Changes to Honor earned in certain Battlegrounds
Blizzard Community Manager Lore has posted today in the official forums about some changes to honor earned in several different battlegrounds. His full post is, as ever after the break. The devs have concluded that players are earning too little honor in various different battlegrounds, specifically Arathi Basin, Battle for Gilneas, Eye of the Storm, Silvershard Mines, Warsong Gulch, Twin Peaks, and Strand of the Ancients. All other battlegrounds remain unchanged.
While these aren't huge changes, which is to be expected given that they're arriving via Hotfix, every little helps. The jist of the changes is that the periodic honor earned in points-based BGs in the list above will be earned faster, so you'll get bonus honor every 130 points as opposed to 260. This is altered for Silvershard, where it's every 200, as opposed to 265. The flag capture battlegrounds will see the Focused Assault debuff applied faster in an effort to make them shorter, and there's a bonus for capture prevention. Strand will give a bonus for destroying gates, or preventing their destruction.
Whether this will be enough to replace the most efficient methods of farming honor -- Krasarang rares, Isle of Thunder PvP dailies, Grizzly Hills quest and JP conversion -- remains to be seen. I suspect not, but it's at least a step in the right direction. Hit the break for Lore's full post.
In Arathi Basin, Battle for Gilneas, and Eye of the Storm, we'll be increasing the frequency at which you'll be rewarded bonus Honor based on the points your team has earned. Currently, you earn bonus Honor every 260 points (or 200 if that battleground is the current Call to Arms) in these battlegrounds. As a part of this adjustment, we're going to lower the number to 130 (or 100 during Call to Arms).
We're also making a similar change to Silvershard Mines. Currently bonus Honor is earned for every 265 points (or every 160 if Silvershard is the current Call to Arms). After the change, you'll earn bonus Honor every 200 points (or 130 during Call to Arms).
Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks are getting a slightly different treatment. Because these matches tend to take longer than the above Battlegrounds (which directly effects the rate at which you earn Honor from playing them) we wanted to make some changes to speed them up a bit. To do this we're going to apply the Focused Assault debuff 1 minute after both flags have been picked up, which is 2 minutes earlier than it does currently. Once it's begun to apply, it will continue to increase at the current rate of 1 stack every minute. On top of that, we're adding a new bonus at the end of the match: For every flag you prevent the opposing team from capturing (so, every flag under 3), you'll earn 18 extra Honor.
Lastly, in Strand of the Ancients, we're doubling the bonus a team earns for destroying a gate (or preventing it from being destroyed).
These hotfixes are currently in production, and will be applied as soon as they are ready. We'll have an update in the official Hotfix blog once they're active. We look forward to seeing you on the fields of battle!
