Okay, so people have been asking me to explain how the honor system works. Why they seem to think I'd know... that I do not know. But I do have a theory on how it works and it seems to be somewhat accurate. So I'll present what I know here and figure out the rest as I go along.
Section 1: Terminology
Firstly it's very important to get familiar with the terms I'll be using else a lot of misunderstanding can occur.
'Rank' - This is your player rank which goes from 1 to 14. (ie: Private to Grand Marshal)
'Ranking' - This is your "Standing" as shown at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/index.html?r=Shadowsong&faction=a#top which is the column on the far left and basically lists players from highest 'Rank xp' to the 1000th highest. Some people refer to this as 'Overall Standing'.
'Rank xp' - This is your "Rating" as shown on the far right column of http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/index.html?r=Shadowsong&faction=a#top which is actually your progress on the 'Rank' bar of your character screen. I call "Rating" 'Rank xp' because it helps Illustrate things better.
'Standing' - This is your 'weekly standing' as shown in your character screen. (You will see it under the section "Last Week") You must not confuse this with the "Standing" on the official website. (Which I call 'Ranking')
'Honor' - This is the amount of Honor you have or have gained or will gain. Some people call this 'CP'. This term easily gets mixed up so I need to explain that when I say 'Honor' it refers to the amount you gain on your character screen. The 'Honor' stat is more or less reset every week. (Goes back to 0)
'HK'/'HKs' - This I believe everyone knows as 'Honorable Kill'. You must not confuse this with 'KB' which is the 'Killing Blow' stat used to rank players in the BG games. Generally this is a for fun stat, and has no bearing except when used in cut-off point calculations.
Section 2: Ranks
Alright now that that's out of the way, We'll start this off with a small table showing the 'Rank' and 'Rank xp' required for each 'Rank'.
Rank Rank xp Title
1 1-2,499 Private
2 2,500-4,999 Corporal
3 5,000-9,999 Sergeant
4 10,000-14,999 Master Sergeant
5 15,000-19,999 Sergeant Major
6 20,000-24,999 Knight
7 25,000-29,999 Knight-Lieutenant
8 30,000-34,999 Knight-Captain
9 35,000-39,999 Knight-Champion
10 40,000-44,999 Lieutenant Commander
11 45,000-49,999 Commander
12 50,000-54,999 Marshal
13 55,000-59,999 Field Marshal
14 60,000-max Grand Marshal
As you can see, except for the first two ranks, it's 5K 'Rank xp' for each 'Rank'. To obtain Private, all you need are 25 HKs.
Section 3: Earning Rank
So, how do you obtain these 'Rank xp' in order to gain 'Rank'?
You do this by earning 'honor' to gain 'Standing' to gain 'Rank xp'. To earn honor, you can gain it from:
- Killing valid PvP targets (ie: Opposing Players and Racial Leaders in the appropriate setting)
- Doing damage to a valid PvP target that dies (aka: Getting HKs)
- Being in a group or raid that kills a valid PvP target and being in xp range. (and alive)
- The above 3 are subject to Diminishing returns when killing Players. If you kill (or gain credit for) the same player more than once during a 24 hour period, you gain less honor than is displayed in your combat log. (1st kill of the day = 100% of what you see in the combat log. 2nd Kill = 75% of combat log. 3rd = 50% 4th = 25% 5th kill onwards 0 gain)
- Handing in PvP Quests (ie: Marks of Honor)
- Getting Bonus Honor from winning or loosing BG Games.
Now here comes the tricky part.
'Honor' does not directly translate into 'Rank xp'. While the amount of 'Honor' you gain determines your 'Standing' which determines how much 'Rank xp' you gain, it is very possible for you to gain more 'Honor' yet receive less 'Rank xp'. (Compared to previous weeks)
Here's how it goes:
When the servers go down for maintenance, the system totals up your total 'Honor' for the week and lists them from top to bottom. Any player with less than 25 HKs during the week are removed from the list. This is the 'cut-off point' mentioned above. Even though I say 25 is the minimum, based on what I read from http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/pvp-article-part2.html and http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/honor-system-faq.html this is not mentioned, BUT I have it on good authority that there IS a cutoff point and anyone who does not make the minimum number of HKs is considered inactive for the week.
From this list, the server assigns your 'Standing' (your Weekly Standing).
