Honor and Battleground Holiday Weekends

With the release of patch 2.3.0, players have seen many changes to the way that honor gain occurs in Battlegrounds and most noticeably in Alterac Valley. Many aspects of this battleground have been changed to promote a more strategic event and rewards players for participating in many aspects of the battleground. Despite the changes made, the overall intention of these changes is to maintain a level of honor gain that players have become accustomed to as well as maintain pacing of how long the matches may last. Prior to the changes implemented in patch 2.3.0, honor gains were less consistent in how they were calculated, there were long games, extra-long games, short games, and holiday bonus honor calculations all factored in. With the patch, we have better simplified and defined this for active participants in these matches.

With these changes has also come some confusion in regard to where honor bonus comes from during holiday weekends as well as how best for players to optimize gaining bonus honor within the battlegrounds. To help clear up this confusion, we have taken the time to put together more information.

Diminishing Returns

It’s important for players to understand the nature of gaining honor and what role diminishing returns plays with this. Diminishing returns on honor occurs over time as you kill the same opponent. For each kill you make past the initial kill, the honor gained for it is reduced by 10%. After ten kills of the same opponent, that player is no longer worth any honor.

Estimated Honor

Estimated Honor will show an amount of honor that does not factor in diminishing returns. This number can be less depending on whether or not you had a lot of kills where diminishing returns were applied. Honor is shared among players in a Raid when they are within range of a kill. When fractions of a kill or decimal amounts of honor are gained by a kill, the User Interface will round the estimated honor up to show one Honor point gained. Given enough time what shows as ten Honor points, could actually only be five Honor points gained.

Daily honor calculations can also cause estimated honor to appear larger than what it actually is. If a player plays prior to the honor calculations being run, and then during or shortly after, the estimated honor may appear as a part of the previous day’s totals. In actuality, this honor applies to the next day and will be correctly calculated the next night when the next batch of honor calculations are run.

Regular Honor vs. Holiday Honor

Some weekends are considered Holiday weekends for a particular battleground. Envoys for the holiday battleground will be located within the major cities. Holiday weekends grant bonus honor for meeting particular goals within the battleground.

The chart below shows the amount of regular honor and holiday bonus honor for each of the battlegrounds as well as the reputation gains.

It is important to note the following: one kill= 20.9 honor at level 70.

*Map Complete refers to the bonus honor awarded on holiday weekends for both the winning and losing teams when the match has concluded.

Alterac Valley


Bonus Honor Normal Holiday
Tower Destruction 3 Kill(s) 3 Kill(s)
Enemy NPC Kill 0 Kill(s) 0 Kill(s)
Captain Kill 3 Kill(s) 3 Kill(s)
General Kill 4 Kill(s) 4 Kill(s)
Map Complete 0 Kill(s) 4 Kill(s)
Per owned Graveyard 0 Kill(s) 0 Kill(s)
Live Captain 2 Kill(s) 2 Kill(s)
Per Undestroyed Tower 2 Kill(s) 2 Kill(s)
Per Owned Mine 0 Kill(s) 0 Kill(s)

Reputation Normal Holiday
Tower Destruction 12 18
Enemy NPC Kill 5 5
Captain Kill 125 185
General Kill 350 525
Map Complete 0 0
Per owned Graveyard 12 18
Live Captain 125 175
Per Undestroyed Tower 12 18
Per Owned Mine 24 36

Warsong Gulch

Honor Normal Holiday
Flag Capture 2 Kill(s) 2 Kill(s)
Win 1 Kill(s) 3 Kill(s)
Map Complete 2 Kill(s) 4 Kill(s)

Reputation Normal Holiday
Flag Capture 35 45
Win -- --



Arathi Basin

Honor Normal Holiday
Honor per resource 1 Kill(s) per 330 resources 1 Kill(s) per 200 resources
Win 1 Kill(s) 1 Kill(s)
Map Complete 1 Kill(s) 1 Kill(s)

Reputation Normal Holiday
Reputation per resource 10 per 200 resources 10 per 150 resources
Win 0 0



Eye of the Storm

Honor Normal Holiday
Honor per resource 1 Kill(s) per 330 resources 1 Kill(s) per 200 resources
Win 1 Kill(s) 1 Kill(s)
Map Complete 1 Kill(s) 1 Kill(s)

Reputation Normal Holiday
Reputation per resource NO REP available NO REP available

Q u o t e:
Maybe I am missing something on the AV chart, Naethera, but I don't see any differences in honor for AV weekend versus regular play. I see differences in reputation but none for honor. I think this is what has had the playerbase so concerned. Personally I have Exalted faction for AV so reputation means nothing to me. I am sure there are many who are the same way.

