The most hardcore goal in Classic must be getting to Rank 14 in PvP. Becoming a Grand Marshal or a High Warlord is a huge ongoing grind for which you have to play for almost 12+ hours a day for 3 to 4 months and it is almost impossible to take a break, since other players will catch up to you. Every time you take a break, you are not getting honor points, and not getting honor points, means that you are decreasing in honor. If you only play a few matches per week, your progression will not really improve, you will get more out of the PvP system by investing more and more time. Below you’ll see how this works.
The PvP system starts in Phase 2 of Classic, so you’ll first have some time to reach level 60.
But how did the PvP system work in Vanilla WoW? There are 14 different ranks which are listed below, with their rewards.
(List by Wowhead.com)
Rank | Rating Points | Title (Alliance) | Title (Horde) | Rewards |
1 | At least 25 HKs | Private | Scout | |
2 | 2000 Rating | Corporal | Grunt | |
3 | 5000 Rating | Sergeant | Sergeant |
|
4 | 10000 Rating | Master Sergeant | Senior Sergeant | |
5 | 15000 Rating | Sergeant Major | First Sergeant | |
6 | 20000 Rating | Knight | Stone Guard |
|
7 | 25000 Rating | Knight-Lieutenant | Blood Guard | |
8 | 30000 Rating | Knight-Captain | Legionnaire | |
9 | 35000 Rating | Knight-Champion | Centurion | |
10 | 40000 Rating | Lieutenant Commander | Champion | |
11 | 45000 Rating (1.4% of players) | Commander | Lieutenant General |
|
12 | 50000 Rating | Marshal | General | |
13 | 55000 Rating | Field Marshal | Warlord | |
14 | 60000 Rating (0.1% of players, usually only 1/week) | Grand Marshal | High Warlord |
To achieve a rank, it’s up to you to grind HONOR. You get Honor by playing Battlegrounds and killing enemy players.
As you might know, killing the same enemy over and over decreases the honor you get from them. So no, unfortunately, the more you kill the same enemy, the less Honor you get. Also…opponent’s player must also be within a range of 10 levels, so you can’t just kill low level players in the world. You’ll have to grind honor in battle grounds like your life depends on it.
In addition, not every Honor Kill is worth the same, this has to do with your experience in PvP, also known as Contribution Points. CP points are measured by how often you made a kill,
how often you have taken a flag away in WSG or captured a base in Arathi Basin.
As you can see, the system does not work like the leveling system by grinding XPs … but measures how much effort you put into PvP and compares that with other players on the server. This comparison with other players is the hard part. You have to play more than other players, and as you know, some players play a lot.
Every week you can grind Honor points and on reset day your HONOR progression will be converted to Rank Points (RP). With these Rank Points, you get a higher rank, better rewards and nicer titles. Within this system, there is another big hill to climb. Each week you lose 20% of your RP, which means that if you don’t play for a week or a couple of weeks, your progress and hard earned RP will leave quicker than a Murlock on dry land. This also means that the higher rank you have, the more you have to play, since 20% of RP will be heavier on higher ranks than on low ranks.
You also want to beware of making dishonorable kills. These type of kills happens if you kill an NPC, even if you’re in a group and someone in that group kills an NPC … it may cost you progress.
So in short. Play Battlegrounds till the keys on your keyboard fall off, play a lot, I mean A LOT, of hours each week, and don’t take breaks. Being good at PvP is also a good boost for your rank, but we’ll maybe get to a PvP guide later. Good luck getting rank 14, and don’t drink to much energy drinks while getting it!
Happy WoW!