WoW -> PvP -> Arena

The Arenas of World of Warcraft give the most battle-hardened and cold-blooded fighters a place to compete against each other in gladiatorial battles for honor, glory, and power. Gather your allies, build your teams, and prepare to face off against formidable, merciless opponents in a race to claim the honor of being the highest ranked Arena Team on your realm.

The main goal of the Arena PvP System is to offer players a highly competitive environment that does not rely so much on a huge investment of time but rather on a team's playing skills. Because the Arena System is meant to be the ultimate PvP challenge, the level requirement to join an Arena Team is level 70. You have the option of engaging other players in practice matches even if you are not level 70 yet, but these skirmishes do not gain you a Team Rating or Arena Points (more on those later).

Fields of Honor: The Arenas

Like battlegrounds, Arenas are instanced playfields where teams of players fight against each other. There are three Arenas currently in the game. The Ring of Trials can be found in Nagrand, while the Circle of Blood is in the Blade's Edge Mountains. Ruins of Lordaeron has no physical location you can visit in the outside world. Each Arena has a different layout and some unique twists that add different strategic elements to the fight.

Ruins of Lordaeron

Location: Part of the ruined site above the Undercity
Theme: Once-proud Human capital fallen to the Scourge
Special: A prominent coffin in the center is valuable tactical high ground, but makes you a highly visible target.
Shadow Sight: After 90 seconds, two Shadow Sight powerups appear on opposite sides of the arena. Picking one up will briefly let you see stealthed and invisible characters, at the cost of slightly damaging your health.

The Ring of Trials

Location: Nagrand, southeast of Garadar
Theme: Ancient orcish proving ground
Shadow Sight: After 90 seconds, two Shadow Sight powerups appear on opposite sides of the arena. Picking one up will briefly let you see stealthed and invisible characters, at the cost of slightly damaging your health.

The Circle of Blood

Location: Blade's Edge Mountains, north of Thunderlord Village
Theme: Ogrish arena
Shadow Sight: After 90 seconds, two Shadow Sight powerups appear on opposite sides of the arena. Picking one up will briefly let you see stealthed and invisible characters, at the cost of slightly damaging your health.

Building Your Team

Arena Teams are similar to guilds in that they are persistent groups of players with their own name and symbol. There are three different types of teams, one for each type of match you can fight in the Arena: two players versus two players (2v2), 3v3, and 5v5. Unlike guilds, you can be in several different teams at the same time, but you can be in only one team of a certain type; for example, you can't be in two different 3v3 teams, but you can be in a 2v2 and in a 5v5 team. Also, you need to be at least level 70 before you can join or create an Arena Team.

Creating an Arena Team is like creating a guild. Simply purchase a team charter from an Arena Promoter, name your team, pick your team colors and logo, and collect additional player signatures depending on the team size (one additional signature for a 2v2 team, two for a 3v3, and four for a 5v5). Once you have all the signatures you need, you can turn in your completed team charter.

A team can include up to twice the number of characters required to start the team, which means you can have benchwarmers that fill in if your main gladiators are not available.

Team Charters can be purchased at the following locations:

"King Dond" - The Ring of Trials in Nagrand
Steamwheedle Sam - Circle of Blood in Blade's Edge Mountains
Bip Nigstrom - Gadgetzan in Tanaris

The prices for team charters are:

2v2 Team Charter - 80g
3v3 Team Charter - 120g
5v5 Team Charter - 200g

Fighting in the Arena

Once you have your team set up, it's time to prove your might in the Arena. You get into an Arena match like you join a Battleground: talk to an Arena Battlemaster and select the type of match you want to queue for. You can select either a ranked game or a skirmish, which is a practice fight that won't impact your Team Rating. Once your team is in the queue, the matchmaking system will look for other teams with a suitable ranking for you to play against. When it finds a match, both teams are teleported into the arena and the match countdown begins.

Arena Battlemasters are located next to other battlemasters in major cities. Ask a guard for directions. Additionally, you can start arena games at The Ring of Trials in Nagrand, Circle of Blood in Blade's Edge Mountains, and Gadgetzan. Most arena players seem to use the Arena Battlemaster in Shattrath City. As when joining a Battleground, after a match your team will be teleported to the battlemaster who entered your team in the queue.

Fights in the Arena are subject to a set of special rules. You'll find the most important ones listed below. We recommend you familiarize yourself with these rules before you enter your first match.

Pre-match Countdown At the beginning of each match, both teams are placed in separate holding areas on opposite ends of the arena, and a countdown begins. Get ready to fight!

Any existing buffs and conjured items will be purged or deleted upon entering. This is to ensure that outside buffs are not used, and that no conjured items from players not actually in your group are being used.
Your health and mana are set to full.
Mana/Rage/Energy costs are reduced to zero during the countdown so that teams can quickly buff up and prepare for the match.
Soul Shard costs are reduced to zero so that warlocks can summon Healthstones for their party without needing to bring an excessive number of stones for their group. This also means that warlocks can summon pets during this period without using a soul shard.
Pets are dismissed upon entering an arena. Players must re-summon them once entering.
Players cannot change armor once an arena battle has begun, even if out of combat. Changing armor will still be possible during the one-minute prep time prior to the battle. Main hand, off hand and range weapon swapping in combat is still allowed.
No consumables other than bandages and conjured items can be used while in the arena.

