Battlegrounds are instanced areas solely used for the purposes of PvP. Each classic battleground - Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley - has two red instance entrance portals; one for the Alliance, and one for the Horde. Crossing these portals was originally one of the ways to enter the queue for that battleground. To enter the queue for any battleground now, the player must seek out a Battlemaster — which can be found at the portal or in any capital city - or do so through the Player vs. Player tab. Once inside the instance, the two teams will engage in large-scale PvP with various and different objectives determining the winner. Players will earn one or more [Mark of Honor], using these along with honor points make PvP rewards available. (There is no durability penalty associated with death, except if you fall to your death).
If a character goes AFK, they will leave the battleground and gain the Deserter debuff. This prevents entry to another battleground for a 15 minute duration. You can report inactive players by right clicking on the player and selecting "Report AFK". When enough reports are registered, a 60 second debuff will begin to count down. Once the timer is up a new debuff will appear that will prevent the player from gaining any honor or marks while it is on. This debuff can be negated as soon as the player engages in PvP combat.
The two initial Battleground areas, Alterac Valley and Warsong Gulch, went live June 7th, 2005. Arathi Basin was added to the list in Patch 1.7 on September 13th, 2005. A fourth battleground, named Eye of the Storm, was released with the Burning Crusade. A fifth battleground, the Strand of the Ancients, was added in Wrath of the Lich King. The sixth battleground, the Isle of Conquest, was added in Patch 3.2 on August 4th, 2009.
Existing battlegrounds
Warsong Gulch
- Factions
- Silverwing Sentinels, Warsong Outriders
- Alliance Base
- Silverwing Hold
- Alliance Entrance
- Silverwing Grove
- Horde Base
- Warsong Lumber Mill
- Horde Entrance
- Mor'shan Base Camp
- Levels
- 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80
- Combatants
- 10 per faction
Arathi Basin
- Factions
- The League of Arathor, The Defilers
- Alliance Base
- Trollbane Hall
- Alliance Entrance
- Refuge Pointe
- Horde Base
- Defiler's Den
- Horde Entrance
- Hammerfall
- Levels
- 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80
- Combatants
- 15 per faction
Alterac Valley
- Factions
- Stormpike Guard, Frostwolf Clan
- Alliance Base
- Dun Baldar
- Alliance Entrance
- The Headland
- Horde Base
- Frostwolf Keep
- Horde Entrance
- Northeast of Sofera's Naze
- Levels
- 51-60, 61-69, 70-79, 80
- Combatants
- 40 per faction
Eye of the Storm
Requires World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.
- Factions
- No factions are directly associated with the battleground, but members of The Exodar and Silvermoon City appear during its battleground holiday.
- Alliance Base
- Northern rock
- Horde Base
- Southern rock
- Exterior entrance
- There is no exterior entrance to the battleground as in the classic battlegrounds, but the Eye of the Storm is located somewhere in Netherstorm
- Levels
- 61-69, 70-79, 80
- Combatants
- 15 per faction
Strand of the Ancients
Requires World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
- Factions
- No factions are directly associated with the battleground, but members of The Silver Covenant and The Sunreavers appear during its battleground holiday.
- Faction bases
- Neither side has a fixed base as teams alternate playing offense by attacking the keep and defense by preventing the attack
- Exterior entrance
- There is no exterior entrance to the battleground as in the classic battlegrounds, but the Strand is presumably found south of Dragonblight
- Levels
- 71-79, 80
- Combatants
- 15 per faction
Isle of Conquest
Requires World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
- Factions
- No reputation can be gained while playing in the Isle of Conquest, however the Alliance is represented by members of the Alliance Expedition and the Horde by members of the the Horde Expedition
- Alliance Base
- Alliance Keep
- Horde Base
- Horde Keep
- Exterior entrance
- There is no exterior entrance to the battleground as in the classic battlegrounds, but the Isle of Conquest is located northwest of Sholazar Basin and southwest of Icecrown
- Levels
- 71-79, 80
- Combatants
- 40 per faction
Future/Incomplete Battlegrounds
Azshara Crater
A reported future addition, but details are mostly speculative.
Tom Chilton: That was a battleground that was created pretty much at the same time that we were creating Alterac Valley...I've never really felt comfortable going forward with Azshara Crater until we finally feel like Alterac Valley really works the way we'd like it to work ... I don't want to make another "Alterac Valley" until we're pretty happy with Alterac Valley.
Blizzard info:
- Caydiem: We're not making any new Battlegrounds in the near future. We naturally need to be careful about spreading the PvP community thin. That isn't to say we're not thinking about what we could do with a new Battleground, but I wouldn't expect anything anytime soon, no. (2006-01-20)[1]
- Nathaera: There is one new battleground planned. (There may be more added in the future but we shall see.) Just to clear something up, The Caverns of Time are not Battlegrounds. (2006-10-11)[2]
Gurubashi Catacombs
A "deathmatch" style battleground that was scrapped and made into Arena PvP.
Battle for Gilneas
In the next expansion pack, Cataclysm, there will be a new battleground called Battle for Gilneas.
Notes
- If you are the highest level in a bracket and you join the queue for that bracket it is possible to become 1 level higher than the maximum level for that bracket (with the exception of the level 80 bracket). This is done by joining the queue then leveling up to the next level. Since you are still in the queue for the bracket that is below your current level you will still enter the battleground of the bracket when you queued.
XP in Battlegrounds
Blizzard stated that XP for playing in the battlegrounds has been added in Patch 3.2.
In order to assist those who choose to keep an alt for the purposes of playing in a specific level of battleground, there is an added option to turn off the ability to gain XP. This ability costs 10G to switch on or off and prevents XP gain in all areas of the game. You can find the NPC to turn on or off XP gains named Experience Eliminator by the Battle Masters as a stealthed NPC. If the switch is on (that is, you are not receiving XP) then you will only be matched against others who also have the switch on; this is because the developers assume that if you don't want XP, you must be twinking.[3]
In Alterac Valley (AV) you can earn XP by killing mobs, however the XP gain is very low if a lot of your faction players are within range. Patch 3.1.3
References
See also
- Battlegroups
- Battlegrounds area at the official site
- Alliance battleground strategies
- Post by Nethaera on Honor calculations
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