How to fix TBC Arena Participation

WoW Classic Cataclysm Classic Discussion
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For those who have done arena on TBC, I’m fairly certain you have come across several things that make you wonder how dead this game is.

The first one is long que times, with que times at 2k-2.1k rating in 2s taking upwards to 5 minutes, sometimes longer to find a match.

The second one is facing the same team over and over again. Since 2v2 is already rock paper scissor (winner decided once the gates open for some comps) it feels unbearable to que until a later time. Making participation already even lower.

Lastly the third one is gear acquisition. With season one still costing arena points instead of honor, new players and alts alike won’t make it far, if at all. Having no “viable” gear makes the barrier to entry far higher than it needs to be. And no, the blue honor set is not viable. Yes, some really good players playing with other really good players can make it work. However, most people have a hard time finding arena partners as is, let alone have connections with top tier cutting edge players who will carry them to higher ratings for bigger caps.

I think in order to get more people into arena to drop que times and to avoid facing the same teams over and over again, we need to change some things.

Season one gear should cost honor, not arena points. No one wants to do arena to buy inferior last season gear when they can buy this seasons gear. However, what will happen is they will que their 10 games, sit and collect points and be done. This does nothing to improve participations. After all, once you break the 1400 bracket, you are in the territory of people who do have gear.

So instead of having an off season of no chance of getting titles, rating, legitimate practice in due to inferior blue gear, people can step into arena with viable s1 pvp gear.

The next step is to remove rating requirements on gear as well. Listen elitists. I’ve hit a measly 2.1k rating last season. I’ve “earned” my shoulders. I’ve also hit 2.1k in retail SL and I’ve achieved as high as 2.6k before. No one who is good at the game with a few exceptions think its healthy to have rating requirements on gear. So don’t come at me saying “hurr durr he just wants free gear”. I just want to que arena against more than one team. I’ve already unlocked the gear. Its not a barrier for me, that still doesn’t mean it should be locked behind rating.

We have titles. Some select few get cool mounts (not me, a permanent duelist for life pleb) and ofc you get the higher cap to get gear faster. Removing completely unnecessary and unhealthy gear gating requirements is one of many ways to increase participation in this game.

Maybe add in some new pvp tabards at higher ratings like they did in wrath. They already added in a new rank 1 title. Instead of gear that provides stats as an incentive to get higher rating, add tabards.

Lastly, up the gains on honor per BG. If I as an alliance player want to que bgs, its not for some grain bread. I want honor. I dont what Khartoum ore. I want honor. I dont want fish or silver. I want honor. So if we get better honor rewards and increased gains, we will probably see a bigger participation in arena.

The arena scene is very special and unique. No other game has arena like WoW. Please make proper changes and steps to increase the arena participation so that the game can see a healthy ladder before its too late and it dies off.

Kind regards from a seasoned veteran arena player.

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Excellent post. You know what you’re talking about. Unlike a vast majority of people here who try and defend rating requirements on arena gear. Players who likely don’t even play arena. Nobody crossing the 2k barrier really gives a crap about rating requirements on gear. They’re trying to get gladiator or earn titles. People who view the gear as a status symbol in the game, just have deep rooted insecurity issues. They’d rather see arena be objectively bad, than make it appealing to a wider audience.

Blizzard really did everything they could to ruin arena participation on launch. It’s really quite simple. They’re incompetent and don’t truly understand the game or it’s audience.

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All very true.

I only started TBC for arena and it is so messed up I can’t do it anymore. My sub ends today (well, technically tomorrow in the wee hours of the morning).

I’m done. They just messed arena up way too much.

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nothing is gonna make the people that cant pass 1400 be able to play the game and have fun more than them doing their own research and work to get better.

im having the most fun ive had since mop with arena

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Nothing is going to make these players quit the game faster than losing because they deal less damage, get hit harder, and have less health.

All the research won’t help you when the play style from guides and information you gather is invalidated by the fact that you absolutely with no exception have to play vastly different with less gear than if you had a full set.

Players who can’t even compete won’t be bothered to do research either because the barrier to entry is so huge that it’d be a waste of time to do that kind of time investment if you can’t reasonably reach the point in which that research will actually effect your games.

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having blue rep set and offset from s2 is hardly a difference from epic gear, it comes down to skill at that point

cdew said last night, if youre a season behind in retail your character is irrelevant and in tbc its the complete opposite

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What is the difference? is it like 5% more damage taken, 7% more stam and some extra strength,crit?

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Although i won’t argue that Retail Arena is a burning garbage, which is why i don’t really play it anymore. That doesn’t negate the barrier to entry is outrageously high.

Cdew is a multi rank one gladiator playing with other multi rank one gladiators. In my opinion, he hasn’t put in much thought to what it takes for new players to actually be motivated to play. Maybe i’m out of touch, but a lot of my friends are what most people would consider “new to the arena scene”.

No previous arena experience, no gear from a previous season. Lots and lots of baby steps.

