Ever wanted to know why you get less honor than you originally expected to get? Well, we've got a rather informative post up that gives some insights on how honor is won in World of Warcraft, and this information comes straight from Blizzard CM Drysc himself.
Takun of the Magtheridon server was wondering why the honor calculations he was getting weren't adding up to the total he actually receives from fighting. Instead of receiving 9102 honor, he adds, he only received 6998, keeping him from purchasing an item he wanted to get.
Drysc chimed in with an explanation of some of the reasons as to why one's honor calculations may not go as planned:
There are diminishing returns on honor when killing the same opponent. With each kill (of the same opponent) the honor gain is reduced by 10%. After 10 kills that opponent is no longer worth any points until the next day. While we record those diminishing returns we don't calculate them at the time they occur, as it would require a large amount of server resources to accomplish. We've made improvements in this area of course, and will continue striving towards continual improvement of all in-game systems.
If you're in games with the same opponents over and over it's likely your estimate could be much higher than the honor you actually receive. Obviously though the bonus honor is added and doesn't have to be calculated, so that portion of your honor gains are "guaranteed".
There are some UI mods that track the diminishing returns client-side, which is a bit messy and not something we've found to be a solid solution for us to implement, but they do work well enough and can give you a good view of your honor as you gain it.
There you have it. As Drysc notes, the estimations on the player's side aren't 100% reliable, and while it doesn't actually help a player much, there ought some players out there who will find that it simply means they'll have to be more patient in picking up their well-deserved rewards.
