the cloak, bracers, necklace, ring, belts, boot and trinket. This season you can get four pieces of Wrathful offset for just honor (the first four mentioned coincidentally). Now Wrathful boots and belt require rating to get (1300), but it's not nearly as high as Wrathful mainset, in fact I'm not sure off the top of my head it's as high as Relentless mainset.
So now that we've covered WHY, lets cover the HOW of arenas. To start a team you must buy a charter (you can get these in Dalaran sewers). It's 40g per person on the team (80g for 2s, 120g for 3s, 200g for 5s), and the person that covers the fee (to the NPC that is) gets to name the team and decide on their flag. I don't see the point in the flag other than everyone sees it when they /inspect you and it's on your armory page. After making your team you can invite more than 2/3/5 people to your team, but the factor of personal rating means they can't buy the PvP gear that requires rating without actually earning it from games. Personal rating goes up when you win as much as the team rating would at your personal rating level, and goes down the same degree. This means if you win a ton of games one week, and the next week you're not in the games, and the team loses a fair amount, you can have a rating higher than your team.
Now I can't tell you what makes the perfect team of any sort. Hell, I'm doing twos with a warrior (dumb idea). I know for 2s we look for ranged classes (arcane mages and hunters), threes not sure, and 5s you'll find your way into comps that want you. You can pull a team for any reason out of anywhere. Some people just do arenas for points and make 5s teams that play 10 games a week and don't fuss if they lose, and let anyone in their guild/friendslist in because winning is not the objective. Some people find teams to go to 2300 with from trade. My recommendation is, if you're looking for a team to win, but don't know how good your levelling buddies and you will do, party up and queue for practice skirmishes. You don't lose or gain anything from them, just don't get frustrated by your potential lack of gear.
I really do like the arena system (when I'm not getting 10 games in the Orgrimmar arena and Blade's Edge...), come Cataclysm rated BGs will be shaking it up. Season 8 is the last season where arenas are the sole way of getting the top two tiers of gear (unless you are patient and get arena points from doing your bg dailies/random bgs). It's worth noting though, only the top tier of gear (and their rating requirements) will offer weapons during any given season, so you will need to PvE to get weapons until you hit that magic number.
Until next time.
