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WoW Archivist: Patch 2.0.1, Before the Storm
The WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Patch 2.0.1 was, according to a large chunk of players, quite possibly one of the best patches to come out of vanilla WoW. It had nothing to do with the introduction of the new talent trees in preparation for The Burning Crusade's looming launch. It had nothing to do with the new, bulky, and rarely used first iteration of the looking for group tool. There were no launch events with this patch, just a heck of a lot of data that needed to be implemented in preparation for the launch of the first expansion. But what had players either cheering fervently or cursing forever had nothing to do with the imminent approach of The Burning Crusade. It had everything to do with PVP and the removal of the honor system as we knew it in vanilla. What's so special about that, you ask? Let's take a journey back in time and look at the good and bad of the old honor system. If you think today's Arena grinds are difficult, well ... you're in for one heck of an eye-opener.
Wherefore art thou faction PvP gear?
Okay, so back when the old Grand Marshal and Warlord PvP sets were scrapped in favor of Gladiator gear for honor, I was actually pretty dismayed, but not for the same reason as most others. I wasn't really concerned about "Welfare Epics" or "AFKavers" simply standing at the entrance of AV and getting good gear because of it. I was sad because the look of the sets was going away! Yeah, that my sound a bit crazy, but bear with me for a bit, let me explain myself.
Breakfast Topic: Your favorite title
We at WoW Insider like our titles. Mike once made a little rant about how he would've liked to see the return of the old PvP ranks. Having no Blood Elf High Warlords or Draenei Grand Marshals make me a little sad on the inside. Although Bornakk has already stated that they would like to keep titles "rare", it seems like we're getting a few more really cool titles with the juiciest patch to date. For example, even though attunement to the Black Temple and Mount Hyjal will be removed in Patch 2.4, players who have completed the quest line will be honored with the title "Hand of A'dal" just as players who completed the Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep attunement are called "Champion of the Naaru". Some titles are cool, while some are mere remnants of the old world... who among you really wears their "Grunt" or "Private" ranks with pride? Patch 2.4 also promises an awesome title for those who achieve Exalted with the Shattered Sun offensive... and have money to burn. Perhaps the rarest title of all is the "Scarab Lord" which can only be obtained at one point in a server's lifetime, and it's no mean feat. Though there've been humorous suggestions as to what other titles should be made available in the game, what's your favorite title so far? Is it one of your in-game goals? Are you one of the few who managed to reach High Warlord or Grand Marshal? Or are you happy with Champion or Knight-Lieutenant? Personally, I'm trying to grind Conqueror with my Blood Elf although I've got 1,000 gold stashed away because "... of the Shattered Sun" sounds just so gosh-darned cool. What about you?
Forum Post of the Day: Bring back the honor grind!
Believe it or not, there is actually someone out there who wants Blizzard to bring back the old honor system. You remember: the system where you had to slave away for hours and hours (and hours) day after day (after day) in order to get anything epic -- especially the "Grand Marshal" or "High Warlord" epic weapons. Apparently, Pahs thinks that the time sink the old honor system required proved a deeper dedication on the part of the players who went for it. Nowadays, anybody -- even people with jobs(!) -- can just earn up their honor points and spend them like money, when, according to Pahs, such folks should be content to "talk to a few friends and maybe do a BG or two." He says, and I quote: "Why people with real life responsibility's want the same treatment as people who can input more time into the game is beyond me."Yet a surprising number of posters in his thread agree with him, citing the number one problem with the current system: the appearance of AFKers in all the battlegrounds. Naturally, it offends our sense of justice that AFKers can get honor gear for free by having their characters sitting in the battlegrund leeching off of their teammates, while they themselves don't have to put in any effort at all. In the previous system, players would have had to actually kill the enemy and win in order to progress past rank 5 or so. Likewise, the old system's ranks and titles were fun -- people always like to be able to distinguish themselves from others, though whether for a genuine feeling of achievement or some kind of "Better than thou" badge, depends on the individual.But going back to the old honor grind in order to get rid of AFKers would be ridiculous. As Tyren says, the newer system, with arenas and objective-based world PvP in addition to battlegrounds, is a vast improvement. It provides more access and variety to more players, and exchanges time for rewards at a far more reasonable pace. What we see in this case is a classic example of people reminiscing about the "good old days," which were never really that good to begin with, simply because frustrating problems have appeared along with the improvements. As much as we all may hate AFKers and other new problems, it's much better to go forward and find new ways to solve such problems than to go back to such an unbalanced system with far more serious flaws of its own.
