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Posts with tag Honor-points

Blood Sport: How will patch 4.3 impact PvP?

WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs.

With patch 4.3 imminent and Arena season 10 due to end Nov. 29, it seems reasonable to assume the patch will appear in early December. While you're racing to get your team into title range, get that last piece of gear, or just running laps of your capital city, you might be thinking forward to the arrival of the patch and wondering what your fate will be in PvP as the nerf bat winds up for another swing. Firstly, let's deal with some housekeeping.

Conquest points, the PvP equivalent of valor points, will now be far, far easier to earn from ordinary Battlegrounds. The first daily Battleground win will now award 100 conquest points, up from 25, and wins after that will award 50 conquest point, up from, well, none! The conquest cap will remain, so while it will still be far quicker to reach it through Arena, it will also be attainable via Battlegrounds of the non-rated variety. This makes it far easier for solo players to build up the resilience numbers people often demand (fairly or otherwise) for access to Arena and Rated Battleground teams or just to gear for Battlegrounds.

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Filed under: PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)

Honor compensation date announced for recent PVP gear debacle

Blizzard's Bashiok has posted a time frame for the previously announced 4,000-honor point compensation package for players who spent honor on old gear during the week between the PVP Season 9 and Season 10. Any player who spent honor on ilevel 365 gear during the transition week will be awarded a free 4,000 honor points, which can go over the point cap and can be spent on the new, higher tier of Vicious PVP gear. This free honor will be awarded to players during maintenance on July 19 (this coming Tuesday).

I think this is a pretty good compensation package for players who were not informed of the change in how PVP gear would be handled this season. The biggest issue from the debacle was that players spent a huge amount of time and effort grinding out honor for ilevel 365 gear during the off-week, then spent it, only to see the gear became useless just days later. Now that work has essentially been restored in the form of new, shiny, over-the-cap honor points. You will not be able to earn more honor points until you dip below the cap again, however.

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Filed under: PvP, Cataclysm

Blizzard to offer compensation for PVP Season 10 transition woes

Yesterday, we talked about an issue that had PVP players in an uproar: Conquest points were accidentally down-converted to honor points a week early, with excess points converted to gold. On top of that, Blizzard launched a new tier of ilevel 371 gear without warning, just after making ilevel 365 gear available for purchase with honor. Players who spent their points decking themselves out in the latest PVP armor found themselves abruptly faced with the stunning realization that had they saved their points, they could have had better gear.

It was a mistake, and it was acknowledged by Zarhym (Blizzard community manager) in a fairly lengthy blue post, along with a mention that Blizzard was exploring some options to try and make it up to players.

Happily, it appears those options have been explored, as Blizzard's Bashiok posted today with a proposed solution for compensation: Players who were caught off guard by the change will be provided with 4,000 honor points, stacking over the cap. Players will not be able to accumulate more honor until spending below the 4,000 cap, but that should give PVPers a chance to pick up that new gear. This will not be immediately implemented, as it seems Blizzard is still trying to figure out how, exactly, to determine who was affected by the sudden transition and who was not -- so don't expect those 4,000 points on your character tomorrow.

Still, it's nice seeing Blizzard acknowledge something that was clearly a miscommunication in regards to the transition between seasons and that it will be making sure those players caught in the middle of the fumble will be getting something back. Follow after the break for the full announcement from Bashiok.

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Filed under: News items, PvP, Cataclysm

Patch 4.1 PTR: New PvE-to-PvP currency conversion

If you've seen the patch 4.1 PTR patch notes recently, one thing will probably jump out at you immediately. Namely, you can now buy honor points for justice points and vice versa, and you can also buy conquest points for valor points.

Updated 4.1 patch notes for April 7, 2011
General
  • Honor is now purchasable from the Justice Commodities Vendor at 250 Honor per 375 Justice.
  • Justice is now purchasable from the Honor Commodities Vendor at 250 Justice per 375 Honor.
  • Conquest is now purchasable from the Valor vendor at 250 Conquest per 250 Valor.

