Battleground

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Battlegrounds are instanced areas used for player versus player combat. 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 their respective battlegrounds. Now, to enter the queue for any battleground, 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 objectives determining the winner. Players will earn honor points making PvP rewards available.

If a character goes AFK, he/she will leave the battleground and gain the Deserter debuff. This prevents entry to another battleground for a 30 minute duration. You can report an inactive player by right clicking the player's portrait 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. This system is often abused, since a player can have good reasons for not participating in PVP, for example when he is defending.

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. Two new battlegrounds, Battle for Gilneas and Twin Peaks, were added with the launch of the third expansion, Cataclysm.

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: 10-14; 15-19; 20-24; 25-29; 30-34; 35-39; 40-44; 45-49; 50-54; 55-59; 60-64; 65-69; 70-74; 75-79; 80-84; 85
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: 10-14; 15-19; 20-24; 25-29; 30-34; 35-39; 40-44; 45-49; 50-54; 55-59; 60-64; 65-69; 70-74; 75-79; 80-84; 85
Combatants: 15 per faction

Eye of the Storm

WorldMap-NetherstormArena — EotS in-game map

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: 35-39; 40-44; 45-49; 50-54; 55-59; 60-64; 65-69; 70-74; 75-79; 80-84; 85
Combatants: 15 per faction

Alterac Valley

Factions: Stormpike Guard, Frostwolf Clan

Alliance Base: Dun Baldar
Alliance Entrance: Headland
Horde Base: Frostwolf Keep
Horde Entrance: Northeast of Sofera's Naze

Levels: 45-49; 50-54; 55-59; 60-64; 65-69; 70-74; 75-79; 80-84; 85
Combatants: 40 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: 65-69; 70-74; 75-79; 80-84; 85
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 Vanguard 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 west of Icecrown

Levels: 75-79; 80-84; 85
Combatants: 40 per faction

Battle for Gilneas

WorldMap-GilneasBattleground2 — BfG in-game map

Requires World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Factions: The Forsaken battle the Worgen.

Alliance Base
Horde Base
Exterior entrance

Levels: 75-79; 80-84; 85
Combatants: 10 per faction

Twin Peaks

Requires World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

This battleground is set in the Twilight Highlands.

Factions: This battleground pits the Alliance, with the Wildhammer clan, against the Horde, backed by the Dragonmaw clan.

Alliance Base
Horde Base
Exterior entrance

Levels: 75-79; 80-84; 85
Combatants: 10 per faction

Future Battlegrounds

Canceled Battlegrounds

Azshara Crater

Originally slated to be an Alterac Valley style instance, this battleground was far enough along in development that there were even Horde and Alliance entrances in Azshara. It never saw release, however, and with the zone overhaul in Cataclysm removing the physical location in which it would have existed, its fate seems to have been sealed.

Gurubashi Catacombs

A "deathmatch" style battleground, it was scrapped early in development but the concept eventually turned into Arena PvP.

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 71-80 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. The NPC to turn on or off XP gains is the Experience Eliminator, found near Battle Masters as a stealthed NPC. With XP turned off, the player is matched only against others who also have XP gain turned off; this is because the developers assume that if you don't want XP, you must be twinking.[1]
In Alterac Valley (AV) you can earn XP by killing mobs, however the XP gain is modified depending on the distance of other same-faction players. Closer leads to less XP gain, farther leads to greater. Patch 3.1.3
By glitch or by design, XP awards were increased to move twinks to next bracket quickly, but Call to Honor weekend play still acts as a multiplier of this increased amount, allowing the player to add one level in as little as three wins. This can be used to great advantage in leveling characters.

Patch changes

Patch 4.0.3 (2010-11-16): New Battleground Level Brackets.
Patch 1.8.4 (2005-12-06): Battles must now last at least ten minutes after the start of the battle in order for the losing team to receive a Mark of Honor.
Patch 1.8.0 (2005-10-10): Upon completion of a Battleground, the winning side will be awarded three Marks of Honor while the losing side will be awarded one [Mark of Honor].
Patch 1.7.0 (2005-09-13):
- Arathi Basin added.
- In the Battlegrounds, you will now automatically be resurrected by Spirit Healers unless you choose to decline.
- Characters that use the Battlemaster to enter a Battleground will now port back to that Battlemaster when they leave the Battleground for any reason.
- Fixed range check for removing insignia from players in Battlegrounds.
- Entering a battleground now resets the timer for the AFK flag. This should prevent players being kicked by the AFK timer moments after they enter the Battleground instance.
- Using the /who command while in a Battleground instance will now only display players in your instance.
Patch 1.6.0 (2005-07-12): Battleground scoreboards now display the time elapsed in a battleground.
Patch 1.5.0 (2005-06-07): Alterac Valley and Warsong Gulch added.

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