The bonus is in the map complete at the end of the match. If you look, you'll see during normal BG days, it's 0. For the Holiday it's 4. While it may seem small, it can add up especially if you get all the other honor from the Battleground through attacking/defending etc.

Q u o t e:
Does that chart mean on a holiday , you gain a total of 6 kills-worth for the tower cap in AV?

Non holiday amount + holiday amount?

Or is "holiday" column the total you'll get during a holiday weekend?

That's the total you receive. The Holiday column stands on it's own in this case and isn't additive (on top of normal honor).

Q u o t e:


Please see my other comments just above in my edited message. I am sorry, but this just does not cut it for those of us unlucky enough to have to play Alliance on Stormstrike. I am very, very disappointed in Blizzard over the changes to AV in 2.3.

I have been playing the game since the late BETAs, and IMHO this is absolutely the worst nerfing of the game that I have seen. It has removed fun and motivation to play AV for most of the Alliance folks on Stormstrike, and for most of the other battlegroups the inconsequential weekend bonus honor is not even going to be seen. I still maintain that a completed map is so rare (except for Horde on Stormstrike) that in essence there is no bonus honor for AV.

Please reread this-

*Map Complete refers to the bonus honor awarded on holiday weekends for both the winning and losing teams when the match has concluded.

Keep in mind, as I basically said in my original post, the double honor gain that people claimed from before was based on some extra long games and various other factors that resulted in inconsistent honor gains.

In this case, the AV battles are more consistent in the honor that can be gained and the time of play is kept relatively consistent as well. It emphasizes the importance of solid teamwork and strategic planning within the Battleground as well.

While I understand that some aren't pleased with these changes, it's important that if you feel the need to give feedback, that you do so in a constructive manner. We're more than happy to look at the thoughts and feelings of the community on these things, but would rather not have to moderate out inappropriate language or discussion.

Q u o t e:
i'm sorry i just couldn't stand that table formatting :)

Hey now! It was the same as yours, I just had less time to get the spacing perfect. ;)

I've now used your updated format and put it in the original post. So thanks!

Q u o t e:
Neth...not sure if my math is wrong, but I'm positive I've gotten ~668 bonus honor when we completely shut out the Alliance on a non-AV weekend, but according to the numbers you posted that should only be possible during AV weekend.

Am I missing something or is my math wrong?

If you're running a "perfect" game, you should be able to get close to the same high end of a bonus weekend which I'm told is top end 700 points or so. I've refrained from giving specific ranges only because matches can have many variables to them as far as what accomplishments you've managed to achieve, how many kills you've been credited with, and more. There will still be a boost to honor gain during the bonus weekend compared to the regular honor times.

Q u o t e:


Neth, have the Devs told the CM's to specifically NOT comment on the AFK, AV, queue problems?

There's probably a few hundred threads from this month alone and they've been pointedly ignored...

We can only comment on things we have answers to. The most I can say is that we are monitoring these issues and are aware of them. When there is more that can be discussed, we will be here letting everyone know. I'd rather not have this thread derailed with too much extra discussion though.

Q u o t e:
So do the "kills" awarded for certain Battleground objectives diminish, or only player kills? :X

Player kills are subject to the diminishing returns.

Q u o t e:
Neth, your original post on the AV honor is missing some. Sending the Wing Commanders back to base will net 20 honor(1 'Kill' worth) once they make it. I've heard that they give another 20 once they're in the air, but can't confirm that yet.

I'll double-check on this and see if we can add it in. This is the current most accurate information we have on the main achievements for the battlegrounds so, please feel free to let me know if there is any other information you feel would add to what we have here and I'll see what we can do.

Q u o t e:
Easy question:

Diminishing returns... per game or per day?

If it is per day then it is stupid. What happens when you play the whole day in AV for example...are your telling me that there is a chance that after 20 random AV I do not get anymore Honors per kills because I killed those people enough all day already?

/movie announcer voice
Firts it was
/drumroll
LORELOL
then it was
PVPLOL

Coming soon
HONORLOL

The diminishing returns should be per day.