Epic Battles = Epic Lag?

Since the Honor System encourages players to take part in player vs. player combat, large scale battles are forming in areas such as Hillsbrad and the Barrens. This has been causing extreme latency, which is frustrating for both those participating and those that aren't. Do you see this as a problem, and are there plans in motion to address this issue?

The current lag being generated by the large PvP battles is unfortunate. Although optimizations are being made to improve the play experience in high-density battles, we suspect that much of the current behavior will be very short lived. The Honor system has sparked great interest, and seeing that areas such as Hillsbrad and the Barrens were already hotspots for player vs. player combat it isn't surprising that players rush to either locations in order to check out the new system.

We feel the largest contributing factor in the reduction to the latency in these hotspots is the fact that Battlegrounds will be ready for release next patch! Yes, that's right, I said next patch, and yes, I said Battlegrounds...plural! The implementation of Battlegrounds will draw players away from towns and into instanced environments designed for either small-scale or epic battles between evenly matched teams (we’ll be sure to get you more information soon about how the instancing works). With many players taking their PvP action into battlegrounds (due to both the fun-factor and the contribution points for completing objectives), we expect that combat in the outdoor world will be of a much more manageable size.