I'll do what I can to explain what our philosophy has been on the topic, for better or for worse. ;]

To address the point of not having access to any pvp gear before attempting to start arenas, I don't actually feel that's accurate. We've made a point to include easily craftable pvp gear of dungeon quality to give players a chance to get their feet in the door before moving along the upgrade path.

The Savage Gladiator set is actually of item level 200s (superior), equivalent to the item level of a heroic instance. So, in much the same way that you might expect a player to first gear up in normal mode instances and get a handful of ilevel 187s items before proceeding to the heroics, the philosophy is that in the pvp case players will get the 187s crafted pvp items before attempting endgame pvp activity.

In addition, players have access to ilevel 200e (epics) for the boots, belt, bracers, ring, neck, trinket, cape exclusively through honor (equivalent item level to end-boss heroic instances, nax 10, or items from the Emblem of Heroism vendor). These items, combined with the crafted items, provide a pretty good base of items from which a player might make an entry into the arenas.

At that stage, the number of arena points required for a player to get a piece of Savage Gladiator equipment is tuned to be pretty generous. Even at a significantly sub-1500 rating, a player can generally get about a piece of the Savage Gladiator set with the points from one week (10 games), which is generally about a time investment of less than an hour of arena play per week. This seems to stack up very competitively with how long it might take running heroic instances to get a piece of gear for your character.

As far as the question as to why the Savage Gladiator set requires arena points, there needs to be a set of gear obtainable through arena points that requires no rating, otherwise there's simply nothing for a player of 1500 or below to play for, beyond the hope that they might at some point go above 1600 rating (which not everyone is guaranteed to do).

It's certainly valid to express one's dislike for the arena playstyle, although is it entirely different than requiring players that love the arenas to play in the battlegrounds to get their boots, belt, bracer, rings, neck, trinkets, and cape? One could also make the argument that it's somewhat similar to the fact that we "require" all players to level-up in order to participate in end-game content, or perhaps that engaging in tradeskills is "required" to be maximally competitive in raiding or pvp gameplay.

We’re also doing what we can to address the fact that players that don’t have high ratings can often still get steamrolled by highly rated players that are starting new teams, helping friends, etc. As I’ve described in another post, we have plans to keep a persistent “under-the-hood” rating for all characters that is used for determining matchmaking, so that even if a highly rated player starts a new team (or joins another low-rated team), the system will know what opponents that team should really be playing against.

That being said, the fact that some players feel there is too much emphasis on the arena as a method for getting powerful endgame pvp gear is heard and understood. We'd love for players to be able to get high-end gear from the battlegrounds, and it's something that will definitely factor into our plans for the future. However for now, we don't have a way to measure "skill" in a battleground in a way that getting the "best" items in the game through battlegrounds would feel equitable when compared to what is required as far as co-ordination and success in pve to get items of equivalent power.

Of course, I realize that the subject of "skill" is another topic of debate on its own, with many players citing gear quality and team comps as factors in determining the outcome (some seem to go as far as to imply that it's all that matters). Clearly, those factors do influence the outcome, but not in a way that makes skill irrelevant. If that were the case, it wouldn't be very hard to step onto the stage with some of the pro-gamers in the tournament and take them down in a match of even gear and comps. However, I can assure you that while I consider myself (for example) a pretty respectable player when it comes to arenas, I and a pair of similarly skilled teammates probably wouldn't win more than 1 in every 100 games against the top players despite using identical gear and comps. Like it or not, that's skill.

That aside, it is important for me to point out that the arenas were never really meant to become quite as much of a focal point for the overall pvp game as they have (part of why we set the system up so players could get the full benefit from the system with only 10 total games per week), it's more of a natural consequence of the fact that because we have a way to measure success that feels reasonably balanced against pve, we're able to put high-end items there, which on its own creates the focus of importance. I'd venture to say that if there were no item rewards in the arena system, they wouldn't be quite the subject of debate that they are now (either with respect to overshadowing battlegrounds or with respect to the microscope that class balance gets put under as a result).

