PvP
A new battleground off Dustwallow Marsh, the new honor and rank system, and the PvP updates on the roadmap.
Darkspear Islands
The new battleground off Dustwallow Marsh: four capture points and a flag in the middle, 15 versus 15, from level 30, first to 2000 points. Open in the beta since the first week of October.
Honor and ranks
How PvP progresses in Forever: honor as a currency, rank points up to High Warlord and Grand Marshal with a weekly cap, a blue and an epic set - and what each rank unlocks, from rank 1 to 14.
What Forever changes about PvP - and what is still open
The visible change is a new battleground: Darkspear Islands, 15 versus 15, from level 30, off the coast of Dustwallow Marsh. It mixes two formats Classic kept apart - strategic control points and Arathi-Basin-style flag captures. Fifteen a side is its own size, neither Warsong Gulch's ten nor Alterac's forty.
The second change is not filed under "PvP" but under "servers": Forever has no realms. PvP is a ruleset you pick at character creation, alongside Normal, Roleplay and, after launch, Hardcore. Each ruleset is a large ecosystem of its own and you cannot group across them. Choosing PvP is a decision made once for the character, not a server transfer.
PvP is also one of the six categories that earn Legacy points - account-wide progress that counts on characters who never set foot in a battleground themselves.
Since 7 October Blizzard has explained the honor and rank system (confirmed): honor is a currency, and battleground rates have been evened out so that Alterac Valley is not the only one worth playing. Rank points lead through the original ranks to High Warlord and Grand Marshal, with a weekly cap. Honor buys a blue set; the epic set is an upgrade using seals that require ranks - epic weapons at rank 14. Each PvP season brings weekly tasks, three of which grant a Legacy point each.
In the beta, Darkspear Islands is playable - Blizzard fixed a bug at one of its capture points on 8 October without ever announcing the opening itself. Still open: whether the battleground is there at launch on 4 November, what the PvP season refresh for spring 2027 contains, and whether any rated PvP ever comes. Arenas are out for now: in episode 4 of its podcast Blizzard says arenas with their own currency and gear go "against what we're aiming for", and it would be "very very very" wary of rated battlegrounds and arenas - "that's not to say there won't ever be any kind of competitive experience".