Team Flags Each player automatically carries a flag that indicates what team they are on. Your team's insignia will be on this flag, so make sure to design a banner that will strike fear, confusion, or mirth in your enemies.

Fight! After the countdown expires, the gates fly open and the match officially begins. Use teamwork, coordination, and communication to outplay your opponents! You will have no information about who your opponents are or what their class composition is until the match begins.

Death in the Arena When a character is defeated in an Arena match, they'll have the option to run around and "spectate" as a ghost by clicking on the appropriate option in the release spirit window. As a spectator, you can move freely around the arena and view the action but can not be seen by or interact with other players.

Victory Conditions Every Arena match is a game of Last Man Standing, meaning that the match ends once all characters on one team have died, with the other team being the winner. There is no time limit for Arena matches.

Post-Match Summary After the fight is over, a scoreboard appears with the following info:

Player names
Team names
Killing Blows per player
Damage Done per player
Healing Done per player
Rating adjustment per team

Other Information

Abilities/spells/items with cooldowns longer than 15 minutes cannot be used while in the arena.
There is a power-up that allows you to see stealthed or invisible players, but it increaess damage taken by 5% for picking it up. Duration is 15 seconds. This allows you to combat players who attempt to hide to delay the match.
When players enter the Arena, all cooldowns on spells or items that have 15 minutes or less are reset. This allows them to have all their abilities available when the fight begins.
Players can use the /teamquit or /teamdisband command in order to leave an Arena team. Example: /teamquit 2v2
The last pet a player had summoned will be resummoned outside the Arena upon leaving.
Items that are indicated as quest items in their tooltips and have a "use" or "equip" ability will not work in arenas.
Personal Rating: The amount a player's personal rating can climb above his or her team's rating is now limited.
The benefits of drinking out of combat have been delayed while in the Arena. It will now take four seconds before the full benefit of the mana regeneration will come into effect.
If a character's personal rating is more than 150 points below the team rating, they will earn points based on their personal rating instead of the team rating.
If the average personal rating of the players queuing for a game is more than 150 points below the team's rating, the team will be queued against an opponent matching or similar to the average personal rating.
Players feared outside of the Arena (through the world or outside the arena walls) will be teleported back to the center of the arena map.

Team Ratings, Arena Points, and Sweet, Sweet Prizes

From Team Ratings to Arena Points The Arena System is meant to primarily reward competitiveness and player skill, and this is reflected in the way Team Ratings, Arena Points, and Arena Rewards tie into each other.

Each team has a Team Rating. This rating reflects how well your team is doing in the Arena System; the higher your rating, the better. When you queue up for a fight, the matchmaking system uses your rating to find a suitable match. Every time your team wins a match, your rating goes up, and every time you lose a match, your rating goes down. The amount by which your rating changes depends on your team's rating compared to the other team's rating – if you win against a higher ranked team, your rating will improve more than if you steamrolled a weaker team. Similarly, losing against a weaker team will hurt your rating more than losing against superior enemies. The exact formulae are a bit more complicated than that, but the basic idea is similar to the Elo ranking system used for professional chess.

At the end of each week, your Team Rating is used to calculate how many Arena Points your team will receive for the week. Your team must have fought a minimum of ten matches per week to be rewarded with Arena Points, and a player must have been in at least 30% of all your matches to be eligible for that week's points. It is important to note that the points you receive in a given week is determined by only one team, and not from a combination of all your teams. Whichever team you are a member of that would receive the most points after accounting for Team Rating and team type becomes the sole source for your points for that week.

The transformation from your Team Rating to Arena Points starts off as a linear function, but once you go beyond a certain rating threshold, the function becomes logistic. This means that you will see a significant payoff increase once your Team Rating goes beyond a certain point, but the high-end spectrum of the ratings will eventually notice a decrease in how much bang they get for their buck. In addition, 2v2 and 3v3 teams are subject to a handicap where they receive less points than a 5v5 team with the same Team Rating.

Arena Calculator

Three Different Arena CalculatorsColor-coded FieldsReference Sheet

The Arena Calculator is a tool that allows you to do a number of helpful calculations for when and how you can spend your arena points. Choose one of the three useful calculators to help you answer the following questions:

How many arena points will I earn this week?
What's the average rating I'll need to get my desired arena reward?
When can I expect to get my desired arena reward?

FAQ

If I am a member of multiple Arena teams, do I receive points from all my teams each week?
In a given week, your Arena Points are determined by the single team which earns the most points after accounting for Team Rating and team type. For example, if you are on both a 2v2 team and a 5v5 team that played the minimum 10 matches for the week, and each team has a 1800 rating, you would receive points only from your 5v5 team as it earned the most points (as a 5v5 team, it is not subject to a point handicap). Thus, although all your teams are used to determine the points you receive, it is not by simply adding up the total points from all your teams.

Do players keep their Arena Points after a season ends?
Yes.