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Player versus player has a handful of words that everyone assumes you know. This is a short map of them for Midnight Season 2, with one or two sentences each. Read it top to bottom once, then keep it open when a tooltip confuses you. Early on, WoW PvP Boosting is one of the services players sometimes look into, so I mention it where it connects to the rest.

The currencies

• Honor. Earned in most player versus player activity, including unrated battlegrounds. It buys the entry-level pieces and is the right thing to chase first.
• Conquest. The rated currency. It is tied to rated matches and unlocks the better gear, so it is the reason people queue for rating.
• Crests. A different track altogether, used to upgrade raid, dungeon and delve gear. They do not come from battlegrounds.

One note before the lists get longer: none of these terms is hard on its own. What makes them confusing is that they arrive together. If you only remember one thing, remember that honor is the casual currency and conquest is the rated one.

The words for matches

• Rating. A number that moves with your results and shapes who you face.
• Bracket. The group format you queue in, such as a small arena team or a large rated battleground.
• Season. The period in which ratings and rewards count. Season 2 is the current one for Mythic+, raiding and PvP together.
• Skirmish. Practice arena. No rating changes, useful for testing a new spec.

Reading a tooltip without panic

• Look at the top line first. It tells you which track the item belongs to and how far it can be upgraded.
• Compare against what you wear now. The little arrows next to the stats are a quick way to see whether the swap helps.
• Check for PvP-only bonuses. Those do nothing in dungeons and delves, which is fine if you are building a battleground set.
• Ignore the rest at first. Secondary details matter later, once your basics are set.

Seasons, raids and what they have to do with PvP

Midnight raised the level cap to 90, and patch 12.1 added the eight-boss raid Venomous Abyss. The raid before it was The Voidspire. These raids drop gear that uses crests for upgrades, and the same season also carries rated PvP and Mythic+. They are separate ladders under one season banner, so you can climb one and leave the others alone.

If you are returning to the game, this is the single most useful sentence in the post: you do not have to do everything. Pick the ladder you like.

The gear side

• PvP item level. Counts inside player versus player content and is scaled so that raid gear does not simply dominate.
• Upgrade tracks. Higher tiers cost more of the matching currency, so plan which slots you improve first.
• Crafted pieces. Crafting orders let another player make an item for you with the stats you pick. Handy for filling a slot between upgrades.
• Delves. Short instanced scenarios that give general gear and keep you topped up between matches.

Ways to earn without feeling stuck

• Daily casual matches. Even losses give honor, so a short session is never wasted.
• Delves between queues. They are brief and keep your general gear moving.
• Crafting orders. Ask a crafter for a piece with the stats you need rather than waiting for a lucky drop.
• Group finder. Join a rated battleground group instead of waiting alone.

Common mix-ups, cleared up

• “Rated” and “ranked” are the same idea. Both mean the result changes a number attached to you.
• A loss in a casual battleground is not a loss of progress. You still earn honor, only less of it.
• Titles and cosmetic rewards come from rating. Gear comes from currency. Keep the two separate in your head.
• Your item level in PvP and in raids can differ. The game rescales it inside matches, so do not panic at the number.

If a term shows up that is not on this page, hover over it in the game or ask in your guild chat. Someone will know, and most players are glad to explain.

A word on pacing

New players often try to learn every term and every bracket in the first evening. Do not. One mode, one currency, one loadout is plenty. The vocabulary sticks better when you meet it in context, a term at a time, during real matches.

Keep a note on your phone with the three words that confused you most this week. By Sunday you will have looked them up, and the list will be shorter next week.

A short pre-queue list

1. Pick a spec you already like; learning a new one and a new mode at once is harsh.
2. Spend your honor before it caps.
3. Check your talents for the mode, since PvP talents differ from the dungeon ones.
4. Do a few skirmishes or unrated battlegrounds before rating.
5. Decide whether you want a regular partner, and ask in your guild.

Where outside help sits in the map

Some players who want rated rewards but have little time look at services where an experienced player handles or joins the rated games. It is a choice about time, and others prefer to learn the climb themselves. The map above works either way, because you will still need to know what the currencies and brackets mean when you look at your own character.