season 4
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Arena Junkies fires up S3 Calculator, hooks up with Curse
Arena Junkies has been pretty busy lately -- not only are they updating their Season 3 title calculator in preparation for the new Season, they've partnered with Curse to improve their service. The Season Three Arena Title Calculator by Arena Junkies is created by some pretty involved techniques. They start by plunging a few teams in each bracket and battlegroup as far down the ranking ladder as they can possibly get. Then, the theorycrafters at Arena Junkies do their very best guess about how many teams are inactive. Using that data, they math out what ranking you'll probably need to achieve a given title. As AJ points out, though, this is just an estimate. They don't have the behind-the-scenes data anlysis to guarantee what will be required, and the ranks will be at least a little fluid until the very end. However, as you grind your Arena ranking as high as you can tonight, this'll give you an idea of what title you might expect when S4 starts. Assuming you meet the requirements, of course. The Curse announcement last week was a little more vague, and there weren't definites about what the partnership would mean for Arena Junkies. According to Tyveris, the existing staff members are still in charge of the site, and very little will actually change. What it will allow them to do, however, is add new features in the coming months. It'll be interesting to see what those features are, and whether it's part of that premium package that was mentioned a few months ago.
Battleground fallacies
Hi. I know we're all excited about Season 4. Some of us are stockpiling arena points and trying to get our ratings up, while others are taking the opportunity to gear up some alts in Season 2 gear as soon as it moves to honor. And that's great, there's something for everyone. But it also seems, at least on the servers I play on, to be leading to some frayed tempers in the battlegrounds. So let's chat about what is, and what isn't, appropriate and useful for getting yourself some honor in the BG's.First off, and I can't say this one enough as a general piece of advice for any battleground, yelling, calling people names, and spamming macros does not actually make you Sun Tzu. It can be very annoying when your WSG turns into a 45 minute turtle with no flag captures, or your AV run becomes mired down because yet again everyone rushed RH instead of taking and holding Iceblood Graveyard, but no matter how creative your insults get, the tide of battle will not turn. The other players in the battleground are not going to say "you know, Matsakillza is right, I really am a total noob" and even if they did, how would that possibly improve how the match is progressing? It won't. It just makes you look like a petulant child throwing a fit because something didn't go your way.Now that we've gotten that bit of general advice out of the way, let's move on to specific examples from each battleground, linking to our own Zach Yonzon's thoughts on each as we do.
Season 3 in World of Warcraft grinds to a halt
Season 4 begins Tuesday, June 24th, leaving World of Warcraft players one last day before the ultimate PvP time-sink resets. What comes with it is a brand new ruleset that makes the grind for gear a lot more competitive and inaccessible to the battleground bots because many of the new battleground items that are purchasable with honor will require an Arena rating also. As for the soon to be obsolete Season 1 gear, Gladiator's items will be moved to Sun Reach's Harbor on the Isle of Quel'Danas and will no longer be purchasable with honor but with Tier 4 tokens instead, ironically these are acquired by PvE raiding. The idea was recently introduced in the 2.4 patch and you can also turn in Tier 5 tokens for Season 2 gear. Speaking of Season 2, the Merciless-Gladiator's gear will be the new clearance epics purchasable with honor points and have no arena or personal rating requirement.
Breakfast Topic: Ready for Season 4?
Season 4 of the WoW arena is upon us. In roughly 24 hours, the mad dash to a rating of 2200 will begin. My question for all of you today is... are you ready for it?A lot of my friends who focus on PvP already have their compositions figured out, their team names ready, and a full bank of honor and arena points stored and ready to spend. Even if you aren't the arena type, Tuesday can mean good things for you. What does Season 4 do for you if you don't PvP? Gold, of course! Profit, profit, profit. With the influx of gear into peoples' hands starting Tuesday, gems and enchanting materials are going to spike in price for awhile. I imagine epic gems will feel this especially, as this is essentially the best gear available to PvPers before Wrath of the Lich King. They'll want to make the most of it.So whether you play for PvP or you play for Profit, tomorrow means good things. Are you ready for it? Have you done anything to prepare? Do you go through any start-of-the-season rituals for good luck? Burning a Druid-shaped wickerman, perhaps?
The Art of War(craft): Of Duelists and cupcakes, a farewell to Season 3
In the end we fell short. Last night, our team played its last Arena game of the season after an hour-long wait only to win 1 rating point. It had been that way most of the season, and in the end, it took its toll. We close Season 3 likely to fail in attaining our goal of making Gladiator, falling just outside of the projected 0.5% of our Battlegroup. Scheduling conflicts precluded further games for the week, and as the hours whittled down and everyone was getting tired and sleepy, we mustered enough courage to call it for the season. We thanked each other, logged off the game, and turned off Vent. For what seemed like a long time, the only sound I could hear was the drone of my computer's fan before I finally headed off to bed.It had been a wonderful, if ultimately disappointing, experience. I love PvP. It's my favorite thing to do in the game. These past few weeks, I dreamt of Arenas every night. Our window was closing and we couldn't find the schedule to grind the final stretch. Last week, we only managed 12 games on a Monday prior to maintenance to scrape by on the minimum requirements and, with wins of 1 or 2 points each, didn't manage to get much closer to our goal for end-of-season rewards. Despite having won hundreds of games with a win percentage of around 81%, we ended up frustratingly short.
