PvP Rating Inflation Raised, Venomous Rage Trinket Nerfed

What changed on September 17

Blizzard significantly increased PvP rating inflation across every rated mode, with the strongest effect aimed at Battleground Blitz, Rated Battlegrounds and Rated 3v3 Arena. The change is already live, so the rating you see on the ladder today was produced under different rules from the one you saw yesterday.

The same batch cuts Font of Venomous Rage damage in half in PvP combat, corrects a tank-targeting bug on The Venomous Abyss, and fixes an enemy-forces problem in Ruby Life Pools.

Player versus Player

• Significantly increased PvP rating inflation for all rated PvP modes with emphasis on Battleground Blitz, Rated Battlegrounds, and Rated 3v3 Arena.
• Font of Venomous Rage trinket damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.

Developers' notes: "We've seen your feedback that achievable PvP ratings are not meeting expectations, so we're applying a significant increase to PvP rating inflation starting now for all rated PvP modes with emphasis on Battleground Blitz, Rated Battlegrounds, and Rated 3v3 Arena. As with past changes to inflation, this adjustment is intended to improve progression as the season continues and support healthier ladder movement. We'll continue monitoring rating distribution and make further adjustments as necessary. Thank you for your continued feedback and we'll see you on the battlefield!"

What the inflation change does to your rating

Rating inflation is the lever Blizzard uses to let ratings across a bracket drift upward as a season runs, so that a player who keeps queueing keeps climbing rather than stalling at the number they reached in the first month. Turning it up mid-season is a deliberate correction, and Blizzard named the reason: player feedback that achievable ratings were not meeting expectations.

Three things follow from how this was worded. It applies to all rated modes, so 2v2 and Solo Shuffle are included even though they are not the modes called out. The emphasis on Blitz, Rated Battlegrounds and 3v3 means those three should move fastest. And Blizzard says it will keep watching rating distribution and adjust again if needed, so treat the current setting as the state of the season rather than its final form.

How far your own bracket has moved is something to read off the ladder rather than off the patch note: "significantly" is the only measure attached to the change. If you set a rating goal a week ago, re-check it against where the thresholds actually sit now. For how rating is earned and lost underneath all of this, see the PvP rating system explained.

Where the rewards line now sits

Inflation moves ratings, and reward thresholds are what decide whether a moved rating is worth anything. Duelist, Elite, Gladiator and Legend do not all behave the same way when the ladder drifts, and how PvP cutoffs are calculated is what separates the ones that hold still from the ones that follow the field.

The live 3v3 cutoffs are the fastest way to see where the arena rewards line has landed since the change went in.

Battleground Blitz is the mode Blizzard listed first, and it is also where a mid-season inflation change is felt soonest, because Blitz games resolve quickly and a queueing player banks a lot of them in a week.

Re-read both after a few days of play rather than immediately. A cutoff reflects the field, and the field needs games before it settles into its new shape.

Font of Venomous Rage halved in PvP

The one item change in this batch is a straight 50% damage cut to Font of Venomous Rage in PvP combat, with its PvE behaviour untouched. The cut is scoped to PvP combat alone, which places the problem in rated play rather than in the raid, and it lands on the same raid tier the September 15 batch spent twenty-six of its thirty-three entries adjusting.

If that trinket was in your rated set, the slot is now an open decision again. The PvP trinkets guide covers what the alternatives do and which ones are worth the currency.

Dungeons and raids

Ruby Life Pools

• Addressed an issue where Blazebound Destroyers or Primalist Flamedancers could fail to contribute towards enemy forces if no player was on their threat table when they finished their death sequence.

Developers' notes: "A known side-effect of this change is that these creatures will no longer display their contribution towards enemy forces on their tooltip in the default UI."

The Venomous Abyss - The Coiled Altar

• Fixed an issue where Unnerving Fixation was targeting tanks more often than intended.

What to do now

Queue. An inflation increase rewards games played, and the players who bank matches while the ladder is moving are the ones who end up on the right side of it.

Check your own bracket's thresholds on the live cutoffs pages for EU and US before committing to a target, and read PvP rewards by rating if you are deciding which reward tier is realistically in reach for the rest of the season.

Full text of the batch is on Blizzard's September 17 hotfixes page.