Breakfast Topic: Where will you be honor grinding in Patch 3.2?
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jun 28th 2009 at 8:00AM
So patch 3.2 will be bringing some pretty significant changes to PvP Battlegrounds to say the least. Not only will Wintergrasp be morphing into a weird quasi-battleground with queue, but Warsong Gulch is getting a time limit, Eye of the Storm and Arathi's resource goal is being slashed, and we're getting a whole new battleground in the Isle of Conquest. In short, we're going to have some soul searching to do while we decide where to get our non-arena organized PvP fix on.The debate over these changes rages strong, of course. Some people are pretty annoyed at the Wintergrasp change, while some rejoice that its lag-causing powers may finally be squashed. Some think Warsong Gulch is essentially ruined, while others (such as myself) are ecstatic that hour long stalemates where two people backed up by 3 healers each grab the flag, hide with it, and proceed to not die ever even with the damage debuffs are now completely eliminated.
In the meantime, there's the new battleground. Isle of Conquest was apparently a quick and dirty zergfest in its first incarnation, but after the recent changes, is doing a lot better and carries a lot of the promises Wintergrasp didn't quite live up to, from quasi-flying combat between bombing planes and catapults that launch players into keeps, and keeps that feel a lot more destructible than the still semi-permanent Wintergrasp Keep itself.
Anyway, with all these changes, how is it looking to your honor grinders? Will you be forsaking Wintergrasp now that it has the queue or will you stick it out? Will you be keeping to your old faithful battleground, or will you give Isle of Conquest a spin? How's honor grinding shaping up for you?
Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Breakfast Topics, Battlegrounds
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Rylka Jun 28th 2009 8:03AM
WG for me. I'm not much into PVP and was only doing WG for the shards. Blizz already knocked me down to playing WG only once a week with their previous changes, now I'm just going to have to hope I make the cue when I try to go.
Elmo Jun 28th 2009 8:12AM
I'm more of grinding tokens than honour since I'm collecting the mounts aswell.
so AV, WSG and AB just for the tokens.
Raz Jun 28th 2009 5:29PM
^ this.
I'll probably be running the new battleground now & then, because it looks amazing, but when we get right down to it, I want the mounts on my main :\
Kluh Jun 28th 2009 8:13AM
Well i usually do the daily pvp Q so i wont be completely forsaking the other bg's, not just that, but its refreshing to change the BG ur playing.
As im also trying to get the hatefull/deadly gear honor farming will still continue so whichever BG awards the best honor will get the most attention by me ^^
Zayd Jun 28th 2009 8:13AM
So how will it work with WG now? Will it be on a 'first come, first served' basis as to who gets to take part?
Will people still be able to fly into WG (before being auto dismounted ofc) and wonder about, mining/fishing etc? What happens if they decide to attack someone of the other faction?
JustinScott Jun 28th 2009 8:19AM
It will all be randomly generated. Once you queue up, 100 people from each faction are chosen. of course 80s get higher priority, and if your in the zone when the battle starts, if your not selected from the queue, you get teleported out :)
Groth Jun 28th 2009 8:27AM
It'll also mean you wont get below 80s in WG except on low population servers.
JustinScott Jun 28th 2009 8:16AM
WSG still holds a place in my heart. And as much as i love the classic WSG, i think the new time limit will be a change for the better. Without hour long stalemates we can run more WSG! And thats always a good thing :)
Styvorama Jun 29th 2009 7:37AM
I agree, I often want to play WSG but dont have the time to gamble on a possible hour match. 20 minutes is where is starts to get old, I just wonder how they will calculate the winner of ties. Even point maybe? are there more points in a 3-1 win than a 2-1 win? I hope so!
Eisengel Jun 28th 2009 2:01PM
I'm not sure... I think it actually breaks WSG pretty hard. Here's what will happen:
1. Both sides zerg.
2. The majority of the zerg hits the other team's FC.
3. One team scores.
4. That team stacks everyone in the FR and turtles like mad.
5. 20 minutes pass.
6. profit (for the 1st scoring team)
I really don't understand how Blizzard makes these decisions or what their review process is. Do they just all meet and say, "20 min WSG timer... everyone good? yes? yes? Okay, it's in."
It would be hard to limit the time of WSG without making it turtle-tastic... but I would hope that Blizzard would be able to figure something out other than this. This timer business may just make it more frustrating, because now everyone will be playing against the timer, and not necessarily just playing the BG. We'll have to see.
JustinScott Jun 28th 2009 2:10PM
Yes, i agree, thats probably what will happen for about the first week or so, and then after that everyone will realize how much honor their NOT gaining from turtling the whole time.
or im hoping so at least...
