World of warcraft released the upcoming patch notes and some of the changes are going to be welcome by many players. One of the most welcome changes will be to the arena point calculations. One of the issues that many players have complained about is the practice of slot selling. This is where a lower rated player buys a slot on a higher rated team and receives arena points at the end of each week based on the rating of the team.

Under the current system a team could sell a slot to a player for a set amount of gold. This amount paid to the team would allow the player to stay on the team roster for a period of one week and particpate in at least one third of the teams matches. This would qualify the player to receive the weekly arena points based on the teams current rating and thus lowering the amount of time needed for a player to gear up to the current seasons armor by a large amount. So for example if a teams rating is 1850 and the new members personal rating is only 1400 they would receive a significant boost at the end of the week in the number of arena points they would receive.

Under the current system the player who bought their spot would receive:

However with the upcoming changes any player on a team whose personal rating is 150 points or more below that of their team will receive points based on their personal rating and not that of the team. This will be a significant reduction in the amount of points received as shown in the calculation image below taken from the Arena Point calculater on World of Warcrafts armory site.

New point calculation:

With this change the points that a player receives will be reduced by 392. This is a huge change to the current system and will force many players to actually work on their personal rating and team ratings to achieve the higher weekly points reward that comes with a higher team rating. By making this new and welcome change WOW will create a more even advancement system for everyone. While yes there will always be elite teams and players this newchange will allow the rest of us to have a more even advantage at receiving our gear upgrades at the same pace as those that pay to upgrade theirs quickly.