What’s in a Name? How Do I Get that Title?
I’m sure you’re familiar with titles by now. You’ve seen the “Hand of A’dal”, “of the Shattered Sun”, “Champion of the Naaru” titles. Some you may be familiar with, some you may not be. But, do you know how to get the ones you want?
PvP Titles
Justicar - To acquire this title, you must be exalted with the following factions: Silverwing Sentinels, Stormpike Guard, and The League of Arathor.
Conqueror - This is the horde equivalent of “Justicar”. You must be exalted with the Warsong Outriders, Frostwolf Clan, and The Defilers.
Brutal Gladiator - For this title, you must be on the highest rated arena team in your Battlegroup (within your rating bracket) at the end of season 4.
Vengeful Gladiator - For this title, you must be on the highest rated arena team in your Battlegroup (within your rating bracket) at the end of season 3. (In other words, if you haven’t already gotten this title, its no longer available to you, as season 3 has already ended.)
Merciless Gladiator - For this title, you must be on the highest rated arena team in your Battlegroup (within your rating bracket) at the end of season 2. (In other words, as with the Vengeful Gladiator title, if you haven’t already gotten this title, its no longer available to you, as season 2 has already ended.)
Gladiator - Your team must finish within the top 0.5% of teams in your Battlegroup (within your rating bracket) at the end of the previous season to have this title available to you.
Duelist - Your team must finish within the top 3.0% of teams in your Battlegroup (within your rating bracket) at the end of the previous season.
Rival - Your team must finish within the top 10.0% of teams in your Battlegroup (within your rating bracket) at the end of the previous season.
Challenger - Your team must finish within the top 35.0% of teams in your Battlegroup (within your rating bracket) at the end of the previous season.
A note on arena PvP titles: Titles are only available for the duration of one season, and must be earned again in the following season for you to keep it.
Old PvP Titles
For those of you that were around before Patch 2.0, you may remember (or even have) the original PvP titles. At the time, I didn’t pay much attention to them (my thinking was that they’d be around a while, and I’d have plenty of time to work my way up–I was wrong), but I do actually have one of these titles (Sergeant).
Unfortunately, with the current PvP system, if you don’t already have one of these titles, they’re no longer obtainable. But, if you’ve already got one, pat yourself on the back! You’ve got something no one else can get now.
Private / Scout - These titles constituted Rank 1 in the old PvP system. The benefit was being able pick up an alliance/horde PvP tabard.
Corporal / Grunt - Rank 2 in the old PvP system. At this rank, the ability to purchase your Insignia trinket opened up.
Sergeant / Sergeant - Rank 3 in the old PvP system. At this rank, you were able to purchase the rare PvP cloak and received a 10% discount from faction NPCs.
Master Sergeant / Senior Sergeant - Rank 4, allowed you to pick up a rare necklace.
Sergeant Major / First Sergeant - Rank 5, allowed you to pick up rare bracers.
Knight / Stone Guard - Rank 6, allowed you access to the “Officer’s Barracks” (which is where all honor rewards are now purchased), a new tabard and potions.
Knight-Lieutenant / Blood Guard - Rank 7, allowed you to pick up rare boots and gloves.
Knight-Captain / Legionnaire - Rank 8, allowed you to pick up rare chest and leg armor.
Knight-Champion / Centurion - Rank 9, allowed you to pick up your faction’s battle standard.
Lieutenant Commander / Champion - Rank 10, allowed you to pick up rare head and shoulder armor.
Commander / Lieutenant General - Rank 11, gave access to epic PvP mounts.
Marshal / General - Rank 12, allowed access to epic gloves, leggings and boots.
Field Marshal / Warlord - Rank 13, allowed acces to epic helm, shoulder and chest armor.
Grand Marshal / High Warlord - Rank 14, allowed access to epic weapons and off-hands.
While these ranks/titles are no longer attainable, their rewards can still be seen (and purchased) from the level 60 PvP reward vendors.
PvE Titles
Titles are a fairly new addition to PvE game-play. While PvP titles have been around since the formal PvP system was introduced in Patch 1.8, PvE titles have only been around since Patch 2.0.3.
