TBC Pre-patch Releases January 13th!
Arena Teams Are Gone
Arenas
During the original Burning Crusade expansion, it felt good to make a team that started at 1500 and throw together some people to participate in 10 games, to receive points each week without having to climb back up from 0. With BCC Anniversary Edition, we’re interested in bringing that “teams” feeling back by encouraging players to participate in the system more than ever before. However, as we lean into the feeling of teams, we want you to be able to play with whomever you like, without requiring you to make a team, so arena points earned are still based on your individual rating.
Each character’s rating now starts at 1500 instead of 0.
Once per week, per character, you can pay gold to reset your rating back to 1500.
This is only possible if you are below 1500 currently. Ratings above 1500 cannot be reset.
The gold will vary based on your team’s bracket.
Each bracket (2v2, 3v3, 5v5) has its own weekly reset.
Arena was first introduced in The Burning Crusade, and as a new system, there were some obvious growing pains. One of the more antiquated systems was Arena Teams. These were essentially rosters of players, enabling members to participate in ranked matches together. Rating was earned both as a team and individually within the team, but was fully linked to the team. This meant that a Gladiator player could leave their team and join up with a brand new player, placing them together at the default rating.
Players could be on one team for each bracket. This meant if you wanted to play with someone else, you would either need to invite them to your team or be invited to theirs. This adds a layer of friction to playing arena, as weekly Arena Points were awarded based on your team rating, and required you to participate in 10 games with that team.
New for Anniversary, Arena Teams are entirely gone. Instead, players will have their own individual rating for each bracket. This rating will start at 1500, meaning that, unlike in the original iteration, there is somewhere to go other than up. While you won't be able to simply disband your Arena Team and start over, pretending it never happened, you will be able to pay gold once a week to reset your rating back to 1500, provided you are below it.
What does this mean in practice?
Players should be able to play more freely with various arena partners. Additionally, matchmaking should be a bit more fair, as you aren't able to abandon a 2200 team and crush some beginners. This also means that being carried by someone with more gear and experience will be less effective, as their rating will be taken into account for matchmaking.
Lower Barrier to Entry
There are no requirements in order to be able to purchase PvP gear for any pieces, except Shoulders (2000 required rating) and Weapons (1700 required rating).
We want to maintain the prestige of earning some nice-looking shoulders or titles for those competing for the top spots, but overall, we’d like to make gearing up and participating in PvP more accessible at an entry level, particularly for players who might struggle to reach higher brackets.
The overall cost of PvP gear has been lowered slightly.
The Faction Reputation PvP Gear will now be sold starting with the first Arena Season.
The item set bonuses for each of the Faction Reputation PvP Gear sets have been combined with their Honor gear equivalents (Grand Marshal’s/High Warlord’s). This means that players can get a mix of Honor and Reputation pieces to unlock the two- and four-piece set bonuses.
We are also seeing some significant changes to arena gearing. The cost of PvP gear is going down, making the gear more accessible. PvP gear becomes more important in The Burning Crusade thanks to the addition of Resilience. Resilience effectively reduces the damage you take from other players and can easily be the difference between being one-shot or surviving. This leads to the unfortunate consequence that if you are not PvP geared, you will struggle a lot more in PvP.
This could have been avoided with some Resilience
In the first iteration of The Burning Crusade Classic, entry-level PvP sets were available with reputation. For Anniversary servers, this will be available starting with the first arena season, instead of Phase 2. Additionally, both the reputation sets and battleground sets can now be combined to reach set bonuses. This means that wearing 2 pieces of Dragonhide Battlegear and 2 pieces of Grand Marshal's Sanctuary will grant you both set bonuses, not just the 2-piece bonus twice. The rating required to buy weapons has also been lowered, from 1850 to 1700. While this change may not seem significant, keep in mind that you now start at 1500.
What do you think of these changes coming to Arena in The Burning Crusade Anniversary? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!
