[WoW] LK Arena changes in the making?

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Apparently...
There will be a new, persistent rating system that should keep top-rated players facing other top-rated players, regardless of the bracket in which their current team sits. We'll have more information to come on this soon. -- Zarhym (Blizzard)

Sounds good.

They've also apparently backed off the stockpiled honor reset and compromised by making level 80 honor gear cost so much honor that even if you stockpile you'll only get maybe one piece out of it. No details yet on the math there. :P

[Ellay]

Hmm, I'd like to see more info on that first one, it doesn't sound too good.

[pixelimp]

Well, not reseting the honor is good news, but i'm not sure i like the first news .. ?(

[magwo]

Good news IMO. It is hopefully the solution to many of the problems associated with arena.. like boosting and carrying and resets.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Why wouldn't you like the persistent matching system? Aside from being matched with queue-dodgers, that is. :P

[Ellay]

If I'm rated 2100, and a gladiator level team in 2's and 3's has 2100 and they queue up for 5's on a freshly made team and are matched against me the entire night, I gain 0 points from each game while they take 30. doesn't make a lot of sense

[magwo]

They won't be taking 30 from you, because they have persistent rating -> no team resets in practice. While it may be the case for players who have never played 5v5 before, that is a very rare scenario.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Exactly. My understanding is that the matching and point earns/losses are all based on the persistent rating average. Of course, we still don't have raw details on the proposed mechanics yet, so we'll just hafta wait and see.

[pinotnoir]

This sounds exactly like my idea about keeping a personal rating and basing matches off it. If blizzard does this it will make arena fair and eliminate farming gold with arena. I dont think arena should be use to farm gold. Arena should be a part of the game that puts equal pvp on the table. Nothing pisses me off more than seeing high rated players farming noobs in arena. This rating change will put players who are similar in rating up against each other. If they can pull it off everyone can breathe a sigh of relief.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Well, yes for 2v2 and somewhat for 3v3 but in 5v5, you just put 2 gladiators in and 3 noobs and you can still farm normal 1700 teams like no tomorrow. Assuming X number of gladiators at 2100 rating combined with 1500-rated noobs, here's the personal rating average you'd end up with:

1 gladiator = 1620 average ranking for matching purposes.
2 gladiators = 1740 average ranking
3 gladiators = 1860 average ranking

So two gladiators could still PL 3 noobs to farm up everything in hateful and two pieces of Deadly gear. Though once your noobs hit 1700, you'd be matched against "normal" 1860-rated teams.

Granted, for raw starter teams, things will be MUCH better. Once you hit that 1750ish sweet spot, though, you'll start seeing silliness again.

Then again, with this and other changes, things might never be as bad as they are now. The proof will be in the details, which I doubt we'll actually see until the end of october or early november.