WoW Classic PvP System Overview

The PvP system in WoW Classic is very different from its late expansions. This one is based on weekly contributions and calculations. In our WoW Classic PvP Overview, we are going to touch upon the PvP, the Battlegrounds, which were active at the time, and how you can farm Honor for the title you desire.

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Classic PvP System Schedule 

WoW Classic starts from the 1.12 Patch as its base. The rest of the content is planned to be released in six phases. The Classic PvP is also following that plan and each piece of content in PvP will be released in a specific phase.

Blizzard’s 6 phases of the content release plan:

Phase 1

• No formal PvP system;
• No Dishonorable Kills;
• The ability to repeatedly hunt down NPSs and players

Phase 2

• Added Honor system with its Honorable and Dishonorable Kills and Rank Rewards;
• Item versions of Patch 1.12;
• The Honor system will need players to invest more time in it;
• Getting epic gear will take longer

Phase 3

• Introducing the Battlegrounds Alterac Valley /in its 1.12 version/ and Warsong Gulch along with the associated vendors;
• Some vendor items were presented with later patches of the game, so they won’t be available at first but in a later phase /probably Phase 5/

Phase 4

• The Battleground Arathi Basin will be included, together with its vendor.

Phase 6

• Add Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands World PvP objectives;
• Naxxramas

 WoW Classic PvP Battlegrounds

The Battlegrounds are specified areas, where players engage in PvP combat. You can enter a Battleground in two ways – by using a portal at the battleground location or via a Battlemaster in one of the faction’s capitals. 

When you win a Battleground, you get all the Honor you’ve earned on its territory, 3 Marks of Honor /which you can trade for experience/ and reputation within the Battleground’s faction. The team on the losing end gets only 1 Mark of Honor.

• Warsong Gulch
  - Released with Patch 1.5. Its Classic WoW release is with Phase 3. The team size for this Battleground is ten players, and the type is Capture the Flag. The Battleground is located in the southern parts of Ashenvale and follows the conflict between Silverwing Sentinels and the orcs that chopped down their forest in the Third War.
  - There are flags inside both the Horde and the Alliance base, and the objective is to steal the opposing team’s flag and take it to your base, while of course protecting your flag from being stolen. The winner faction should return all 3 of the enemy flags to their base.

• Arathi Basin
  - Released with Patch 1.7. Its Classic WoW release is with Phase 4. The team size for this Battleground is ten players, and the type is Control Points. The Battleground is located in the Arathi Highlands and follows the conflict of the supply forces of the Alliance and the Horde factions in an area, which is critical for both factions. There is a serious battle for natural resources, and every side wants to claim them for themselves.
  - There are five bases with flags placed around the Battlegrounds – Farm, Lumber Mill, Blacksmith, Mines, and Stables. The teams have to battle for control over all the bases. To capture a base, you need to complete a 10-sec channeling time on a said flag and then hold the base for a minute and not let the enemy team capture it back during that time. When one team successfully captures a flag, resources will start generating and the more bases your team captures, the quicker the resources with gather. The winner faction should gather 2000 resources.

• Alterac Valley
  - Released with Patch 1.5. Its Classic WoW release is with Phase 3. The team size for this Battleground is 40 players, and the type is PvPvE. The Battleground is located at the heart of Alterac Mountains and follows the conflict between the Frostwolf Clan that settled there a long time ago and the Stormpike Guard, which is a league of dwarves that are looking for ancient titan and dwarven relics in the area.
  - This PvPvE Battleground has a lot of PvE elements, as well as being a PvP zone. The objective is to fight your way through the enemy’s faction forces and reach their Keep. There are a lot of PvE objectives, which can aid you in this task. The winner faction should defeat the enemy’s general.

The Honor System    

The WoW Classic Honor system serves to compare your PvP efforts to the efforts of everybody else in your server. This system in Classic WoW begins in Phase 2, but you will be able to get Honorable Kills even before that. However, the Honorable kills will only count after the start of Phase 2.

Honorable Kills & Contribution Points

As players participate in PvP combat, be it in Battlegrounds or outdoors, they start gathering Honorable Kills. An HK is awarded when you or a person of your group kills a player from the enemy faction. For a kill to count as an HK, the players must be within a 10 level range from the level you’re on.

Every Honorable Kill gives you a certain amount of Contribution Points. The contribution points are measured by your PvP experience. When you kill an enemy with a high amount of contribution points, you will get awarded more points than killing a player with little to no PvP experience.

You can check the Honorable Kills for the entirety of your character’s existence, for the past week, and your contribution points for the past week by clicking the Honor tab in the character sheet.

Contribution Points can also be accumulated by completing objectives in the Battlegrounds – capturing the flag, capturing the bases, or killing the general in the specific Battleground.

During the weekly reset, your Contribution points calculate your rating. A player’s weekly rating is based on an average of the rating of the previous week and your current position, among others on your server.

The weekly personal ranking, together with the number of Honorable Kills for the week and all previous HKs, determine the current rating you have. Every faction has 14 total ranks that reward you with a title. Each title has its benefits.

Rankings and Titles update once a week, during the reset. The exception is the Dishonorable Kills, which immediately affects your ranking.

The WoW Classic's system works differently than a straight leveling system. It is used mainly for comparison with other players on your server. If you are consistent with your PvP efforts, you will improve each week. For that, you must invest more time and get higher rankings every single week.

Honor Rankings & Titles

In WoW Classic, there are 14 rankings for both factions. Each of them requires a specific amount of Rating points to be calculated every week. Then, the calculation is compared with other people on your server. 

Each rank gives you a different reward – they can vary from consumables to Epic Mounts. The ranks give you an exclusive Title. In WoW Classic, the Honor system is implemented in Phase 2, and no previous efforts in PvP will count before the start of that Phase.

