Well all the hype and the wait has been worth it for many of us who were looking forward to the new arena season to start. Sure we would have wanted it to come much sooner, but in any event it is here and oh so fun.

Some of the surprises though for those of us wanting to upgrade our Vindicator gear was the addition of personal ratings to obtain some of the new gear. This is not entirely bad though as it adds a nice challenge and the personal ratings required are not extremely high: Ranging from 1550 to 1750. The battle is going to be getting there at the beginning of the season for those of us that are still under geared and working on our team strategies. We are all going to be playing against the previous seasons highest ranked teams at one point or another and as I found out the other day the gear difference and strategies of these teams is going to make it hard to beat them, but not impossible.

It is best to take some time and play more arenas then normal to be able to filter out these teams since the odds are you will be going against teams with similar gear and skills more often then not and if you can win the majority of your fights then you will slowly be increasing your personal rating.

The important thing to remember is that with in the next two or three weeks the higher rated teams will be in the proper bracket and playing against each other. So do not get discouraged and just keep playing and practicing as this will all work itself out.

So you have been waiting anxiously for the newest arena season to commence. For months we have all been wondering and waiting. Of course two weeks ago Drysc announced that the new arena season would start on the 24th of June and everyone went crazy. Well not everyone I suppose since some do not participate in PVP, but still the anticipation of waiting was driving those of us that care crazy.

Now we are less then 24 hours from the start of the new season and people have been preparing their characters for this day. Some of us have been building up our honor points from the battlegrounds. Getting our marks ready so that we have enough of each (well as many as we can hold at one time) so that we can purchase the season 2 gear to fill in gaps in our armor. Sure it is not as good as season 3 or 4 gear, but still it is much better then season 1. All this preparation so we can compete on a better level with those teams that are going to qualify quickly for their season 4 gear.

The hardest part for those of us that are not in full season 3 gear is going to be the slow grind up to meet the requirements of obtaining season 4 gear. With this new and harder standard to meet for each piece of gear some of us will never see much of the new seasons gear until there is a season 5.

Sure this frustrates some of us, but the truth of the matter is that meeting the requirements for the previous seasons has been way to lax. I mean come on the gear for season 3 is comparable to tier 6 pve gear. I know I have some S3 gear on my horde hunter and rogue and it makes a huge difference.

If these new requirements bother you then simply take a look back at the days before this latest expansion we call Burning Crusade. Consider the facts from then.

We didn’t have arenas to obtain gear from.

If you had any epics you were proud to have what you had.

It took months and months of grinding in the same raids to get one piece or even two pieces of gear unless you were part of a huge guild that deemed your skills necessary to their raiding schedule.

There was no easy grinding in Battlegrounds for epic level gear. The battlegrounds gear was awesome, but took a long time to obtain as well. Some gear you had to obtain a certain rank before you could ever purchase it. Most never met this requirement. I know I did not. My wife would have shot me.

So the point is be happy that we have the gear available now that we have. Yes they made the personal ratings high for many of us to obtain the gear from the new season, but in the end it is your skill that will prevail not the gear. So work towards a full set of season 3 gear and your requirements may be met through your determination to obtain the newest gear.

Our goal is to provide you with as much quality content as possible. This is why we have decided to open up our blog to others to submit their articles. We want to have as many tips, tricks and experiences from World of Warcraft as we can. This is why we thought the idea of letting you write about your gaming experience would be fun for others.

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In the past few months there has been a strong shift on many servers in the prices that are being charged for everyday green items. I personally have noticed this shift on the servers that I play on and am at a loss as to why prices for these items have gone into the realm that was once reserved for epics and blues.

I can say I find it very disturbing when the price of a level 40 green plate armor piece is going for 35 to 99 gold each. Many times it simply less expensive to take a blue item or get a guild mate to run you through instances several times to get gear that you need. While the gear from instances is preferred not all of us are able to get runs nor good pug (pick up groups) groups to obtain this gear. Because of this many resort to buying satisfactory gear on the Auction House to meet their leveling needs and fill holes in their armor. However, with the skyrocketing prices of green armor at all levels it is a wonder that many even bother to try to purchase armor on the Auction House.

It was not to long ago when prices for armor and other items were more in line with their level and how long you would wear or use it. With outlands this has slowly been changing. The ease of which gold has become available to high level characters in outlands has helped to inflate the prices on many servers.

