Upcoming honor changes in 3.3.3

The battlegrounds in World of Warcraft have seriously needed to be reworked. It’s been a clunky quest driven system while PvE has gotten a smoother interface and a more streamlined method of dealing with the daily hassle of doing a daily dungeon. We’re getting a rework in patch 3.3.3 including new calculations for honor and a new random battleground tool to replace the daily battleground quest.

Honor Changes

The amount of Honor awarded for an Honorable Kill has been increased by 100% for characters of all levels. Given that all avenues in the game which award players with Honor do so with a calculated conversion from a specific amount of Honorable Kills, this change means that all Honor players can obtain through various means will be increased by 100%. To offset against this in two key areas, experience gains in Battlegrounds have been reduced by 50% and Honor awarded for completing each Wintergrasp weekly quest has been reduced by 50%. When pairing the Honor rewarded from Honorable Kills being increased by 100% with the 50% Honor reduction from Wintergrasp weekly quests, and 50% experience-gain reduction from completing objectives in Battlegrounds, players will notice no change in the net amount of Honor or experience awarded in either case.

That’s a really confusing quote and it’s kind of hard to understand what they’re doing. Let’s break it down. Basically you’ll get double honor now for killing a player. In exchange, the Wintergrasp quests, the battleground objectives, and the experience gained in battlegrounds will be halved. This is supposed to even out to where you won’t notice a change in the amount of honor awarded in either case. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to mean that you’ll get the same amount of honor and XP as you get now or if the double honor from kills will make up for the rest. Whatever the change, you’ll be getting more honor now than before from killing other players and that’s a good thing.

Random Battleground Tool

You and up to four other adventurers can queue up now for a random battleground. Obviously the battleground will be selected randomly, but the rewards will be much greater than selecting the battleground like you normally would. This will only be available to level 80s, but Blizzard may change their mind about that in the future.

If you win the battleground then you’ll get 30 Honorable Kills worth of honor and 25 arena points. That’s until you win your first random battleground. Afterward, you’ll only gain 15 Honorable Kills worth of honor if you win. If you lose then you’ll get 5 Honorable Kills worth of honor regardless on your current standing.

This is a wonderful change from the daily quest and gives more players an incentive to PvP. It also helps get people in the battlegrounds that are fun but aren’t in any way efficient for farming honor (and makes them worthwhile too). This is something big to look forward to.

Holiday Bonus Changes

The weekly call to arms will be changed a bit. The weekend holiday bonus now be known as “Call to Arms” and changes the way additional honor is awarded. You’ll now get a flat honor award instead of just double honor. The first win a day of a Call to Arms battleground will award 30 Honorable Kills in honor and 25 arena points. Each additional win will give you 15 Honorable Kills worth of honor. Losing will give you just 5 Honorable Kills worth of honor regardless of if you’ve won or lost.

These bonuses WILL NOT apply if you do the random dungeon option.

Marks of Honor (Bg-marks)

Marks of Honor WILL BE removed. This means that you’ll no longer have to farm a SPECIFIC instance in order to get a piece of gear! So spend yours now or wait to use the traders when 3.3.3 hits who will trade your marks in for honor.

as for now (01-03-2010) its confirmed that every mark of honor u will turn in will give you 2000 honor!! this ofc still can be changed because its on the PTR and not live yet! and with the marks of honor being removed alot of (lower lvl) pvp gear and ofc the pvp mounts will be made availlable for purchase with honor only!

i would strongly suggest that every guildie will try to get as many marks of honor as they could get their hands on so that u can get a huge honor checkout when these changes go live! with this huge checkout of honor u can get ureself the latest pvp gear but remember the hordies will do this 2 haha! also expect the jewelcrafting market to collapse!with so much honor turned out ppl will but alot of epic gems 2!

So far the system looks like it’ll be a ton of fun and give us a bit more balance into the battlegrounds that are neglected while giving honor farmers a bit more honor. This will make the PvP grind a bit easier and more attractive to newer PvP players. Kind of a PvP boost if you will.

Wintergrasp Changes

The internal balance changes will be changed. If you want the technical details then click here. Basically if one side KEEPS winning then it makes it easier for them to lose. A simple yet needed change for some servers that have too many people on one side interested in Wintergrasp and not enough on the other.

Overall these changes seem to appeal to the casual crowd who are intimidated by the PvP system. This makes it easier and more accessible meaning that PvP might return as one of the main activities in the WoW end game. During WotLK PvP has kind of been on the back burner as players focused more on the more accessible PvE, but these changes will hopefully boost it up enough that we’ll see more PvP going into Cataclysm and a more varied endgame.

Well, this next patch is shaping up to be a doozy on the PTRs for battleground players.

The biggest news is the turn-in ratio of Battleground Marks of Honor: 2000 honor for 1 Mark. Yes, you read that right: 2k for 1 Mark. This is 9 times as effective as the current Wintergrasp honor system, and 8 times as effective as the Mark turn-in quests.

That’s right — all those Marks that are worth 248 potential honor on the live servers are a lot more valuable on the PTR. Stop turning them in now.

The only advantage to Wintergrasp Marks is that they are Bind to Account, allowing you to send them to your lower level alts. So you pay a premium for their transferabillty.

Holy moly. I’m practically speechless about how much potential honor this represents.

Actually, I’m not speechless. Six battlegrounds with a maximum of 100 Marks each with a value of 2000 honor equals 1.2 million honor points.

Say that again with me: 1.2 miiiiiillion honor points.

The best part? It doesn’t count against the honor cap.

