While Season 3 is still going strong, we wanted to announce ahead of time the rating requirements that will be present for arena items once Season 4 begins. We also wanted to give everyone a heads up to some changes that will be in an upcoming patch, altering how points are gained and players are matched in the arena system. The patch with these changes is scheduled to release before the start of Season 4.

First though, the rating requirement changes:

When Season 4 begins, Season 3 items will be reduced in personal and team arena rating requirement to:

Shoulders: 1950
Weapon: 1800

The new Season 4 items will have the below personal and team arena rating requirements:

Shoulders: 2200
Weapon: 2050
Head: 1700
Chest: 1600
Legs: 1550
Gloves: none
Off-hand: none

In addition, some of the Season 4 quality items that will be purchasable with honor will also carry a personal and team arena rating requirement:

Boots: 1700
Ring: 1650
Bracers: 1575
Belt: none
Necklace: none
Trinket: none

The Season 2 items, which will move to the honor system when Season 4 begins, will continue to have no rating requirement.

The changes to the rating requirements for these items reflect the nature of the items, their power, and the relative difficulty that should be had when attempting to obtain them. These items are comparable to those found in the newest 25 person raid zone, Sunwell Plateau, and should therefore also feel very challenging to obtain.

To help ensure that the challenge in obtaining these items stays true to those achieving these ratings, we'll also be implementing new rules with an upcoming patch to curb practices that undermine the core concepts of the arena system. These rules are as follows:

  • If a character’s personal rating is more than 150 points below the team rating, they will earn points based on their personal rating instead of the team rating.


This means that a player cannot join a highly rated team and begin earning points based purely on the pre-established rating of the team before they joined it. They'll need to compete, improve, and gain a personal rating worthy of the points they would receive.

  • If the average personal rating of the players queuing for a game is more than 150 points below the team’s rating, the team will be queued against an opponent matching or similar to the average personal rating.


This means that players cannot join a highly rated team and immediately face highly rated opponents, easily and quickly bringing their personal rating up. Instead they'll need to again compete, improve, and earn their rating.

We're excited to see these changes implemented, which will continue to emphasize the strong competitive nature of the arenas, and the challenge in obtaining the highest end rewards available for PvP.

**Update**
  • If a team does not enter an arena match that is starting they will lose points equal to the amount that would have been deducted if they had played and lost.


This change makes it less viable to participate in illegitimate team match-ups by requiring every game be played; not just those that are against a team's desired opponent.
I'm unhappy with this change because I love battlegrounds but I hate arena.

Right now, it's a good time to be a battleground junkie. You can play the aspect of the game you enjoy and improve your gear as you do just as you can if you're an arena junkie or a PVE junkie. The problem is that with this change, I'm gonna hit the gear cap real soon now. My main has full vindicator's and is well on the way to banking 400 marks of honor and 75000 honor. Once S4 hits, it'll take me about two weeks to get the S2 gear and the three bits of the new honor gear that are free from arena requirements.

At that point, I'll still do battlegrounds but improving your gear is one of the cornerstones of MMORPG design. If you can't do that, you're removing one of the motivations to play.

I don't care that I won't have S4 (or even S3); my e-peen is quite secure. I just want to play the aspects of the game I enjoy and occasionally get some reward for doing so.