by David Piner on Nov 30, 2006
PvP honor changes are/were implemented in two parts. The first part is inside of a patch known as “Before the Storm” which included the pre-expansion content (honor changes and the basic arenas). The expansion adds in more levels (which increase the difficulty of the arenas and battlegrounds) and a new battleground known as the Eye of the Storm.
The upcoming honor changes are simple. In the old system, all players were ranked by how much honor they took in. Those who took in the most honor were at the top and those who took in the least amount were at the bottom. Over time the gained honor would deteriorate and to keep your ranking you would constantly have to PvP.
In the new system, you gain honor like before (killing players, doing battleground tasks, etc.) but instead of it being compared to others it is simply given to you as a currency. Honor points can be gained then spent to purchase the special rewards now located in the officer shop.
The items are about the same quality as before and near the same rarity. The new system doesn’t make it so that grand master weapons are handed out for free, but at the same time they are easier to obtain.
Without degeneration of honor points and a simple cut/dry method of obtaining items you no longer will have to worry about quitting for awhile and loosing your progress. You can also move at your own pace and no longer need a dedicated group to get anywhere.
Those who really do push the envelopes of “extreme” will find themselves with the gear first, but casual players who work at it long enough will find themselves with it as well. It’s a very fair system that rewards skill (ability to kill things) instead of time.
The officer’s area is now open to everyone and inside contains several vendors who carry the different items. Things have changed some, for instance there are now multiple tiers of the trinkets!
There are now a few rings, necklaces, and jewels added to the list of available wares and the two sets of PvP gear has been altered some. There are now two sets of gear with two types of quality. The first set is for level sixties and comes in two flavors, Knight-Captain and Lieutenant Commander. The second set is for level seventies and comes in two flavors Marshall and Grand Marshall. The Grand Marshall set contains several choices for some classes (for instance, tanking/healing/DPS sets for Paladins).
To purchase items you’ll need the applicable honor (gained through the normal means) and depending on the item a various amount of BG reward tokens. For instance, Marshal’s Lamellar Boots cost 8250 honor and 20 Arathi Basin tokens. Knight-Lieutentant’s Lamellar Boots cost 2750 honor and 20 Arathi Basin tokens. An items price is based on where it’s located and what quality it is.
As for weapons, they begin at level sixty and come in several sets. A blue level seventy staff with 40 stamina, 30 intellect, 20 spell hit rating, 30 spell critical strike, 20 resilience, and 121 damage/healing will run you 30,000 honor and 40 Alterac Valley tokens.
A good thing to note is that the epic quality mounts all cost 90 tokens total (30 from Arathi Basin, Alterac Valley, and Warsong Gulch). Epic mounts should be easy to get for anyone who has the time to gain victories in the battlegrounds.
Last but not least, the arenas are a new feature that comes in with all of the changes. They are simple to understand. You have two modes, unranked skirmishes and ranked skirmishes. Unranked skirmishes give no honor or arena battle rank but they do give perfect practice. You can also join in them at any time (2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 modes).
Then there are ranked arena battles. These are the serious ones; you form a group and head into battle. Winning and losing gains honor and arena rank. If you loose you’ll go down if you win you’ll go up. The rewards for your arena ranking are currently unknown, but there is a good chance a rare flying mount will be a prize to the top ranked groups.
As for the battles themselves, they are very simple. Everyone has one minute to load in and buff up (MP costs are removed during the first minute but reagent costs still apply). At that time a door opens up and both teams can battle each other. When one side’s team is dead then the other is declared the winner.
That’s about wraps up the changes! Lots of good positive changes that gives everyone a fair chance at the nice loot, and a new fun arena system for the competitive types. Good stuff all around.
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