WoW Classic PvP System

In this WoW Classic PvP System Guide, we break everything down that you need to know to succeed in this high-intensity player-versus-player combat. PvP in Classic isn’t just about fights, it’s also about strategy and skill, along with knowledge of how the Honor System works. This guide will equip you with the tools and knowledge to succeed, whether you set your sights high in ranks or just want to dominate battlegrounds. Prepare to battle for glory, rewards, and a place in Azeroth.

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Terminology and Basics

The PvP Experience in World of Warcraft: Classic dramatically differs from the one we have right now in The War Within. It is far more complicated and needs taking part in Open World PvP activities, lots of mathematical calculations, and an indescribable amount of time spent on Battlegrounds (BG). The higher the rank you are interested in, the more you have to do to reach it. The Vanilla statistics say that among everyone who had ever killed another Player, less than 0.1% had made it up to the end.

So let us represent you the Classic PvP system starting with the terminology, usually used in the game. Take a look at the picture below:

• Honorable Kills (HK) — this is a number of your victorious battles with Players from the other faction. The Victory counts when you or someone from your group kills a Player from the opposite faction.
• Dishonorable Kills (DK) — the number of killings of Civilian NPC’s, such as Vendors or Quest Givers. Note, that these kills have an immediate impact on your rating and lower it greatly. When you or someone in your group makes a DK — everyone will become subjects to the same penalty.
• Contribution Points (CP) — this is so to say the value of your HK. Every victory you make gives you a different amount of CP, depending on many factors and we will talk about it later.
• Weekly Standing (WS) — the current place you take within your realm and faction. The WS depends on the number of CP you’ve collected during this week.
• A number of Ranked Players (NR) — a number of the Players of your faction, who has got CP during this week.
• Rating Points (RP) — the total amount of CP, which you have collected.
• Honor Standing (HS) — this is the very criterion that calculates the position and Rank of every Player. These computations are made based on the data from WS, NR, and RP.

The PvP Rank changes once a weekly reset with the exception of the DK, which influences your position immediately.

There are 14 Ranks in total, each with unique titles and rewards — we will dwell on them in more detail a little bit later.

Ways to Obtain Contribution Points (CP) and Honorable Kills (HK)

There are a few ways to collect CP: get Honorable kills and thus CP level while fighting with other players and killing the leaders of the factions.

The basic rules of getting or not getting Contribution Points while fighting other Players are described below:

• The level of your Character matters. You will get more Contribution Points if you kill the Player of the same character level when you are level 60 than if you and your opponent both are at level 30.
• The level of your victim matters too. You won’t get any CP in case your opponent is ten levels or more lower than yourself. What’s more, the level 60 Character will bring you more CP, than the level 55 one.
• The rank of your target is also a determining part of the final result. The higher is the rank of your opponent, the more CP you will get.
• Participate in BGs to get more. You can also earn CPs by fulfilling objectives in Battlegrounds — like capturing the flag in Warsong Gulch, capturing a base in Arathi Basin, or killing a lieutenant in Alterac Valley.
• If you kill one and the same Character multiple times in less than 24 hours, you will get less and less CP each time. Example: The first kill a day will grant you 100% of CP, the second — 75%, the third — 50%, and the fourth — 25%. The fifth and all the following slaughters won’t give you anything.
• Killing in a group will allow you to get CP even if you didn’t touch the aggrieved one at all. The CP are evenly divided between all Players of the group who were in the circumscribed area at that moment. But even so, low-level Players will get less CP than the high-level ones.
• In case there were several not united in a group Characters, the CP for killing one Player will be divided according to the number of Health Points each of them took away and that is usually called Killing Assistance.
• If you have slaughtered the Player who was fighting with the mobs, the CP will be divided between you and… yes, every mob.
• And a funny, but relevant addition. You have to be alive and close to the enemy to receive CP. The system, we all got accustomed to in the latest Expansion doesn’t work here.

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Getting CP for killing leaders of the factions:

There are six leaders of the factions in total, and each of them resurrects in two hours after being killed. The CP you get are divided equally among everyone, who took part in the killing process, whether they were in the raid, party, or even solo. These are the names and the locations of each racial leader:

• Alliance: Highlord Bolvar Fordragon (Stormwind), King Magni Bronzebeard (Ironforge), Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm (Darnassus);
• Horde: Thrall (Orgrimmar); Cairne Bloodhoof (Thunder Bluff), Lady Sylvanas Windrunner (Undercity).

PvP Rank Progress

So the main idea under all those HK and CP gatherings is the Rank and title you might get and the rewards it will give you. Rankings and titles are updated only once a week, during the weekly maintenance with the single exception, which will be described below. These are the basic features of the ranking system:

• To get a new Rank you should obtain a fixed minimum of Rating Points (RP) (watch the table below for exact figures);
• Each new Rank provides you with different and usually completely unique rewards. It may be certain consumables or even Items with Epic quality;
• Each Rank has its own unique name (different variants for the Horde and the Alliance). This name is shown as the Player’s title;
• Each Wednesday after the weekly maintenance you lose 20% of already collected CP. Example: you had finished the previous week with the 10000 CP, which means, you will start this week with 8000 CP by default.

