Getting from prestige 1 to prestige 2 took about 2 weeks, and came with an achievement that really summed up my thoughts on the whole process:

Taking the “Grand Marshal’s Medal of Valor” back to the king in Stormwind got me the new look for my class weapons that I had been grinding towards, so that’s another piece of vanity gear added to the wardrobe and life is good.

At some point I should probably start running dungeons and raids again, or something.

I did notice one interesting side effect of the increased PvP rank, though it may just have been coincidence.

There’s an area in the current big hub city that is a PvP area.  In-game, it’s justified as being a kind of lawless area where the guards can easily be bribed to look the other way.  It wouldn’t be a big issue in most cases, since it’s tucked away in a little side nook, but there are quests and goals that take you down there even if you’re not intending to participate in any PvP combat.

On a bad day, it’s a good way to get yourself killed a lot just trying to get something done.

Well, I had to go down there today, for the first time in a while, and I noticed two things:

1. When you look at another player, you see their approximate PvP rank.  There were some guys running around down there that were in the P5-and-up range, so they have done a LOT of PvP.
2. Still, even at P2, I didn’t have anyone so much as say “boo” to me.

So… it’s just possible that I no longer look like an easy target, or at least I look like I might be enough of an annoyance that it’s easier just to pick on someone else.  Either way, it was nice to get my questing done and out again unmolested. 🙂