You are correct. The season transition and introduction of new PvP items was different this time around, and we apologize for the lack of advanced warning.
The Season 9 set was removed today. The items available for purchase with Honor Points are now considered lower tier Season 10 items. They are still the same items from Season 9 in terms of aesthetics, but the item level and stats are slightly higher to ensure that the Season 10 honor gear has the correct item level relative to the Season 10 conquest gear.
It's likely this is how things will work going forward and we'll be sure to make that more clear when the next season transition takes place.
New basic transition flow:
1) Season X ends and rated play is unavailable; Season X gear becomes available for purchase with HP; CP is wiped.
2) One week later Season Y starts and rated play is available; Season X gear is removed entirely; Season Y introduces a low tier of items which replace Season X vendor items and are available for HP; Season Y introduces the new top items available for CP and rated play. [source]
If it is not entirely clear from the above, or the 51-page post-capped thread, the basic gist is anyone who bought S9 epic gear in the last week got punked by Blizzard. The 365 gear that previously required Conquest Points, then required only Honor points - this is what you would expect in an universe of forms and logic and elegant game design. In bizarro-Blizzard C Team Land, taking the 365 epics and obsoleting them one week later with strictly better in every conceivable way 371 gear, for the same Honor costs even, makes sense. Here is a visual:
On the right, the 365 PvP chest that was 2200 Honor as of June 28th (gemmed and enchanted as you'll notice). On the left, the 371 PvP chest that is 2200 Honor as of July 5th, about 168 hours later. Luckily enough, I had not played my warrior all that often after purchasing the chest, so I still had time remaining to sell it back to the vendor for a 2200 Honor refund, and then buy the new 371 version. Whether the stat upgrade seems like a big deal to you or not really depends on how much you PvP, but one way of looking at it is that the 371 pieces give you 6% more stats.
And, you know, the whole fact this was such a huge designer "Gotcha!" moment; a fitting insult to the injury of literally wasting dozens of hours across hundreds of thousands of players. That is the other way of looking at it.
This is par for the course for what I can only imagine is the C Team. Remember when they accidentally did the Conquest --> Honor conversion a week early without raising the Honor cap, resulting in thousands of Conquest points being turned into relatively useless gold? Or when MMR values were so FUBAR that they made the 2200 weapons require level 86, then delayed returning them to normal for months because not very many people were clearing heroic T11 content?
It is hard finding a stickie thread that is not also an apology for some massive screw-up.
makes me glad I was slacking on my pvp alt! But I know at least 2 guildies who will be pretty upset about this, especially as they spent all last night on their pvp alts :(
ReplyDeleteI wonder... are disgruntled developers trying to deliberately sabotage the game? This looks like a symptom of breakdown of internal cohesion of the dev team.
ReplyDeleteI think the probability of terminations is increasing over there.
Just imagine how PO'd you'd be if you bought the season 9 gear last week and got it fully enchanted and gemmed, only to be punked a week later?
ReplyDeleteGlad I don't PvP anymore.
@Cold -- I don't have to imagine. I bought 4 of those pieces last week including the above chestpiece. Most are gemmed, enchanted, and reforged.
ReplyDeleteI'm not that PO'd though. I don't generally pvp or raid (or even do heroics). I use pvp when I first reach 85 as a means to quickly upgrade my gear and I only upgrade gear to let me access as much as possible in solo PvE play.
Otoh -- yeah, screwing around with the ease at which people can get gear at various iLvls seemingly at random is seriously effed up. I miss classic when you could work for 6 months trying to upgrade a piece of gear and not have your efforts made pointless the following week at the whim of the developers.
John
The worst part is the enchants and gems. They could at have mentioned it. So we could have held off on buying it or even held off on gemming/enchanting it.
ReplyDeleteI really don't understand all the moaning going on with it. You played a week full of enjoyment, get some new shinies and were happy until yesterday. Now you can continue playing foreven more new epixx and everyone shouts "I'm punked".
ReplyDeleteThey made a mistake. They clarified the way it should have worked. They apologize. I presume they will don't make the same fault again.
For me this is not a sign of "C team", but sometimes it is easier to hyperventilate and blame others for their fault than to realize that nothing was lost, unless you thing you lost "some time of my life playing a game" in which case you shouldn't play anyway
The dev team need to have their mothers and pets raped for this outrage.
ReplyDeleteNot a big deal? Don't know why people are bitching about it?
It's all about the time investment. The game already strongly encourages people to cut corners and bot because of the painful grind for base level gear to participate competitively in content. But to make an entire SET of gear essentially defunct after a WEEK of being available means many MANY thousands of hours of people's personal time wasted for not other reason than some fucking idiots' oversight.
The anger is justified.
Who gives a crap about gear and pixels? No one.
Who gives a crap about people wasting your time due to their own incompetence with only a 'whoops, we're sorry' offered as compensation?
Everyone on the god damn fucking planet.
The decision makers behind this process need to be thrown on the scrapheap of unemployment. In any private industry enterprise, if someone wasted so much of your damn time you'd sue the bastards.
For me this is not a sign of "C team", but sometimes it is easier to hyperventilate and blame others for their fault than to realize that nothing was lost, unless you thing you lost "some time of my life playing a game" in which case you shouldn't play anyway
ReplyDeleteThe easy way to determine if something was "lost" is to imagine whether or not a player would make the same decision today that they did a week ago. As in, would I have bought the 365 gear last week if I had known the 371 gear would be released a few days later. The answer: clearly no. In fact, I would imagine that the vast majority of players would, in fact, choose not to PvP at all in that interim week rather than buy the 365 gear. Or, simply convert the honor into JP.
The value of gear in this game is generally proportional to its longevity. Getting Best-In-Slot items now is extremely valuable considering the many months you will be able to coast along while enjoying its benefits. Every player who bought the 365 gear was under the impression it would be the bottom-tier PvP gear for entirety of Season 10. The bait-and-switch not only robbed players of that perceived value, it explicitly sent the signal that players would have been better off not having played at all than playing during that week.
I can see where you want to get, however I don't buy it.
ReplyDeleteIf nobody "gives a crap about gear and pixels" why have you played last week? You got enjoyment, HK, may be some warm feeling slaughtering newbies in BG. If this is the case what was taken from you, where was the "wasting of time"? I can't see what you are talking about, if the gear doesn't matter to you. So let's get that straight: you ARE talking about the pixels, nothing else.
Azuriel is more honestly, he IS talking about the gear when combines the game with "lost". Would you do it again if you knew what will happen a week later? If you say yes, you played for your amusement, to get better at PvP, BG or whatever, for hanging out with friends - and you have lost nothing, but had a good time playing your favorite game.
If you would have done it anyway to get better gear for ONE week so you have a kickstart for the next season, kudos to your dedication.
If you said "I wouldn't have bought the two pieces 365 gear with my 4000 points but would have waited one week to buy 2 piece 371 with these points" you are the smart (and lazy) goblin like I am - and every goblin knows when to shrug off a lost and don't get angry about it.
However if you are the "I wouldn't have played because the gear I got is crap now" type of player I think you take this game way too serious and much too much like an unenjoyable workload. May be you wouldn't have played last week, however some 16 weeks from now you will get the same disappointment while also moaning how everything is always the same grind. I give you a tip: you should consider to stop playing unless you like it to be unhappy.
But may be we can agree that we have different views regarding the "lost" in this case ;)