Is this a bad thing? Or is it just the economy coming inline with the amount of gold available to us all? I would say it is a bit of both. It is bad for anyone who has not been playing World of Warcraft for a few years or even the past year while prices were still low. This means the struggle to get decent gear is much harder then it was for us once Burning Crusade was released. However, if you look at the amount of gold now available compared to before Burning Crusade you will notice that as a percentage these prices are simply in line with the wealth of the players now.

Yes you will still find some bargains from time to time and it will be beneficial to jump on these deals as you can, but on a whole the economy of our servers are making the adjustment to our wealth. No I do not like it, but I have to say that it is simply the normal process of any economy game or real life.

Well the moment we have all been waiting for with unbridled anxiety is finally going to be here. It was announced on Tuesday that Arena Season 4 will be starting on June 24th, 2008. This is a great thing to hear for those of us that have been just waiting with anticipation for the new season and the gear it will bring.

With the end of the current season will come some rewards for the top players. The top players will receive titles that they can display until season 4 ends and the best players will receive Armored Nether Drakes.

The important thing to remember is that the new season will also bring a new personal rating system that will make it much harder to obtain the top level gear. With the recent changes that have been made already to the points calculations only the top players will be obtaining gear that is equivalent to Tier 7 from the PVE side of the game.

As the new season starts the Season 1 gear will be removed from the game except from those that are currently equipping it. Season 2 arena gear will replace the first season gear as the new honor gear available from the battlemasters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. So lets all get ready to have some serious fun with the new arena season and I wish everyone the best of luck, because I know I am going to need some.

If you want to read about the latest arena announcement from Blizzard you can find it at the WorldofWarcraft Forums.

One of the big nagging questions that many people have been asking is when will Arena Season 4 start? A recent question on the World of Warcraft Forums has shed some light onto how they determine when to start the next season.

According to Blizzard Poster Drysc the seasons are set to coincide with certain objectives within the game. These objectives are tied to raid gear being obtained by players and once enough of it has been released into the game population then the new season will be announced. While they do not give a reason for this the answer is pretty obvious. It is to allow the PVE players a chance to start building gear on par with the PVP players and keep a balance within the game.

This method of determining the release of a new season had never been released before prior to this post in the forums. Now Drysc does not tell us what the specific criteria is as far how much gear, but at least it is an indication of how they determine when the next season will start.

According to Drysc the last door of the Sunwell Plateau was opened May 20th which was a few weeks ago. The hope is that it will be only a few more weeks and Season 4 will officially be announced as having a start date. For those of us anxious to get it underway this cannot come to soon, but with everything Blizzard does we have to learn patience or go crazy.

We all hear it everyday in forums, on general chat, etc. “This guy keeps ganking me, I am getting tired of this,” or “Why do they keep ganking me? They are 70 and I am a lowbie.”

Ok we have all heard this and sympathize to some extent. However, it is important to remember that when you joined the server you are currently playing on it did say PVP or Player Versus Player. Simply put whether you like it or not they will gank you if they are feeling in the mood.

Now I have a code about ganking lowbies and try to stick to this code for the most part, but even I get caught up in the world PVP atmosphere from time to time. Lets face it though when you join a PVP enabled server you are bound to be ganked, camped and ganked some more from time to time.

What people need to realize is that the type of people that play on PVP servers are completely different then those that play on PVE or RP servers. They have joined these servers to be able to have a challenge while questing and we all know that on some servers or times of days it can be extremely challenging.

Some people simply live for the thrill of running around lowbie areas on their high level characters and making life for these up and coming players simply miserable. I know of a guy on the Maiev server who plays a 70 Night Elf Hunter (RazorBaxx I believe is the correct spelling) that just spends his days doing exactly this. Many times I have come across him on my Rogue or Hunter or been the unfortunate victim of his lowbie ganking. Of course in my case I simply log a main and give him a taste of his own medicine, but this does not stop him or others like him. For them the game is about PVP and they thrive on this aspect no matter the level of the person they are ganking.

PVP servers take a special type of person to play on them. You have to have thick skin because gankings can come fast, random and constant. The fact of the matter is if you do not like this type of environment then you are better off playing on a RP or PVE server or transfering your characters to one.

There is no sense in complaining because PVP servers are here to stay. There is nothing you are going to be able to do about being ganked except to move to one of the other types of servers. Remember the next time you see a lowbie running around on your PVP server what it was like for you and simply say “HI” to that enemy lowbie. Remember the next time you see them it may be them ganking you and they never remember that time you let them walk away unscathed.