Once you have your 'Standing' it then assigns you some 'Rank xp' based on your 'Standing'. I do not have the exact data on how much 'Rank xp' you gain for each 'Standing' but from what I have calculated:
Standing 1 = 13,000 'Rank xp' (Actually, it seems to be 12,999.. could be a minor rounding error in my formula)
Standing 23 = 10,253 'Rank xp'
Standing 40 = 9,838 'Rank xp'
Standing 100 = 8,401 'Rank xp'
In case you are wondering... 23,40,and 100 are the weekly standings I got after the 1.8 patch.
Which is why they are here and reflect my actual 'Rank xp' gain. For data comparisons sake:
31,721 to 35,215 with Standing 40
35,215 to 36,573 with Standing 100
36,573 to 39,512 with Standing 23
Section 4: Decay
Now if anyone has actually been paying attention and doing the math, they would realize the figures above do not add up. They also do not explain why more people aren't Rank 14 by now. So here's the important part:
There is a 20% Rank xp' decay every week.
I'll say it again,... you LOOSE 20% of your 'Rank xp' EVERY WEEK.
This is the reason why some players like Jaena have been stuck at rank 13 week after week. It's because with the massive amount of 'Rank xp' that Jaena has, he needs to gain more than he looses each week in order to see any form of advancement at all. Currently Jaena is at 59,492 'Rank xp' which means Jaena looses 11,898 'Rank xp' each week. (if I recall correctly, Jaena had 59,440 'Rank xp' last week meaning he gained only 52 'Rank xp' this week. Had Jaena gotten 'Standing' 23 like I did, Jaena would have gone down in 'Ranking' and dropped below Xsassyboy who has 58,467 right now, but would have remained in 2nd 'Ranking' due to having 31 'Rank xp' more than Johnslayer who is at 57,716)
There are 2 exceptions to the 20% decay rule.
1) The maximum 'Rank xp' loss you can ever have in a week is capped at 2,500. (ie: You will never loose more than 2,500 'Rank xp' during a week)
2) If you do not earn more than the 20% decay, you only loose 10% of your total 'Rank xp'. (Subject to rule 1 above which means you will loose either 10% or 2,500, whichever is LESSER.)
And there you have it folks. Everything you need to know about the PvP Rank System.
Section 5: FAQ
Some FAQs:
Q: How much 'Rank xp' do I loose for a DK (Dishonor Kill)?
A: The exact figure is not known as the loss is immediate, yet the official PvP Standings page only updates once a week. It is possible to immediately loose rank for DKs. Some claim 50 'Rank xp' per DK. I do not have the data to verify.
Q: What 'Standing' do I need to maintain 'Rank' X?
A: I do not have enough data, but based on some conversations, It would seem that to maintain Rank 6 (Knight) you only need to be in the top 900 ('Standing' 900 or better each week). Please note that there is a huge difference between 'maintain' and 'obtain'.
Q: How much 'Honor' do I gain from healing?
A: None. When I spoke with the Devs at Blizzcon they indicated that they would change the Honor System to reward a proportion of the 'Honor' for a kill to players who heal during combat. However, currently you gain no 'Honor' for healing people not in your group/raid. (You don't gain honor for healing people in your group either... but if THEY live long enough to kill people then you gain part of the share.)
Q: How much 'Honor' is 1 HK worth?
A: Please read Section 3 again. Also read: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/honor-system-faq.html As it states, the targets 'Honor' value is determined by their level and 'Rank'. You gain a proportion of that value based on the percentage of damage you (or your group) inflict on the target. This new value is then subject to diminishing returns. So most of the time 1 HK is worth 0 'Honor'.
Q: So HK's really do not give me much honor?
A: Please read Section 3 again. If you only BG once a day then yes, HKs would be a substantial part of your honor (Especially if you loose by a huge margin). But if you face the same group more than once, or are doing AV or having a really long WSG game, then HKs generally do not contribute much.
Q: So if I play BG once a day it's best for me to 'tag' as many Horde as I can?
A: No, it is a very BAD idea to tag Horde just to get HKs. The reason is because of diminishing returns. Lets say you're a Paladin and no one is inviting you to the raid. So you run up to the flag and Consecrate hitting every horde there for piddly damage then run back out to heal yourself because if you die, you do not get any 'Honor' or credit for the kills. Let's say everyone else kills those horde while they are still in your xp range. Because you did a small amount of damage to each target, you gain a HK for each one that dies, but if you look at your combat log, you only gain 1 to 5 'Honor' for each one that dies... once you factor in diminishing returns, you can quickly see that even if you tag the same guy 4 times and he dies all 4 times, you only get a grand total of maybe 3 to 10 'Honor' for it (and for the rest of the day you get 0). Far better to concentrate on 1 target and obtain a full 200 to 398 honor. (If solo that is)
Q: Is it better to solo or group?
