Why nerf Battleground xp?

Ignore posts 4,5, and 6. They're trolling, wrong, or both. There is a change going into patch 3.3.3 that will double the amount of Honor gained for completing objectives in Battlegrounds. Because experience gains directly correlate to the amount of Honor gained for completing such objectives, the change would double the amount of experience gained. While we do want to double the Honor gained to make obtaining PvP gear through Battlegrounds more on par with the rate at which players can obtain PvE gear via the Dungeon Finder, we are happy with the current experience gain rate and do not want it to change. For this reason we're decreasing the experience awarded by 50%. The net result is the same.

As an example, here are some made up numbers for completing a Battleground objective:

Current - 300 Honor, 500 experience

Increase Honor gains by 100% in 3.3.3 - 600 Honor, 1000 experience

Decrease experience gains by 50% in 3.3.3 - 600 Honor, 500 experience

Q u o t e:


To correct the math impaired ...


Current - 300 Honor, 500 experience

Increase Honor gains by 100% in 3.3.3 - 600 Honor, 500 experience

Decrease experience gains by 50% in 3.3.3 - 600 Honor, 250 experience

Notice that you increase HONOR. NOT XP as you said ..... ..... .....

First, I didn't do the math or the programming. I do, however, know how the system works. I tried to keep it as simple as possible in this thread, but it's actually even more complicated than I explained. Since you accuse me of having no mathematical skills, I'll explain how exactly things are changing just for kicks at this point.

We are increasing the amount of Honor received from Honorable Kills by 100%. Any time Honor is awarded for completing an objective in Battlegrounds or Wintergrasp, it's actually based on a converted, fixed number of Honorable Kills. Likewise, any time you are awarded experience in a Battleground for completing objectives, it's based on a converted, fixed amount of Honor awarded.

So I'll give another example of the actual change, again using fake numbers. Let's say in this example that you are level 50 and are awarded Honor and experience for capturing a flag in Warsong Gulch (remember, while the numbers are completely made up, the math is not):

Current: 1 flag capture = 5 Honorable Kills = 100 Honor = 500 experience

Increase Honor awarded for Honorable Kills by 100% in 3.3.3: 1 flag capture = 5 Honorable Kills = 200 Honor = 1,000 experience

Decrease experience awarded for completing Battleground objectives by 50% in 3.3.3: 1 flag capture = 5 Honorable Kills = 200 Honor = 500 experience.

In patch 3.3.3 you will get twice as much Honor for Honorable Kills and completing BattlegroundWintergrasp objectives, but will see no change in the amount of experience you are awarded.

Q u o t e:
It seems to me that the problem here is not with the math so much as with the way the patch note entry is phrased. The patch note entry currently reads "experience gains in Battlegrounds have been reduced by 50%." If it had instead read something along the lines of "experience awards for honor earned in Battlegrounds have been reduced by 50% to compensate for the increased honor gains," I think there would have been much less confusion.

Here is how the patch note currently reads. In order to be confused by it, you have to ignore all of the words before and after the snippet you took out of context. I'll bold what you stated read as confusing and then bold the clarification to that statement which occurs in the very next sentence.

Q u o t e:

• The amount of Honor awarded for an Honorable Kill has been increased by 100% for characters of all levels. Given that all avenues in the game which award players with Honor do so with a calculated conversion from a specific amount of Honorable Kills, this change means that all Honor players can obtain through various means will be increased by 100%. To offset against this in two key areas, experience gains in Battlegrounds have been reduced by 50% and Honor awarded for completing each Wintergrasp weekly quest has been reduced by 50%. When pairing the Honor rewarded from Honorable Kills being increased by 100% with the 50% Honor reduction from Wintergrasp weekly quests, and 50% experience-gain reduction from completing objectives in Battlegrounds, players will notice no change in the net amount of Honor or experience awarded in either case.

Q u o t e:
Yeah, I understand it but as said, it's not the clearest wording and many people here don't seem to have that great reading comprehension, or are just too lazy to read the full thing.

I don't agree with those here saying give more explanation of the mechanics, I think that was the problem. Don't tell them how it works, just say:-

In the next patch, you will still receive exactly the same amount of experience in Battlegrounds as you do now, but you will get double the honor.

Knowledge is power. We feel a large majority of players would like to have a better understanding of game mechanics so they have a better understanding of balance changes we make. This is one of those cases. It's going to be confusing no matter what, but we'd rather be forthcoming with the information and explain how things are changing. It was no secret before experience gains were based on Honor gains, so we have to explain why increasing Honor gains isn't going to increase experience gains. Those are two separate changes being made to the game and worthy of being stated in the patch notes.

The more you know. *Queue music*

Q u o t e:
No, Zarhym, those patch notes really don't say what they need to say. I do understand the changes, but the notes err right here:

"The amount of Honor awarded for an Honorable Kill has been increased by 100% for characters of all levels. Given that all avenues in the game which award players with Honor do so with a calculated conversion from a specific amount of Honorable Kills, this change means that all Honor players can obtain through various means will be increased by 100%"

The bolded text needs to read "which award players with Honor or experience." As it stands, there is simply nothing in the notes that lets players know that PvP-awarded exp is also converted based on HKs. The final sentence of the patch notes does make it clear that there will be no net change, but to pretend that the mechanic is lucidly spelled out in the notes is wrong: essentially they say "All Honor gains are based off a certain number of HKs. We're doubling HK honor, therefore we need to halve experience gains too." A big chunk of the explanation is missing, and it's not at all unreasonable for a casual reader to miss the rather large inference required to decipher the text.

You make a good point. I'll see to it that this gets revised in the next draft of the patch notes. :)