I am all for it, seeing the same teams over and over and over and over; no matter the bracket be that 2’s 3’s or 5’s… Can we please get some incentive to get more faces into the arena?
4 Likes
I mean no matter what is done, if people don’t like arena then they won’t do it. At best people will just buy a carry to get their 1850 or 2k and then do rat league queues to get their points until they get their item of desire.
That’s why Shadowlands S1 it was common to see people get 2100 RBGs but be negative W/L 1400 in 2s or 3s, yet HotA and HotH were both under 2500. (NA) People would just get carried until they get their BiS item then go back to doing PvE.
5 Likes
People just don’t really enjoy arena. Arena doesn’t really come into it’s own until late Cata.
10 Likes
The starting rating change doomed casual participation.
Blizz shouldn’t mess with things like that when nobody asked them to.
20 Likes
Maybe if Rogues weren’t so broken more poeple would play it
10 Likes
They could ban access to arenas for rogues, that would increase arena participation.
13 Likes
But isn’t that 50% of the arena participation in the first place? 
7 Likes
Yeah, that was a huge mistake, they could even cut the cost of gear if that would get people involved. They could even take the required ratings off, i dont care just get people involved.
3 Likes
Yes! So I am someone who went into TBC arenas not knowing anything hard stuck at 1350 season 1 and early season 2 to 2k in season 3. I played a few thousand games, learned comps, watched the pros for hours to learn positioning and finally convinced some good players to play with me, then grinded my way up to 2k for my chad shoulders.
The biggest problem with arenas is the bottom of the pyramid that is supposed to be filled with casuals has completely fallen out from under the game. Now why is that? Well, the first thing I want to say is the barriers to entry in arenas is EXTREME to the MAX!!! and I simply cannot emphasize the word “EXTREME” here enough. Season 1 when I was hard stuck at 1350 and getting 300 points per week was one of THEE most demoralizing experiences of my life and I can see why nobody is playing arenas. My 2s partner thought I sucked so he ditched me at the end of season 1 and found a mage even though he wasnt really any better than me. Luckily I had a 3s team that we just had fun with and joked around even though the team never broke 1600 rating so I kept playing without a 2s partner for a while.
Now with all of this experience from being one of the worst players to actually getting into that top 5% for shoulders now, I feel like I have the experience now as a player to understand what the problem is and how we can fix it. All we really need is for blizzard to actually listen to the player base. So here it is my ideas:
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Remove the damn rating requirements on gear! SERIOUSLY! its an unnecessary barrier that just discourages players from participating. The best players have glad mounts and titles. The rating requirements may have worked in original TBC because raiding was much harder back then, but now, rating requirements are completely pointless and even good PvP’ers just playing bad classes have little chance of hitting 2k, so… why? …
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Guaranteed points for winning games: There should be 2 ways to earn points in Arenas. One is by your rating with the current system in place and a second one should be added that goes by how many games you WIN per week on ANY team, be it 2s, 3s, or 5s. My idea is that you are guaranteed 10 points for every win up to a maximum of 1000 arena points to buy gear. So all you need is 100 wins per week to get 1000 points.
BAM! problem solved… Bad players and players playing weaker PvP classes can now get all the arena gear by actually just winning games with no dumb rating gates to lock them out and the entire bottom of the pyramid comes back to grind out arena gear.
Its really just that simple. No gating, no gate keeping from top players, everyone can get the gear, everyone can have fun, and let the best players get their mounts and titles to show that they are the best!
PS: Notice how I used the word “win” in my second idea? Yes, so no afking 10 games for points… You got to actually try and win games to get points…
19 Likes
I’ll participate in arena if:
the 1 min timer was reduced down to 10 to 15 seconds, and all buffs are already ready on my char.
I don’t understand why its 1 minute when we can’t even see what the other teams comp is, there is no reason to make a plan. Just prepare our characters for us, give us our class buffs on ourselves and our teammates, etc.
After 60 arena games you’ve sat in on the arena timer for 1 hour, mostly mounting up and down, and spamming commanding shout, idk.
Also remove the time decay on buffs when we are on the 1 min (should be no more than 30 seconds really) arena pre-game time.
I can’t be the only one annoyed by this.
6 Likes
I see what you’re trying to do… But this isn’t setting well with me.
Gear isn’t the only thing that sets people apart. In fact, without an appropriate skill level, gear won’t matter.
The simple fact is that arenas are not casual-friendly. These “bad” players you speak of simply aren’t dedicated. They won’t be interested in 100 matches per week. They probably won’t be interested in 100 matches per season.
2 Likes
There is a ton of things that would tremendously help arena participation. Some listed already in this thread.
For starters, make last seasons arena gear cost honor. Even half reduced prices is not good enough. It has to be for honor. Anyone who says “What about my time? Why should it be trampled on like that?” knows not what they do, or say. Creating an equal footing environment should be above all else, the number one priority for any player versus player feature or content.
Second, take away rating requirements on gear and weapons. I understand there is no tabards, elite recolor of gear, or weapon enchants from higher pvp ratings like in other expansions, so the incentive to push might not be there. However i don’t believe that rating requirements on gear is close to being that. People want an even playing field so they can push percentage based titles.
