After today's 22.0 patch which started getting things ready for the release of next week's Fractured in Alterac Valley expansion, players have begun to receive Honor Kills earlier than intended after playing games. Blizzard then confirmed in their known issues update that they would be looking into the early release and deciding what to do.

Well, good news everyone! Blizzard has decided that the faction war event will be starting early and that it'll be hotfixed tomorrow to make the legendary questline pop up.

That isn't the whole story though.

Honorable Kills Early

It was reported as soon as the patch hit that we were seeing Honorable Kills popping up in-game but also that the legendary questline unlockables, golden cards, were arriving in collections as well.


Off to a great start!

This means that even though we don't have the legendary quests in our quest log, which is being hotfixed tomorrow on December 1, they are still triggering in the background and giving us rewards. This leads to a situation where the client isn't telling us that we're earning these rewards even though they are appearing in our collection. Unfortunately, the new cards are not usable in decks yet since Alterac Valley hasn't launched, but getting a start to unlocking these cards is a huge plus since it'll help us open other cards in our pack openings on December 7 when everything releases.

So in conclusion, it is currently worth grinding Hearthstone even before the hotfix arrives because we're getting some progression in. Also, these honor kills are contributing towards the big 7200 Honor achievement which rewards one of the 10 hero skins that originally came from the rewards track. Cool!

See Your Faction In-Game

Don't forget that you'll see your faction and your opponent's faction in-game so you can know how much honor you can earn for your win.

  • 10 Honor for every game played
  • 10 more Honor for every game won (20 total)
  • 20 more Honor for every game won versus an opponent of the enemy faction (40 total)

Blizzard Post

Quote From GnomeSayin

We’re excited to share that the Battle for Alterac event will begin early! With hotfix planned for release in the next day, all players will begin their faction’s quest line and start earning their Golden card rewards! These cards will remain locked until the expansion launches on December 7.