Honor gain reduced by 30%
by Mike Schramm 
Dec 12th 2006 at 3:40PM
Two days ago: Drysc says if anything, prices of PVP items will drop, not go up.Today, after maintenance: Honor gain has been nerfed by 30% across the board.
It's no secret that players were thrilled with the new PVP system. Honor points were plentiful, and PVP gear seemed right around the corner for many players who'd never had the time to grind the system in the past. But Neth says that the effort currently required is "lower than intended," and that the honor gain was reduced (in essence, honor prices were raised by
Players are furious. Ceace, who kindly dropped us a note about this (thanks!), asks why other solutions weren't considered-- why didn't they put a curve on the honor gain, or even a limit on how many points could be earned per day? With rested XP, Blizzard has come up with an innovative way to give a bonus to players who don't play the PVE as often. But the devs seem intent on punishing those who don't play PVP as much. This isn't the end of the world for casual PVPers (honor points don't decay, so you'll still get that gear eventually), but it does seem to be a little out of line, considering how much people liked the new system, and what we were told about the honor prices.
At any rate, fallout from this is just beginning. I'm sure you'll find more in the comments below.
*Update: A few commenters say this means prices have actually risen by 42.8%. I'm terrible at math-- anyone want to comment below and walk us through the equation?
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Ranking, Blizzard, PvP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Dur13l@gmail.com Dec 12th 2006 4:10PM
ouch...there goes that idea...8(
IT either raid or PVP...dont have time for both. boo.
jkblue Dec 12th 2006 4:20PM
So let me see if I've got the math right. Before the patch let's say you killed a player and got 100 honor points. After the patch honor is reduced by 90% so that 100 honor becomes 10 honor. And now after server maintenance that 10 honor shrinks down to a measly 3 honor?
I really should have taken advantage of the battlegrounds last week. Now I don't really even care anymore. Bring on the Burning Crusade.
sandwiches Dec 12th 2006 4:05PM
It's reduced BY 30% not TO 30%. In other words, if you used to get 10 Honor from someone, now, you'll only get 7.
Therizo Dec 12th 2006 4:19PM
How exactly does 'Honor prices will not be lowered' mean 'we will not change how hard it is to get these items'? Again, folks are reading what they want to read istead of what's actually there. *shrug* So your HWL/GM Weapons take 53 hours instead of 40 to get. This is like getting a bank error in your favor, then the bank only taking part of it back. You're still WAY ahead of the game compared to 2 weeks ago. So just relax, it'll be fine! ^^
(PS, I'm after my healing hammer and offhand too, and I have a grand total of 596 honor so far, haha)
Wartoad Dec 12th 2006 4:20PM
Ah well. Back to farming and AH PvP against my own faction.
Andrew Dec 12th 2006 4:15PM
I personally don't think its enough, its still too easy to get these weapons. Whats the point of having a GM Weapon if its more pleantiful then some lvl 20 green weapon? There should be some kind of limitation on these weapons. Like the more points you get the less points you gain, like the current XP system.
I'm not some PvPer who is upset. I was only ever able to reach rank 8.
Tris Dec 13th 2006 6:33PM
Yeah, after getting crushed on BG after BG the last two days, at least I get a little chuckle or two from this. I say nerf the devs... ;)
Sylaria Dec 12th 2006 4:22PM
Nothing new here...
It was pretty obvious that this is coming, when you see people with level 45 greens running around with multiple R14 weapons by the end of the first week. Blizzard has always done this. The rep gain in AV was nerf'd after they realized it was too easy for people to get exalted after multiple 4 hour+ games. At any time when they realize people were progressing through content way faster than they were meant to, they find some way to reduce that and slow people down.
Gorysh, lvl60 Undead Rogue: Greymane Dec 12th 2006 4:50PM
Well I'm glad that I picked up my HWL Razor last night for my rogue instead of procrastinating (as I had planned on) to get it after the patch today!
A reduction by 30% makes it take longer, but it's still a much more reasonable way to get decent gear than praying for all of my Tier and/or Dungeon gear to drop. This way I can do some PVP, get great gear, and worry less about having to make farm runs into UBRS, AQ20/40, ZG, etc.
