Honor and Rank Points are not the same thing in Forever

If you are planning a rank grind, learn this distinction before your first battleground. Blizzard’s guide to PvP progression in World of Warcraft: Forever, published on 7 October, says PvP progression has two parts: Honor and Rank Points.

Honor is what you spend

Honor is a currency. The guide says you earn it by taking part in PvP content: defeating other players, completing battlegrounds and finishing relevant PvP quests. You spend it on Forever’s two sets of PvP gear, one blue-quality and one epic.

Rank Points are what move you up

Rank Points come from PvP activities such as battlegrounds and relevant PvP quests. They carry you through the familiar ranks toward High Warlord or Grand Marshal, and the guide says ranks have a weekly cap, without giving its size. The Player vs. Player tab of your character pane shows your rank, your current Rank Points and the rewards your rank lets you buy.

Where the two meet

The tracks connect at the vendor. Upgrading a blue piece to its epic version takes the blue piece plus an Emboldened Seal, and Seals have rank requirements. Other rewards are gated by rank too, from a tabard at Rank 1 to epic weapons at Rank 14, so a large Honor balance does not unlock them on its own.

Both tracks also get a lift in the same places: highlighted battlegrounds during their holiday weeks, and the weekly tasks of each season’s journey, which grant Honor and Rank Points. How the battlegrounds themselves compare is covered in our piece on Honor beyond Alterac Valley.

What the guide does not say

It gives no conversion between the two, no per-match values, no rank thresholds and no decay rule, and it does not say any activity earns one track faster than the other. Formulas from Classic Era or retail should not be assumed to apply. Track the two separately: your Honor tells you what you can afford, not how close your next rank is.