If you're not sure how to access the TTR, you can read Zach Yonzon's guide here on the site. Don't worry if you don't have a character transfer slot left, every character created on the TTR is automatically level 70, and will spawn next to a selection of vendors that will let them buy a wide variety of gear to outfit themselves for battle.

Assuming the TTR doesn't collapse under the stress, we'll see you there!

Believe it or not, there is actually someone out there who wants Blizzard to bring back the old honor system. You remember: the system where you had to slave away for hours and hours (and hours) day after day (after day) in order to get anything epic -- especially the "Grand Marshal" or "High Warlord" epic weapons. Apparently, Pahs thinks that the time sink the old honor system required proved a deeper dedication on the part of the players who went for it. Nowadays, anybody -- even people with jobs(!) -- can just earn up their honor points and spend them like money, when, according to Pahs, such folks should be content to "talk to a few friends and maybe do a BG or two." He says, and I quote: "Why people with real life responsibility's want the same treatment as people who can input more time into the game is beyond me."

Yet a surprising number of posters in his thread agree with him, citing the number one problem with the current system: the appearance of AFKers in all the battlegrounds. Naturally, it offends our sense of justice that AFKers can get honor gear for free by having their characters sitting in the battlegrund leeching off of their teammates, while they themselves don't have to put in any effort at all. In the previous system, players would have had to actually kill the enemy and win in order to progress past rank 5 or so. Likewise, the old system's ranks and titles were fun -- people always like to be able to distinguish themselves from others, though whether for a genuine feeling of achievement or some kind of "Better than thou" badge, depends on the individual.

But going back to the old honor grind in order to get rid of AFKers would be ridiculous. As Tyren says, the newer system, with arenas and objective-based world PvP in addition to battlegrounds, is a vast improvement. It provides more access and variety to more players, and exchanges time for rewards at a far more reasonable pace. What we see in this case is a classic example of people reminiscing about the "good old days," which were never really that good to begin with, simply because frustrating problems have appeared along with the improvements. As much as we all may hate AFKers and other new problems, it's much better to go forward and find new ways to solve such problems than to go back to such an unbalanced system with far more serious flaws of its own.

Today's maintenance is over, but the Season 3 Arena gear drama has only just begun, or ended depending on your point of view. Late last night, Tyren posted that when the servers came back up there is a new change to purchasing S3 Arena equipment. Before the maintenance, a certain Personal Rating was needed to buy the S3 gear, but now the same gear requires the purchaser's Team Rating to be in the same range.

According to Jagoex at Warlock Therapy, this was done to stop a practice of artificially inflating your Personal Rating. Our own Zach Yonzon explained this smurfing concept. Players would form teams with their main and alts, winning with their mains and losing with their alts, thus ensuring a slow and steady Personal Rating gain. Now that the equivalent Team Rating is required, those people working the system have to play the Arenas the way Blizzard intended.

Tyren also mentioned that though the new purchasing requirements are in effect as of today, they won't be displayed by the in-game vendors yet, but in an "upcoming patch." So though you won't see it listed in-game, the Team Rating is now required.

EDIT: Clarified last sentence.