pvp drop requirements

Hey, I haven't gone into an arena since they changed the way pvp IO's dropped. Do arena matches have to be rated now for someone to get one of these?

I haven't tried arena farming for them since the change, so I don't know. But I don't recall hearing anything about that. As far as I know, the only requirement is that it is a rep capable kill, because it is tied to the same 5 minute timer. It should work whether or not the match is rated.

Note though that the rate is so low, it is unlikely you'll get one in an Arena match unless you can get a lot of people.

They don't have to be rated. There's a 5 minute timer on getting a drop from a given target, just like there is on rep in the zones, as TopDoc said. Between that and the drop rate, it's unlikely you'll see one.

So I'm still a little confused. You only get a chance for a drop every 5 minutes or it's once you get one offa a person you can't get another chance for 5 minutes? I used to get one back in the day after about 60 kills off of the same guy; would this be the same or is it now a ton more between drops because of the 5 minute thing? Thanks for the replies

Whenever you defeat someone, you have a chance that they'll drop something. However, once you've killed a given someone, you aren't eligible to get another drop for defeating them again for five minutes.

Mechanically, it's supposed to work like the timer on getting reputation for defeating someone, though it has its own timer and works in places where you don't get rep (like the Arena).

Wow that sucks; that changes my eligible kills from one every thirty seconds at my previous rate to one every five minutes. Massively not worth it.

That's unusual luck. That's how random works. Your example is not suggestive of the averages. The average we're seeing reported is more like 1 per 60 kills.

So, like I said, what you saw is not likely.