Battlegroups
When you enter a battleground, you will be fighting alongside and against players from not only your realm, but from a preformed group of realms. These preformed groups are called battlegroups. Normally you wouldn't ever be able to interact with players on other realms, but thanks to battlegroups, you can meet and play against those players. Find out which battlegroup you are in by searching for your realm on the battlegroups page.

All players in a battleground will have their realm name displayed next to their character name in the chat log and score screen. Players from realms other than your own also have a "*" on their name. To send a whisper to a player from a different realm, you can either double-click their name in the Chat Log or use the command /w [playername]-[realmname]. However, other than conjured items, you are unable to trade with players on other realms.

Joining a Battleground

Battlemasters
Battlemaster are located in major cities for each faction that will allow players to queue for any Battleground. Battlemasters for specific Battlegrounds can be seen around the cities during corresponding Battleground holiday weekends.

Battleground Queue From Anywhere
Players will now be able to queue for Battlegrounds from anywhere in the world via the Battleground tab in the PvP section of the interface. Once the match is complete, players will be returned to the location where they entered it from.

• Queue for any available Battleground from anywhere in the world.
• Automatically return to the location you left when the Battleground ends.
• Players may only queue for no more than two Battlegrounds at a time.
• The dialog box for entering a Battleground match has been changed to reflect the following options: "Enter Battle," "Leave Queue," and "Minimize."
• The time a player has to enter a battle when selected has been reduced to 40 seconds when not already in a Battleground and 20 seconds when in a Battleground.
• Players already in a Battleground can now choose "Enter Battle" for a new Battleground under any circumstance (i.e. while dead, in combat, falling, etc.)
• A new Battleground will not launch until the maximum number of players on each side are in the queue (i.e. 40 players per side for Alterac Valley).

Portals
You may also join a battleground by attempting to enter their actual portal entrance. These portals exist at the physical sites of the battlegrounds themselves, found at the following locations:

Warsong Gulch: Ashenvale
Alterac Valley: Hillsbrad Foothills
Arathi Basin: Arathi Highlands

The other battlegrounds have no physical site. You can only visit it by talking to the Battlemasters in towns...

Lastly, you may join a battleground by talking to that battleground's special emissaries that appear in the capital cities during that battleground's holiday weekends. Once leaving the battleground you are transported back to the emissary.

Battleground Matchmaking System
This system allows the battleground to select teams of similar equipment quality and organizational level to battle each other. Generally, the system will be very forgiving about creating matchups in order to keep queue times low. However, the parameters will be adjusted as necessary when more organized teams become active in the battlegrounds.

Multiple Battlegrounds Queues

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Players are able to enter multiple battleground queues! No longer must you make the hard decision of which queue to join -- when queued for all three, you can join the first one available or hold out for that special Battleground you're really seeking. You can also be in the queue for a battleground while inside a different battleground.

Groups (Default Raid vs. Organized Raid)
When you join a battleground, you'll be placed in a raid group automatically. However, if you join the battleground while already in a preformed raid group, you will remain in your preformed raid instead of the default battleground raid group. If you're in a battleground and you want to join your guild or another group's battleground team (commonly called "premade" or "organized team"), you can still do so. Just have them invite you while you're already in a battleground. Then when the game starts, you'll be plucked out and will join their battleground. Pretty cool!

Communication
Players communicate in the battleground channel. To type in this channel type: "/bg text." You can set the color for the text for this channel as well. To find the color right-click on the General chat window name/tab. Go to Channels -> Party. There, you can set the color for both battleground and battleground leader.

Battleground Holidays: Call to Arms
Battleground "holidays" exist for each Battleground. Holidays occur during most weekends, starting on Thursday night at midnight server time and continuing until Tuesday morning. During a holiday, emissaries from that battleground will be found in the major cities, and honor/faction rewards for performing objectives in that battleground are increased.

The order of the holidays is: Alterac Valley -> Warsong Gulch -> Strand of the Ancients -> Isle of Conquest -> Arathi Basin -> Eye of the Storm.

Honorable Defender
When standing at a capture point that you control, you will gain a buff called Honorable Defender. This buff grants +50% honor gained from kills. This currently affects Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm and Isle of Conquest.

Battleground Tokens/PvP Rewards

While fighting in battlegrounds, players can receive honor points that can be used as currency to purchase rewards. Read more here.

