What does the new S4 mean for you

Hello again folks,

So the last post listed all of the new rating requirements for Season 4. What that means to you will depend a LOT on how high your arena raking will be. Since this page is for Ret Pally's I'm going to assume your not a Resto Druid with a 2200 rating :)

Right now, if you're anything under 1800 in rankings you can get all of the BG gear and all of the arena Gear except S3 shoulders and weapons.... And looking at the servers most Paladins are well under 1800 so at best you've probably got:
- All of the current BG gear
- Most of the S3 gear
- Season 2 (or 1) shoulders
- Season 1 (or 2) Weapon

In order to get the same level of gear in S4 (i.e all s4 bg gear and most S4 arena) you'll need to have an arena team that reaches 1700

Getting less then 1700 in S4 will cost you the battleground boots, getting less then 1650 will also cost you the ring, and under 1575 you'll also loose the bracers and chestpiece...OUCH

So what's a Pally to do?
If your teams are not able to get to 1700 you will need to find a new team. Or branch out and get new teams in the brackets you're not playing.

I've been struggling with this issue, because I've been playing with the same 2v2 partner since Season 2 and we meet like clockwork every week. The problem is that we struggle around 1600. At one point we may have been above 1650 but never 1700.

I'm going to talk a little more about this next time.

New Rating Requirements for S4 - Get good or go home

Hey folks... Blizard has a blue post on new requirements for S4.. this applies to both Battleground gear and Arena gear. I'm just going to post it today and let you digest.

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.