Power Ratings: The Final Countdown

Four months after my last post on the Arena Power Ratings, I am back with a minor update.  For various reasons, these numbers have become less and less meaningful as the BC expansion wears out, so I waited until Season 4's dying breath to make this last post.  Given that so many players are inactive now, the beta is out, and the 3.0 patch is coming to completely destroy the classes as we know them, the end is here for BC arena.  Consider this a "last look" at how things were before the new Death Knight class enters the fray along with all sorts of crazy new talents.

Today's Arena Power Ratings

Rank	Class	Power
1	Warrior	109.47
2	Druid	107.59
3	Rogue	107.22
4	Priest	105.12
5	Warlock	97.57
6	Mage	97.43
7	Shaman	93.36
8	Paladin	84.18
9	Hunter	76.53

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People's Choice Arena Ratings

Rank	Class	Percent
1	Druid	181.72%
2	Rogue	162.17%
3	Warrior	160.76%
4	Warlock	99.24%
5	Priest	95.52%
6	Mage	69.91%
7	Shaman	59.34%
8	Paladin	45.48%
9	Hunter	35.55%

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The Final Countdown

Droves of PvPers have quit playing, others continue to skew the results by selling their skills to hungry bidders and playing multiple accounts out of boredom.  With that in mind, we think these figures are somewhat distorted, but the one bright spot is that we finally have numbers recorded across the launch of a new season. 

When Season 4 came out, we briefly saw a "less imperfect" picture as most players got on their main teams and initially competed for gear ratings.  This gives us a general peek at what is most dominant, and in this case we see a huge spike in the Druid and Rogue numbers, jiving with the general sentiments of the PvP community.  After the initial rush for rating, players help their friends level teams and start selling ratings, and all the numbers get watered down, shifting back to a more conservative figure across the board.  Even with this effect, you'll notice the classes fall into a roughly similar ranking, so we feel pretty good about showing the graph.



Looking Forward

Hunters and Paladins, with Shaman not too far behind, should be looking to WotLK for hope.  The WoW developers have not exactly shown a strong response to arena balance issues for these classes in BC, but the new expansion gives them a chance for a do-over, as all class balance and mechanics are tweaked at once.

After serving as the bottom feeders for the entire expansion, a return to viability for any of these classes should show up quite dramatically on our WotLK ratings charts.

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Graphical Timelines (relative to the "balance point")