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Are PVP weapons and armor too cheap?
That's the question of the week on the World of Warcraft forums, where many former Grand Marshals and High Warlords are lamenting their lost time and suggesting that Blizzard double or triple the cost of GM/HWL weapons. Several former PVPers have posted arguments that basically amount to feeling that since they put in the admittedly arduous amount of effort to get top rank, they feel slighted by seeing people running around in all blues and Rank 14 weapons. Melodii of Stormreaver posts not one, but two tales of woe: one of her rise to rank 14, and one of her arguments against cheap weapons. Melodii's story is somewhat heartwrenching, since she admits that she pvped through illness, neglected her friends, didn't work and quit school for six months to get Grand Marshal. Her opinion of herself as an "acheiver who didn't quit" was not shared by the seven pages of people making fun of her. So are weapons and armor too cheap? In my opinion, the cheap weapons and armor are fully justified. While I understand it can be painful to see the stuff you worked so hard for seemingly made available to the common man, the truth is that Blizzard's PvP system was completely broken. Melodii's story, rather than an impassioned defense of the former PvP system, looks more like an argument against it -- who wants to do nothing with their lives so they can get epics in WoW? Continuing with a life-disabling PvP system just so those who've gone before don't feel slighted is like sending people into a sinkhole to retrieve someone's wallet, and when those people don' t come out, sending more in so the dead people wouldn't have died in vain. The former Grand Marshals and High Warlords have their titles, and they had the weapons and armor long before they were available to the common player. Plus, as Drysc notes, the PvP gear will be worth much, much less come the expansion. All this will do is give people more of an equal footing when we're all standing at the Dark Portal together. And as someone who hasn't raided in two months, the idea that I can work a little each day to get something to help me level is a very, very sweet idea indeed. What do you think? Should they raise item honor costs, or are you just too close to that Grand Marshal mace to let that happen?
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Grand Marshal for...9 months?
I saw this thread on the WoW.com general forum. Apparently, there is a hunter on the Earthen Ring realm who has been Grand Marshal for at least NINE MONTHS. Assuming this to be some sort of gross exaggeration, I followed a link to a thread in the Earthen Ring realm forum, and sure enough...Longarms has been Grand Marshal for a very, very long time. Whether it has been 9 months or not is up for debate, but suffice to say he has been a Grand Marshal as long as people can remember.This takes an incredible amount of time and dedication. I don't think I know anyone who has reached Rank 14 in PvP who has bothered to defend their rank. Some people in the realm thread accuse him of having multiple people playing his account, others claim they have chatted with him and he is the nicest fellow in the world, some question his PvP skill set and a vocal group is annoyed that he has been clogging up the PvP ladder. The general consensus in the thread is that he is a retired guy who just really, really, really...I MEAN REALLY likes PvP. I don't know the guy, and he wasn't online when I tried to seek him out this evening, but this is one of the more interesting things I have come across in WoW in a good while. Sure, it would be easy to hurl the insults his way, but I am much more interested in his rationale. It is one thing to be a total, 18 hour-a-day WoW addict. Those are a dime a dozen. It is something entirely different to do something that is so unusual it spawns massive threads. I am shocked this is the first I have heard of this guy. I guess I just don't troll the forums nearly enough. What do you guys think? Anyone know this guy? Is there anyone else in WoW who can claim such a long Grand Marshal run?
