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Arena Intro
The Arenas of World of Warcraft give the most battle-hardened
and cold-blooded fighters a place to compete against each other
in gladiatorial battles for honor, glory, and power. Gather your
allies, build your teams, and prepare to face off against
merciless foes and formidable enemies in a race to claim the
honor of being the highest ranked Arena Team on your realm.
The main goal of the Arena PvP System is to offer players a
highly competitive environment that does not rely so much on a
huge investment of time but rather on a team's playing skills.
Because the Arena System is meant to be the ultimate PvP
challenge, the level requirement to join an Arena Team is level
70. You have the option of engaging other players in practice
matches even if you are not level 70 yet, but these skirmishes
do not gain you a Team Rating or Arena Points (more on those
later).
Fields of Honor – The Arenas
Like battlegrounds, Arenas are instanced playfields where teams
of players fight against each other. There are two Arenas
currently in the game. The Ring of Trials can be found in
Nagrand, while the Circle of Blood is in the Blade's Edge
Mountains. Each Arena has a different layout and some unique
twists that add an element of surprise to the fight.
The Ring of Trials
Location: Nagrand, south-east of Garadar
Theme: Ancient orcish proving ground
Special: One minute into the match, a cyclone appears and adds
some spin to the fight.
Shadow Sight: After 90 seconds, two Shadow Sight powerups (♦)
appear that let you see stealthed and invisible characters, but
it also does a little damage to you. Use it wisely.
The Circle of Blood
Location: Blade's Edge Mountains, north of Thunderlord Village
Theme: Ogrish arena
Shadow Sight: After 90 seconds, two Shadow Sight powerups appear
(♦) that let you see stealthed and invisible characters, but it
also does a little damage to you. Use it wisely.
Building Your Team
Arena Teams are very similar to guilds in that they are
persistent groups of players with their own name and their own
symbol, but there are also some differences between teams and
guilds. There are three different types of teams, one for each
type of match you can fight in the Arena: two players versus two
players (2v2), 3v3, and 5v5. Unlike guilds, you can be in
several different teams at the same time, but you can be in only
one team of a certain type; for example, you can't be in two
different 3v3 teams, but you can be in a 2v2 and in a 5v5 team.
Also, you need to be at least level 70 before you can join or
create an Arena Team.
Creating a team for the Arena System works just like creating a
guild. First you need to purchase a team charter from an Arena
Promoter, name your team, and then collect enough signatures to
start a team (one additional signature for a 2v2 team, two for a
3v3, and four for a 5v5). Once you have all the signatures you
need, you can turn in your completed team charter. You will now
need to pick a flag for your team, which also works pretty much
like creating a tabard for your guild – the main difference is
that you don't have to pay for your flag design.
A team can include up to twice the number of characters required
to start the team, which means you can have benchwarmers that
fill in if your main gladiators are not available.
Fighting in the Arena
Once you have your team set up, it's time to prove your might in
the Arena. You will need to enter the queue for the Arena like
you enter the queue for a battleground: talk to an Arena
Battlemaster and select the type of match you want to queue for.
You can select a ranked game or a skirmish, a practice fight
that won't impact your Team Rating. Once your team is in the
queue, the matchmaking system will start looking for other teams
with a suitable ranking for you to play against. When it finds a
match for you, both teams are teleported into the arena...
Fights in the Arena are subject to a set of special rules.
You'll find the most important ones listed below. We recommend
you familiarize yourself with these rules before you enter your
first match.
Warmup
At the beginning of each match, both teams are placed in
separate holding areas, similar to battlegrounds like Arathi
Basin or Warsong Gulch.
Any existing buffs and conjured items will be purged or deleted
upon entering. This is to ensure outside buffs are not used, and
no conjured items from players not actually in your group are
being used.
Your health and mana are set to full.
While your buffs are removed, your debuffs are not. This is to
prevent players from using arena matches to clear their debuffs.
Mana/Rage/Energy costs are reduced to zero in the holding area
so that teams can buff up and prepare for the match.
Soul Shard costs are reduced to zero so that warlocks can summon
Healthstones for their party without needing to bring an
excessive number of stones for their group. This also means that
warlocks can summon pets during this period without using a soul
shard.
Pets are dismissed upon entering an arena. Players must
re-summon, otherwise they'd be able to summon their
long-cooldown pets before entering.
Team Flags
Each player automatically carries a flag that indicates what
team they are on. Your team's insignia will be on this flag, so
make sure to pick a cool and impressive banner that will strike
fear in the hearts of your enemies.
Let the games begin!
Each arena match is one battle. After one match is over, you
will fight different players in your next match. Keep in mind
that each time you fight, you will have no information about who
your opponents are or what their class composition is until the
match begins.
Death in the Arena
When a character dies in an Arena instance, they'll be able to
run around and "spectate" as a ghost. However, they will not be
able to resurrect. The release spirit window says "You have
died. Release spirit to enter Spectator Mode." Once the player
has released, a message appears in the chat window stating, "You
are in Spectator Mode. To abandon this battle, right-click the
Arena icon on the minimap and select 'Leave Battle'."
Victory Conditions
Every Arena match is a game of Last Man Standing, meaning that
the match ends once all characters on one team have died, with
the other team being the winner.
Post-Match Summary
After the fight is over, a scoreboard appears with the following
info:
Player names
Team names
Killing Blows per player
Damage Done per player
Healing Done per player
Rating adjustment per team
Other Information
No consumables other than bandages and conjured items can be
used while in the arena.
Abilities/spells/items with cooldowns longer than 15 minutes
cannot be used while in the arena. This also applies to
resurrection.
There is no time limit for arena matches.
There is a power-up that allows you to see stealthed or
invisible players, but you lose 15% of your health for picking
it up. This allows you to combat players who attempt to hide to
delay the match.
When players enter the Arena, all cooldowns on spells or items
that have 15 minutes or less are reset. This allows them to have
all their abilities available when the fight begins.
Players can use the /teamquit or /teamdisband command in order
to leave an Arena team. Example: /teamquit 2v2
The last pet a player had summoned will be resummoned outside
the Arena upon leaving.
Team Ratings, Arena Points, and Sweet, Sweet Prizes
From Team Ratings to Arena Points
The Arena System is meant to primarily reward competitiveness
and player skill, and this is reflected in the way Team Ratings,
Arena Points, and Arena Rewards tie into each other.
Each team has a Team Rating. This rating reflects how well your
team is doing in the Arena System; the higher your rating, the
better. When you queue up for a fight, the matchmaking system
uses your rating to find a suitable match. Every time your team
wins a match, your rating goes up, and every time you lose a
match, your rating goes down. The amount by which your rating
changes depends on your team's rating compared to the other
team's rating – if you win against a higher ranked team, your
rating will improve more than if you steamrolled a weaker team.
Similarly, losing against a weaker team will hurt your rating
more than losing against superior enemies. The exact formulae
are a bit more complicated than that, but the basic idea is
similar to the Elo ranking system used for professional chess.
Team Rating Arena Point Formulae
X = Team Rating, Y = Arena Points
If X>1500: Y = 2894/(1+259*e^(-0.0025*X))
Else: Y = 0.206*X+99 At the end of each week, your Team Rating
is used to calculate how many Arena Points your team will
receive for this week. Your team needs to have fought a minimum
of ten matches per week to be rewarded with Arena Points, and a
player must have been in at least 30% of all your matches to be
eligible for that week's points. The transformation from your
Team Rating to Arena Points starts off as a linear function, but
once you go beyond a certain rating threshold, the function
becomes logistic. This means that you will see a significant
payoff increase once your Team Rating goes beyond a certain
point, but the high-end spectrum of the ratings will eventually
notice a decrease in how much bang they get for their buck.
Getting Rewards
Arena Points are used as a currency in the Arena System. Instead
of a gold price, Arena rewards cost a certain number of Arena
Points. An important improvement over the previous reward system
is that your Arena Points do not decay. You can stockpile a
maximum of 5,000 Arena Points. To claim your rewards, go visit
the Arena vendor in Area 52 in the Netherstorm region of
Outland. You will be able to browse his goods and buy rewards if
you have earned enough points.
Arena Seasons and the Ladder
One very cool aspect of the Arena System is the introduction of
seasons. Each season lasts several months, and at the end of a
season, the top ranked teams are rewarded with some truly unique
prizes like legendary mounts or other cool items. Members of the
top teams will also receive special titles to honor their
achievement (highest to lowest):
Gladiator
Duelist
Rival
Challenger
Seasons are also an excellent opportunity to introduce new
rewards to the Arena System. As the instance and raid content of
the game progresses and powerful new items enter the game, the
start of a new season gives the game designers a chance to add
new rewards to the Arena PvP system as well to make sure that
both types of content remain equally rewarding. .
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