World of Warcraft Honor System Live

Available now from the World of Warcraft Patch servers, the Honor System has been put into production. The Patch Notes are available on the official site and besides the Honor System includes new art, bug fixes, and new live events in Kalimdor and the Gurubashi Arena. There will also be, starting in May, a "Children's Week" celebrated in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. "It is a time to give back to the innocents of war: the orphans!"

live?

[JVert]

It is live when I can login and download it.

It is not very live at the moment.

It Will Be Interesting...

[Chi Hsuan Men]

...to see how this will affect Horde / Alliance relations.

I play on Sargeras, which is a PvP server. Considering that it is a PvP server, there are a lot of clashes between the Horde and Alliance. Raids are constantly led against Horde and Alliance towns alike and in contested areas, "ganking" is a popular activity.

Though the interesting thing to note is when Alliance and Horde play nice. In certain areas, Horde and Alliance co-exist (to a reasonable degree) as they are BOTH attempting to complete quests.

For example, I was in Felwood last night working on a quest and a couple of Horde were right next to me killing MOBs and we pretty much go into a rhythm were I would kill one, then they would kill one, so on and so forth. At the end, we completed our objective (fill the vial with corrupted water), saluted each other, and went on our merry way.

In this example, we played nice with each, because it was mutually beneficial for us to do so, after all, we both needed to complete the quest... ...however, with the new patch, it will be just as beneficial, if not MORE for us to simply kill each other, as that will give us honor points which will eventually translate in p|-|47 l00t.

While the honor system MIGHT curb the rampant "problem" that is ganking (I don't see it as a problem, it's a pvp server, I deal with it) I think it will definitely escalate the desire for Horde and Alliance to kill each other, and make it more difficult to complete quests in contested areas.

Re:It Will Be Interesting...

[linzeal]

I play on the Ner'Zul server and as the rogue class officer for the 3rd largest guild on the server I have been anticipating with dread this move to an Honor System for months. PVP servers now will have an even steeper leveling curve that was not in place when the game went live. Places like Tarren Mills and Southshore will be bloodbaths during primetime and probably well into off time. Many people in my guild are considering dropping the PVE element of the game altogethter to have ganking parties 40 people strong that will kill en masse at the higher level neutral and enemy towns.

The game may change too radically for some and this might force some of the more reticent players on PVP servers to consider how much griefing [wikipedia.org] they will allow in their online experience. When you are paying upwards of 50 bucks [amazon.com] for the game and 15 bucks [blizzard.com] a month for the game the casual player who plays an hour or two a night is not going to be too pleased to not be able to meaningfully interact with the virtual world as he has done for the past 6 months there might be the addition of dishonor points for player kills. Which is what even a lot of us more hardcore folk would consider the minimal insurance that we will not be /spit on , ganked and griefed for the entierity of our online time.

Not looking forward to this...

[meta-monkey]

I can't say I'm looking forward to this patch. I chose a PvP server to PvP...I still love that. I just don't like the way the rewards are implemented.

I have a wife and a job, and don't have as much time to play as the college students and bums who make up most of my guild. With the PvE stuff, I might not always have my stuff first, but I'd get it eventually. I got to 60 about a month after my friends. They had time to run three instances a day for their class sets. I could only run maybe one before bed, but that was fine. I didn't get my stuff first, but I got it eventually. Now we're working through Molten Core and have killed Onyxia several times, and I've got pieces of my epic class sets. I'll get the rest, eventually, too.

Now with the PvP system, you get your rank determined by the percentage of server-wide kills you got that week. Only a certain percentage of players per server will be able to get the higher PvP ranks. It doesn't matter if I'm the greatest PvP'er who ever lived, I will never get the epic PvP sets, simply because there's no way I can get more kills in the 1-2 hours a night I have to play than the people who have 8 hours a day to play. With the PvE stuff, I wouldn't be there FIRST, but I'd be there EVENTUALLY. With the PvP system, I'll never get there, and will only be somewhere in the middle of the pack, forever. Eh.

Re:It Will Be Interesting...

[Achoi77]

I too play on a pvp server (Mannoroth), and have tested out the honor system on the test server. To be truthful, the 'phat lewtz' that are given thru pvp awards will be *very* difficult to get, as it is percentage based. The top rank (14) will only be awarded to .1% of all the total population, which translates to 1 out of every 1000. For a server with 30,000, that means only 30. For a smaller server with 10,000, only 10(!!!) will be able to acheive rank 14 and be awarded the big gear.

