Only Arena skirmishes from level 71-79, ratings back in at 80
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 4th 2008 at 4:30PM
Just in case you wanted to know what the deal was with Arena ratings as we all headed to level 80, let Bornakk clarify for you -- while level 70 rated fights will still count, levels 71-79 are back to skirmishes, and rated fights can only happen again at level 80. And while Bornakk doesn't mention season timing at all (does Blizzard ever, beforehand?), our guess would be that they'll hold off on announcing any new PvP items until a good number of people have had a chance to level up to 80 and get situated in the brackets -- of course, depending on how fast people level up, that could be pretty quick.But he does say that there will be no more new level 70 rewards, so what's out there right now is what you get. What we still don't know is whether Arena points from level 70 will carry over into the level 80 bracket, or whether there will be a complete reset of all the ratings and totals for the new bracket. There are good arguments for both sides (some players want a fresh start, while others don't want their winnings so far to count for nothing), but so far we haven't heard anything official yet.
So there are still a few things for Blizzard to decide with the higher level Arena system, but they've got time -- it's unlikely that they'll make people rush to 80 just to get involved in the Arena. It seems that when these next ten levels of content come out, Blizzard will switch some focus back to PvE and battleground PvP rather than the Arena game.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, PvP, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jason Aug 4th 2008 4:46PM
How exactly did the Draenei, in the pic above, obtain the Grand Marshal rank?
Clownfish Aug 4th 2008 5:00PM
It was either a private server or blizzard's home server where they used it to take that specific screenshot, nice name for draenei actionhank rofl
Zakk Aug 4th 2008 5:53PM
Just what I was thinking.
Matazuma Aug 4th 2008 7:52PM
Major HAX!!!!
PimpyMicPimp Aug 4th 2008 7:56PM
Official Blizzard pictures, which I'm assuming this is although I've never seen it, always do odd things like that; namely having a level 1 action bar (with the food and water on the ends). Everyone's seen the arena pic of Kralnor!
Jax Aug 5th 2008 10:05AM
It could be as simple as the Engineering Teleport Effect
kronlin Aug 4th 2008 5:35PM
After playing DotA for a month now, I wonder why I PvP'd at all in WoW. It's completely unbalanced by the amount of grinding (time) you're able to devote to PvE.
In DotA, everyone is on a level playing field, you're only limited by your knowledge of the game, and your strategic and tactical skills.
Blizzard should invest in making more games like DotA. I'd even pay a monthly fee (already to for WoW, still a subscriber) for a well balanced game with hosted servers.
Kingmanor Aug 5th 2008 1:25PM
Forget that the Dranei is Grand Marshall, the weirdest thing in the picture is the Tauren wearing Tier 3 and Thunderfury.
Argent Aug 4th 2008 7:05PM
didn't like arenas in TBC; doubt i'll like them in wotlk -- but i'm willing to take a lookand see if they've made it a bit more balanced and less 'class/group-comp of the month'-ish.
reeenow Aug 4th 2008 7:18PM
A shift from the forced focus on arena to the more enjoyable PVP bg and PVE in general sounds great to me.
Domani Aug 4th 2008 9:08PM
I want to know, since no one has addressed this yet as far as i have seen, is can we bank honor and arena points for wrath? Or do we have to earn arena points again from scratch at 80 as well as honor?
Hypo Aug 5th 2008 9:41AM
Does this mean that you won't be able to get ratings to get your S4 rating requirements during 71-79? Guess I have to do more arena now...
j Aug 5th 2008 10:17AM
so, as soon as you hit 71, you'll be unable to gain any arena honor until you hit 80?
While I understand possible reasons for doing this (namely the challenges that would come with the arena queue matching system), it seems very odd for people that have been gaining points on a weekly basis to suddenly be unable to until the hit the level cap again.
(though I'm sure there will be plenty of people who just rush their characters to 80 in a week...)
Alveredus Aug 5th 2008 12:46PM
Why would you want S4 at 71?
Heck, they may just skip a season and put S4 up for honor with rating requirements lowered/removed.
Realistically, there needs to be a new, no-ratings honor-sold PvP starter set at 80 that's better than S4 by quite a bit.
(No ratings because a lot of people won't stop to Arena before 80.)
I'm already planning to stockpile honor and marks for WotLK. 75k here I come.
Nephi Aug 7th 2008 5:21PM
lol noob that's not thunderfury..
Nephi Aug 7th 2008 5:22PM
and fookme, it is, dualwielded and hidden :> my apologies