Note: Your ranking is based on your points at the end of the week, so to keep your current Rank you just need to recover the lost Honor by the end of this week.

There is a rather complicated calculation system under the simple word “Rank”, which includes quite a number of factors. On the whole, the Classic Honor System does not work like a straight leveling system for instance, but as a measure of PvP efforts of all players on your server together. If you consistently play to a certain WS every week, you will not improve your rating. To become better in this system, you need to put in more and more time and get higher standings every following week. So basically, you are to literally live in the game for several months to get the highest 14 Rank. And there were only a few Players of all time, who managed to keep this position for several weeks.

Earning Ranks is a long and challenging process that unlocks valuable rewards. Our team can assist you with farming PvP Ranks so you can get your rewards as quickly as possible!

And now let us pay attention to the PvP Ranking System table with the primer information about each Rank and Famed Rank Titles:

Dishonorable Kills

Now let’s turn to the only thing that may influence your current Rank immediately without any delays, making you lose all the progress when made with proper diligence. A Dishonorable Kill. Players get a DK each time they happen to kill enemy faction Civilian NPCs in PvP combat. A civilian NPC is a targetable usually low-level NPC (often vendors or quest givers) of an opposite faction. The addition “civilian” in front of its name appears after you target it. In the beginning, killing those NPCs led to slowing down the leveling process for other Players, so Blizzard had to impose a fine system.

There is a rather famous video, related to the year 2006, in which you can see for yourself how much time it might take to drop one’s Rank from 11 to 1.

PvP Grinding Plan

We have covered the most fundamental subsections of the huge topic, called the PvP System. Now we will show you one of many winning strategies so you can get closer to the desired Rank. Remember, that you are the only one, who can decide what and how to do, and this is just one working scheme out of many.

Ranking points in Classic WoW are calculated with the help of rather complicated math formulas, so we won’t terrorize the reader with them. To make a long story short we will say that Player’s Rank is based on their current Rank Points, on how many CP they have earned during the week, how much decay they have at the moment, and also their current Rank. The system will reward the Player with this or that Rank, interacting with all these figures.

In case you plan to reach the top PvP titles, you will need to first, make a good viable plan, and second, be mentally and physically prepared to spend days, weeks, and even months in the game with the only purpose — kill as many other Characters as you possibly can.

The first several weeks of the new PvP grinding life, you should do your best to get as much Honor as it is possible. This will not only let you fly through the first PvP Ranks, as they are easy to obtain but will also give you a better understanding of how competitive your realm is. You will start recognizing particular Characters and Players behind them, so you would know what to do when meeting them again. It might take you several weeks to gather all the needed data. Luckily the Rank will also rise while you make preparations.

It is advisable to make a new habit of making notes each Wednesday, so you can see the epigenetic of your progress. Write down your WS via CP, and the amount of Honor you earned each week. This way you will be able to roughly presume your future time and effort costs in order to get what you want. Be mindful though — none of these calculations are set in stone because they very much depend on other Players of your faction who participate in PvP actions every week. Also, take into consideration the average time, you may and can spend on the computer. Remember, that you may easily lose all your Ranks by just not playing. But in case you may spend as much time in the game as it needs, you should be able to approximately estimate the time and effort costs.

Honor Gear Sets

And of course, we cannot ignore the Honor Class Armor Sets, which Players may acquire as a reward for the faithful service to their faction. Each class may have 2 different sets, with pieces that can be purchased from PvP vendors once you reach a certain PvP Rank.

Each set consists of 6 pieces, and the Character will receive additional set bonuses after collecting 2, 4, and 6 pieces of the set. 2 and 6-piece bonuses are generic stat increases such as Stamina, Attack Power, or Spell Power, while the 4-piece bonuses are improvements to some of your class spells. Note, however, that these sets may be used only while fighting with other players, as they are not competitive with PvE armor in other than PvP game aspects. There are two different Honor sets — one of a rare, and one of the epic qualities, but none of them is easy to get. There are two other types of them — the Horde and the Alliance version, and although the appearances differ, the stats remain the same. Here is a small table of all Class PvP Sets:

Battlegrounds

Let us go further and have a good look at one of the most entertaining parts of the whole PvP content in World of Warcraft. And these are Battlegrounds. Battlegrounds are instanced areas in which Players can engage in legal PvP combat. You have two ways to enter any Battleground — either use a portal at the BG location or queue with Battlemasters, who are located in the capital cities. There are three Battlegrounds in Classic and we will talk about each of them below. Participating in BGs will bring you more CP than you would get by simply killing enemy team, for they contain several additional objectives, each of which will grant you certain rewards if succeed. These objectives may be:

Winning the BG itself:

• Capture the flag in Warsong Gulch;
• Steal a base in Arathi Basin;
• Kill a lieutenant in Alterac Valley.

All players of the same faction will receive the same amount of Honor upon completing any of the Battleground objectives. Moreover, each win gives you:

• Three Marks of Honor, which can be traded for the experience;
• Extra Honor;
• Reputation points with the Battleground’s faction.

