The Road to Prestige 7 Companions

I finally earned Prestige Rank 7 this past Thanksgiving holiday. Hooooooraaaay!

*many sighs of relief* It only took me... a year and 3 months lol.

Woot! Dutiful companions collected!
(ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧ pic.twitter.com/DDG5qGugNw

— Quintessence (@perksnpeeves) November 24, 2017

For those still working on and/or dreading the Prestige grind, don't take how long it took me to heart. I wasn't consistent and periodically took LOTS of time off from doing PVP WQs.

If you do 3 Towers plus at least 1 FFA WQ a day (with Battle Standard of Coordination dropped for all of them), it will take you roughly 178 days (or about 6 months) to reach Prestige 7 from scratch.

Here are some numbers (this Wowhead PVP guide is useful):

Prestige 1 - Alliance Enthusiast and Horde Fanatic

Honor 0 to Honor 50 (first time) = need 22,000 Honor

Prestige 7 - Dutiful Squire and Dutiful Gruntling

44,000 Honor for each Rank after x 6 Ranks = need 264,000 Honor

22,000 + 264,000 = need 286,000 Honor total


Honor Earned Daily

PVP Tower WQ = 345 (with Battle Standard)
PVP FFA WQ = 575 (with Battle Standard)

345 x 3 = 1035 + 575 = 1610 Honor earned daily

286000/1610 = ~178 days to Prestige 7

If you do battlegrounds/arenas, you can earn even more and the grind will go even quicker. However, the PVP WQs are just the basics and bare minimum.

6 months may seem like a long time, but considering the current estimation for the next expansion is some time summer of 2018, if you were to start the Prestige grind RIGHT NOW and stick with it, you should earn Prestige 7 before Battle For Azeroth.

Also, keep in mind that Blizzard's current plans are to keep these rewards post-Legion. They might not, however, be earned in the same method as currently, in BfA. We still don't know how they'll be awarded in the future, but at least we have peace of mind that they will not be Legion-exclusive.

If you can't earn these companions now, you *should* be ok and have the opportunity to (possibly in a different way) in the expansion. !!! DISCLAIMER !!!: THIS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND NOT SET IN STONE; complete the Prestige grind or don't using your own discretion.

Some tips for grinding to Prestige 7:

• Do it on a class that has the Order Hall talent that allows you to auto-complete one WQ a day.

You can see all Order Advancement options here. I chose Death Knight for Frost Wyrm, and I highly recommend this class (faction is irrelevant). Not only did I knock out Prestige 7 with this character, I also earned the 3 DK-exclusive battle pets. (Plus you start at level 55, so a relatively faster road to 110 hehe :P)

Using this auto-complete ability allows you to finish the FFA WQ from the safety of your Order Hall (or wherever, really) while utilizing the Battle Standard for that small Honor boost.

• Get two pets for one.

Initially, you had to earn Prestige Rank 1 and Rank 7 on BOTH alliance and horde to collect all the PVP pets. That meant earning Prestige 1 twice AND Prestige 7 twice. x_x

This was eventually changed so you only need to earn it on one faction, which then unlocks the corresponding pet on the other faction. So focus on whichever faction you prefer the most, but also have a second character of the opposite faction available so you can buy the corresponding companion once you've earned the rank on your main character.

Vendors are Captain Roberts (A) and Sarah the Savage (H). Pets cost 500 gold each.

• You can group to complete the PVP Tower WQ.

For the more anxious/time constrained, I've had multiple people recommend searching the questing/custom group finder for each Tower WQ, and many have reported being successful using this method. Personally, I did not have as much luck, but it might work well for others! And in practical terms, grouping in numbers is safer and makes finishing the quest faster.

• Always, always use your Battle Standard of Coordination.

This one can sometimes be tough to stick to because it *can* get hectic during a PVP WQ. Or you might be like me, derp and simply forget to drop it sometimes lol.

I made it a point to not kill the tower "boss" until I dropped the banner. Fill up the percentage bar to 100% first, go to the top of the tower, drop banner and then kill the "boss" at the end.

That little bit of extra Honor from the Battle Standard each day adds up. If you're aiming for the bare minimum, it's worth it. This will also mean you have to wait 10 minutes for the cooldown, but again, I think it's worth it.

Find a guild with this item unlocked on the guild vendor, and buy it ASAP! There are lesser versions, Standard of Unity (10%) and Banner of Cooperation (5%), if you can't find a guild with the 15% one.

• If you need a break, take it.

Be realistic with yourself. This grind is pretty daunting and can be very demoralizing at times. If you want to take a day off/take a break from the daily grind, that's ok. I had to take multiple breaks throughout my journey to Prestige 7. I know this might not be as feasible nowadays because time is working against you, but save yourself some sanity and take time off if necessary.

There are more tips/tricks out there, I'm sure. Please share if I've missed any glaring ones!

All in all, I'm very relieved to have finally completed this grind. I did not enjoy it, nor do I wish to do it again. Despite using the PVE method to earn Prestige Ranks, I did run into actual PVP now and then. Did I die? Yup lol.

I can stomach most grinds, but there's just something about PVP *anything* that I have a major aversion to. It's unfortunate and entirely my fault/on me.

Do I want this type of companion implemented into the game again in the future? If I'm to be honest, no, absolutely not. But I understand why others would, even if they're in the minority that desire it. So. Compromise. Add PVP-earned pets, but give us "casuals" and "carebears" a PVE way to earn them. I certainly hope there will be another PVE option in BfA, such as Tower WQs.

Anyway, good luck to those still working on the Prestige grind. Again, if you start RIGHT NOW, are consistent and stick to earning the daily bare minimum Honor, you will most likely reach Prestige 7 before the next expansion is released. Subject to change, of course, depending on the official release date of BfA. At least they don't plan on removing these companions and they should be available in some way in the future. :)