Yes, Virginia, there will be premade characters, and other PTR Tidbits
In case you were wondering, there will be premade characters for the 2.4.3 PTR before all is said and done, according to Hortus. There's no word for sure on why they're needed, what gear they'll have, or when they'll come along, but they'll be here. You'll need an account that had Burning Crusade activated before these PTRs went live, and when the time comes, you'll be able to sandbox it up with a fresh new premade while you help test the patch. This phase, says Hortus, is also not intended for testing Season 4 gear, since it was already tested on a previous PTR. Besides, with 4 days left until Season 4 goes live, the 2.4.3 patch won't be on live servers until Season 4 is well underway. That said, it looks like most (but not all) of the Season 4 gear is still on the PTR right now, so if you want to go check it out, you can fly up to Area 52 on the PTR and check out Big Zokk Torquewrench's wares. Of course, you can also expect us to give you all the Season 4 news you need in the next few days here at WoW Insider as well, including gear guides. Also, Mages and Warlocks are reporting that their self-buff armor spells are now no longer dispellable on the PTR servers. That's a nice chunk of mana you won't have to waste recasting after a stray Purge in PvP. We'll be watching the PTRs for more undocumented changes, oddities, and happenings, so be sure to keep it here for the rest of the testing cycle for all the news and analysis you'll need when the patch goes live.
Epic Gems for Arena points coming with patch 2.4.3
Here's some nice news for Arena PvPers in the area of undocumented 2.4.3 changes: MMO Champion has discovered that the PvP gems that are currently purchasable for honor points are now available for Arena points as well -- 800 points each, to be exact. The full list of gems is as follows: Gleaming Ornate Dawnstone Smooth Ornate Dawnstone Bold Ornate Ruby Runed Ornate Ruby Inscribed Ornate Topaz Potent Ornate Topaz
End of Season 3 reward requirements
Season 4 starts next week. As a result, this coming weekend is going to be a gladiatorial weekend for many folks, fighting to get their Arena rating high enough to score end of season rewards. Blizzard has posted (on both US and EU forums) a reiteration of the criteria to be considered for those rewards -- they look pretty much the same as they have before. The requirements for a team to be considered for end of season rewards are: The team must have played at least 20 games during the season. The team must have at least one player that has played in 20% or more of the total games for that team. Players on a team that qualifies for consideration, must do the below to be counted: The player must have played in 20% or more of the total games for that team The player must have a Personal Rating that is not more than 100 points lower than the Team Rating (your Personal Rating may be higher, however). So, there it is. If you want to be considered for one of the coveted Arena titles, you must meet the above criteria. Good luck!
The best of WoW Insider: June 10-17, 2008
You can almost hear David Bowie singing around the realm of Azeroth lately: ch-ch-ch-ch-changes are in the air. Blizzard decided to do PvE to PvP transfers for the first time this week, Season 4 is coming soon in the Arenas, and lots of changes are coming to old Azeroth (including the Dalabubble, above). But don't let change worry you -- Joystiq's sister site WoW Insider has you covered, through all the changes coming in Wrath of the Lich King. You can turn and face the strain -- we got your back. News WoW player more ashamed than porn addictAddiction is out there, and people suffering from it need to get help. Combat stats and spellpower consolidated on AlphaA huge change to the way talents and gear will work hits the expansion's Alpha servers. Seven graphical WoW generators, and one for your carSeven different ways to put your World of Warcraft character into graphical form. Starting from scratch with two weeks to Season 4The new arena season was announced this week, and even if you weren't prepared, we've got you covered. Reading between the lines: are more PvE to PvP transfers possible?Blizzard broke their precedent for the first time this week to save a dying server -- will they do it again? Features Ask WoW Insider: /roll abuse?The number one way to cause drama in the game? Be unfair with loot. Tank Talk: The better (and lesser) angels of our natureOur raid Tanking column talks about that little DPS devil on your tanking shoulder. Ask a Lore Nerd: The evil-o-meterLots of players know some things about lore, but the Lore Nerd knows all. Changes to old Azeroth coming in the next expansionWhat's changing in the old world when Wrath of the Lich King releases? A lot. 'Tis the Season 4 making moneyZach Yonzon tells you exactly how to cash in on the news that Season 4 is coming soon.
Build Shop: Warrior 31/27/3 for Season 4
Every Tuesday, Chris Jahosky contributes Build Shop, which takes a look into one of the many talent specs available to players. This week, Michael Gray guest writes to talk about the perennial Warrior build for the upcoming Season 4. If you're like me, you're looking forward to June 24th with almost breathless anticipation. New season, new ratings, new competition. And like hundreds (thousands?) of others, we have a Warrior sitting patiently at the stables, prepping for the gates to open. He sits there, foaming at the mouth, smiling nervously at his partner Druid or Priest, with Mortal Strike almost literally visible in his pixellated eyes.Build Shop has discussed Warrior hybrid builds previously, but that 28/33 build was focused on actual hybrid play - a mix of PvP and PvE. The classic Arena-based "Mortal Strike Hybrid" starts off with at least 31 points sitting in the Arms tree -- you can't have a "Mortal Strike Hybrid" without Mortal Strike. Mortal Strike is a foundation of the Arena build. While there's leeway earlier in the Arms and Fury trees for this build, the deeper in the trees you get, the more certain talents become "mandatory."After the break, let's talk about the talents and whirligigs that make the Mortal Strike Hybrid so popular and powerful in the Arena.
Welcome to Tuesday Morning: WoW versus porn, Season 4 shenanigans, and more
Happy Tuesday, everyone. Today's Maintenance will actually be pretty painless for most of us. The servers will go down at 5am PDT, about half an hour from now, and should be up by 5:30, according to Bornakk. Aussie servers won't be going down until 5 AM AEST. However, there are a few servers that are getting some extra downtime. They will be going down until approximately 6:30 AM PDT. You can find can a list of the affected servers on the downtime post. Even if most of us will be cruising past maintenance with minimal downtime, Tuesday morning's as good a time as any to get caught up on WoW news. The biggest news, of course, is that Season 4 is on the way, coming to us on June 24th. Read all about it here, then find out everything you need to know to get started with Season 4 at WoW Insider, starting with these articles:
