Arena Gear Upgrades - Blue Tracker

#0 - June 4, 2007, 9:05 p.m.

I'm hoping that with the arena gear upgrades it will be necessary to have the level 1 piece of gear before getting the level 2 piece of gear.

I'm thinking something like
Arena 1 piece costs 1185 pts
Arena 2 piece costs 450 + arena 1 piece traded in

I'm not sure if your current system allows you to have a "trade-in" cost, if it doesn't, maybe have a vendor that will give you an arena set token for your arena set piece.

Then you could have
Arena 2 piece costs 450pts + 1arena set token

If you are wondering why I am suggesting this type of system, it is because no one is going to spend their arena points on the level 1 stuff if they are eventually going to replace it with level 2 stuff (ie. you would eventually be throwing away all the arena points spent on the lvl 1 stuff).

That is, unless the level 2 stuff costs so many points that there is no way you can hope to obtain it all in a reasonable time. However, this isn't really a solution because when arena set 3 comes out, it will have to have the same type of exponential cost, and will be compeletely unattainable.

Anyone have any idea how it is going to work?

Drysc

#8 - June 4, 2007, 10:48 p.m.

It won't be required that you have the current season's set or piece to upgrade to the next season's set or piece. The season 2 items will take over the same point cost (or close to it) as the current season's, and the current season item point cost will lower. The current plan is to keep only the current and previous season's items available. Meaning that when moving to season 3, the season 1 items will no longer be available. This is of course subject to change.

There will be some amount of planning and forethought into when you buy an item as a new season approaches. If you want to wait until the next season comes around because those items will be better then feel free. It's not going to be a lucrative strategy though to wait a large amount of time just because they're better. You're not going to spend half the season capped because you know the next season's items are going to be better, right? Couple that with the fact that a new season doesn't guarantee that new items will be added, and you're taking a big gamble by not buying something unless you're really sure those new items are there and waiting for you on a specific date.

Drysc

#39 - June 4, 2007, 11:16 p.m.

Q u o t e:

This was what I was thinking. Why spend your points on a few pieces of the new season gear when you can pretty much finish your old set off at wholesale and have a better chance at continuing to rank up through the system enough to get your second set.

Very possible. Also I was thinking that if we do only keep the current and previous arena season sets available it might be kind of cool to keep around the season 1 set to show off in the future when it's a bit more rare. Maybe not as cool as the slots it would take up though. :)

Drysc

#54 - June 4, 2007, 11:53 p.m.

Q u o t e:

Will we get a preview of the new gear before the patch?

"Outlook not so good"

Drysc

#61 - June 4, 2007, 11:59 p.m.

Q u o t e:
I put my gold where my mouth is (all 100gold of it!) that season 2 arena gear borrows heavily from other Tier sets as far as graphics are concerned.

Yeah, that's the intent. The arena sets are intended to match the tier sets they are comparable to in appearance, that's always been the plan and as far as I'm aware is the plan for all future arena sets.

You should be able to look at a player and say "oh that's season x gear, it's the best" or "it's last season and matches tier y" etc. Even if you don't know arena items it's easy to see an arena set and immediately know how good it is as compared to the equivalent tier set.

Drysc

#73 - June 5, 2007, 12:10 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Is the season 2 patch still on schedule for next Tuesday?

Is that all that is going into the patch?

Will the rogue set look less like Skeletor?

Unknown at this time. We should know by Friday and we'll let you know as soon as we do.

No.

I haven't seen it but you can bet pretty safe it's going to look like the equivalent tier set.

Drysc

#86 - June 5, 2007, 12:22 a.m.

Q u o t e:

You've yet to answer why people who were able to stockpile 5000 points as well as have full Season 1 rewards get such a huge headstart on brand new Season 2 items.

If you've built up a full 5000 arena points ready to jump on the Season 2 items, have fun and grab the new items. Enjoy.

Drysc

#112 - June 5, 2007, 12:49 a.m.

Q u o t e:
So what's the point of resetting the ratings to 1500 when all the top teams from last season will already have the new gear advantage and beat down teams to get back to the top? The teams who can't do this are being set at a disadvantage before the new season even starts...how nice...

The added rating reset was mainly because it felt right in a competitive sporting environment, similar to seasons for any major sport. When the end of a season was described without a reset it just struck a lot of people as odd. Even though there's no break and less of a time for team advantages to switch, the reset just makes sense conceptually. It also provides an excellent time to reform, rename, recruit, other things that start with "re", etc.

There's a good probability that the top teams this season will be the top teams next season, or close to it. Regardless of new items or not, a reset isn't going to make a bad team good.

Drysc

#197 - June 5, 2007, 7:43 p.m.

I'll try to answer most of the common questions posed since the my last post.

Yes, new Arena weapons are included. All of the current items will see new versions for season 2, with some new additions.

The new honor rewards will be new versions of the epic items (boot, belt, bracer). A new back-slot item won't be added, but a new ring will be available.

The arena set items are always intended to match their equivalent tier sets in appearance to easily link them through visual recognition to their PvE counterparts.

Arena season 1 item cost reduction will be about 15%.

There are more healing-centric items planned for season 2.

The patch today was not intended to be, nor was it, the patch that would coincide with the start of season 2. We're still hoping for June 12 but it will come down to testing. The possibility that it won't make the 12th is still very much there, but as I said earlier we'll hopefully know by Friday and will let you know as soon as we do.

Drysc

#205 - June 5, 2007, 8:06 p.m.

Q u o t e:

I expected a little higher discount rate on season 1 items. Season 1 items are now pretty much worthless to buy, who would spend their arena points on an older item that only costs 15% less than the newest upgraded version of it? Sorry for those who spent their arena points for season 1 gear within the last month.

Yes, you might as well deequip any slots you have season 1 items in. Completely worthless to you now... :P