korl
17-12-2007, 06:50 PM
First time in BG – help me understand the honor reward system
PvP noob here, I’ve played the Arati Basin this weekend for the first time (AB “call to arms” weekend), and I am trying to understand how honor points are awarded. I have read various materials about the BG-s, and whatever I could find at wowwiki.com and elsewhere.
I play a level 49 Undead rogue, I just went in with just the reading I did about AB and nothing else.
I also kept track (from the display at the end of each match) of some of the matches (I think I played almost 100 matches this weekend) and the honor points awarded. I know the final honor is showed with an approximation on the character panel (until the next 24 hours when honor is calculated exactly), but it gives me an idea.
(1) people do NOT communicate and there is NO strategy followed: it is a mess. The chat would say: “LM” or “farm” when help was needed at those points, and occasionally I would wisp with another player (or they would wisp me) to set up a duo action. Everybody kills everybody, and if we could kill members of our own factions, people would do it. Some groups are more organized and know what to do (still without communicating much), and the game is smooth, but that is rare. So all the strategy guides that I’ve read are either not known by people or they don’t care for them.
(2) I did stay with the flag to defend, and killed an occasional enemy or two that would try to sneak up and steal my flag. In those matches, if we won, I would get 72 bonus honor and a few more honor points, so I would get 85 or so honor points at the end. I would have 2-3 kills, and my participation to the game (as far as killing enemies and/or capturing other flags) was low. At one time we won, I had 14 kills and got only 42 bonus points instead of 72. At other times I would just go into the action, not caring about strategy and/or winning, and just kill. One time I killed 94 enemies, it happened that we won and I got again 72 bonus points (for winning I guess) and all in all I got 258 honor points. At other times I would kill and kill and even if we lost the match, I would still get 150-ish honor points.
So:
defend the flag, strategize with the group, win and get 85 honor
kill kill kill, don’t care about strategy, win and get 250-ish honor
kill kill kill, don’t care about strategy, lose and get 150-ish honor
Conclusion: It is not worth to play to win, defend the flag, etc. Just go and rack up kills, and if your team wins, that’s a bonus. Who wants to defend the flag for the whole match and get crappy honor at the end? I know that the honor rewards diminish as you repeatedly kill the same enemy, until you end up getting 0 honor on the same kill. Because they have only 15 players, chances are high that you will kill the same guy several times, but still you get more honor that way. It looks like Blizzard is rewarding kills more than strategy play. In my understanding, this is not what the match is supposed to be – what is your observation about this?
My plan now is this: I watch the development of the game in the first minutes or so, and if it looks really disorganized, I just go for the kills and nothing else. If the group looks like it knows what to do, then I do more ‘strategy’ stuff, communicate - if that is open, defend the flag, hopefully capture the 4-th and 5-th node if the enemies are not well organized.
(3) honor rewards are really meager: I played over 24 hours over the weekend and I only got a bit over 5000 honor points (out of which I spent 2800 on the Insignia of the Horde – very useful). Is this because of my level? Are rewards getting better at levels 60-69, or at 70? I need 27,000 honor points to get the 2 Gladiator S1 swords (level 70) and 12250 honor points to get the level 60 main hand (>>if<< I am going to get that, I am still considering if I should, outland greens might be better, and at this low rate of getting honor I better save for level 70). I am sitting on about 2,400 honor now, after a long weekend of exclusively BG playing. That is annoying. Even though it was a lot of fun, definitely a welcome diversification from leveling.
PvP noob here, I’ve played the Arati Basin this weekend for the first time (AB “call to arms” weekend), and I am trying to understand how honor points are awarded. I have read various materials about the BG-s, and whatever I could find at wowwiki.com and elsewhere.
I play a level 49 Undead rogue, I just went in with just the reading I did about AB and nothing else.
I also kept track (from the display at the end of each match) of some of the matches (I think I played almost 100 matches this weekend) and the honor points awarded. I know the final honor is showed with an approximation on the character panel (until the next 24 hours when honor is calculated exactly), but it gives me an idea.
(1) people do NOT communicate and there is NO strategy followed: it is a mess. The chat would say: “LM” or “farm” when help was needed at those points, and occasionally I would wisp with another player (or they would wisp me) to set up a duo action. Everybody kills everybody, and if we could kill members of our own factions, people would do it. Some groups are more organized and know what to do (still without communicating much), and the game is smooth, but that is rare. So all the strategy guides that I’ve read are either not known by people or they don’t care for them.
(2) I did stay with the flag to defend, and killed an occasional enemy or two that would try to sneak up and steal my flag. In those matches, if we won, I would get 72 bonus honor and a few more honor points, so I would get 85 or so honor points at the end. I would have 2-3 kills, and my participation to the game (as far as killing enemies and/or capturing other flags) was low. At one time we won, I had 14 kills and got only 42 bonus points instead of 72. At other times I would just go into the action, not caring about strategy and/or winning, and just kill. One time I killed 94 enemies, it happened that we won and I got again 72 bonus points (for winning I guess) and all in all I got 258 honor points. At other times I would kill and kill and even if we lost the match, I would still get 150-ish honor points.
So:
defend the flag, strategize with the group, win and get 85 honor
kill kill kill, don’t care about strategy, win and get 250-ish honor
kill kill kill, don’t care about strategy, lose and get 150-ish honor
Conclusion: It is not worth to play to win, defend the flag, etc. Just go and rack up kills, and if your team wins, that’s a bonus. Who wants to defend the flag for the whole match and get crappy honor at the end? I know that the honor rewards diminish as you repeatedly kill the same enemy, until you end up getting 0 honor on the same kill. Because they have only 15 players, chances are high that you will kill the same guy several times, but still you get more honor that way. It looks like Blizzard is rewarding kills more than strategy play. In my understanding, this is not what the match is supposed to be – what is your observation about this?
My plan now is this: I watch the development of the game in the first minutes or so, and if it looks really disorganized, I just go for the kills and nothing else. If the group looks like it knows what to do, then I do more ‘strategy’ stuff, communicate - if that is open, defend the flag, hopefully capture the 4-th and 5-th node if the enemies are not well organized.
(3) honor rewards are really meager: I played over 24 hours over the weekend and I only got a bit over 5000 honor points (out of which I spent 2800 on the Insignia of the Horde – very useful). Is this because of my level? Are rewards getting better at levels 60-69, or at 70? I need 27,000 honor points to get the 2 Gladiator S1 swords (level 70) and 12250 honor points to get the level 60 main hand (>>if<< I am going to get that, I am still considering if I should, outland greens might be better, and at this low rate of getting honor I better save for level 70). I am sitting on about 2,400 honor now, after a long weekend of exclusively BG playing. That is annoying. Even though it was a lot of fun, definitely a welcome diversification from leveling.