The losing team receives a single Mark of Honor. Now let us have a closer view of each Battleground locations.

Warsong Gulch

Quick Facts:

• Original Release Date: June 7, 2005 (Patch 1.5);
• Classic WoW Release: Phase 3;
• Battleground Type: Capture the Flag;
• Zone: Ashenvale;
• Team Size: 10 Players;
• Level Brackets: 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60;
• Factions Associated: Silverwing Sentinels and Warsong Outriders.

This battleground represents the unending conflict between the Silverwing Sentinels seeking revenge on the Orcs that chopped down the Ashenvale forest during the Third War.

The idea of this BG is to capture the flag of the opposite faction and deliver it to your base without losing it. Your own flag should be protected and kept safe at the same time. A faction wins when its representatives have returned three enemy flags to their base within 25 minutes, or if they have returned the most flags when the timer runs out. Pay attention to the fact that the longer a flag carrier holds a flag, the more damage the Player will take.

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Arathi Basin

Quick Facts:

• Original Release Date: September 13, 2005 (Patch 1.7);
• Classic WoW Release: Phase 4;
• Battleground Type: Control Points;
• Zone: Arathi Highlands;
• Team Size: 15 Players;
• Level Brackets: 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60;
• Factions Associated: The League of Arathor and The Defilers.

This sunny battleground is based on the conflict of the supply forces between the main in-game factions. This location appears to be a critical zone for both the Alliance and the Horde. You aim to battle over natural resources such as Stables, Mines, Blacksmith, Lumber Mill, and Farm to claim them for the honor of your faction.

There are five bases with flags scattered around the Battleground. To capture a base, you will need to complete a 10-second channel time on its flag, without interruption, and then hold the base for a full minute without the enemy capturing the flag back. The more resources a team controls, the faster they accumulate points. A team with all five nodes captured will gain 30 resources per second. A faction wins once they gather 2,000 resources.

Alterac Valley

Quick Facts:

• Original Release Date: June 7, 2005 (Patch 1.5);
• Classic WoW Release: Phase 3;
• Battleground Type: PvP/PvE;
• Zone: Alterac Mountains;
• Team Size: 40 Players;
• Level Brackets: 51-60;
• Factions Associated: Stormpike Guard and Frostwolf Clan.

This Battleground traces the conflict between the Frostwolf Clan, who settled in the valley as their ancient home long ago, and the Stormpike Guard, a league of dwarves searching the area for ancient dwarven and titan relics.

Alterac Valley BG is won when the enemy’s General is killed, or the opposing team’s reinforcements are reduced from 600 to 0. 1 reinforcement is lost when each player dies, 75 lost per each destroyed tower (4 towers total), and 100 for the loss of the General. There are two mines, which may be captured, as they fill reinforcements every 45 seconds.

Unlike other BGs, this one has many PvE elements while being a PvP zone and it gives preferences to destroying towers and not killing players. For each tower destroyed, the enemy’s General becomes easier to kill. It is important to defend your own towers and cap graveyards in a strategic order.

Classic PvP Release Schedule

We have covered all the subjects under this big topic. The only thing left is to tell our readers when you will be able to join this or that PvP activity.

Blizzard had divided the release of the content into six major parts or Phases, as they call it. The Honor System with Honorable Kills, Dishonorable Kills, and PvP Rank Rewards became available with the releasing of the second Phase. This is what developers say about all other Phases in one of the Blue Posts:

…In the third phase, we’ll introduce the first Battlegrounds: Alterac Valley (Patch 1.12) and Warsong Gulch, alongside with their associated vendors. One thing to note is that there were a couple of updates to these vendors throughout the original patch releases, so some items won’t be available right away. For example, the Spell Penetration trinkets available from the Warsong Gulch vendor weren’t introduced until Patch 1.9, so we’re currently thinking that we’ll add these in phase 5. The Arathi Basin Battleground will follow in phase 4, along with its specific vendor. It’ll be interesting to see how many people stay behind to guard the flag. Finally, in phase 6, we’ll have the world PvP objectives in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands, which will come out at the same time as Naxxramas.

— Blizzard Blue Post, 2019.

On the whole, the schedule of the PvP content release looks the following way.

• Phase 1 (WoW Classic Launch)
  • You can PvP one another in the world, but there is no tracking and no formal rewards for doing so.
• Phase 2
  • Honor System (including Dishonorable Kills)
  • PvP Rank Rewards
• Phase 3
  • Alterac Valley BG
  • Warsong Gulch BG
• Phase 4
  • Arathi Basin BG
• Phase 6
  • World PvP objectives in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands.

Even though we know now when to wait for this or that innovation, no one can give exact dates. Everything will depend on the community — on us, so let’s do our best!

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In our WoW Classic PvP System Guide, we have covered the basics to help you get a grip on the Honor System and battlegrounds. PvP in Classic is no joke, but proper preparation and a clear mind are everything you need to succeed through the ranks and leave your name in history. Every fight, each victory, and each hard-earned reward bring you closer to becoming a true champion. Now it’s time to take what you’ve learned, step onto the battlefield, and claim your place in history.