Personal Rating Exploits

[Bolty]

That didn't take long...

Teams are already exploiting the personal rating requirements to obtain Arena Season 3 weapons.

1) Create a team at 1500.
2) Put some alts on it and tank the rating (to, say, 1400).
3) Get on your mains and win a bunch to get to 1550.
4) Get on your alts again and tank the rating back down to 1400.
5) Get on your mains and win a bunch to get to 1550.
6) Repeat steps 4 and 5.

End result is that your team is rated somewhere around 1500, but your personal rating on your main shoots all the way up to 1850. Even if your personal rating only goes up 2-3 points for a win near the end of this cycle, it's almost guaranteed points, and you get to 1850 and get your weapon.

I've already seen teams doing this on Stormrage. Met a mage last night who had the Season 3 weapon but had a highest team rating of 1555. He was *boasting* about it.

If you start thinking ahead, you'll realize that the Gladiator title will be worth even less this season because a similar exploitation system can be used to buff up your personal rating at the high end. Why fight teams rated 2300 when you can fight teams rated 2100 and move up? (Yes, there's a big difference between teams rated 2300 and 2100 in my experience.)

-Bolty

[Artega]

This is why, more and more, WoW is beginning to mean Waiting on Warhammer for me.

EDIT: Why did they make the weapons require 1850 and the shoulders require 2000? It's not like you need the shoulders to achieve the four-piece bonus, and weapons are much more visible than shoulder pieces.

[Xanthix]

EDIT: Why did they make the weapons require 1850 and the shoulders require 2000? It's not like you need the shoulders to achieve the four-piece bonus, and weapons are much more visible than shoulder pieces.

Blizzard has had a love affair with their shoulder art for a long time. They outright refused to allow players to be able to turn off shoulder art when they did the same for helms and cloaks.

I think it's because shoulderpads use custom art and models, whereas other armor pieces like chestplates just use new art on oen of the base chestplate models which are built in to the character model.

I believe the reason for the higher req for shoulders is that they want one distinctive piece to have a personal requirement, but they didn't want to limit most people from getting weapons (which are very important to many classes), or from getting their set bonuses.

[Mirajj]

All the more reason to stop balancing the game around pvp, and put the focus back on pve.;)

[Zarathustra]

All the more reason to stop balancing the game around pvp, and put the focus back on pve.;)

We can only pray.

[Artega]

All the more reason to stop balancing the game around pvp, and put the focus back on pve.;)

Except the PvE game isn't anything special, either.

Even in its horrifically mutilated form, the PvP is still superior to the PvE.

[Taelas]

Not in any way, shape or form.:P

[Artega]

Not in any way, shape or form.:P

Subject to opinion, of course:)

I find butchering mindless, repetitive Alliance scum to be more entertaining than slaughtering mindless, repetitive AI routines.

[NiteFox]

Subject to opinion, of course:)

I find butchering mindless, repetitive Alliance scum to be more entertaining than slaughtering mindless, repetitive AI routines.

Now, in utter fairness, your average 5-man boss is smarter than the last Alliance Halaa defense group I steamrolled just before taking a hiatus:P

[Tuftears]

For some reason I thought that personal ratings were reset to 1500 when you joined a new team... They must have slipped up and forgotten they were going to do that.

[Warlock]

For some reason I thought that personal ratings were reset to 1500 when you joined a new team... They must have slipped up and forgotten they were going to do that.

The method listed doesn't use a team change - it uses alts in the bench.

I don't see an easy fix. It does sound like the rewards for beating a lower rated team are too high - ideally a hundred fights between any two groups should leave the rating more or less unchanged, so if a "really 1700" player can reliably increase their rating by arranging fights against 1500 teams then the rewards for winning and losing are off. It's always going to be possible to use alts to feed points into the system somehow though.

[oldmandennis]

But there is any easy fix - just have the point per win curve flatten out and then hit zero if there is more then a 150 point difference.

[Lissa]

But there is any easy fix - just have the point per win curve flatten out and then hit zero if there is more then a 150 point difference.

Simpler fix would be to make it so your personal rating cannot be above the teams rating. Yes, it screws people that are inactive and thus lose personal rating, but it definitely means there is no way possible to game the system.

[Xame]

I don't see an easy fix.

Two easy fixes and a suggestion that would really make Arenas what Blizzard intended.

To buy the weapon you need BOTH personal rating and team rating for that bracket at the level needed to buy the item. Its as simple as a "and" statement in the software. Clearly this is a coding laziness bug which is being exploited by people.

To solve the general ratings "pumping" action that is done by teams rolling over to each other; Blizzard would have to save the last 20-30 matches a team plays and offer zero points for a second win in that week. To make it easier on blizzards computers, you could do this only for teams above the 1700 rating (see the battlegrounds for reduced honor as an example). At some depth of "previous" games the action of pumping becomes too painful. Teams will be forced to look for "fresh" teams to move their ratings.

I personally would add a zero points rule for teams with a 250 rating points split. It would count as a "game" for your 10 games but not as a rated match for earning rating since the skill level is so lopsided (just like a chess master playing 50 people at once and losing to an unrated player really isn't a mark of skill but just randomness). But I think such a rule is not needed if you do the above two coding changes since highly rated teams will be "looking" for each other to get quality points (instead of avoiding each other which is currently the strategy in pumping). But such a rule would prevent the exploit of loging on at 4am and taking 10pts from a friends team every week with little or no risk to your rating. The movement would be slow because of the "2nd win rule proposed above" but it is very predictable and safe without a true demonstration of skill.

[Xanthix]

Looks like this was addressed today:

"Please be aware that with this week’s maintenance, purchasing arena season 3 items that have a required arena personal rating will now also require the purchaser’s arena team rating to be at the same point values as well."
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...3355616&sid=1#0

Not sure if that will solve the problem, but presumably it will make it harder for people to farm these items easily in the manner explained here.

[Taelas]

... doesn't that make personal ratings absolutely pointless?

[Lissa]

... doesn't that make personal ratings absolutely pointless?

No, it means that people cannot join a high rating team play 3 games, have the big points grabbers play 7, and still get a netherdrake at the end of the season.

[Taelas]

No, it means that people cannot join a high rating team play 3 games, have the big points grabbers play 7, and still get a netherdrake at the end of the season.

True, I didn't think of that... and I suppose that's mainly the reason they were implemented, anyway.

[Mirajj]

Not sure if that will solve the problem, but presumably it will make it harder for people to farm these items easily in the manner explained here.

Only if their rating is tied to their team. If someone can exploit up their rating to a high level, then just join a friends high ranked team to get that teams rating, this is again pointless.

So much effort to shoehorn something that doesn't belong into somewhere it shouldn't be.;)

[Bolty]

Only if their rating is tied to their team. If someone can exploit up their rating to a high level, then just join a friends high ranked team to get that teams rating, this is again pointless.

You don't get that new team's rating. That's the whole point of personal ratings. If you join a team rated 2000, your personal rating is 1500. You will have to compete quite a lot to get your personal rating up there, especially since you're now playing against harder teams.

At a 1500 personal rating, you'll get 30 (32?) points for a win against another 2000-rated team. But you still have to GET that win while you are playing in the arena - no more free rides for scrubs.

-Bolty