Arathi Basin Located in Arathi Highlands , Arathi Basin is a fast and exciting battleground . The Basin itself is rich with resources and coveted by both the Horde and the Alliance . The Forsaken Defilers and the League of Arathor have arrived at Arathi Basin to wage war over these natural resources and claim them on behalf of their respective sides . It is similar to " King of the Hill , " " Conquest , " or " Domination " modes in other games . Overview . The goal is to control locations on the map ( " Resource Nodes " ) . While a node is controlled , it generates resources for your side , and the first side to gain 1 , 600 resources wins the contest . Prior to Patch 3 . 2 , 2 , 000 resources were required for victory . Winning Arathi Basin . Accumulating Resources . Resources accumulate at the rates shown in the table below . So if your team has three nodes , their team has two nodes , and they lead 1400 to 1300 , you can still win if no nodes change hands . But if your team is at 1200 you cannot win unless you gain control of four nodes . Honor Rewards . The game awards bonus honor to everyone on your side of the match for reaching certain goals . Those goals are : Honor for lower level matches scales down from the amounts given . Other scored events are not granted honor . These include : killing blows , assaulting a node , capturing a node , and defending a node . Honor is awarded for honorable kills as normal . Winning a complete match ( 1600 resources and the win bonus ) gives 140 honor ( at level 60 ) . It also awards 3 Arathi Basin Mark of Honor . Losing a match gives you less bonus honor depending on how many resources your side managed to collect before the loss . You will still accumulate some honor from honorable kills . You will receive 1 Arathi Basin Mark of Honor at the end of a loss . On the Battlegrounds Holiday weekend for Arathi Basin , the bonus honor goals are : The total honor for the winning team on the holiday weekend is 200 . The losing team only earns honor for resources collected ; there is no additional bonus for a loss on the holiday weekend . Quests . There are a number of quests involving fighting in Arathi Basin , some of which need reputation with the battleground faction . You can get them from one of the NPCs near the battleground entrances in Hammerfall or Refuge Pointe . The first quest will usually be , for which you need to assault four different bases . Horde . As of the 2 . 3 patch , there is a daily quest available requiring a win in one random battleground , which awards experience , honor and coin . The AB version of this quest is . Reputation . Doing battle in Arathi Basin improves your reputation with The Defilers ( Horde ) or The League of Arathor ( Alliance ) . On the Battlegrounds Holiday weekend for Arathi Basin , the Reputation rewards are : Rewards . Arathi Basin items are available by spending honor accumulated . The Alliance vendor for these items is near the Alliance Arathi Basin battleground entrance in Arathi Highlands . The Horde vendor for these items is outside the Horde Arathi Basin battleground entrance in Hammerfall in Arathi Highlands . Though some of the Arathor and Defiler factions items have different names and artwork , equivalent items ' bonuses and equip effects are identical . " Highlander ' s " items are Arathor items . The bulk of the items are belts , boots , and shoulders tailored to various classes . More powerful versions of some items can be purchased as you gain levels , allowing higher level players to receive faction rewards with better equipment bonuses . However , the exalted rewards are only available at level 60 . See Honor rewards for other items which can be purchased with Honor points . Old Faction Reward System . Prior to patch 2 . 01 , you had to improve your reputation with the Arathi Basin faction to be eligible for rewards . See Old Arathi Basin Rewards for details .