Honor Points to Reset to 0 in WotLK

The title pretty much sums this up, and everyone’s suspicions were officially confirmed by a blue poster earlier today. All accumulated honor points will be reset to zero when the wrath of the lich king expansion is released. No word yet if marks of honor will also be removed.

Additionally, in case you missed it arena points will also be reset to zero at level 71. Arena points to reset.

As many of you know we will be featuring a new Battleground, a dedicated world PvP zone and all new PvP items in Wrath of the Lich King. In order to make the transition from The Burning Crusade to Wrath of the Lich King flow as smoothly as possible, all accrued honor points will be reset at the launch of the expansion. We do this to ensure select players do not have an unfair advantage at level 80 from stockpiling honor to instantly purchase the newest Wrath of the Lich King PvP rewards. For those with unspent honor points prior to the release of the expansion, we will be offering a few upgrades and special rewards in next content patch solely for purchase via the honor system.(source)

Quick update for marks of honor, which are also going to be reset.

Marks of Honor will be wiped as well. (source)

Season 4 Start Date Announced

If this season seemed like it’s been going on for an eternity, well that’s because it has. But at long last Blizzard has finally given us the 2 week warning.

We’re currently planning to end the third Arena season and begin Arena Season 4 on June 24, 2008. This exciting Arena season will introduce the Brutal Gladiator set, and will also allow players to purchase Arena Season 2 items using the honor system. Please note that we will be resetting all Arena team and personal ratings. Players will still retain their Arena points and teams with this reset. The team and personal rating will simply be reset to the default 1500, allowing all teams to once again compete for top honors with a fresh start.

Also, with the end of the third season, players on the top teams from each battlegroup will receive their end-of-season rewards. These include Arena-specific titles that they can display proudly until the end of the new season, and, for the best of the best, an Armored Nether Drake. Please also be aware that with the end of the current season, all previous end-of-season titles will be removed.

In addition, in case you missed out on any of the changes headed our way for season 4 I’ve got them all listed below.

Season 4 Arena Weapons
Season 4 Arena Armor
Season 4 Honor Items

Also, don’t forget that rating requirements are being implemented on all of these pieces.

]Season 4 Arena Item’s with rating requirements:
Shoulders: 2200
Weapon: 2050
Head: 1700
Chest: 1600
Legs: 1550
Gloves: none
Off-hand: none

Season 4 Honor Items with rating requirements:
Boots: 1700
Ring: 1650
Bracers: 1575
Belt: none
Necklace: none
Trinket: none

Season 3 Arena Items with rating requirements: (keep in mind these values don’t go in effect until S4 begins)
Shoulders: 1950
Weapon: 1800

Arena PvP Gear

Arena Gear Guide
The biggest difference between World of Warcraft prior to and after the expansion has to be the survivability factor. In the time it took players to level from 60 to 70 HP levels doubled or tripled for nearly all players, going from 3.5-5.5k to anywhere from 9-13k unbuffed, after all the buffs have gone out your average would probably be somewhere in the 12-15k range.

Though most players didn’t fully understand the changes resilience would bring, they soon would. By the middle of arena season one it was fairly apparent that resilience was changing World of Warcraft PvP as we knew it. No longer could a rogue stunlock an opposing player from 100% to 0% in the span of a cheap shot and kidney shot, no longer could a single PoM pyroblast one shot a player, no longer could a warrior kill you in three global cool downs, oh wait that still happens, but not as often, haha. In any regard, the whole way we PvP has been altered for ever, battles are longer and rely more on endurance and precision of the team as a whole, not one players burst of cool downs to win a match.

New Arena Gear - Gearing To Survive!
If you are new to the arena scene then you might be confused as to what items / enchants / gems you should be acquiring to better level the playing field for you and your teammates. Generally speaking maximizing your stamina and resilience is going to be your best bet. I hate to be so frank, but you simply cannot role into a serious arena match wearing spell strike or other PvE style items, it simply lacks the fundamental attributes needed to make a good piece of PvP gear.

Steps To Gearing Up:
1) Grind out your honor points gear. This is perhaps the easiest, yet most overlooked sector of gearing up. The honor system allows you to easily transform time spent playing in battlegrounds into great upgrades for arena. I recommend just biting the bullet and getting all the most up to date epic pieces (currently Veterans) first, these are all heavy stamina and resilience pieces and will be essential your PvP success. You can fill the following slots of gear from simply grinding honor points:
a. Bracers, back, boots, belt, neck, ring, PvP trinket (get the 2 minute one)
2) If you are a big fan of grinding, and have a ton of time on your hands, you can grind out the blue pieces (or season 1 arena gear which will be offered through honor points at the start of arena season 3) of resilience gear offered through the honor system. These are all good pieces, though gear slots you’ll replace with the arena armor equivalents in time. These pieces include:
a. Helm, chest, gloves, shoulders, legs
3) Enchant your gear with PvP style enchants. In essence, stamina / resilience enchants.
a. Helm – get your revered reputation reward enchant.
i. Healing – Thrallamar
ii. Spell Damage – Sha’Tar
iii. Melee Damage – Cenarion
b. Shoulder – get your enchant from Aldor or Scryer. If you can afford to buy the arcane tomes and fel armaments to level your reputation, do so. Though the difference between the honored and exalted shoulder enchants is small it’s one worth getting.
c. Chest – get +150 hp enchant or +15 resilience, personally I’m a fan of the resilience, and if you resilience is lower than 400, I strongly suggest this one.
d. Bracers – if you don’t have at least 10k unbuffed health I suggest going with +12 stamina enchant, though beyond that point you may find offensive stats are better suited to you (IE, +healing, +damage, +attack power, etc.)
e. Gloves – Though there is a stamina enchant for gloves, I recommend going with an offensive enchant here. Simply because the offensive stats are far superior to the mere 8 stamina increase you get. In essence, +26 attack power, +20 spell damage, +35 healing, etc.
f. Boots – Spend the gold, get +9 stamina / speed increase. It’s expensive, but still the best enchant in the game for your boots, regardless of your class, and certainly worth it if you’ve got the epic honor boots.
g. Rings – if you are an enchanter you should obviously enchant both your rings. Readily available enchants: +2 weapon damage, +12 spell damage, +20 healing.
4) Farm your Halaa resilience pieces. There are two pieces of resilience / stamina gear for every class available through Halaa (Nagrand) rewards. You simply go to Halaa, kill a few people, grind a few mobs, and bam, you’ve got two excellent starter pieces.
a. Resilience / Stamina based leg and belt armor is available through Halaa
5) Quest and / or Purchase your other resilience based pieces. The following link lists resilience-based pieces you may not be aware of. These are great filler pieces until you can get the epic equivalents available through the arena or honor system.
a. http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4&filter=qu=3;cr=79:92;crs=1:2;crv=1:0#0+6+1
6) Your ultimate goal is to have the perfect combination for resilience, stamina, and offensive stats. Personally I’ve set my survivability stats at 400 resilience and 11,000 unbuffed hp. As I’ve already achieved that I am simply itemizing my enchants now to maintain and increase those stats without losing any more offensive ability. The items I’ve listed above are great ways to get started, though you’ll want to get rid of your blue items as quickly as possible and begin picking up the epic arena armor available through the arena vendors and honor point system.

Arena Gear Update
Since this guide is several months old it’s a bit dated, but you should note that in addition to all of the above avenues to gear up that I have listed, you can now gear blue resilience pieces from various reputation vendors. Most of the main Burning Crusades will sell several pieces, all they require is a bit of gold and honored reputation. This is a great way to start your PvP career off if you’ve just started playing WoW.