As we posted earlier today there's big changes to Season 4 Rating Requirements and Arena's. Even more details can be found below.
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.
[Source]
Enhance your graphics
Make the following Macro ingame and it will improve your visual experience in World of Warcraft.
/console farclip 777
/console horizonfarclip 6226
/console groundeffectdensity 256
/console groundeffectdist 140
/console smallcull 0
/console skycloudlod 3
/console characterambient 0
Restart WoW for some of the changes to take effect. Note that your FPS might decrease, not for the faint of heart (i.e slower computers).
I've executed the macro and restarted WoW, what can I expect this to do?
- The vegetation can be seen from miles away (grass flowers etc) plus there seems to be FAR more of it.
- The "bloom" effect seems to be more vivid.
- The view distance is greatly increased.
- Everything seems to be more sharp and crisp.
- The weather effects appear to be more intense.
You can view a couple of examples below:
Ok, this really make my FPS low and I want to revert back the changes, what do I do?
Make the following macro, execute it and restart WoW:
/console groundEffectDensity 16
/console groundEffectDist 1
/console horizonfarclip 1305
/console farclip 177
/console characterAmbient 1
/console smallcull 1
/console skycloudlod 1
/console detailDoodadAlpha 1
Via World of Raids
Feedback on Arena Wait Times
Since the release of the 2.4 patch we've been working to tighten up the changes made to help address longer wait times when attempting to get into an arena match. While we're fairly certain it's been successful, we'd like your feedback relating to the wait times, how they were before the patch and how they've been lately.
As our changes have been continual since patch 2.4, please only leave feedback if you've played in the last week.
Via World of Raids
Playing after the first Qualifier
Seeing as tomorrow is the end of the practice phase, will we have to pay another $20 to keep playing after tomorrow?
No. If you registered for the First Qualification Round you will play until the end of that round. You will only need to register again to continue playing after the First Qualifier is completed and the Second Qualifier is beginning.
Via World of Raids
