The incoming 2.3 patch will bring with it arena season 3 and the implementation of the personal rating system. There are still questions as to how the score will be calculated, but there is no question as to how it is going to be used. Season 3 shoulders (2000) and weapons (1850) will have a personal rating requirement in order to purchase them, but not to wear them. The main reason Blizzard is giving for these two rating requirements is scarcity. They want these items to be harder to get and also be used as a status symbol."Johnny Warlock must be a baller he has them fancy season 3 shoulders"
I have two qualms with their personal rating implementation though and both deal with it not going far enough.
Firstly, I wonder why they would not place a requirement on all Season 3 gear. If you want gear that is itemized to match tier 6 to be scarce, why not make people earn all of it. You wouldn't have to make it as hard to get as the shoulders, but at least put it at a 1700-1800 requirement. You would keep out half the population at least and leave the good gear for the people who have earned it through skill, not time invested. If you put in any effort at all for season 2, from start to finish, you could be in 5/5 with just a 1600 5v5 team each week. Considering season 2 isn't even over yet you may have time to get a weapon too. Players will be getting tier 6 itemized gear that is only available to a small percentage of the raid community, make it mean something.
1600 5s team gets 465 pts/week x 18 weeks = 8370 pts - 8250 pts for full 5/5 = 120 pts left over
Second, a by product of the new requirement is a sort of forced loyalty to your team. Currently good players are free to team hop all week, but as long as they get their real games by Tuesday they are golden. This has lead to a lot of unfair practices from good players. Team selling, carrying less skilled players and carrying less skilled teams. Now that there is a personal rating players may be less apt to continue, well at least until they get their shoulders and weapon. So that buys your average player maybe a month before he sees skilled players in full s2 with s3 shoulders and weapons slumming it on 1500 teams. In theory your skilled players have banked 5k arena points already. So they only need to get their personal rating up long enough to get their shoulders/weapons and then they can go back to team hopping and selling. Go a step further to require personal ratings on all items and you buy the average player some time.
The argument against this more strict requirement is for players who like to play with their friends. There is a skirmish system in place to take care of this. If it is about team hopping to play with your friends and not about bumping players points then you should be satisfied. The next argument might be the for bridging the gear gap. If you create disparity in gear that is too large then the haves will always out pace the have nots. This would be valid argument except for the fact that all of the season 1 gear will be available for honor (an uncapped system) and all of the season 2 gear will be on clearance. S3 is better that s1 and s2 gear, but not so much that a little skill can't push you over the hump.
FBD Notes
Far Beyond Driven lost its founder last week (Vermilion) to real life issues. While Verm is away we have new management team in place that should easily fill his shoes. We are still progressing in SSC and I expect a few boss kill shots in the coming weeks.
Arena Notes
My 3s team finally broke the 1900 ceiling that we had been under for 4 weeks. We got our rating to 1922 last week and then decided to add some new players this week and we are back below 1900. Fun while it lasted I guess. I am on a new 5v5 and 2v2 team as well. Both seem to have greater potential then the other teams I have been on in the past.
Profession Notes
Finally got a replacement for all of my crafted gear (4/5 s2), so I decided to celebrate by breaking my tailoring chains of oppression and taking up herbalism. I got it to 375 in 3 days and I couldn't be happier. Bring on the gold!
1 comment:
This suggestion would destroy the arenas.
The problem with your proposal is that the 1600 rating you're setting the bar at to get gear is founded on all the <1500 teams that just lose their way to epics without trying to compete.
If you say "you can't get gear without 1600 rating", all the 15xx teams stop playing, which means that your 16xx teams all get shoved down below the required rating, can't get gear, and stop playing. This continues endlessly.
Blizzard's solution was smart - it removes the incentive for PvE players to play just to get the weapons, and provides a status symbol for the folks that do well, without providing an overwhelming gear advantage that would help them dominate endlessly.
Blizzard's solution was actually very smart.
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