Honor Changes in Effect for TBC Classic

When first released In December 2006, Patch 2.0 introduced several changes to the Honor system. Burning Crusade Classic follows in its footsteps, and it is in many ways similar, greatly revamping the experience seen in WoW Classic.

What is changing?

The Burning Crusade Classic Honor system allows for players to participate in PvP combat and obtain rewards by earning honor points that can be accumulated and spent like currency on rewards such as items, weapons, and armor.

A significant change is that in Burning Crusade Classic there is no longer any ranking system associated with the honor system, so you no longer need worry about maintaining a rank or standing. Players still interested in ranking up by battling against others can participate in the Arena system, which is the primary form of competitive PvP in Burning Crusade Classic.

Unlike WoW Classic’s Honor system, honor points accumulate like currency (akin to gold and silver), and do not decay over time. This allows you to work towards PvP rewards at your own pace, which you can purchase as soon as you have enough points to do so.

You can accrue up to 75,000 honor points, at which point you’ll stop earning them until you spend some. The amount of honor points required vary for each reward. For most items the honor cost is the most significant part of the item’s cost, though Marks of Honor from various Battlegrounds are also required.

Last but not least, dishonorable kills are no more. NPCs around the world are no longer set as civilians, so killing them will not impact your ability to obtain honor points.

Earning Honor in Battle

You can earn honor points in a very similar manner to the old honor system. The game tracks your participation in world PvP as well as PvP within Battlegrounds. As you kill enemies and assist your allies against the enemy, you earn honor. You can also earn honor points by daily quests and certain repeatable quests.

When grouped with other players, honor is divided equally between the members of the party. Just like the bonus experience gained when killing monsters in a group, players gain bonus honor for killing players while in a group.

If the character levels of some group members are significantly higher than others, the amount of honor gained by the lower-level members will be reduced, as it is with monster experience. Keep in mind that earning honor falls within the rules of experience gain, so players must be in the general proximity of an honor gain to receive a share.

In battlegrounds, players can gain honor from defeating other players. However, there are also other methods of earning honor in the Battlegrounds besides player-vs-player battles. Every Battleground has special objectives that grant bonus honor to an entire side upon completion. For example, defeating an opposing side’s faction leaders in Alterac Valley, or capturing a flag in Warsong Gulch, grants bonus honor to the entire faction’s battleground team.

Titles, Arena System, and Gear Rewards

If you’ve played WoW Classic and earned any PvP ranks, they’ll be available as titles. You’ll be able to display up to your highest rank achieved under the WoW Classic honor system as your character’s title, but ranks do not play a part in the Burning Crusade Classic honor system.

Battleground reputations carry over to the new system, and still increase through participation in the various Battlegrounds, but the current rewards are now only available through honor points. If you obtain exalted reputation with each battleground faction, you’ll also gain access to a new title depending on your faction: Justicar (for the Alliance) or Conqueror (for the Horde).

The Arena system in Burning Crusade Classic pits teams of 2, 3, or 5 players against each other in single elimination deathmatch games. To participate, you must first form a team, create a party with the appropriate number of players on that team and join the queue. A team roster can be up to twice the number of players in that team’s bracket (so four players for a 2v2 team, six for a 3v3 team, and ten for a 5v5 team). You may also queue up for unranked skirmishes without a team in order to practice.

Whether you win or lose an Arena match, your rating will change, though you can’t lose rating in this way for the first few matches on a new team. At the end of the week, your team’s rating will be used to determine how many arena points you’ll gain for your effort. In order to be eligible, your team must play at least ten matches and you personally must participate in at least 30% of those matches.

Arena points earned in matches can be used to purchase new, level 70 epic gear. Some of these items have a personal rating requirement to purchase, such as an 1850 rating requirement to purchase weapons, and a 2000 rating requirement to purchase shoulders. All PvP gear in Burning Crusade Classic also features a new secondary stat: resilience, which greatly increases your survivability by reducing the effect of critical strikes, damage over time effects, and drain effects on you, making it the most desirable gear to have for PvP situations. You can accrue up of 5,000 Arena points.

While skirmishes can be played at any time, rated arenas can only be played while a season is active. Burning Crusade Classic will have different seasons across the expansion. At the end of each season, title rewards will be doled out according to your performance in the season compared to the rest of the participants In your region. These titles will last until the end of the following season, with the exception of the top of the bracket who will get their titles permanently. The titles that can be obtained in Season 1 are:

• Infernal Gladiator (Top 0.1%)
• Gladiator (Top 0.5%)
• Duelist (Top 0.5% – 3%)
• Rival (Top 3% – 10%)
• Challenger (Top 10% – 35%)

In addition, recipients of the Infernal Gladiator and Gladiator titles will also receive a Swift Nether Drake mount, an extremely fast flying mount that is sure to leave your opponents in the dust!
There’s a lot more to see in Burning Crusade Classic and we hope you now feel more prepared to take on not only the denizens of Outland, but your foes in the never-ending faction war for dominance. We’ll see you on the battlefield, champion!