by Jeff Woleslagle on Aug 12, 2006
Another big thing Blizzard announced was major changes to the PvP system. While Kaplan likes the core of the PvP system, he admitted that the honor system is more about time and competition among players of a certain faction than skill. "What we haven't been happy with is the honor system. Honor system is intended to be a competitive, skill based system, but it doesn't play out that way... it's very time-oriented. It's also a competitive system, but your competing against your own team...It's a system that the players inherently make worse for themselves through no fault of their own, through the design of the system. We recognize the flaws of the system, we want to fix it."
Kaplan went on to explain the three-pronged PvP system of post-expansion WoW: the arena system and the completely revamped honor system.
First, arena combat. It's a two vs. two "skill-based ladder competition." Players 1-69 will engage in non-competitive "practice" sessions, and level 70 players will compete for the real prizes - raid loot doled out based on where the raid game is at that particular moment. Players can have twice the number of combatants on their roster (e.g. 4 players for 2 vs. 2 combat) and must compete every week for an entire season, which will last somewhere around 3 months. You'll choose your team apart from your guild, and you can name it however you like (within the usual naming conventions).
Ratings will be used to pair your team with suitable opponents. Kaplan described the rating system as something like the ELO rating system used for chess, but with one difference - players must play a reasonable minimum of matches each week. He also explained that there may be a matchmaking service (for the non-competitive arenas only) that seeks to pair up players by organization (i.e. availability of voicechat - in PvP combat, a decently organized team in decent gear that talks to each other will outperform an entire team kitted out in the best gear for the level range, to paraphrase Kaplan). Arenas will be Horde vs. Alliance, Horde vs. Horde, Alliance vs. Alliance, and will be cross-realm - so Kaplan expects queues to be next to non-existant.
What will happen to the honor system? Special vendors selling level appropriate "blue" dungeon loot in exchange for honor points (which will no longer decay). Players can gain honor points in the battlegrounds or by participating in World PvP. While the World PvP concept will become a part of the old world with patch 1.12, the large outdoor zones in Outlands are specifically designed for World PvP combat. Nagrand features a town equidistant from Horde and Alliance camps that flips sides, offering questgivers for your faction only when your faction controls the town. The gateway zone, Hellfire Peninsula, sports 3 control points - when your faction controls all three, you get persistent buffs that last in the zone and when you enter Hellfire Citadel.
As far as PvP ranks, I wish I would have asked. With the aim being to limit the PvP grind, I surmise that rankings will be done through the arena system - but we'll have to wait for the official word from Blizzard.