Gothia Jun 29th 2009 3:55AM
I like it, not only does it give twinks a no experience gain clause that will let them continue to advance their characters without worrying about an accidental experience gain, it also takes away the excuse of new players (old ones too) crying about the nasty ofe twink kicked my but in ___________. Notice to the inexperienced, you do not fight in zones that are 5 levels higher than you and you will continue to get you butt kicked in Bg's if you fight players that are 5+ levels higher than you twink or not.
Hopefully the 20 minute timer on Wsg will get players more focused on the objective of capturing / returning the flag. Sometimes I wonder what the hell some of these guys are doing half the time in the middle of the battleground - Objective 1 hold your flag room - Objective 2 hold their flag room - too many people forget objective 2 and everyone runs with the carrier. So if he dies nobody you have to recapture their flag room instead of having players already there to make a 2nd push.
micgillam Jul 2nd 2009 9:44AM
@Styvorama: I read somewhere, I think it was one of the 3.2 patch summaries on this site, that ties will be awarded to whoever got the first cap.
@Eisengel: I think you overlooked a key thing about turtling when you don't have the other team's flag. a) They can commit their whole team to zerging you, they don't have to leave D. Or maybe just one D to make sure you don't have a druid go ninja the flag. b) When their zerg succeeds in getting your flag (and they will, as soon as they figure out what you're doing), your whole team is behind their FC, disorganized now, and with his allies all over you, trying to keep you from reaching him. The FC has pretty good odds of making it.
I think, if anything, this change to WSG will encourage less pugging, more premades, because when you only have 20 minutes to get the job done, you don't have time for the usual pug infighting and disorganization.
micgillam Jul 2nd 2009 10:13AM
Sorry to double post. Took some time to think this over, and this poster brought up some issues that I'm pretty passionate about.
@Gothia:
"it also takes away the excuse of new players (old ones too) crying about the nasty ofe twink kicked my but in ___________. Notice to the inexperienced, you do not fight in zones that are 5 levels higher than you and you will continue to get you butt kicked in Bg's if you fight players that are 5+ levels higher than you twink or not."
Okay, I hate it when people cry about twinks too. I expect twinks in the 19s and 29s, so I don't queue in those brackets anymore because I haven't made a twink and they're only fun if you do. In the 39s and up, complaining about twinks seems really silly. It seems to me that by then you should have pretty good mastery over your class, and you should have some high-end gear, and for that matter you should be using whatever enchants and enhancements you can to get an advantage, whether you're PvPing or running dungeons or only question solo. In those brackets, I would say it's extremely rare that I lose a fight to a twink who isn't either: playing better than I am or catching me hurt/outnumbered. In those cases, it doesn't matter whether he's twinked or on par with my gear. So you know what? Stop complaining about twinks in the over-29 brackets, there really isn't such thing as a 39 twink, just a 39 with better gear than you, and it's pretty cheap/easy to get at that point, so it's entirely your fault. Either way, they aren't an excuse for leaving AB nodes undefended, not fighting at the flag, and committing 10 people to the effort to re-take the stables when the farm and the mine are way more viable targets. When you progress past these sort of rookie mistakes, you won't find that the 39+ "twinks" really bother you anymore.
Unrelated, I think that we'll see more bracket lowbies queuing once there's XP to be had. As long as both sides have a fairly even level average, it not a huge deal, but I generally think the way to do it, if you want to BG your way through a few levels, is to come in as soon as you hit lvl *7, do BGs solid until you ding *0, then run dungeons until (*+1)7, do your research, make sure you're maximizing your chances for good static drops.
Crash Jun 28th 2009 8:23AM
No changes for me - I'm going to queue them all, and join first one to pop.
Tim Jun 28th 2009 8:34AM
I'll continue with WSG and AB so I can get my pvp title.
Laughtrey Jun 28th 2009 8:35AM
I'll grind in WG until I get enough marks for whatever new piece of furious they add, other than that I'll just do the weeklies. Going to see if Conquest is any better than strand, WSG might become my favorite with the limit.
jjtwalton Jun 28th 2009 8:54AM
WSG is the ultimate PvP. You can't really have any major switches of power in any other battleground int he way you can with WSG. Two flag-carriers backed by 7 or 8 friends, both running towards the middle for one massive brawl. I admit that sometimes camping bases gets in the way of proper action and I dislike that Blizzard has not fixed spells going THROUGH the ground and hitting you just as you've respawned and Warriors charging up a vertical cliff-face. it's about time they fixed that stuff, but other than that, it's ace. Nice and compact, quick, nice number of teams. ANYWAY.. I like BG PvP.. I don't arena, but perhaps it's about time I gave it a shot..
ReyesOfHope Jun 28th 2009 9:15AM
Down-rated for language. C'mon, why do that?
jjtwalton Jun 28th 2009 9:18AM
Sorry, just a habit, I guess. I apologise for my bad language.