Wrath of the Lich king Release Date Announced

Official Wrath of the Lich King Release Date *UPDATED*

Though it has yet to be officially confirmed by Blizzard yet, Vivendi announced earlier this morning in a press release that Wrath of the Lich King will be released sometime in the second half of 2008.

While most World of Warcraft players expected it to be within this time frame, it’s nice to get a definite answer from Vivendi. With the cat out of the bag, I would imagine an official response from Blizzard would appear in the near future.

Season 4 / Patch 2.4.2 Information (Compiled)

With patch 2.4.2 well on its way we’ve finally started to see some real substance start to come off the PTR. Earlier today a load of new arena and honor items hit the test server, which leads me to believe it might be a little sooner than we all though. Stay tuned for continual updates.

New Items
Season 4 Arena Weapons
Season 4 Arena Armor
Season 4 Honor Items
Note: All arena point prices will remain the same

Patch Information
Season 4 Rating Requirements for arena and honor armor

Additional Information
Season 4 Start Date?
Currently, Blizzard has not released any start date for the season. All they have said is “we’ll give you a 2 week notice”. My personal estimation would be early to mid June.

What happens to old items and prices?
What season 4 begins the following happens:

Season 1 honor set: Removed

Season 2 arena set: Moved to honor, no rating requirement

Season 3 non-set honor items: Staying
Season 3 arena set: Arena rating and cost requirements lowered

Season 4 non-set honor items: Added with rating requirement
Season 4 arena set: Added to Arena with increased rating requirement

Why are these new rating requirements in place?
Official Blue response…

The non-set items are there to fill out the arena sets, they’re essentially placed there specifically so that arena players have a reason to participate in other aspects of the game. We want to see their faces around, we don’t want them just standing on top of the battlemasters all day.

So, with them being arena items intended to fill out the current top-end arena set, and our increase to rating requirements all around, it’s actually very logical.

Season 4 Changes Confirmed

The past few weeks have been filled speculation that major “changes” would dramatically affect the arena system for season 4. Comments made by Tom Chilton fueled much of the speculation that was finally confirmed today.

It’s official…rating requirements will continue in season 4, and even worse..or better depending on your perspective), there are additional rating requirements on most arena pieces and several honor 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

Additionally, some bad news for all you point sellers out there. In a nut shell, blizzard is changing it so your points are determined via your personal rating, and not the team rating. If there is a difference of 150 personal rating or more from the team’s rating then players will get points from personal rating.