It seems like every PvP season is haunted with some kind of scandal and season 10 in World of Warcraft is no different it appears.

The season 10 transition has left a bad taste in a few players' mouths as honor calculations went wonky and communication between players and Blizzard has broken down. Just what went wrong? Well, let’s try to make sense of this complicated drama.

Things kicked off with patch 4.2. The honor cap was instituted a week early, limiting players to 4,000 honor and returning any extra in the form of cash. At the same time, any conquest points above 4,000 were transferred into honor points. Already at the cap? Then your points went into the void and some cash got mailed to you. This turned a few players bitter as they lost a lot of the points they worked hard for. The good news was that the high tier of season 9 was available for honor points, causing a massive rush to buy up as many pieces as possible before the next season started.

The eternal struggle between the Alliance and Horde has struggles in and out of the game.

Then communication broke down at the start of season 10. Blizzard retired season 9, only having hit the shelves for a week, and summarily replaced it with lvl 371 gear (six ilvls higher than season 9 gear). This caused a huge uproar as players who already were burned by their lost honor also wasted what honor they regained on inferior pieces.

Blizzard stepped up to the plate to try and make sense of this entire debacle in this thread then posted about hopes of compensation:


We wanted to let everyone know that we're working to address the miscommunication that occurred regarding the introduction of new item level 371 PvP gear, and share our current plans.

For background, many players spent their Honor Points on item level 365 gear once Season 9 ended only to find that more powerful item level 371 gear was available when season 10 started. We should have communicated ahead of time that this was going to be the case, and we apologize for the mistake.

We've been working over the past few days to evaluate and determine the best course of action to offer players some kind of compensation for those who were caught off guard by the new gear. The plan we've found to be achievable within an acceptable amount of time is to provide players who were affected with 4000 Honor Points. This extra Honor would function similarly to the currency down-conversion in that it would stack over the cap, but you would not be able to earn more until you spent under the 4000 cap.

The process of determining who was affected is certainly the most difficult task of this issue, and the entire process of figuring out who should receive the Honor or not and then delivering it isn't anything less than a giant undertaking. We're still evaluating many of the processes that will be required to make this happen. Although we're fairly confident we can pull it off, there is still a chance it may not be possible. Due to other service related work the soonest we would be able to distribute this Honor is the 7/19 Tuesday maintenance. More complicated solutions we discussed could take months to implement, but we felt getting something to those affected as quickly as possible was more important.

Although some of this is still uncertain we felt it best to let people know as far in advance as possible to allow for adequate planning. We'll be able to provide more information and specifics on how this process will be carried out, and the requirements to receive the 4000 Honor, next week.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience caused by our miscommunication. We greatly appreciate those who took the time to give us constructive feedback on the matter.

Players then waited to see if they’d be able to trade in their season 9 gear or not, and then this support portal statement arrived saying nope, ain't happening.

In summary, Blizzard states that there will be no reimbursements for those affected by the sudden honor point cap or the season gear transition.

Cool Your Jets, Unless You’re Casual

What does this mean you ask? Well, it means that the elite PvP’ers are not affected because they got their PvP gear long ago. The casuals, who have to work the hardest to get gear, were burned pretty badly. Not so much by the conquest point shenanigans, but the season 9 gear getting retired and new, better gear requiring more honor farming (and gems/enchants) arriving.

So, what can anyone do? Well, nothing. There is nothing anyone can do since Blizzard doesn’t feel like allowing players to trade their gear in for some kind of compensation and season 10 is already full steam ahead. Of course, there is something we all can do that is within our control: cool our jets.

I know, I write at length that we should all calm down and stop freaking out about everything and am starting to turn into some huge Blizzard apologist, but honestly I’m the type of person who believes that if you stress over anything then you’re not going to enjoy life.

Is it fair that Blizzard did all of this? No, it isn’t. Are they at fault? Yep, they are. Is there anything anyone can do about it? Yes, go out there and start playing. You’ll get the honor for the new pieces in no time if you really need the six extra item levels. As for the lost honor, consider it a challenge to go out and farm some more. It gives everyone a reason to jump into the battleground and have a bit of fun.

Blizzard owned up to their mistakes and, it seems like, apologized for what happened. So let’s forgive and forget and move on to what really matters – fighting one another in the glorious battlefield. Not to mention that this is minor compared to the start of season 9 when things were way out of whack and exploiters were running rampant, weapons were delayed, and people were going insane with rage for a long time.

So what do you think? Still think Blizzard should get tar and feathered or did this not even affect you? Be sure to leave your comments in the comment section below!


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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Get in the bush with David "Xerin" Piner as he leverages his spectacular insanity to ask the serious questions such as is Master Yi and Illidan the same person? What's for dinner? What are ways to elevate your gaming experience? David's column, Respawn, is updated near daily with some of the coolest things you'll read online, while David tackles ways to improve the game experience across the board with various hype guides to cool games.

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