PvP flag

The PvP flag indicates whether or not you can engage or be engaged in PvP combat by a player of an opposing faction. If it is up, you are open for combat against the opposite faction. If it is not, you cannot be attacked by a player of an opposing faction. The PvP flag can be seen in the top corner of the screen next to your players portrait. You may see or next to your portrait depending on your faction. If the icon appears, then your flag is up. If it does not, your flag is down. Since patch 3.0.2, if your flag is temporary, the time that it will be up, will be displayed. That is, as long as you are not in Contested Territories, not in PvP combat, and not having quests in your log that flags you for PvP. PvP flag timers of other players are not displayed.

If you use any mods that change your unit frames (your portrait, your target, and your party members), you may see that your name changes color according to your PvP flag status. Generally, your name (and others' names) will show as blue if the PvP flag is down, and green if it is up.

Putting up your flag

Your flag will be put up in any of these situations:

• You put your PvP flag up permanently.

  This is done by the /pvp slash command. This sets your flag on permanently, until you turn it off again (by the same command).

• You engage another player of an opposing faction in combat other than dueling.

  If you see someone that you would like to try to kill, the fair thing is to put your flag up. To attack someone before you put your own flag up is known as bluewalling and is considered very cowardly. It does not preclude getting yourself killed, however, and there are stories on the official Blizzard forums of some getting bluewalled and coming out on top.

• You cast a spell on a player whose flag is up.

  If you cast a buff (for example, [Power Word: Fortitude]) on your friend who has his PvP flag up, yours will also go up. If you cast a healing spell or resurrect a flagged player, your flag will go up.

• You enter a territory controlled by the opposing faction. On PvE Realms, the only controlled territories are the faction's capital cities. On PvP Realms, controlled territories include the starting zones for all playable races and level 10-20 zones near them.
• Only applies to PvP Realms: You enter a contested territory.
• Only applies to Horde on PvE Realms. The Deeprun Tram is considered a neutral territory on PvE realms and it is possible to enter the Tram zone and wait out the PvP flag, although if you re-enter the Capital zone you will immediately be re-flagged.
• You enter a battleground.
• You attack a NPC marked by a PvP flag, like most quest givers, guards or vendors. This usually applies to NPCs of the opposite faction, but also to neutral factions if you are at war with them, and in rare cases, your own faction. Certain quests require you to kill these type of NPCs.

Bringing down your flag

There is a five-minute delay to pulling down your PvP flag, after which you will return to normal PvE mode without fear of those of the opposite faction. If you put up the flag via the /pvp command, the delay starts when you repeat the command. If your flag went up for any other reason, it will come down automatically after that five-minute delay from when you last performed an action that would bring up the flag.

Your PvP flag turns on automatically if you are in enemy territory, or contested territory on a PvP server, or a battleground. This is a passive declaration, so when you leave the hostile land and return to safety, five minutes will pass and you will pull down your flag automatically.

Your flag timer continues to run even if you die (although getting ganked counts as PvP activity, and resets it to five minutes), so if you're tricked into turning on your PvP (or otherwise engage in PvP combat with the other faction) in friendly territory, and die, you can wait the five minutes while dead, so you can resurrect without your PvP flag up.

The other solution is to take a ride on any flight path. Doing so will also automatically remove the PvP flag upon engaging the flight.

Color scheme

To help a player determine the status of players quickly, Blizzard has set a color scheme to make this obvious:

Your flag	Disposition	Other players' flag	Other players' highlight circle and name	Situation
On/Off	Friendly or hostile	Off	blue	The player is not aggressive; combat is impossible (outside of dueling)
On/Off	Friendly	On	green	The player is friendly to you, but hostile to the opposite faction
Off	Hostile	On	yellow	The player is hostile, but you are not; combat is impossible unless you intiate (see Bluewall)
On	Hostile	On	red	Both you and the other player are hostile; combat is perhaps imminent