With such a difficulty ranking, it's better off if you and your guildmates farmed out MC or something.

That said, it will be a rough time for the first few weeks, since people will not realize that the honor system only kicks into high gear for endgame people. What I DO suspect is that the rampant lowbie ganking will ebb quite a bit to acceptable levels, Tarren Mill not withstanding, and that we will see a LOT more raids on the capital cities. (which should be fun!)

Re:Honor with no Dishonor

[meta-monkey]

Well, keep in mind that you won't get honor points from killing players who are "gray" to you. That is, players who are much lower level. So if players are intent on farming people for honor points, they need to be killing people level 50-60. Camping level 30s won't do them any good, and they'll just be wasting their time when they could be earning honor points. The PvP rewards are only usable by level 58-60s anyway. I don't think this will have much impact on people pre-50.

That said, level 50 people are SCREWED! They are going to get farmed until they quit the game! They're green to level 60s, so they're honorable kill worthy.

Re:Honor with no Dishonor

[_UnderTow_]

Before you fire off a reply with a 'STFU n00b' or 'Cry some more' consider carefully how difficult it will be to run Molten Core, Maraudon, Dire Maul, Stratholm, and the like when you have effectively discouraged most other classes from levelling other than rogues.

I already see probems for rogues (and hunters) trying to get into groups for high level instances. There are simply too many of them. The problem may get worse with the honor system, but I think it will be self correcting, as people realize that there is too much competition for group slots among rogues and go back to their main characters.

My main is an Arms/Fury Warrior, and he eats rogues for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So I have no problems with the whole alliance using rogues.

Re:Honor with no Dishonor

[agrounds]

You have a valid and insightful point. I must admit I am somewhat spoiled, as my new main since moving to Laughing Skull a month ago, is a priest. I can count the number of groups I have been turned away from in 44 levels on two fingers. When I played my rogue, I was continually turned away unless I knew someone in the group, and my old warlock main was about 50/50 on getting into instance runs.

That said: As a priest: Much love to the warriors! You keep us alive.

Hopefully the eventual release of Battlegrounds will defer some of the player farming away from the questing zones.

Back of Rogues

[Holdstrong]

For starters, on my Server, Rogues are NOT the most played class. In fact, they are not even in the top 3. So stop making generalizations about the entire game bassed on your experience on one server. Next, complete stun lock is a myth. It just doesn't happen the way the Nerf Rogue crowd would have you believe. Stun lock is a method of keeping your opponent stunned so you can build up combo points and get off your big damage move. Stun lock ONLY happens if the Rogue gets off the first hit, and is only successful in a one on one environment because any other damage to stunned player will break the key stun in the combo. Even IF the rogue executes his perfect stun lock combo... a player of equal level will not be dead. And of course let us recognize that many classes have stun lock counters... such as the mage Blink. Last, The reason Rogues do not get invited to end content is not because there are so many of them. It is because they are absolutely useless end game. This is readon I ditched mine - a leather wearing aggro whore is not a fun character to be running around with when mobs hit you for 1k damage. (about 1 fourth of a good rogues health) So please, back off the rogues.... if a lot of people are playing them it is because they are fun to level, and they are relatively easy to play. A poorly played rogue will beat almost any other poorly played class. But with two evenly skilled players at level 50+, a Rogue is almost ALWAYS at a disadvantage. If you think a Rogues are godly in WoW you have either never played on to 60, or you simply dont know howto play your current character.

Re:It Will Be Interesting...

[Minna Kirai]

Though the interesting thing to note is when Alliance and Horde play nice. In certain areas, Horde and Alliance co-exist (to a reasonable degree) as they are BOTH attempting to complete quests.

It's a little interesting to note that the enmity between Horde & Alliance is maintained by what is essentially NPC bigotry. In towns with NPC guards, players of the other factions will automatically be attacked. Fighting back will flag them for PVP, attracting the nearby PCs to come pound on them.

But in the wilderness, there are no NPC faction-members to start fights. And since the two sides aren't warring by default in that situation, they tend to cooperate like you described.

with the new patch, it will be just as beneficial, if not MORE for us to simply kill each other,

The game is called "Warcraft" after all- you're supposed to be at war, and that means attacking on sight. From the perspective of authors trying to make a game world fulfill their longstanding preconceptions, that effect will be exactly what they want.

make it more difficult to complete quests in contested areas.

Hey, if Honor points will be giving better l00t anyhow, why bother questing? The quest location becomes like a meeting-place for Honor battles, with the quest reward a consolation prize for when you're standing around there and don't meet an enemy party.