Arena Skirmishes Available 12-08-06

Arena Skirmishes are now available for play.

Two New Arenas are now available in three different modes.
2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 matches

Players may queue up at Goblin NPC's in Stormwind, Ironforge, Orgrimmar, Undercity and Gadgetzan.

Information you should know:

These are skirmishes only and do not award Arena Points.

Honor is not awarded while in an Arena match.

Arena Skirmishes are intended to be played for fun and for practice. They also allow players that intend to get the expansion a chance to work with potential team members to refine strategies that could be used later in the Arena Ladder at level 70.

Rated matches are only available at level 70 with the purchase of the Burning Crusade expansion pack.

There’s a known bug where most buffs and conjured items are not being removed as you enter an arena match as they should, this will be fixed in a future patch.

Please enjoy the new Arenas!

Q u o t e:
Every time I go into an arena, it removes my pet, healthstones, etc. Although this is "working as intended", is it really expected for a warlock to carry enough Soul Shards to resummon pets/healhstones/soulstones even fire and spell stones EVERY time we enter/leave an arena?

Hoping for a blue response =)

There shouldn't be any prep time costs.

More information on the Arenas and how they work can be found on this page- http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/arena/index.xml

Q u o t e:
Warmup

At the beginning of each match, both teams are placed in separate holding areas, similar to battlegrounds like Arathi Basin or Warsong Gulch.

• Any existing buffs and conjured items will be purged or deleted upon entering. This is to ensure outside buffs are not used, and no conjured items from players not actually in your group are being used.
  
• Your health and mana are set to full.
  
• While your buffs are removed, your debuffs are not. This is to prevent players from using arena matches to clear their debuffs.
  
• Mana/Rage/Energy costs are reduced to zero in the holding area so that teams can 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, otherwise they'd be able to summon their long-cooldown pets before entering.

Q u o t e:


I specifically checked just now and it dispelled my Healthstone when I joined, and when I re-cast the spell and it gave me the Healthstone, yet I lost a Soul Shard. I can Fraps it next time if you need me to. =)

I'll make note of this and it wouldn't hurt to make sure you report the bug as well so that we get it covered and double checked. Thanks fro the heads-up!

Q u o t e:
How do we join skirmishes as a premade group when you can't form groups until lvl 70?

You should be able to queue as a group. Please let us know if this is not occuring.

Just as a follow-up, apparently the 0 cost for shards should be in with the next patch. There were some things that just didn't make it in this last push into the Prep area functionality. Do not adjust your sets. This will be addressed before too long. I hope that helps to clear up any confusion.