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If you are interested simply contact us at gm@wowbasic.com and tell us a little bit about yourself, what server you are on, what classes you play and their levels. Most importantly tell us why you want to write articles for WOWBasic.

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All to often we see players who are putting armor on their characters that is completely wrong for their class. For example I have seen warriors running around with plate armor on that is designed for Paladins. This means that they are wearing armor with stats that are focused on intellect and spirit which is designed to help regenerate mana.

The arguement that I get from these people is that they love the spirit for the regeneration ability, but the fact is that their characters traits are designed to perform best with Strength and Stamina as their main stats. The more of each of these the better. Which one you use as your main stat is determined by your spec.

One thing you need to understand about stats is that they affect each class in World of Warcraft differently. This means that what helps a warrior will not help a hunter or a mage. This is because each stat adds additional bonuses depending upon which class you are playing. So for example strength gives warriors additional parry and block ability in conjunction with attack power. However, on a hunter this would not be true since their main stat is agility which gives them additional attack power, critical strike and dodge abilities. Strength would only affect their melee stats and since hunters are a ranged attack class this would not be beneficial to them.

So lets look at each of the specializations available to warriors to better understand what you should be looking for so that you can better gear them for their spec.

Protection Warriors: The main stat you should be concerned with is stamina. The more of this the better. Your character is not designed to do damage in this spec, but rather to take it and hold the attention of the mobs around you so that your teammates can kill them.
In addition to stamina if you are looking for enchants you would concern yourself with defense rating as well. Protection speced warriors want to have a high defensive rating as well as stamina. This allows for long survival times in battle and combined with a good healer it could be a very, very long time.

Arms Warriors: Your main stat that you will be looking for is going to be strength then followed closely by stamina. With arms warriors your attacks are slow, but huge with each hit especially when you receive a critical strike which can run upwards of 7,000 or more at level 70. This means that the more power you bring to the table when you receive these critical strikes the higher that all important huge hit will be. Your enchants should focus on strength which will increase your abilities even further and attack power. There are a few other enchants to weapons and such that will help you in additional ways such as Savagery which adds 70 attack power to a two-handed weapon and is extremely beneficial to an arms warrior as well. Hint: boost your attack power as high as you can.

Fury Warriors: Fury warriors are similar in setup to arms warriors with a minor difference. When you go for enchants focus almost strictly on attack power. I know, I know you hear this tactic is wrong and that you should focus on getting your critical strike rating higher. However, focusing on critical strike rating is not really true. Fury warriors are designed for dps. They deal alot of it quickly and although their crits are not nearly as high as an arms warrior their dps they deal is much higher over the same amount of time. My own fury warrior runs with a 28% crit chance and attack power of 1600 and that is with not even close to a complete set of season 1 arena gear. When dealing with other classes their health drops so fast and with enchants suchs as mongoose on your weapons you can actually score 3 crits off your duel weild weapons and possiblely 4 if mongoose is on both. This means that if you are able to crit for 2.5 to 3k you would multiply this by 3 or 4 times if your mongoose procs on both weapons and you score a crit on each. That would be up to 12 thousand in damage and would kill most opponents immediately. I have had this happen. Even if this does not happen for you the amount of white damage will eventually overwhelm them.

So why is attack power more important then crit overall? This is because white damage will 9 times out of 10 win a fight for you unless your opponent scores alot of critical strikes. If you were to focus on crit instead of attack power yes you could make your crit percentage higher, but the fact is that your crit chances are still much lower and the reduced attack power because of your focus on crit is going to affect you more adversely.

If you have a crit percentage lets say of 31% and attack power of 1400 because of your focus on this stat and your opponents focus is on attack power his stats are 28% crit and 1600 attack power who do you think will win most of the time? The person whose focus is on his attack power will win most of the time with all things considered equal. The difference will be the strength and number of crits that each one is delivering. Now while you would be able to deliver 3% more crits than your opponent would his crits due to his attack power strength would be much stronger then yours. In addition this small percentage difference in crit is not enough to make a difference normally. Given a choice between strong white hits which equals more dps and a 3% higher chance of receiving a crit I will take the attack power.

Any class is about out lasting your opponent. If you can do this successfully you will win and have a more enjoyable time.