Why is it so hard to measure skill in a battleground and have rated BGs ?
I wish it were that simple. However, for a rating system to reasonably zero in on the skill of a single player in a game with teammates it takes a number of games approximately equal to ten times the number of players participating on that player's team.

So for example, for a rating system to have all the information it needs to know to figure out how "good" of a battleground player you are in Alterac Valley, it needs to take about 400 games to do it (10 times the number of players on your team). Unfortunately, that's without the additional complexities of being able to queue solo versus queueing as a group, etc.

It would be kind of annoying to have to play about 400 games of AV before the system could decide what items you're eligible for. So, there are some complexities in creating a system to work around that problem (among others). (Source)

Archavon changes (Lake Wintergrasp Boss)
We don't plan to change Archavon, as he needs to have compelling loot that isn't something you can't possibly get another way. However, I think it's important to note that Archavon does not drop the helm or shoulder slots (or weapons), which are the hardest to obtain both in pve and pvp. (Source)

Why is PvP gear available for purchase for PvE tokens with no rating requirement ?
To put it simply, you can't endlessly wipe on raid bosses and get these tokens. At some point, you have to succeed. Even then, the pvp gear you get from these tokens is 1 tier behind their pve value (ie: the ilevel 213 pve tokens from Nax 25 only get you "Hateful Gladiator" gear which is ilevel 200). It's not possible to get the "best" pvp set items through pve.  (Source)

Are there any plans of allowing us to attain PvE gear through honor/arena points?
For the most part (lack of tanking gear aside), if you have the highest-end pvp gear, you can do fairly well in a "tier behind" raid (ie: 10-man nax). So, for the most part that dynamic already exists. (Source)

Actually, we have been discussing new battlegrounds quite a bit lately. Wrath of the Lich King will feature Strand of the Ancients (attack/defend) as well as Wintergrasp (non-instanced, world PvP).

But past that, we are exploring ideas that would involve expanding our Battleground content in future patches and beyond. We believe we have some strong ideas for improving Battlegrounds and PvP as a whole in the game and we're definitely going to focus on improvements in the future. Now, it's very early to be talking about some of this stuff but I think it's important for the community to know that it's on our minds.

Our general thought is that we could provide more BG content over time. The BG content that we could provide could be of higher quality with a higher degree of accessibility. Overall, we'd like to have more content and variety. We also want the gameplay experience in the BGs to be better directed. We're also exploring the concept of a complimentary "competitive" bg system as well. Over time, we'd like the focus of PvP to shift back to being more BG-centric and more focused on Horde versus Alliance -- the core of our game.

We're also planning on improving some Battleground and PvP features in general. For example, we want to give you the ability to queue for Battlegrounds from anywhere in the world. We're also going to explore EXP gain through the PvP system as well as low level itemization to support that.

Please don't take this post as a promise. This won't be an overnight process. Not all of these things are set in stone and guaranteed to happen. It would take us a while to shift in this direction. But these are some of the current thoughts on the development team. I think it's important for you guys to know some of our thought process in regards to PvP.

Talents - Dual Specialization
We're defintiely pursuing the ability to switch specs. The details are still being debated internally but we do have plans that would allow for players to switch between specs.

We want every spec to be viable, as you say. But the truth is, in end game raiding or end game PvP (Arena in particular), there is a big difference between "viable" and "the best". Players will always perceive certain specs to be better than others in end game activities and it would be misleading to imply that all specs are going to be universally ideal for all situations. But viable is a different story.