Weland Dec 12th 2006 5:28PM
The change just benefits the players who can devote huge amounts of time to pvp.
Prior to today I was getting about 1k honor per day. That would take me about 20 days to get the chest piece. Dont think that is unreasonable. When I raided hardcore in ZG, AQ20, MC, and BWL in one week I had far more chances at getting gear.
I think this change is a real slap in the face of the more levelminded players who dont or cant spend 10 hours a day pvping. Good job Blizzard!
Turall Dec 12th 2006 4:42PM
Enough with the QQing already.
Honor has been reduced BY %30. 20 honor gained before would be 14 honor now.
It's not that big of a deal really. I'm still gonna be in BG's
Belthasar Dec 13th 2006 11:05AM
It's still ridiculously easy. Stop crying.
Now it takes 4 days instead of 3 to get a rank 14 weapon.
They should have reduced like this AND made each epic purchase require you to have purchased the corresponding blue set piece.
The weapon purchase should require something as well (maybe Exalted with all 3 factions, or 4 out of 6 of the epic set?)
Anyway. Even with the slight nerf on gain, enjoy your freebie epics everyone!
Me Dec 12th 2006 5:02PM
Come on... everyone was amazed at how easy it was to get stuff. Part of balancing a game is making it not-so-easy. If it was just easy, people would leave. Now people on forums are complaining that it got slightly harder after being really easy and they're "quitting" because it's slightly harder. Maybe there's a teletubbies game for you to go play.
This system is *still* way better than the last one.
Wasyl Dec 12th 2006 5:42PM
It was far, far too easy to get the epic weapons and armor, and honestly I think it needs to be reduced more. It totally trivializes the effort of people who earned them before the patch or spent time to get equivalent items through raiding. I know the expansion is coming out in a month, which will wipe the slate clean anyway, but it's still a slap in the face to people who worked hard for their gear when all of a sudden they start handing it out like candy on Halloween.
Abhinav Dec 12th 2006 5:09PM
yeah not the worst thing... i mean they had to do something... i wish i woulda gotten my HWL sword yesterday but them are the breaks/
adam Dec 12th 2006 5:19PM
If you do the math, this equals a 43% effective cost increase on the gear as you are only earning 70% of the honor you were before.
Blizzard cleverly made it sound better than it actually is.
Theadrick Dec 12th 2006 5:08PM
Ah well, it still won't stop me! Not that big of a deal really.
Profit Dec 12th 2006 5:11PM
Reducing the honor by 30% is equal to increasing the cost of all items by 42.8%...
So by saying a 30% reduction in honor received they are giving the players a much larger reduction than most have realized, rather than if they had said they were raising all amounts by 42.8%...
Katie Dec 12th 2006 5:21PM
Well I can't say I didn't see this coming. That's why I'm glad I spent about 20 hours total all weekend in BGs getting as much honor as I could. Two pieces of Field Marshal Gear later, I will admit it was really easy to get pieces that have been sought after since they've come out.
I'm not mad they lowered the honor gain. Not in the slightest. What I am pissed about is that Blizzard did a sneaky behind the back manuever by saying prices for items wouldn't go up. Then two days later they lowered the honor gain rate. TECHNICALLY, the prices didn't go up. So no one can say Blizzard lied about it. But they weren't being honest. If they were going to lower the honor gain rate, they should have addressed the issue when the question of prices rising came up as well. Not in a last minute "oh this hotfix is going to nurf pvp gear big time." I'm sure this decision was made days ago, and not at 12noon PST today. Great customer service, Bliz.
FattyMoBookyButt Dec 12th 2006 5:27PM
Wow! So instead of taking 40 hours to get a SINGLE weapon, it's going to take 50+ hours to get a weapon that is going to be obsolete in a month.
I swear Blizzard hates us all and is doing everything they can to get us to cancel our accounts...but we just won't go away.
(And if there are L45s running around with R14 weapons, it's Blizz's fault for not putting a level requirement on them. Silly.)