Oh snap Arena Pts for BGs!

[Multibocks]

Check out the updated 3.3 notes!

General
Meeting Stones: To use any Meeting Stone, it is only required that the character’s minimum level be 15. There is no maximum character level requirement for any Meeting Stone.

PvP
Battlegrounds
All level 71-80 Battlegrounds will now award victors 25 Arena points in addition to Honor.
Wintergrasp
You must now have the following ranks to build or pilot siege vehicles:
Rank 2: Build/pilot Catapults.
Rank 3: Build/pilot Demolishers.
Rank 3: Build/pilot Siege Engines.

Death Knight
Army of the Dead: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Army Ghoul damage dropped by 50%. Cannot be used in Arenas.
Raise Ally: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 15 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
Rune Strike: Threat generated by this ability increased by approximately 17%.

Mage
Frost
Fingers of Frost: This talent now triggers immediately on casting a spell rather than being delayed until the spell strikes the target.

Paladin
Divine Intervention: Cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
Flash of Light: This spell no longer causes a heal-over-time effect unless the player has the Infusion of Light talent.
Lay on Hands: This ability now places Forbearance on the target and cannot be used on a target with Forbearance.
Holy
Infusion of Light: This talent now causes the paladin’s Flash of Light spells to heal the target for 50/100% of the Flash of Light healing amount over 12 seconds.
Protection
Aura Mastery: This effect of this talent has been reduced in duration to 6 seconds.
Sacred Shield: The damage absorption effect from this ability now triggers only once every 30 seconds.

Shaman
Earth Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
Fire Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

Warlock
Pets
Inferno: The cooldown on this summoning spell has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

User Interface
Group Disenchanting Option: In addition to rolling Need or Greed on items, players now have the option to elect for an item to be disenchanted if an enchanter of the appropriate skill level is in the group. Disenchant works exactly like Greed except if a player wins the Greed roll, they will receive the disenchanted materials instead. Players who choose Need will always win the item and will always beat those that choose Greed or Disenchant.

edit: Hmm 25 pts seems like a lot given most items cost in the thousands. Gearing up in arena will be much faster now if you have the rating.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Heh, the shammy elemental totem drop from 20 mins to 10 mins is nifty.

[Kalros]

Hell yeah, it is!

[remanz]

Flash of Light: This spell no longer causes a heal-over-time effect unless the player has the Infusion of Light talent.

Did they just kill the ret healing or what

[Fizzler]

NICE! 10 Minute DI and 10 Minute elementals.

Maybe Horde will take AV more seriously on my battlegroup.

[asonimie]

This is a fucking horrible idea. This has nothing to do with "elite groups" and helping the "casual player." It's the exact opposite - they are taking Arena: the 1 thing where I can use my talents 1-2 hours a week and reap full rewards, and turning it into a speed run 10 hour/day grind fest for 2 weeks, then sit fully geared with nothing to look forward to for 2 months....

All this will do is create MORE mindless grinding in an aspect of the game that should be force rationed over time, like it is now. Elite teams will hit 2000 rating, grind arena points for 1 week and be fully geared in 10 days, while the "casual" player gets fucked and has to play arena games against VASTLY over-geared elitist opponents.

This is not a free ride for gear, you still need proper rating, and that comes from success and wins. You can have 5000 arena points and still be 2 seasons behind in gear because you have no rating. Therefore the only people who will benefit from this are the extremist elite arena players who grind 2k in 1 week.

I'm done with this shit.

[Gadzooks]

Arena points? They better have a serious as fucking death cure for AFKers, because that means massive botting and AFKing for Arena gear.

I love the change, I might even PvP my team now, but seriously, if they don't have something in place for the cheaters, you'll have one or two people fighting matches, if you're lucky - except for Wintergrasp, most likely.

AV will be 40 AFKers vs. 40 AFKers. Just watch.

Edited to add, forgot about the ratings.

So yeah. AFK your way to 5000 Arena points, then buy a spot on a team to get your rating, buy gear. No problem.

Win trading is probably going to make a BIG comeback with this.

[asonimie]

Ok whew update - I did some more digging around and here is the situation:

25 arena points awarded for daily BG quest, not the BGs themselves. So the grindfest issue isn't as much of an issue. I'm much more comfortable with this idea. Just gotta remember to always do the daily :P

[thinus]

10 min Fire Elementals in AV is going to be great.

[heyaz]

Hmm, well first thought is now I can make up for having a ton of rating but no points. Can tell you one thing though - at 2k rating I won't even bother queueing anymore except for 10 games for 800-1000 points. Would rather grind BGs - easier and more fun in gear than the aoe cheesefest that is 5v5 arena.

But other thoughts are how will this affect the rest of the season, and next season? Will people just grind out the rating in 3v3 then not bother queueing but 10 games a week (or not at all)? Or will it encourage the not-so-elite teams to play arena more because they have all the points in the world but no rating (and have to play all week to get it?) You could argue either way. Obviously the elite players won't have to bother past 2200 unless they want titles.

Or will it even go live

Edit: Ok nevermind. Well, at least in a week or so I can make up for always being 100-200 points short for an upgrade every week.