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What are the benefits of ignoring the BG's strategy to farm HKs.

I haven't sat and "studied" it yet, as my impression is that I get plenty of HKs just following the dps around playing the actual BG. But doing the WSG daily this morning...I reached a peak of frustration watching 5 ally players farming the horde GY while the flag was unguarded 100 yds. away.

Is it just laziness and selfishness? Or is there an actual tangible benefit to farming HKs in BGs. Especially if its the daily...shouldn't winning the BG be more valuable?

It's idiots. Thanks to the Honorable Defender buff, in AB especially defense now has some value, honor-wise. But people still won't do it, despite the fact that it wins games, and winning and achieving objectives still yield more honor than straight-up killing.

Some of it is as Aethien says, people assuming it's a lost cause anyway and going into every-man-for-himself mode. Which makes them just as bad as the AFKers, frankly. I understand battleground frustration, believe me I do, but either you're part of the solution or part of the problem.

But I don't think in most cases it's even that. It's the same way so many people in PVE will chase meters instead of playing smart. All they care about is seeing big numbers next to their names, because... I dunno, high scores in video games give validation to their otherwise challengeless and meaningless existences?


Edited, Mar 20th 2010 11:42am by teacake

Depends, tbh. Battlegrounds are probably the only thing in WoW that have a pretty much purely 'recreational' function for me. I don't always do them for a reason. There are times when I don't want honor, gear or achievements and just want to melt some ally faces for my own relaxation. If I'm in such a mood then I might not always follow normal tactics but rather go off by myself to have some awesome 1on1s.

That said, I NEVER graveyard farm;


This isn't true. Continueing on what I just said, you are giving your team benefit whenever you so much as draw the attention of an enemy player. If I run through the midfield and get chased down by a HK-hungry ally (you know, those guys who pop all their cooldowns just to catch up with you and kill you in a 4vs1 fight), then regardless of whether or not I'm actually defending, capping a flag or killing someone, I am keeping at least one ally away from doing the same, making the job easier on my nine teammates. The more allies I can keep busy, the more time I win my team. Which automatically means that as long as I don't just get killed within five seconds, I can be of a lot of use to my team without actually even looking at the flag.

I'm with you, Tea. And good point at the end.

I just read a whole thread on mmo about this...http://www.mmo-champion.com/pvp/why-do-people-farm-hks-in-bgs/

It seems, like Moz eluded to, that many go into BGs just to kill stuff. I suspect that while this might be true for Moz and a few others, most are just trying to cover up their desire for the 100k HK title...something that requires absolutely no coordination with others.

Blizz simply awards HKs too highly. One poster mentioned that this creates a prisoner's dilemma for many players. On one hand, you could help your team win and MAYBE get more honor but likely fewer HKs, on the other you can guarantee yourself more HKs and maybe get the bonus of a win if the rest of the team is competent.

I suspect that this will eventually lead Blizz to do something about it, like they eventually did with the afkers. The solution, I think, is to have a faceroll HK battleground (maybe Tarren Mill v. Southshore COT BG) and penalize players for HK farming in the normal BGs. I don't have a good idea for how this could be done as of yet, but I think eventually you'll see it done.

Personally, Moz...I see farming HKs as selfish play, magnified by the fact that it's "supposed" to be a team-based game. The objective player says: "I'll have fun trying to complete the BG...and if I'm successful, 9/14 other people will benefit as well as I will". The HK farmer says "I'll have fun by killing enemy player, which will award ME if I'm successful and who gives a damn about the other 9/14 people here." Selfish...

Even at that, I defend your ability to do it...thus why there should be a place for it that doesn't interfere with those trying to complete BG objectives.

People are WAY too focused on titles and mounts, imo.

Don't be ridiculous. I am always the best player doing anything, all the time. I'm also an excellent driver.

Obviously it's a game and as such none of it is serious business. The hot button here for me is the idea (not your idea, Moz, I'm speaking in general) that it's more okay to just goof off in a battleground than it is in a raid. If it's a team activity, I do my best for the team. If I don't feel like playing my utmost, I play solo, or with people who are equally interested in just goofing off. There's nothing inherently less "important" about a battleground. It's just as rude and disrespectful to waste 39 other people's paid playing time there as it is anywhere.

Personally, I'm ok with this. I always enter a BG intending to win. I always try my hardest in those first few minutes. If it looks bad, I can understand going into farm-mode. Generally I'll go die, cancel a few resurrects, then take one and try to go find a group of ally that are actually competent and follow them around until its over.

For you. Regardless of whether raids take longer, taking it minute for minute, my half hour of battleground time is just as valuable to me as any half hour of your raiding time is to you. And I pay the same price for it (although there's probably some quibbling about currency conversion we could do next to disprove this? ). Nice for you that are okay with wasting it, but I'm not okay with you wasting it. I'll agree to disagree on this and stop harping, but my position remains that it's just rude.