Finding new partners while having no gear because you have no experience is something that a lot of these highly intelligent gladiator levels players don’t have to deal with. Finding friends or people to play with on your own is already a huge barrier.

Why people defend the barrier to entry to be as high as it is is questionable at best.

Most players aren’t gods. They just want a regular epic season 1 set to play some regular arena games. Gear discrepancy from season to season is not what makes the ladder healthy.

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its not defending it its just theres 0 reasonable option besides these people need to find someone who isnt completely useless and they both need to have the drive to watch streams, ask help, get coaching, etc. its literally the only options available, having the current tier gear for essentially free wont get them there, and even if they do find a ogod partner they are going to notice the skill discrepancy

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Explain to me like im 5 how having last seasons outdated gear is not a good option. Seriously, like im 5. Explain it to me.

Free? Who said free? Please find any quote for anyone asking for “essentially free”. Getting honor takes time. Time is not free. Not even close to being “essentially free”. The grind is still there

Having gear will NOT get you rating, like you said. I’m not asking for people to get boosted to ratings, either. I’m just asking for people to have a CHANCE to play. Those people who find love in the game probably find it when they had a chance to play. Getting roasted by another team that out geared you drives people away. It doesn’t drive people to be more motivated.

It’s always going to be an uphill struggle for new players, there’s no doubt about it. So why are we actively acting like the gearing isn’t an uphill struggle for these players? Can we stop with the charade that it’s healthy for the game?

In order for people to want to participate, we need to make it easier for entry. Not harder. Less participation also directly effects title distributions.

I’m not saying gear is required to climb the ladder, but i firmly believe it is required to increase the ladder lively hood. Having new players flow into the scene is not a bad thing… unless you think it is?

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its a good option of course, but if youre bad at the game it won’t make any difference

arena obviously isnt for everyone, i get almost instant ques at 2100 rn, so idk. id say if youre the type of person that likes competition, pvp, etc. you will naturally gravitate toward arena and if thats you and youre struggling you gotta find streams, a good player of the same class on your server, etc. and ask for help

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Make it so that going against a rogue/mage as a shaman/warrior doesn’t register as a loss.

ez fix

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Would it kill them to allow skirmishes to provide a handful of currency whether its a tiny amount of conquest or honor? To Give those who can’t/wont find partners at earning also?

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This is why everyone only plays 10 games a week to cap. I see way more people spamming in lfg looking for partners to cap than people who actually want to push rating. It also doesnt help that every streamer playing high end tbc arenas talk about how dead tbc is all the time

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You can’t fix it, all the sweats and neckbeard 1400 rated players went Horde to get carried by racials.

Why would Alliance bother doing Arena with worse racials and far less playerbase to queue with?

For starters, Alliance lose 90% of bgs so getting honor geared to do Arena would take forever.

Then lets say you grind out the arena gear, then what? You arent doing bgs since Alliance loses those, you arent doing world pvp since thats dead too.

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90% of bgs lost because of 1-2 passives/or spells. Yeah dude, i’m real sure alliance is losing 9 games out of 10 because of that.

Also, what’s your source on that number? I sure hope it’s not a personal ancedote of yours, if so I fear for your teammates.

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Take it from my rogue partner who screams into discord every other game…

Human perception is insanely good, and seeing as ~50% of comps have rogues theres a reason every tournament that is done is won by alliance characters. Rogue mirrors are pretty much always won by which rogue saps the other out of stealth… which humans are busted at.

The racials thing is so ridiculously overblown.

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Best thing Blizz can do is balance the pvp servers so I have a reason to use the arena gear. On Herod I would have the incentive to do Arenas on Benediction I have no reason at all.

As for arena requirements yea it’s not healthy but I’d just wait till the season is over and buy it half off with no requirements if I really want them that bad.

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Actually come to think of it OP is right. Take that Arena requirement off the weapon or lower it to like 1500 or something and your pool would instantly quadruple. That thing is bis in pve.

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Fortunately no one is actually carried by a racial. Yes, they do help. No, i do not play horde on TBC, despite my horde character on retail.

This is a good point. Alliance do suffer from a smaller pvp player base to pick from. Anyone who checks the arena ladderboard will know this to be true with the overwhelming arena populace being horde.

With low honor gains, theres very little incentive for alliance to que for BGs. I won’t derail on how i feel about HvH in this thread.

You que arena. Or i guess if BGs are your jam, then you keep doing BGs.

If the playerbase wasn’t split so drastically, with horde being the favored PvP faction, i think alliance would have more chances to win. Sadly, since blizzard does not share W/L statistics, it’s hard to argue that alliance win even close to 40% of their BGs. Which i personally do believe it effects the protentional to find new arena partners for alliance based players.

Now, i won’t act like i know what i’m talking about, but i believe alliance only won one tournament that was hosted by asmongold and others? If you don’t mind since i am indeed out of date, link the other tournaments? This does come as a surprise to me if alliance won more tournaments than horde.

Something to note though, is tournament play is vastly different than ladder play. It always has been.