In Legion, PvP was completely detached from gear farming: in combat between players your stats are set by a class and specialization template, not by your gear. Below is how this works on 7.3.5 and what is actually worth levelling.
Templates: why gear barely decides anything
- The moment a PvP fight starts, your Strength/Agility/Intellect and your secondary stats are replaced by template values.
- All that is left from your gear is your average item level: roughly +1% to your stats for every 10 item levels. A gap of 25 levels is about 2.5%, not a rout.
- The artifact keeps working in full: traits, relics and the Netherlight Crucible matter more in PvP than gear does.
- Legendaries work in PvP; set bonuses and the effects of PvE trinkets do not.
The conclusion is simple: do not farm a special "PvP set". Wear the best you have and invest in your artifact and your honor talents.
Honor and honor talents
- Honor trickles in from fights and unlocks a separate panel of PvP talents — they are only active in PvP.
- Six rows unlock at honor levels 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10; after that, new options are added to the rows (13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28 and so on).
- For most classes the first row is the equivalent of the old PvP trinket: a crowd-control break.
- Since patch 7.1, honor talents are not reset when you prestige — whatever is unlocked stays unlocked.
Prestige
- At honor level 50 you can take a prestige rank: your honor level resets to zero and your rank goes up. There are 25 ranks in total.
- The rewards are purely cosmetic: faction pets, titles ("the Honorable", "the Prestigious", "the Tactician"), artifact appearances and a line of mounts — from the Prestigious Bronze Courser to the Prestigious Midnight Courser.
- Prestige is personal to a character, and on an alt you will have to do it all over again.
Where to play and what drops
- Brawls and regular battlegrounds — unrated, they give honor, Marks of Honor and gear at roughly Heroic dungeon level.
- 2v2 and 3v3 Arena, Rated Battlegrounds — raid-level gear, and it grows along with your rating (from Normal up to Mythic).
- Your first wins of the week in each rated bracket give a guaranteed item — that is the weekly "PvP chest". After that, loot drops on a chance.
- Seasonal rewards for rating: the Elite sets at 2400 and the season's Gladiator mount — on 7.3.5 it is Legion Season 7 that is running.
Marks of Honor
- Marks of Honor drop from battlegrounds, arenas and PvP quests out in the world.
- You spend them at the PvP vendors in the capitals on old sets for transmog: an armor piece is 1–5 marks, a weapon 5, a full set 12, a mount 15.
- None of this affects your power at all — only your appearance and your collection.