Scarab Lord - To obtain this title, you must open the gates of Ahn’Qiraj with the Scepter of the Shifting Sands. (Many of you may recall, my home realm of Medivh was the first to open the gates of AQ. Neener, neener, Mannoroth!)
Champion of the Naaru - To obtain this title, you must complete the Trials of the Naaru and The Cudgel of Kar’desh quests to enter Serpentshrine Caverns and Tempest Keep: The Eye. The blog Draining Souls has a two-part guide up on how to obtain this title: Part 1, Part 2.
Hand of A’dal - To obtain this title, you must obtain the Medallion of Karabor (received as a quest reward from part of the chain beginning with the The Secret Compromised quest), and complete the Vials of Eternity quest.
of the Shattered Sun - To obtain this title, you must complete the quest A Magnanimous Benefactor.
The Importance of Titles
Titles set you apart from your fellow players. They tell others, without having to /inspect you, that you’ve done something special. While having a title may not necessarily award you any special perk in-game (which, in some cases, they used to–whatever happened to that?) in terms of better gear or better stats (at least not as a direct result of having the title, though what it took you to get the title may have offered you some special reward), it does set you apart.
For example, how many of you who haven’t seen the inside of Hyjal or BT were intimidated, come Patch 2.4, to see so many “Hand of A’dal”s running around Quel’Danas? It also showed me something: I didn’t realize so many people on my server had experienced an Illidan kill. Titles give you a better awareness, just by standing around in-game, of what your server as a whole, and the players that make up your community, are capable of. Does it give you a sense of pride to know that your community can work through content, or be committed to PvP, such that they’re worthy of special accolades?
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Comments
I’ve always regretted that I burned out on PVP before I was able to get Angoleth her Knight’s title.
She was about 4K honor short two weeks before BC went live, but the thought of doing nothing but PVPing for two weeks was more than I could stomach - since EVERYONE it seemed was trying for them.
So she’s still just a Sergeant Major.
Annas last blog post..Big Bear Butt presents Hamlet
[...] y comentamos un poco la jugada. World of raids hace un resumen de los ultimos cambios en la beta. Lassirra postea un interesante resumen de los titulos mas comunes. El CEO de Blizzard pone fecha de salida a la expansion, entre Octubre y Diciembre. Desapareceran [...]
“”"For example, how many of you who haven’t seen the inside of Hyjal or BT were intimidated, come Patch 2.4, to see so many “Hand of A’dal”s running around Quel’Danas? It also showed me something: I didn’t realize so many people on my server had experienced an Illidan kill.”"”
A Hand of A’dal title signifies a Vashj and Kael’thas kill, not an Illidian kill. You get it for having completed the Hyjal and Black Temple attunements.
I just wanted to say that I really enjoy your posts and this was a great guide for me.
Suggestion for another guide: List all Outland factions you can become exalted with and what that would mean specifically for a hunter. I often find myself wondering if I should grind rep. with one faction or another and if it’s worth it for me specifically as a hunter/miner/engineer. Just a thought.
Sade — The old PvP ranking system seemed to have the same competitive spirit as the current arena ranking system. By that, I mean the higher you worked your way up the ranks, the more you had to fight to keep your rank. (If I’m not mistaken, only one person per faction per realm could hold Rank 14 at a time? Its been a while, though, so that may be incorrect.)
Anna — Yeah, that was pretty much my feelings on the whole thing. I ended up burning out on it before I got very far. Also, any of the “worthwhile” PvP pieces always seemed to me to be out of my reach, unlike the current PvP system, so I didn’t feel very compelled to try very hard, either.
Luke — Thanks for the clarification. Fact remains, its impressive.
Mintaka — Great idea! 
I’ll put it on my “To Do” list and try to put something together for next week. 
Great post! I didn’t start playing till TBC came out and was always jealous of the old school PVP titles.
When the PVE titles came out I worked my butt off and EARNED my ‘Champion of the Naaru’ and ‘Hand of A’dal’ titles.
The new ‘of the Shattered Sun’ title kinda annoys me though. You don’t even need any kind of skill to get it, just do a bunch of dailies and pay 1000 gold to buy it.
Neat little guide. I started playing WoW riiiight before TBC came out, and I was aware of the existence of the old rank system, but didn’t really know how it worked or what the purpose of the titles was besides looking extremely cool.