Third, introduce a catch up cap like they had in MoP and WoD. Even if it’s only 300 points per week, over 4 weeks, that’s 1 set of gloves that an alt could get, or a person who took a break can get. If they choose to save, over 8 weeks, that’s a head, chest or leg piece they could get. Right now as it stands, missing even 1 week due to real life issues, leveling an alt and coming mid way through a season, or just taking a break in general is excruciatingly brutal. It punishes the player with little back in return.
Fourth, amp up the honor gains… AGAIN. No, they are STILL not good enough. The time investment for a PvPer is night and day from a PvEer. Understandably, there are different hurdles for different aspects of the game.
Fifth, halve the time it takes for arenas to start. 30 seconds should be ample enough time to buff and do what needs to be done on every class. OR, at least allow both teams to talk to someone to initiate the start even sooner should everyone agree to do so.
Sixth, ban legendary’s from arena OR reduce their power to that of a pvp weapon. Glaives have no place in arena. Someone’s luck in pve ought to play very little in the process of obtaining a win in a player versus player environment. Even if we use the argument “They worked for it!”, then refer to reducing it’s power to the same as a pvp weapon. That way they can still gather all the rest of their gear significantly faster because they don’t need to worry about buying a pvp weapon, which is already way too costly.
Seventh, remove arena teams. Even if cross server playing isn’t enabled, remove arena teams. They were a cool, novelty aspect, but they are restricting. They limit people from playing the game if their partner is not on. They actively destroy a sense of worth if you do leave a team. They also limit the amount of glad spots because there are many teams who have only one player on the team when the season ends. Making a highly sought out, prestigious title even more rare than it should be.
Eighth, allow regular, non honor costing water to be used in arena. As long as it gives no buffs, and only provides mana, there is really no reason why the only acceptable water is one that costs honor to use. Honor is already hard to come by, and anyone who hasn’t consumed more than 40+ water in a single game honestly has no right to say that the cost is low, even if it is only 2 honor per 5. It still creates an unnecessary barrier to entry and it being removed would be one of many stepping stones to making pvp even better.
PvP right now is not casual friendly, nor alt friendly. People will not do arena on alts because they won’t have gear, nor will players try to start late in the season because they know it’s too late to catch up. As it stands, if you do not start a season on time, while also not missing any weeks, maybe by time the season ends you will have a full set of gear. Not everyone is a gladiator. Heck, not everyone is a 2k+ player. The statistics don’t lie. Right now, there is little incentive to even try arena if you don’t already have experience or friends to coach you along the way.
There’s still a bunch of things that need to be done. I doubt any of the changes i listed would ever even be considered because this is “the classic iteration of the game” and “you knew what you signed up for” followed by “Retail is that way -->”. All garbage excuses from players who don’t play Rated Player Versus Player content.
The core concept of WoW arena is really neat. Seriously. Unmatched. maybe by Arena of Kings but even then, it’s still just a wonderful part of the game. However, as long as it gets treated as a mini game, which i admittedly have accepted this years back, it will never truly blossom or flourish. There just isn’t enough support for it. There just so happens to be a small vocal minority of players who are in love with it, but that’s about it. Just a niche piece of the game.
11 Likes
This is a joke… I’ve been extremely casual since the changes, and my paladin was able to buy 8 pieces of gear… We are talking maybe 10 hours of work a week… He’s got 12k toward the ring, which I’ll probably buy today.
My druid already has 14k toward gear, and he’s 68.
If that’s not fast enough for you, maybe you should find another game.
5 Likes
I too, enjoy a dead arena scene.
I think the worst part about this is, I have more arenas played on literally just this toon alone than you have posts made on the forums. I wish I could enjoy pvp as much as you.
1 Like
Giving away the farm never improved anything. Stop thinking the answer is to just keep lowering the entry barrier.
2 Likes
If you think the barrier to entry is not a problem, i question if you actually do arena or not. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen
because no one else is playing.
See, you like and enjoy arena so you think everyone likes and enjoys arena and are passing on it because its just too brutal to get into. It doesnt even enter your mind that very few people actually enjoy it.
2 Likes
What does that have to do with the honor gains? Gearing through the current honor system is a joke.
Also, your issues have nothing to do with the structure of arenas. It’s simply the nature of the game. Arenas aren’t fun for most players. The base skill level needed to be remotely competitive is a lot higher than what’s required in battlegrounds and PvE. They’d rather pad their parses to have an artificial sense that they’re good at the game. It seems that a good chunk of people who want honor and arena gear aren’t even interested in PvP, hence many of the problems the PvP scene is having.
4 Likes
Oh believe me, when i check to see what my ranking is here and there, whether it was season 1, season 2, or even past seasons when titles were % based, i know how small the pool is when compared to an actually competitive pvp game.
That doesn’t mean i love arena any less. That doesn’t mean i want arena players to get shafted. It might give me some insight as to why some changes make it, why some don’t. However, i find it a poor excuse when it comes to balancing or making the scene as healthy and competitive as possible, if possible.
If you don’t know how honor gains correlate with arena participation, then i know you don’t do arena and i will no longer engage in your rhetoric.