World Defense

Why PvP?

For most of us it's a refreshing change of pace to fight a player with a brain, rather than the simple AI of mobs in the World of Warcraft. It requires strategy, as well as certain changes in gear and talent requirements to optimize your character for PvP combat. There are rewards to organized PvP, including special reputations with battleground factions who in turn offer mounts and gear, but perhaps the strongest allure for PvP is the thrill of the hunt.

Minimum Requirements

Unlike PvE combat, which will eventually fall to repetition and superior gear, PvP requires preparation, research of your prey, and perhaps even research of the specific target you wish to kill. Some players are just that good, or that powerfully geared. Certain equipment, specifically trinkets and battleground gear, an understanding of all the classes and their gear, and some idea how real people react when surprised, taunted or attacked will be vital to your survival. It's most different because an AI controlled mob will turn and face you instantly if you attack it from behind, and they will stop attacking beyond a preset range, which you can determine through trial and error. A player, depending on how distracted they may be, won't. A decent player will also be much better at escaping.

Honor

No, we don't mean, behaving honorably, and letting a stunned opponent recover their senses. The honor system is the calculation method or kills and deaths that allows players to gain their rewards from the battleground reputation vendors. You may as well call it a "kill" system, updated immediately; you gain a certain number of points for every time you kill an enemy player. Obviously some limitations are necessary. Kill camping (waiting for someone to spawn just so you can kill them repeatedly, or haunting graveyards to stop fleeing players from graveyard resurrection) or killing anyone too far beneath your level will not reward you. To gain honor quickly, stick to the Battlegrounds, where more players seek each other out to do battle.

Battlegrounds

Battlegrounds are raid events allowing you to easily engage other groups of players in strategic warfare, competing in games of capture the flag or a simple attrition system (kill the enemy leader, or kill off the enemy reinforcements). These Battlegrounds offer honor more quickly for killing other players in a concentrated location, and they offer bonus honor and battleground tokens for winning. Each battleground starts after the minimum number of players from each side have entered the queue. Server battlegroups increase the pool of available players for every battleground except Wintergrasp, which is server-specific.

Cashing In

It is easy to track your reputation in the battlegrounds. Each specific battleground has an associated faction, offering specific rewards, some based on straight points and some based on reputation. Earning an exalted reputation with all battleground factions also awards a title, which will further distinguish you on the field of battle. Once you've gained enough honor you can redeem these point in at your battleground officers barracks in your capital city.