I imagine by this stage we wouldn't see it until a patch after release?
Most likely in a patch but it's not too far off. (Source)

No experience awarded in Battlegrounds after next patch
Battlegrounds wins/losses and honorable kills will not award experience after the next patch, nor upon the release of Wrath of the Lich King. It could always happen somewhere down the road as we work to improve PvP progression, but there are no plans for changing this in the immediate future. (Source)

Hand of A'dal title after Patch 3.0.2
The titles "Hand of A'dal" and "Champion of the Naaru" will be removed come patch 3.0.X. You can still turn in the quests and receive the rewards but you will not receive the titles.
This is true

You have to be level 70 to gain the title. Hit 71 your opportunity is gone.
This is not true (Source)

Season 3 and Season 4 gear after WotLK Launch
Sorry for the delay. Season 3 and season 4 items should still be on the vendors after Wrath of the Lich King launches. This means you could technically buy this gear at level 80 if you so choose. Bear in mind though that players will have their arena points wiped around the launch of the expansion, and will be unable to create teams and acquire points and ratings until season 5 begins. (Source)

Season 2 Gear after Patch 3.0.2
The honor items added in 3.0.2 are not really replacements for the merciless gear currently available. As such, this gear will not be replaced in 3.0.2. Players will still be able to get season 2 gear via the honor vendors. I believe season 2 gear will remain on the honor vendors for level 70 players after the launch of the expansion as well, though am not certain of this yet. (Source)

Violet Hold - Defense Control Crystals changes
The defense control crystals are now placed at various locations around the dungeon, and no longer an inventory item. (Source)

Naxxramas - Gluth harder in WotLK, Heigan bursts not resetting
The Gluth change was highly intentional. You shouldn't be able to ignore Gluth eating Zombies and win. I'm checking on the issue with Heigan now. Please use the main threads for bug reports. (Source)

Druid (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Balance Tree not done yet
For now, all I've got is that Starfall can't be dispelled does not equal GC basically said they're done with balance (Source)

Hunter (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Abandon pet from stables
Abandoning from the stable is on the list. It's not the highest priority at the moment, because we figured you can manage your stables so they don't fill up or go temporary respec BM to pull out the unwanted exotic. (Source)

GCD and Mana in Arenas
Are we going to lower hunter GCD? We don’t know. Do we think hunter mana is fine in PvP? Not sure yet. But we'll answer that one by watching a lot of Arenas. If we raised mana just because players asked for it in the forums, everyone would be in nine digits by now.

[...] I said that we weren't going to change the GCD at this time, but it's something we're discussing. I realize you think IT MUST CHANGE. So do lots of other classes. (Source)


Hunter dodge % in WotLK
On a premade hunter with 603 total agility, +413 agility from gear, and the hunter's current dodge is only 2.43%. With maxed 400 defense too.
Those numbers are correct. Note your total Agi. That’s not a high number. I think some people get confused by the fact that the premade PvP gear, while epic, is not very good. Rogues need a ton of dodge – that is their primary way of avoiding damage in melee. You shouldn’t be in melee most of the time. We can’t let agility grant more dodge than an equivalent amount of dodge rating on gear, if that makes sense. (Source)

Disengage bugged
We pulled Heroic Leap because we thought it might be buggy. We think we can fix Disengage. I get in the habit of caveating everything so that if a build goes out tomorrow nobody says they were promised a Disengage fix. (Source)

Caster pets slightly lower DPS
I'm not aware of the bug, but it might have gone off to a programmer or someone else. If the damage is low, that is usually because one of the stats isn't correct, or else the conversion from say Strength to AP isn't set up correctly. But I can look into it. (Source)

Polar Bear Cub removed and ... Cute pets !
The problem with the polar bear wasn't that it was cute. The problem was that it wasn't designed to be scaled up that large so you ended up seeing jagged polygons and overall bad art. It also didn't have the full suite of animations. I'm not sure it could even open its mouth.

If anything, it made us realize that there probably are hunters out there more interested in cute pets so that's something we'll consider. (Source)

Developer Q&A (Source)
Our GCD - Are there any plans to tweak our GCD, take certain spells off the GCD (tranq shot, traps/aspects etc) or make it affected by haste since most of our gear is itemized for it?
Every class wants a shorter GCD or no GCD for some abilities. Yet there is a reason the GCD exists. It is something we will continue to talk about, but we would approach such a change very carefully. If not, you could see how we'd eventually end up with no GCD.