• Rank 1 – 25HKs< - Private /Alliance/, Scout /Horde/ - Rewards Private’s Tabard/Scouts Tabard;
• Rank 2 – 2000 Rating – Corporal/Grunt – Rewards PvP Trinkets: Insignia of the Alliance/Horde;
• Rank 3 – 5000 Rating – Sergeant/Sergeant – Rewards Blue-Quality Cloak: Sergeant’s Cape/Cloak;
• Rank 4 – 10 000 Rating – Master Sergeant/Senior Sergeant – Rewards Blue-Quality Necklace: Master/Senior Sergeant’s Insignia;
• Rank 5 – 15 000 Rating – Sergeant Major/First Sergeant – Rewards Blue-Quality Bracers: Alliance/Horde;
• Rank 6 – 20 000 Rating – Knight/ Stone Guard – Rewards Access to the officer barracks, Knight’s Colors/Stone Guard’s Herald and Access to Combat Mana Potion/Combat Healing Potions;
• Rank 7 – 25 000 Rating – Knight-Lieutenant/Blood Guard – Rewards Rare-Quality Set Boots: Alliance/Horde and Rare-Quality Set Legs: Alliance/Horde;
• Rank 8 – 30 000 Rating – Knight-Captain/Legionnaire – Rewards Rare-Quality Set Chest: Alliance/Horde and Rare-Quality Set Legs: Alliance/Horde;
• Rank 9 - 35 000 Rating – Knight-Champion/Centurion – Rewards: Alliance/Horde Battle Standard;
• Rank 10 – 40 000 Rating – Lieutenant Commander/Champion – Rewards Rare-Quality Helm: Alliance/Horde and Rare-Quality Set Shoulder: Alliance/Horde;
• Rank 11 – 45 000 Rating – Commander/Lieutenant General – Rewards Access to PvP Epic Mounts and Ability to talk in the World Defense Channel;
• Rank 12 – 50 000 Rating – Marshal/General – Rewards Epic-Quality Set Gloves: Alliance/Horde, Epic-Quality Set Legs: Alliance/Horde and Epic-Quality Set Boots: Alliance/Horde;
• Rank 13 – 55 000 Rating – Field Marshal/Warlord – Rewards Epic-Quality Set Helm: Alliance/Horde, Epic-Quality set Chest: Alliance/Horde and Epic-Quality Set Shoulders: Alliance/Horde;
• Rank 14 – 60 000 Rating – Grand Marshal/High Warlord – Rewards Epic-Quality Weapons: Alliance/Horde

 Dishonorable Kills

A Dishonorable Kills is when you kill a Civilian NPC, while in PvP combat. These NPCs are lower level and are useful to the enemy faction /quest givers or vendors/. They can stall a player’s progress when they are unavailable. These NPCs have the tag “Civilian” when targeted by the other faction.

Dishonorable kills affect the Honor rating right away. You will lose your standings within the server, and if you have enough Dishonorable kills, you can even lose a PvP ranking. Dishonorable kills are the only thing that affects your rating immediately after it happens, instead of waiting for the weekly reset.

The system was created to prevent players from faction griefing and to punish the ones who camp on low-level NPCs and prevent player progression.

Sources of Honor

Honorable Kills 

You gain Contribution points every time that you kill a player from the opposite faction, who is in your level range. There are factors, which increase/decrease the amount of Honor, gained from an Honorable Kill:

• Character level – The level of a player can determine the amount of Honor you gain. For example, for level 60 to kill another level 60, that will gain them more Honor than killing a level fifty. When you kill a grey player or one, who is more than ten levels below you, you will receive no Honor.
• Your level – The higher your level, the higher the Honor rewarded. Killing a level 60, when you are level 60, gives you more Honor than killing a level 30 when you are level 30.
• Subsequent kills – Repeatedly killing the same players within 24 hours reward less Honor. The second kill reduces the Honor to 75%, the third - to 50%, the fourth – to 25%. Killing one player more than five times within 24 hours gives you no Honor. However, these kills still count toward the kill ratio for the week.
• Kills in a group or raid – When you kill enemies in a group or raid, everyone on the team gets equal Honor per kill. Lower levels get less Honor than higher ones. If you are too far away from a kill, you will get no Honor, even if a player who is closer to the target does. If you feel like you haven’t obtained enough kills, join a PvP raid to get more kills before the weekly reset.
• Contribution for a kill – Each solo, group or raid character gets Honor from the killed enemy character. The Honor you get equals to the damage percent you did to the enemy.
• Player ranking – Players get more Honor for killing an enemy with a higher Honor rank. For example, killing a Knight/Stone Guard will reward you more Honor than killing a Private/Scout.
• Being close to the enemy – You need to be present for the kill to get Honor. Even if an enemy is being healed, you will not get any additional Honor points when they are killed.

Killing NPC Racial Leaders

One of the NPCs is considered to be the Racial Leader. There are six of them during a 2-hour spawn timer. These NPCs provide big Honor bonuses, which are divided equally among players who participated in the kill. The NPC Racial Leaders are:

1. Alliance – Highlord Bolvar Fordragon /Stormwind/; King Magni Bronzebeard /Ironforge/; Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm /Darnassus/
2. Horde – Thrall /Orgrimmar/; Cairne Bloodhoof /Thunder Bluff/; Lady Sylvanas Windrunner /Undercity/

Battlegrounds Objectives 

The Battlegrounds contain other objectives, apart from winning them. All players of one faction will receive the same share of Honor when they complete a specific Battleground objective. Don’t ignore these kinds of objectives if you want to raise your rank!