Arena Season 3

[Alysana]

2 DPS teams can easily get high, especially Feral Druid + Rogue, I've seen plently of those teams with 1900+ rating, even some at 2300ish, so it's certainly possible. 1900 rating shouldn't be too hard to get in any bracket if you're really serious about it and work together with your partner(s).

As a rogue that has killed Prince (5 times) and Moroes (15+ times) and never seen a dagger (not even the mindblade lol) the PVP dagger is all I got unless I wanna sit around with Ceds Carver... And there isnt much hope of getting to Vash with a 2-3 night raiding roster... We just got Gruul down.

That's a silly excuse as to why you should be able to get weapons that are equal to Archimonde and Illidian. You're coming out of Gruul's Lair, Season 2 weapons are more than enough, heck, even Season 1 weapons would do, there's no reason as to why you should run around with that high DPS weapons in the start of SSC or Magtheridon.

[Kuismar]

if you pvp 1900 is easy. if you pve and want pvp gear because its purple then i can see the problem. my guild is primarily pve. we do raid content our gear and spec is raid based. in season one my 3v3 team started and did fairly well with a rogue, hunter, mage combo. while not the best we did get as high as 1680 rating. this took time and also took getting pvp gear.

in my current season i have a differant composition and the rating is harder to get. why? because most of us are pve spec and geared. myself having some gear from season 1 doing the best. also alot of teams now have gear where in season 1 not many did. since this we are now respecing weekly for arena, we are getting gear to help the team and guess what our ranking is climbing. will we ever hit 1900? it is possible.

i think the ratings and limits are a benefit it keeps those who want to spend 4hrs in SSC, TK, BT, HJul doing what they want to do and happy, and those who like arena and BGs doing what they want to do and happy. the worst thing is those who can't get gear one way are currently using the arena system to get gear they expect to use in pve. why do i do both because i have pve gear to raid, and when i do actually pvp i need the gear for that. have i tried to use my raid gear in pvp? yes it equals death. and when i use my pvp gear in raids it equals inadequate mana, dps, damage.

[starburst]

If you rolled a DPS class and so did your Friend / Brother / Sister / Guildie you will prolly not get past 1700

27/34/0 warlock + 17/0/44 mage are capable of the top end ratings if they have the gear

[Donkbet]

SSC weapons are getting buffs, and in particular the Fang of the Leviathon (ez mode Leo) will be better than the s2 Gladiator Spellblade.

As far as arena and what it means, many players who kick ass in arena would struggle in a PVE, or even a BG setting unless they keep extra sets of gear and are willing to respec a lot. Arena is a niche, if you are good at it then good for you. I don't have a huge problem with being 1900 to use weapons although it's going to pretty much eliminate people who don't spend a majority of their time doing arena. Maybe that's the plan. If so, I expect a majority of people who are tinkering around with arena now to spend time with the other 2.3 content and hard-core arena folks are going to end up fighting the same few teams all the time. Because what the people bitching about arena casuals aren't understanding is that it is those casuals who make the arena system go.

[Mackabre]

My brother and I hit lvl 70 on our alts, my rogue and his mage about 2.5 weeks ago. We started to arena immediately as that is why we made our alts. We made it to nearly a 1900 rating, we're at 1860 or something atm, with quest gear greens and a few of the HWL Blue items. We only did one BF run when we were low and never instanced after that so we can lvl up faster with quests.
2 DPS teams, in 2's work very well. A lot of Gladiators are those combo's from S1. It's not about the gear, its all about skill and how well you play with each other. Coordination, teamwork will almost always outplay gear in arenas.
The rating requirement is fine, possibly needs a bit tweaking but atm its a good fix. Putting a win requirement would just reward time more than skill in Arenas. I've seen teams with a ~1600-1700 rating with almost 350 games played. Winning just a little more than half. Doesn't seem right that winning about half your games gives you the weapon, especially weapons that are on par with Hyjal/BT gear.
I don't think PvE encounters that you have had unlucky drops from warrants you to get such powerful weapons.