A: That question goes way beyond scope, there are too many variables to consider such as class, play style, BG type, skill level of opposition, tactics and strategy employed by both sides, number of Bit torrents you are running and whether Murky is dancing at that moment. In general it is best to group.
Q: But then why is it some of those elite solo players do so well?
A: Again, many variables. Solo players don't necessarily do well because they earn more 'Honor' but more because they reduce the amount of 'Honor' that everyone else gains. You must keep in mind that the Honor System is a relative scale. It doesn't actually matter how well your side is doing but rather how well you perform relative to everyone else on your side.
Q: Explain?
A: Here goes - As already explained, the amount of 'Honor' you gain is proportional to the amount of damage inflicted. So assuming Horde X was worth 300 'Honor' and Alliance A,B & C all did 33amage to Horde X and killed him. Each Alliance A,B & C would receive 100 'Honor' each if they were not grouped. If they were grouped... each would receive approx 125-150 (I have no idea what the actual numbers are, but the 'bonus xp' for being in a group are quite decent). Lets say Alliance A is solo and B & C are grouped. The split would then be, something to the effect of A = 100, B= 115, C= 115. (This is actually wrong... because bonus xp only applies to groups of 3 or more, but I really don't want to confuse things by saying B,C,D,E... and so on... that and I have no idea if the bonus honor rules for being in a group follow xp rules exactly. Certainly, you get far less xp for being in a raid group, yet the raid group penalty for xp does not apply to 'Honor')
Here you can see that the soloist actually gets LESS 'Honor'. So why do they do well? ... this is largely due to play style. The soloists are typically hardcore killers. Because of this, they inflict massive amounts of damage and play a lot more than the average player. Once you bring diminishing returns into play, you'll start to see where the advantage lies. Lets say an attack group of 5 moves in on the BS accompanied by a soloist. The attack groups focus is obviously taking the node, (Capping, Healing, CC) while the soloists focus is dealing as much damage as possible.
Assuming the same Horde X was at that node and the soloist did half the damage. Soloist A would gain 150 'Honor' while attack group splits the other 150 'honor' 5 ways for 45 'honor' each. (Yes 150/5 = 30, but you get bonus... so it goes up for a net total of 225) Here then is where the big difference lies, in that the soloist got more than the [i]individuals[/i] in the group. Stay with me though, it gets more amusing... the soloist is typically a hardcore player and it's not his first kill on that Horde for the day. While Horde X may have been worth 150 'Honor' (it says so on the soloists combat log) the actual honor gained after diminishing returns is 0. Assuming the Attack group is having it's first game of the day ... the 45 'Honor' they are gaining for that first kill really is 45 'Honor'.
Those who have been paying attention would have realized that if the soloist had joined the attack group, it would have been 300 'Honor' split 6 ways for approx 80 honor each. The soloist would still receive effectively 0 'Honor' due to diminishing returns, but the others in the group would have gained 80 instead of 45.
The effect of soloists is to reduce the net amount of 'Honor' gained. This is beneficial to the soloist because even if the soloist does not gain anything, it is important to make sure that others gain less. (The soloist however still wants to win the game because bonus honor is handed out to everyone.)
Q: Isn't this very unfair? Something needs to be done!
A: It is simply the effect of the system in place. If everyone were allowed to gain full honor for a kill they(or their group) did not contribute to, then everyone would go solo. The Developers ARE aware of this and have stated that in upcoming patches, raid groups for BGs will be formed automatically once technical difficulties have been worked out.
Q: So in the end it is better to be solo?
A: I never said that. The question was "why some of those elite soloists do so well?" and that was what I answered. Those soloists who do well, work hard for their rank. Even if they grouped with you, they would still be ahead.
Q: Can I join your pre-made?
A: I do not run a pre-made. I am very seldom even in one. The vast majority of the time, I queue solo and then simply form the raid once in the BG if it has not yet been formed. If I have the power to, I will always invite everyone and anyone in the BG. If you are bugged, log out and back in to clear the bug so I can invite you.
Q: Can I have your babies?
A: I already have a Baby Murloc, and it's soulbound. So no, you may not have Murky.
The Bardic Paladin,
Champion of Light,
Ordus Libratus Divinitus.
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