Filed under: PvP

The 2012 Arena Pass Ranked Ladder Phase 1 has begun! This incredibly well-titled section of the Arena Pass realm has kicked off in the United States and Europe, signaling the start of the ranked phases. EU players need to remember that all the dates in this article should be adjusted to one day later for EU realms.

What does it all mean? Well, if you've been in the practice phase, your rating will be reset to 0, and if you add new people to your team after this point, you'll be penalized by 150 points of rating. So if you had a rating of 300 and added a player to your roster, your rating would be adjusted to 150. Sense made? Good! It's not wholly clear whether a team with a rating of 0 would be moved to a rating of -150, but I sincerely doubt it -- and to be honest, it shouldn't be too hard to gain 150 rating points.

If a player leaves your team, you won't be penalized, to the misery of PvPing trolls everywhere.

This phase will run until May 22, at which point Ranked Ladder Phase 2 will begin and team roster changes will not be permitted, so get your teams sorted out as soon as you can. Registration is open until the end of May 22, so if you want to get involved in the Arena Pass, it's not too late to sign up.

If you want your Murkimus, then now's the time to get in the 50 3v3 games required to get him on your live realm characters. Any games you played prior to the Ranked Phase won't count toward earning him, so get involved!

Also, don't forget that if you are in the top 1,000 teams at the end of the Ranked Ladder Phase 2, you'll be getting a Vanquisher title on the live realm. By signing up for this Arena Pass, you're also getting access to an exclusive Level 90 Arena Pass Realm once you've upgraded your account to Mists of Pandaria.

To the victors, the spoils -- and also to the participants in more than 50 ranked games!

WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of Battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who has spent the past two weeks adding additional addons.

A while back in January, I wrote a guide to PvP addons and UI settings. This week's column will talk about a bunch of addons that aren't necessarily ones I'd recommend, so please, please head on over to the old column rather than just downloading everything on this page!

Don't want to read a whole other column? Well, all right, then. I'll sum it up really fast for you here, and then we'll get into the fun bit! What's the fun bit? Well, a bunch of people last week suggested new addons for me to try or for others to use, and a few have suggested others to me more recently -- so here's where I try them! How is that fun? Oh, shush. Trying new things is great! As long as they're legal.

At the time of writing the first piece, before starting my research for this one, my default addon set for Battlegrounds was:

People of Azeroth: Sharpen your axes, tighten your bowstrings, and polish up your hammers so they're shiny and ready for justice. The Arena Pass 2012 has begun! Unless you're in the EU, in which case you get an extra night of polishing time. Use it well -- I know I will!

Today, the Practice Phase began and will last until May 8. As the name suggests, this is for practice. If you're after a Murkimus or a Vanquisher title for your live realm characters, you should absolutely use this period to form teams and get ready to go, but your games won't count toward your eventual ranking or toward your title or pet.

On May 8, your rating will be reset to 0, and Ranked Ladder Phase 1 (snappy title) begins. Matches played in this period will count toward pets and titles, as well as eventual ranking. Once you're into this phase, your team will lose 150 points of rating if you take on new players, so try to make sure your team roster is sorted out before May 8. If a player leaves your team, you won't be penalized.

From May 22 to June 5, the final phase, aka Ranked Ladder Phase 2, is in action. This phase is exactly the same as Ranked Phase 1, except that no team switching is allowed.

To get yourself a Murkimus, you'll need to play 50 3v3 games between May 8 and June 5. To get a Vanquisher title, you'll need to be among the top 1,000 teams on June 5.

If you haven't registered yet and want a piece of the Arena Pass action, it's not too late! You can sign up until May 22. And if you're in the EU, you need to add 1 to all the dates above. You can entertain yourselves by doing that until the event opens tomorrow!

Lastly, don't forget that by signing up for this Arena Pass realm, you will also qualify for exclusive access to a Level 90 Arena Pass realm after you've upgraded your account to Mists of Pandaria!

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Last night, Blizzard annouced that registration has opened for the 2012 Arena Pass! Players registering will have access to arena geared level 85 characters, as well as a host of epic gear to choose from as they battle their way to the top. Gold is no object on the Arena Pass realm. You can have whatever you want, including training, respecs and gear.

The top 1,000 players will earn an exclusive Vanquisher title for their live realm character, and all players will receive access to an exclusive level 90 Arena Pass realm after they upgrade their account to Mists of Pandaria. What's more, players who participate in 50 or more rated Arena Pass games on one character and with the same team by the end of the six weeks will be eligible to receive the Armored Murloc pet for their live characters.

You can create up to three level 85 characters, all of which will be started at level 85 with a "hefty sum" of gold, parachuted in to a starting zone. Once you have your level 85, you'll need to get on board with a 3v3 team, which, as on live realms, can have up to six players on their roster.

The first two weeks are for practice, to allow players to meet, form teams, and get some matches in that won't count toward their eventual ranking, although teams will gain rating as normal. After the first two weeks, all ratings will be reset to zero, and for the next two weeks, there will be a -150 rating penalty for team roster changes. Teams will build ranking from the third week until the end of the six-week period.

In the final two weeks, rosters will be locked down and no changes will be permitted. If you want to change team rosters around in the final two weeks, you'll need to start a new team.

Good luck!

I don't really PvP these days. In vanilla, I had plenty of fun with my priest, running around and healing people who were on the mad dash for High Warlord. Back then, there wasn't really much in the way of PvP-appropriate gear -- in fact, when the honor system began, the most effective and deadly people you ran across in Battlegrounds were those who were raiding and collecting tier gear.

I remember that fact particularly infuriated a friend of mine, who over the course of vanilla did nothing but PvP, although at the time that meant basically running around Southshore and Tarren Mill. When the honor system was introduced, there was a contest held by Blizzard for those who engaged in PvP, and the top characters on the realm who got the most amount of honorable kills were rewarded with a special tabard. My friend spent weeks in Tarren Mill, happily murdering Alliance until his fingers bled, and he won his tabard handily -- after all, nobody really did as much PvP as he did. Then the Battlegrounds came out.

When he stepped into Battlegrounds, he discovered that despite the fact that he did nothing but PvP, he couldn't hold a candle against those people who engaged in raiding. The gear and weapons that they got from raiding were too powerful. And that's when he threw up his hands, said he didn't want to have to raid to be good at PvP, and promptly stopped playing the game.