[Sartuk]

if you pvp 1900 is easy. if you pve and want pvp gear because its purple then i can see the problem. my guild is primarily pve. we do raid content our gear and spec is raid based. in season one my 3v3 team started and did fairly well with a rogue, hunter, mage combo. while not the best we did get as high as 1680 rating. this took time and also took getting pvp gear.

in my current season i have a differant composition and the rating is harder to get. why? because most of us are pve spec and geared. myself having some gear from season 1 doing the best. also alot of teams now have gear where in season 1 not many did. since this we are now respecing weekly for arena, we are getting gear to help the team and guess what our ranking is climbing. will we ever hit 1900? it is possible.

i think the ratings and limits are a benefit it keeps those who want to spend 4hrs in SSC, TK, BT, HJul doing what they want to do and happy, and those who like arena and BGs doing what they want to do and happy. the worst thing is those who can't get gear one way are currently using the arena system to get gear they expect to use in pve. why do i do both because i have pve gear to raid, and when i do actually pvp i need the gear for that. have i tried to use my raid gear in pvp? yes it equals death. and when i use my pvp gear in raids it equals inadequate mana, dps, damage.

The biggest worry for most PvE raiders is that the arena WEAPONS are too good for PvE. At times I've been on every possible end of the spectrum...doing PvE only, with just a smattering of PvP for fun. Focusing on PvP and arena's in particular while still raiding, and now solely doing arena's due to not having the ability to consistently make scheduled raids.

Anyhow, yeah, you're not going to see most people PvE'ing in much, if any, arena gear, except for the weapons. I've heard of a few fury warriors wearing an arena piece or two of armor, but that's about it (apparently the resilience can help them proc certain "chance on being crit" things.) The weapons are a subject of debate, and that's fair. I can't think of a very good way to even out the weapons though, short of HEAVILY lowering the DPS and giving them a stat similar to +feral attack power...+PvP attack power, only working on other players (and in BG's in general too...shouldn't gimp people in AV, or any similar BG's to come.) It's really the only viable way to make PvP weapons the best for PvP, but still not make them too desirable in PvE. I doubt this will happen, though. I don't know how the weapon stuff is going to work out...obviously the SSC buffs will help even the playing field, but the introduction of S3 may screw that up again.

On the topic of required ratings, I think 1900 is about right, if you're talking a 2v2 team. There's no way in hell my 2v2 team will ever get to that rating: I'm specced for 3v3/5v5, and my partner is usually a mage (when he's frost, we do better...currently, he's usually fire or arcane though, and we struggle.) I think the required rating should scale down depending on what bracket you're in...why should a 1900 2v2 team with a simply cheesey combination have access to the S3 weapons, but a good 1800 5v5 can't?

1900 for 2v2, 1800 for 3v3, 1700 for 5v5 would work for me. I'd be fine with that; those ratings are acquirable to almost anyone who takes PvP seriously, save for the few who take it seriously, but are forced to play with horrible class composition.

[Sartuk]

My brother and I hit lvl 70 on our alts, my rogue and his mage about 2.5 weeks ago. We started to arena immediately as that is why we made our alts. We made it to nearly a 1900 rating, we're at 1860 or something atm, with quest gear greens and a few of the HWL Blue items. We only did one BF run when we were low and never instanced after that so we can lvl up faster with quests.
2 DPS teams, in 2's work very well. A lot of Gladiators are those combo's from S1. It's not about the gear, its all about skill and how well you play with each other. Coordination, teamwork will almost always outplay gear in arenas.
The rating requirement is fine, possibly needs a bit tweaking but atm its a good fix. Putting a win requirement would just reward time more than skill in Arenas. I've seen teams with a ~1600-1700 rating with almost 350 games played. Winning just a little more than half. Doesn't seem right that winning about half your games gives you the weapon, especially weapons that are on par with Hyjal/BT gear.
I don't think PvE encounters that you have had unlucky drops from warrants you to get such powerful weapons.

Winning % should make a difference, actually. I don't know how they'd implement that exactly, though. Good point there though. I agree completely, a win requirement to equip gear is silly.