World of Warcraft announces a complete PVP overhaul

I used to play WoW quite a bit back in the day, and I've been clean for a couple of years now. One aspect of the game that rarely appealed to me was PVP. Mostly because I've been an adult for the entire time the game has been out, and never had time to keep up on it. And we all know that if you don't PVP regularly, you won't have the right gear to be effective in battle. But that's all about to change in Legion.

Legion is already shaping up to be quite a bit different from the previous expansions. And the latest announcements regarding the PVP changes are as different as they come. First up, you won't be earning Honor or Conquest to purchase PVP gear. In fact, your PVP gear will barely matter at all. The stats from your armor will be nullified when you engage in PVP. That's right, those precious sets of armor won't mean squat when it comes to fighting in a battleground.

You will get a small modifier bonus based on the average item level. For every point that your average item level increases, your overall PVP stats will increase by 0.1%. This will put players on a much more even playing ground. But if you can't earn new gear, what's the point?

So to replace the PVP gear that you won't be earning, Blizzard has developed a new Honor System. You'll earn Honor Points, which increases your Honor Level. Your level can range from 1-50, and does not reset with each PVP season. Each increase in Honor Level grants you access to various rewards, including gold, Artifact Power, and Honor Talents. These special talents are much like your regular ones, but give you extra powers that only activate when you're engaging in PVP.

Since the Honor Level maxes out at 50, you might think that there's no point in doing anything once you've hit that cap. Well, if you've ever played Call of Duty, you're probably familiar with Prestige ranks. Well, Blizzard is adding that exact same feature into World of Warcraft's PVP system.

If you're not familiar with the concept of Prestige, when you reach the max level, you can choose to reset your level back to 1. So what benefits come with dropping back down like that? Well, you'll get a special badge and title that tell everyone how many times you've done this, a new wearable faction pennant, a new appearance for your Artifact, and a unique mount and pet. The more times you do it, the better rewards you can earn.