It’s clear from the start that arena is the stepchild of WoW, but it does seem very disheartening when ICC and P4 has a launch date yet we hear crickets for arena season 7 end date and arena season 8 start date.
Due to our last three week intermission, we can’t assume we would get the 1 week intermission like every other season before S6. But if you do go back to the one week between end date and the new phase it would be October 2, 2023.
Any feedback or update on season dates would be greatly appreciated.
Edit:
Blizzard confirmed 10/2. Thank you for letting us know and good luck to the few of us who still arena on that push.
Yeah, im assuming it is Oct 2, 2023. However, blizz given 3 days notice before. Communication is very lackluster. I would be fired from my job if i communicated the way blizzard does when it cimes to pvp.
It would be very nice to know whether I can spend a few extra arena points or should wait for discounts and only worry about next season. This depends on whether the season ends Sept. 26th or Oct. 3rd.
At least it has to be one of those two days…one would think.
Retail Arena is a ghost town. Solo Que killed it with the combination of not needing to do Arena for Arena gear.
99% of people do Arena for the gear. When you remove the gear there is literally no reason to do Arena anymore. That’s also why Raiding in Retail died.
Most PvP players don’t like Arena, they much rather do BGs, WPvP, Duel or in Retail Brawls etc.
Arena is a small mini-game that doesn’t do PvP justice for this type of genre. It should of really been abandoned and large scale PvP more of a focus since it’s an MMORPG. PvP should be balanced around large fights and you can’t balance it around a 3’s deathmatch which is why Arena has never worked.
I mean, it’s not. I’m literally playing Retail for Arena now, and it’s way easier to find people to play with than Wrath Classic, but for sure I can appreciate that there may be far less participation than previous seasons.
Why do people say this? WoW Arenas is a full-featured game, and it actually seems like a lot of people who arena play WoW for arenas.
What do you mean by “This type of genre?” and what games are you comparing this to that have better PvP gameplay?
Ridiculous, imo! Arenas are the best part of WoW for some of us!
Worst PvP metrics of all time currently. You can be playing it with some people, doesn’t change the fact. It’s deader then it’s ever been.
Because it is. Arena is a mini-game and the least important aspect of PvP. It doesn’t work for this genre which is why there isn’t much interest in it.
Key word “some” not the majority. They focused on a mini-game for Esports and it damaged PvP for the majority of PvP players that enjoy MMORPG’s PvP. It was a bad trade.
Oh is it? I really just got into arenas last season in Wrath Classic, and just started up in Retail a couple weeks ago, so I don’t have any personal history to compare it to.
Some people say this, and some people have even built careers out of playing it though, so idk. It’s by far the best in its genre, AFAICT, so I’d be curious about an answer to:
It is and it’s a known problem. Arena Casters like Venruki have made videos on why it’s so bad and have proposed possible changes. The stats are known.
Solo Que and no gear reward removed the reason for most PvP players to Que for 3’s. They aren’t forced to do it anymore so they don’t. They rather enjoy the other aspects of PvP.
MMORPG PvP. There is a reason why we have factions and why Classes are designed around “Large scale” battles. This is why 3’s Arena never worked and CAN’T work cause it’s a mini-game that can’t be balanced and doesn’t fit into this genre.
Which is why it should of been abandoned and BGs, WPvP, Brawls been highlighted since that is what this type of game is about. It’s why we got into MMO’s in the first place. It’s what the majority of PvP players are looking for. Which is why there is no interest in Arena and it’s annoying that Blizz focused on it for money and Esports. (which hurt the game)
Arena is a terrible design for this genre that has never worked. 2v2, 3v3 will never work for an MMO. They should focus on what this game actually has to offer as an MMORPG. Look if you like Arena fine, it’s just a mini-game that shouldn’t have any balance around it though. Hardly anyone cares really.
Again Arena is a fine mini-game but it’s just that. A small part of an MMO that really is a mini-game.
Seems like it works. But as you say, I guess participation is kind of low at the moment.
I feel like there are several players like me, who at least at various points in their WoW playing aren’t interested in any other aspects of the game other than arenas.
I do t think abandoning Arenas would help much there. I do appreciate that some people don’t like RPG elements in PvP and vice versa.
I feel like you could say this about literally any aspect of WoW and it would be no more or less true.
Arenas are just one of several things people can take part in sometimes or as the major or sole focus of their gameplay, like raiding, farming, leveling, dungeon grinding, etc.
It doesn’t work though. The Classes aren’t designed for 3’s combat. They are designed for Raids. That is why they try and fail at massive balance to try and make it work. Dampening is a prime example of a bandaid terrible mechanic in place to try and make 3’s work. It’s doesn’t.
Some Classes have abilities nerfed by 50 or 80% in PvP. It doesn’t work. Nothing should be nerfed, there should just be a platform for where you don’t have to do that. Which is why Arena is a mini-game you have to do extreme balance to change it from the core game. It’s bad for an MMO.
Period.
RPG PvP (gear based PvP) is why we are here. We love gear progression and want to play games with it. If you remove that there is no reason to log into WoW. That is why Templates massively failed because they removed the RPG aspects of the game. The Devs admitted it and removed them.
Wrong because the core of the game and Classes are designed around RPG aspects and large groups. Not for 3’s or 2’s or dueling. Look those activities can be fun but we shouldn’t put effort into trying to make them balanced or work. Cause they can’t.
The majority of PvP players don’t though. Arena makes up a tiny % of the PvP player base. If you want Arena participation to go up you need to pull players from the much larger PvP player base that does BGs, WPvP etc.
I highly doubt that. We don’t have any numbers to support either claim, but BGs have never been like by the majority of pvp community. The only time was during Cata and the honeymoon stage of RBGs. Until that was figured out and people only built comps per the meta.
The PvP/BG player base dwarfs the Arena player base. How is this not painfully obvious? It’s usually 20, 30 times bigger then Arena or more depending on how low Arena participation is. Arena at times have been in the 10,000’s of players while the BG players base in in the 100,000’s of players.
At no point in history has there ever been more Arena players then BG/WPvP players. The goal of Arena was to try and attract players from the much larger PvP player base by dangling Elite gear in there. To get them to participate.
There is a reason why the first Arena achievement is step foot into Arena. However most PvP players never get it and could care less. Arena participation only ticks up cause of rated gear and once that was removed people stopped Queing Arena. You weren’t forced in there anymore.
Meh, id probably never to rarely do bgs unless i had to for honor. Arenas are the only way. If they went away, i definitely would move on to another game.