The next flavor is the raid dungeon. This instance type doesn抰 appear until the very end-game, and requires anywhere from 20 to 40 players to complete. Raid dungeons usually require the completion of a lengthy series of quests before their key can be earned, and are home to battles of epic proportions. The last and newest flavor is the PvP (player vs. player) instance, called Battlegrounds. This was introduced with the advent of the Honor system, which bestows military ranks to players based on their performance against other players in combat. Not to be confused with the Reputation system, the Honor system awards players of sufficient rank with access to restricted areas within cities and the ability to purchase incredible equipment. Currently there are only 3 Battlegrounds available, sporting capture the flag, resource defense and full-scale warfare themes. Not to be outdone, since each Battleground is an instance, namely a private arena for combatants, Blizzard has added quests with goals within the skirmishing for further Honor.

  What would an MMORPG be without crafting? World of Warcraft sports several such skills, but players will have to be judicious with their choices, as they can only learn two. There are three free trades that can be learned without taking up a slot: Fishing, Cooking and First-Aid. The remaining crafts fall into either a production category or a resource gathering skill. For example, Leatherwork produces leather and mail armor, but requires large amounts of leather from creatures killed in battle. This leather can be obtained with the Skinning resource skill, which also requires the purchasing of a skinning knife. Blacksmithing is used to create metal weapons and armor, but is reliant on ore that is obtained with the Mining skill and smelted. Tailoring requires cloth pieces found off of bodies of humanoid foes, and does not require a resource skill per se, but many robes require gems that can be found mining or scraps of leather that need to be skinned. Alchemists can create potions, but require herbs gathered with the Herbalism skill.