Welcome to part 3 of the Beginner’s Guide to World of Warcraft. In previous parts we’ve covered the basics like creating a Battle.net account and setting up a subscription for World of Warcraft: Battle For Azeroth and your first time in-game. In part 3, we’re going to talk about World PVP, Arenas and Battlegrounds.
PVP
PVP (Player Versus Player) is a vital part of World of Warcraft. Basically, Alliance and Horde hate each other, so naturally, the players on both factions just want to kill each other. Whether it be in open world PVP, during leveling, or arenas and battlegrounds.
World PVP
During your travels through Azeroth, you just might bump into a member of an opposing faction. You then have two options: Fight or Flight. If your opponent is much higher level than you (Displayed as a skull on their character portrait) then you should probably run. But if the enemy is close to your level, you can fight them and survive. Back in Vanilla days, for example, Stranglethorn Valley was a hotspot for World PVP because it covered like 20 levels. So you’d have hundreds of players within your level range that were looking to either complete quest or simply find you and kill you.
Battlegrounds
Battlegrounds in World of Warcraft are large team-based deathmatch-style arenas. You have 10 vs 10, 15 vs 15 and even 40 vs 40. There are several game modes:
- Capture the Flag – 10 versus 10 (Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks)
- Capture and hold the bases – 15 versus 15 or 10 versus 10 (Arathi Basin and Battle For Gilneas, and Seething Shore)
- Large scale 40 man battlegrounds with multiple objectives – 40 versus 40 (Isle of Conquest and Alterac Valley)
- Combination of many custom game modes – 15 versus 15 (Eye of The Storm, Silvershard Mines, Deepwind Gorge, Temple of Kotmogu, Strand of the Ancients)
Each Battleground features a specific Reputations which can be gained through winning matches and completing objectives. The Battleground is won when either faction successfully completes the objective or the timer ticks down to zero, at which point the faction which has more resources or captured flags win the game.
Arenas
Arenas are small confined spaces for 2 versus 2 and 3 versus 3 “duels”. They are considered the endgame of PVP because they feature a rating-based ladder. For example, the players in the top 0.5% of the ladder are “Gladiators” and are rewarded with a unique one-time title and the mount at the end of the season. Only the best of the best can climb to the top of the ladder and earn these prestigious titles and mounts.
Next time!
Thank you for sticking with me through this guide series, but we have just one more for you! After part 3 comes (you’ve guessed it!), part 4. Next time we’ll be talking about PVE, dungeons, and raids.