Obviously, the situation on the PTR is evolving rapidly. Things are changing there almost every day. I have no way of knowing if this ratio will make it into the live servers.

But the fact that Blizzard was willing to even consider this means that there’s a chance it will happen.

If it does, be ready for it. Your gearing strategy should probably focus upon acquiring as many Marks of Honor as you can, as quickly as you can. Go for high-risk/high-reward strategies like the Blitz, 4 towers, 5 nodes. Do not be conservative – win and lose quickly and move on. This is counter to all previous wisdom, but let me repeat again:

You can have a bank of 1.2 million honor.

Not only will everyone have great PvP sets, but the epic gem market is about to crash.

This is going to be a hell of a weekend in the battlegrounds.

Dear Crusaders! Proudly i Announce that today our Recruiting message has even reached outside our server's Trade channel--> we are now even recruiting on wow.com!

Lisa Poisso of the wow.com staff has called <The Stormwind Crusaders>:

" An island of PvP in a PvE world "

And with that name we put ourselves on the map as THE PvP guild of the Anachronos server!

we of the swc's management love the "An island of PvP in a PvE world " phrase soo much that from now on we adapt it as our "Guild's Motto" because it totally reflects our situation as the lonely pvp guild between all the pve guilds.

Gratz all and here is the link:
http://www.wow.com/2010/02/24/the-classifieds-the-syndicate-marks-14-years-of-gaming/

Greetings the Guild's Management

Zarhym has announced today major upcoming battleground and honor changes. These changes will be present in the next minor content patch, which will be on the PTR soon. Some of the key points:

-Marks of Honor are going away.
-Holiday weekends will now be denoted as "Call to Arms" and award tiered system of honor for participation. The tier is based on you winning or losing the battleground, and if you've won or lost before.
-Honor kills reward 100% more honor, Wintergrasp weekly quests give 50% less honor, and XP rewarded from honor kills are reduced by 50%.
Implementation of the Random Battleground Finder -- much like the current Random Dungeon Finder.
-There are further honor rewards, which are similar to the ones provided by the Call to Arms.
-Obviously, there are a ton of implications in these changes to the basic way people participate in PvP. These changes also represent a good start to the massive overhaul we'll see in Cataclysm when rated battlegrounds are introduced.

The full statement after the break.

From Zarhym:

We have several changes planned for Battlegrounds in the next minor content patch and would like to share them with you now. This patch will be available for public testing and we encourage you to participate, queue up and provide some feedback on these changes.

Firstly, say goodbye to Battleground Marks of Honor. We feel this currency system is a bit outdated and are getting rid of it. Any items which require these marks as currency will have their costs adjusted appropriately to remove this requirement. The quest NPCs will still be available to award players Honor for turning in leftover marks, but this is only to help players clear this expired currency.

Next, the Battleground holiday weekend will now be denoted as "Call to Arms" in the Battleground tab and Calendar. If you prefer a specific Battleground over all others, look for those words next to its name to determine whether or not you'll receive bonus Honor. The bonus awards for Call to Arms Battlegrounds have been adjusted.

◦Winning a Call to Arms Battleground for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
◦Additional Call to Arms Battleground victories after the first win for a player that day will award them with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
◦Losing a Call to Arms Battleground will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
To bring the rate at which players obtain PvP rewards with Honor more in-line with the rate at which players obtain PvE rewards via the Dungeon Finder, we'll also be increasing the amount of Honor awarded for an Honorable Kill by 100%. In light of this, the amount of experience provided from an Honorable Kill, and the amount of Honor awarded for completing the Wintergrasp weekly quests, have been reduced by 50%.

It's important to note one thing about these 50% decreases. All Honor awarded for completing objectives in Battlegrounds and Wintergrasp is actually based on an Honorable Kill conversion rate. So if you destroy a tower in Alterac Valley for example, the Honor you're awarded is actually based on a flat number of Honorable Kills. Since Honorable Kills will now award 100% more Honor, completing such objectives will also award more Honor. This is why experience gains based on completing Battleground objectives and Honor awarded from the Wintergrasp quests are being decreased by 50%.

Now that we hopefully have your attention, we're pleased to announce the implementation of the Random Battleground system! This system will work virtually the same as the Random Dungeon option in the Dungeon Finder. Players can queue with a group of up to five players for a Random Battleground in the Battleground tab. As with the Random Dungeon option, the Battleground chosen will not be revealed until players zone into the Battleground for which they are selected. The bonus rewards for this system are identical to the updated Call to Arms bonuses.

◦Winning a Battleground using the Random Battleground option for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.

◦Winning additional Battlegrounds using the Random Battleground option after the first random win will award players with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.

◦Losing a Battleground using the Random Battleground option will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.

◦When using the Random Battleground option, players will not receive additional rewards if the Battleground chosen is under the effects of the Call to Arms bonuses. In other words, the bonuses do not stack. In addition, if a player has been rewarded 30 Honorable Kills worth of bonus Honor currency from either the Random Battleground system, or the Call to Arms Battleground, he or she will be rewarded 15 Honorable Kills worth of bonus Honor currency that day for each additional victory. This applies whether the Random Battleground system is used, or the Call to Arms Battleground is chosen specifically, as a player cannot be rewarded the full amount of bonus Honor more than once per day.

All of these features and changes will be available in the next minor patch which should be hitting the public test realms in the near future. Please help us out by testing this system and providing your feedback so we can make some fine-tuning adjustments before the patch's release.

source: wow.com

the guild's management would like to give everyone a huge Gratz who participated in the Confirme kill on Thrall yesterday evening!
keep up the good work guys!