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Filed under: News items, Cataclysm

Gold Capped: Patch 4.1 and Maelstrom Crystals

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail!

Is the sky falling? Will patch 4.1 herald the end of the high price for Maelstrom Crystals? The informal communication channels between auctioneers (sharing market analyses with each other in IRC and custom channels or tells in game and on gold blogs) have been abuzz with the frantic analysis that patch 4.1 will drive the price of Maelstroms down to ridiculously low amounts. Personally, I'm not sure I'd blindly buy that.

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Filed under: Economy, Gold Capped

Tol Barad hotfixed to reward 360 honor on offensive win

After the hotfix last week (rewarding 1,800 honor to the offensive team) aimed to increase Tol Barad changing hands from faction to faction, Blizzard has recanted and lowered the amount of honor gained when the attacking side wins the PvP objective. There was much confusion over why Blizzard would introduce such a huge honor gain for the attackers, as it clearly encouraged players to win-trade Tol Barad back and forth, negating the whole reason for a PvP objective.

However, Blizzard has just changed the amount of honor gained when the attacking side wins Tol Barad to 360 honor, down from 1,800. Let your servers know that the win-trading can stop.

Zarhym -- Tol Barad Honor Change
As you're probably aware by now, an update was applied to Tol Barad shortly before the holidays which granted the attacking side 1800 Honor Points for a victory. While the goal with that change was to provide more incentive for the attacking forces to claim victory, it ultimately led to an undermining of the spirit of competition in Tol Barad. We've just applied a hotfix which has lowered the attacking faction's gain to 360 Honor Points for a victory. The defending faction will still earn 180 Honor Points for a victory.

We appreciate all of your feedback regarding this change. We'll continue working to make Tol Barad a fun and engaging PvP environment.


In addition, Blizzard is currently working on a fix for what many termed the "Tol Barad Bridge Marathon," where players would run across the Tol Barad northern bridge to enter the zone as the battle was ending to reap the benefits of the victory, even if they were not called to participate in Tol Barad.

Quote:

Whats the word on the bridge exploit?

We're working on a fix for this right now.

Filed under: PvP

Rated battlegrounds now award honor at conquest point cap

Rated battlegrounds have been criticized as being unnecessary after a player reaches his conquest point cap for the week, which is fairly easily obtainable. This resulted in many people shying away from rated games after the cap, and queues for rated battlegrounds being lengthy and annoying. Blizzard has just announced that rated battlegrounds will now award honor points when a player has reached the conquest point cap.

Bashiok -- Rated BGs Now Award Honor at Conquest Cap
We've recently made a change in an effort to promote continued play in Rated Battlegrounds. Now when a player is at their weekly Conquest cap they will receive the full amount of Honor from kills, objective completions, victories and losses while in a Rated Battleground match. Those not at their cap will continue to earn Conquest normally, and will only earn Honor once they reach their weekly cap.

Whether you're capped and others on your team aren't, or you're all capped and just want to keep playing, we hope this change will allow more flexibility for those participating in Rated Battlegrounds.



World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.

Filed under: PvP, Cataclysm

Cataclysm 101: A guide to PvP changes and challenges

There are quite a few changes to PvP in Cataclysm. Let's have a look at how the changes in the past few patches will affect the other aspect of World of Warcraft gameplay ...

Resilience is different

Resilience no longer reduces critical strike chance but instead only reduces damage across the board. As resilience is the premier PvP stat, this impacts gameplay in a major way. First, critical strikes are back on the table. This means that talents contributing to crit are valuable in PvP again. Burst damage from crits will happen more often, and players can opt to stack crit for PvP without it being devalued ... much.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Cataclysm

The Art of War(craft): Building your battleground kill crew

Zach of The Art of War(craft) enjoys PvP in all its forms, which includes competitive sports, martial arts and the considerably less badass and infinitely geekier miniature wargaming. Like Warmachines. Or maybe it's because he kind of just likes anything with the word '"war" tacked onto it.

