• Author: Defcamp
• Date: November 6, 2019
• Updated: March 23, 2025
• Expansion: WoW Classic

With the Launch of Phase 2 right around the corner, many people may be wondering what to expect in terms of world PvP, and what every day life in Azeroth will be like come the Honor System. If you are new to Classic WoW, and have not played either in Vanilla or on private servers, you may be in for bit of a surprise.

How to obtain Honor

In order for people to rank up and get PvP gear, they will be killing members of the opposite faction without scrutiny. On many PvP servers there has been a loose peace lately, where you will see members of the opposite faction running by each other or even helping each other with quests. Expect this peace to lift come September 12. People will be out for blood. Since there are no Battlegrounds yet, the world itself will be the arena in which gladiators will test themselves.

If you are a low level character, however, I would not worry too much about getting ganked by level 60’s — at least not more so than you have already. However, you may find yourself engaging in more PvP with players closer to your level, since you only get honor from those whose levels do not show up as a gray number on their nameplate (much lower level than you).

Just because you are low level does not mean you cannot benefit from some of the PvP reward items. There are a good amount of items you can get at lower levels, such as the PvP trinkets. These items can be purchased from your city’s PvP vendor for gold once you obtain the rank needed for said item. Also, if you are leveling in zones such as Hillsbrad Foothills or Stranglethorn Vale, be ready for all out wars involving players of all different levels.

The PvP Honor System

The PvP honor system is a bit complex, but in brief: you obtain points of honor per honorable kill (a kill on a player of the appropriate level range from the opposing faction). This can be done in a group (splitting honor per person in said group/raid) or by yourself. But, you are competing with the players on your faction for PvP ranks. Those with more kills move up in the ranks quicker each week. You want to abstain from killing any NPC’s that are marked as a civilian as they will come with a dishonorable kill penalty; this will reduce your overall honor. And to make matters worse, if someone in your party or raid kills the civilian, you get penalized as well.

PvP for players not yet 60

For those around level 50 and up, your life in Azeroth (depending on your server) may change drastically. This will be especially true within the first couple of weeks of Phase 2 launching since everyone with ambitions of becoming a rank 14 PvP god will be trying to rank up on easy prey. I highly recommend to make friends now if you have not. Prepare yourself, and your group of friends, for what is to surely be a bloodbath. For those of you on PvE servers, your experience may differ drastically, since players would have to flag themselves for PvP in order to get honor.

Certain Zones such as Dire Maul, Blackrock Mountain, and other high level areas will become, for all intents and purposes, battlegrounds in their own right. These will be great places to go with your friends and farm up some honor, but they also may be places you may now want to avoid or be much more careful when going there. Nowhere is actually safe come phase 2 as you may see more and more players engaging in raids on major cities, and in areas that were once peaceful. Just remember, as long as you are in a faction-controlled territory, and do not flag yourself, you cannot be killed by an opposing player.

All in all, whether you think that the release of Phase 2 is either too early, right on time, or too late, one thing will be for certain: Azeroth as we have known it in the past 2 months will be entirely different.

About the Authors

Defcamp and Melderon are two brothers that love Classic WoW and are dedicated to providing high quality guides, podcasts, and other content for the Classic WoW community.

Defcamp & Melderon TV links:

YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/c/defcamp&melderontv

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