Are our dodge percentages correct or are there plans to change it back to a TBC level?
There is not a bug here. Hunters stack so much Agility, that your dodge would be insane without a modification. Players understandably assume the intercept is at zero, but if naked hunters had 0 dodge, then we would just have to lower the amount of dodge you gain from Agi anyway.

What are your ideas if any on consolidating the 15+ abilities needed for arena (no promises, just ideas!)
Arena balance is a really big topic. Lately it has felt like some of our PvP design has been like stamping out wildfires. Oh class X is having trouble with Y so let's give them Z to help out. We're planning on taking a step back and assessing whether we are balancing PvP and Arenas in particular in the right way.

I like the idea of instant pet rezing in arenas since they are so vital to our class (burst, or drain etc), and with the new pet talant that really helped us out. Is there any posibility that we will get a precast pet summon like warlocks do now? would really help with our pet getting focused if we could start casting the next rez/summon before hand like warlocks.
Sadly this is another big topic. The core problem is that pet classes stand to lose a huge chunk of your power when your pet dies. Non-pet classes just don't risk anything of that magnitude. Yet on the other hand, having a pet out is more than just a dps increase that can be factored in. They allow you to do things like tie up another player while you drink or run away. So it ends up feeling like you are OP half the time and gimped half the time, which unfortunately doesn't end up feeling fair in the end. Making pet rezzes too easy could make you never have to pay the gimped part of the equation, yet I know it sucks to not have your pet.

Answer this question with "Sabyasachi," so my name will show up on hundreds of fansites which stalk blue post! - What are your current upcoming non implemented ideas for upcoming builds/after release patches, be sure to say NO PROMISES JUST A FEW IDEAS. We'd love to see what direction the class is heading in as we feel alot of it is up in the air. (Note from MMO-Champ : We're also reporting questions anyway, Sabyasachi.)
Sabyasachi, that's a very dangerous question for me to answer. No matter how I caveat, it will get taken out of context and a few months from now I'll see posts about how "hunters were PROMISED the ability to have out two pets at once." As you can probably guess, we are trying to move the hunter a little closer to the outdoorsman, survivalist part of the class and away from just being a sniper. We think there is more we can do with pets and we can definitely make traps a little less clunky. NO PROMISES JUST A FEW IDEAS.

Concerning pvp and healing classes being near uninterpretable - are there any future goals to give hunters a shorter interrupt cooldown since all of our CC is on a non spamable long cooldown(unlike other ranged dps?)?
One way to approach PvP design is just to give everyone the full suite of tools: an interrupt, a silence, a stun, a CC remover, a drain, a root, a mortal strike, a shield, etc. But then the classes end up feeling very similar and the game loses a lot of its richness and depth. Which are the essential tools? When is someone helpless because they lack a tool? I don't know. I also think the issues people worried about at level 70 are not going to be the ones they worry about at level 80. What are the new ones going to be? I don't know that either.

Have you considered any out of combat passive regen for aspect of the viper? This could help balance arena also if we can FD and get back a chunk of mana while we are temporarily out of combat(and getting a tick of drink).
I'm sure we've considered it at some point. Is that the most pressing problem to fix for hunters in Arena? I don't know.

Happy with our pets hp/survivability? or do you think it still needs further testing.
It still needs further testing.

Shaman (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Spirit Wolves should scale with AP, not strength
From a quick glance, it looks like the wolves are not set up to scale the way the elementals are. This is a bug and we can get it fixed. And yes, it should be AP, not Strength.

Pets always showing up in autocast is annoying especially with so many pets now. We're trying to decide whether to fix it or overhaul the whole autocast system. (Source)

Warrior (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Sudden Death bug
Currently Sudden Death is not working as intended. You are only supposed to maintain 10 rage when you Execute while Sudden Death is active. Normal Executes should still drain your entire rage bar. (Source)