Last week we took a look at the delicious possibilities that Cataclysm will bring to battlegrounds PvP. It's going to be pretty brutal out there, and you're going to need friends. While there is a whole bunch of cool stuff all over, the best thing about Cataclysm for battleground enthusiasts will be the rated battlegrounds. Unfortunately, one of the things this will contribute to is the decline of solo play. In order to get the most out of your battleground experience, you'll need to be part of a group so that you'll reap the benefits of rated matches.

The new Vicious Gladiator gear for arena Season 9 (or rated battlegrounds Season 1) is listed on MMO-Champion, and I'm sure avid battlers are drooling in anticipation of how these sets look. Then again, it could just be me. At any rate, there's a whole load of gear waiting to be claimed through honor and conquest! Most importantly, one thing that separates itemization this upcoming PvP season -- and this is a game-changer -- is the availability of personal-ratings-free weapons and armor through the new system. That marks the first time that max-level PvP weapons will become obtainable by players of all skill levels and the first time that top-tier PvP armor will only have a cosmetic distinction separating them from their ratings-free counterparts. You read that right: PvP gear with ratings requirements will have the exact same stats as PvP gear with no ratings requirements.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, The Art of War(craft) (PvP)

Patch 3.3.3 PTR: New battleground mark conversion


Check out the latest from the PTR -- battleground mark to honor conversion is now up, with each battleground mark you've squirreled away worth an astonishing two thousand honor per mark. For people that have been PvPing since vanilla, that adds up to a lot of honor. Thankfully, there's places to spend it.

Check the gallery below for a full list of new prices on PvP mounts and legacy PvP gear. As of the current PTR build the new Commendations of Service are not account-bound, which means you can't send them off to alts like their Wintergrasp counterparts -- meaning players may be swimming in gems when the patch finally goes live. If this changes, we'll let you know. Stay tuned for more 3.3.3 PTR info as it develops!


Filed under: News items, PvP

The Queue: My, what big teeth you have


Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

Why yes, that is the most disgusting whale you've ever seen. Unless, of course, you've witnessed local authorities taking dynamite to a beached whale to get it out of the way since they couldn't move it just by pushing the thing. That is disgusting. Whale guts landing on cars a mile away? No thanks. I'll take the guy pictured above over that.

Moonkinmaniac asked...

"On the WoW calendar there's an undead whale picture. What the heck is it? Is it a rejected project for the current expansion or possibly one for Cataclysm?"

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Filed under: Account Security, The Queue, Cataclysm

BlizzCon 2009: Rated battlegrounds and the return of PvP titles


One of the most widely-cheered announcements during the Game Systems panel was the introduction of rated battlegrounds and the reappearance of old PvP titles from the now-defunct ranking system. It's a question we've seen asked a lot -- plenty of people out there aren't fond of arena but love battlegrounds, and many of them chafed under the inability to get up-to-date PvP gear. It looks like Blizzard will be trying to reward better battleground play without punishing people who have the bad luck to land on an indifferent PuG. Here's what we know so far:
  • Whichever battleground is currently on its holiday weekend will also be a rated battleground for that week.
  • Battleground wins will award both rating and arena points. Battleground losses won't punish you with a ratings loss, but also won't award any points. I would assume that you can continue to accrue honor and a single BG token per loss. Points earned will be capped at a certain number (not yet known) per week to keep rated battlegrounds from feeling too "grindy."
  • Your battleground ratings will, like the current arena system, encompass two ratings: a personal and a match-making rating.
  • Old PvP rankings will make their reappearance as end-of-season titles (e.g., "Scout," "Commander," "Centurion"). No word yet on whether these are permanent or if, like the non-Gladiator arena titles, you have to earn them each season to continue displaying them.
  • "Special epic ground mounts" will be made available to people playing the rated battlegrounds.
  • Rated battleground wins will also contribute to the new guild talent system.

BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, Fan stuff, WoW Social Conventions, Blizzard, News items, PvP, Expansions, BlizzCon, Battlegrounds, Cataclysm

Isle of Conquest details released


Vaneras has just released the details for the Isle of Conquest, the new battleground that will be appearing in Patch 3.2, Call of the Crusade.

You can read the complete details over on the official forums or check 'em out after the break. There are some key things that everyone should be aware of:
  • IoC will be a 40-man battleground. Yes, you read that right. This is the first 40-man content released since Naxx 1.0. That is going to make some old school players very, very happy. I know I'm already giddy with excitement.
  • There will be significant use of siege and vehicle combat. This includes going on The Airship Hanger and using parachutes to drop teams onto the enemy keep from above.
  • You will need to kill a general held up in the enemy keep, much like Alterac Valley.
  • Reinforcements will be used. Capture resources to boost your strength.
This looks like an amazing new battleground, and one that I'm sure many of us cannot wait to try out on the PTR. There has been a ton of new information about Patch 3.2 released in the last few days, so it looks like PTR might be soonish. Keep your fingers crossed.

The complete statement on the new Isle of Conquest after the break!

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Filed under: Patches, News items, PvP, Battlegrounds

An avowed non-PvPer can't get enough of Lake Wintergrasp


I've never been a fan of PvP. I have neither the twitch skills nor the patience to put up with being repeatedly ganked. I tried Battlegrounds and Arena, even some Burning Crusade world PvP, but the result is always the same: after getting a free ticket back to the graveyard courtesy of some Rogue that comes out of nowhere or a Warlock with their mez/fear/dot triple whammy I was done. Then came Lake Wintergrasp.

I admit that what first drew me there was greed. I heard that it was the richest source of mining nodes for the faction that controls it (as well as Eternal drops.) I was only level 73 when I first zoned in and knew I was going to get pwned by all the level 80s running amok, but to my surprise there turns out to be a feature that levels the playing field: siege vehicles.

Hoping into a catapult or manning a tower cannon eliminates the level difference between you and your opponent. In no time, I was laying waste to the enemy and racking up the Honor Points. I was suddenly having so much fun that I forgot to look for mining nodes (which is good, since the roaming mobs in the zone are level 80.)

Now, when I log on, the first thing I do is check how long until the next Wintergrasp battle starts (two and a half hours after the last one ends). For those who haven't tried any kind of WoW PvP I recommend trying your hand at piloting a Demolisher in Wintergrasp at least once. You may find yourself enjoying the game in a whole new way.
Whether or not you're a fan of PvP, we think you'll enjoy Wintergrasp. Blizzard's latest and greatest attempt at World PvP is one of the most fun aspects of Wrath of the Lich King, and the more people play it, the crazier it gets! Learn all about Wintergrasp in WoW Insider's complete guide.

Filed under: PvP, Wrath of the Lich King

Wrath 101: Honor points


One of our site leads, Dan O'Halloran, asked me a question that surprised me yesterday. He asked me what he was supposed to do with Honor points and where he could spend them. See, Dan isn't a huge fan of PvP. In fact, he only happened to try out the wonderfully fun and crazy Wintergrasp in between exploring on his brand-spankin' new epic wings. I think he found it fun enough to play it again.

This brought us to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, a whole lot of players are going to be accumulating Honor pretty soon without them knowing it. He thinks that a lot of players, mostly strictly-PvE carebears, would be curious enough about Wintergrasp to try it out... and hopefully enjoy it enough to play it again. I hope so, too. This means a whole lot of players who'd never PvP'd before, like Dan, for example, would need some sort of guide on Honor points and what to do with them. Here's where we step in with this handy little Honor overview.

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Filed under: PvP, Guides, Battlegrounds

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