Upon completion of a battleground, the winning side will also be awarded three tokens for the battleground you're in while the losing side will be awarded only one. These battleground tokens can be used as currency to purchase weapons, armor, and other equipment:

• General Rewards - Alliance players can find their rewards in the Champion's Hall located in Old Town, Stormwind. Horde players should visit the Hall of Legends in the Valley of Strength in the city of Orgrimmar.
• Players can turn in one of each battleground mark for an honor reward. The questgivers for this turn-in are the Horde Warbringer and the Alliance Brigadier General and can be found near the battlemasters in the capital cities.
• Alterac Valley - Rewards can be purchased from an NPC outside the instance in the Hillsbrad Foothills. There's also a NPC in town inside Alterac Valley who sells some rewards.
• Arathi Basin - Rewards can be purchased at Refuge Pointe in the Arathi Highlands for Alliance, or in Hammerfall for the Horde.
• Warsong Gulch - Rewards can be purchased outside the entrance to Warsong Gulch in Ashenvale (Alliance) or the Barrens (Horde).
• Eye of the Storm, Strand of the Ancients, Isle of Conquest - Rewards can be found in the Champion's Hall in Stormwind (Alliance) or the Hall of Legends in Orgrimmar (Horde).

AFK/Deserter Buff
When a player leaves a battleground before it concludes, they will be unable to re-enter any battleground queue for 15 minutes, and they will receive the deserter debuff. This is to prevent players from entering and leaving battlegrounds until they get the desired team matchup.

AFK Reporting
A new feature for reporting players as being AFK in battlegrounds was recently added. Right-click on their portrait, minimap dot, world map dot, or raid tab, and then select "report as AFK". When enough reports are registered, a 60 second debuff will begin to count down. It also prevents you from getting battleground marks, and completing your daily quest if it is for that battleground. To remove this, the player must enter PvP combat.

Battleground Experience

• Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).
• Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar - both located near the Battlemasters in either city - and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10 gold.
• Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.
• Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.
• Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 gold fee of course. Any experience that would've been accumulated if experience gains were not turned off cannot be recovered.
• When standing at a capture point that you control, you will gain a buff called Honorable Defender. This buff grants +50% honor gained from kills. This currently affects Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm and Isle of Conquest.

While in a Battleground

• The score screen displays information on the status of the battleground. You can bring up the score screen while in a battleground by pressing shift+spacebar. You may also bring up this screen by clicking on the battleground icon displayed on your mini-map. See our score screen guide pages for details on the information listed on the Alterac Valley and Warsong Gulch score screens.
• Players that go AFK (automatically or by manually inputting the /afk command) while in a battleground will be instantly teleported to the battleground entrance with the deserter debuff applied to them (see above).
• You can open the map to see the locations of all the players on your side who are in the battleground.
• If you are disconnected while in a battleground, you have a short time to safely log back in and continue to fight in that battleground.
• Logging into a battleground that's closed will teleport you to the entrance (dead characters will be resurrected as well).
• Using the /who command while in a battleground instance will only display players in your instance.

A battlegrounds match will end in any of the following circumstances:

• One of the battleground's victory conditions is met. When this occurs, a score screen will appear and the battleground will close in two minutes.
• One faction's total amount of players in the battleground slips below the minimum allowed for that battleground. A countdown will then ensue and the faction that has the minimum number of players or more when the countdown ends will be declared the winner by default. The minimum number of players per faction is 15 in Alterac Valley, 5 for Warsong Gulch, 10 for Eye of the Storm, and 10 for Arathi Basin.
• If both factions slip below the minimum number of players allowed for that battleground, the map will close after a countdown with no winner.

When a battleground is closed, the following happens:

• All players are prevented from moving or acting.
• All players are fully healed.
• The score screen is displayed with a "Leave battleground" option.
• Players are able to view the score screen or leave the battleground.

Battlegrounds: Instant Honor

There is a repeatable quest called "Concerted Efforts" (alliance) or "For Great Honor" (horde) which allows you to turn in four Marks of Honor for 314 honor. One mark is required for each battleground: Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin, Warsong Gulch, Isle of Conquest, and Eye of the Storm. If you have a store of marks, you can turn them in over and over to gain honor to buy an item. You can find this quest at an NPC at the battlemasters in major cities or Shattrath City.

Battlegrounds: Daily Quest

Every day there is a daily quest for Battlegrounds which offers money and bonus honor if you win on that specific battleground. You can find this quest at an NPC at the battlemasters in major cities or Shattrath City.

Players level 11 and higher willalways see a daily Battleground quest, as the quest giver will only offer daily quests for a Battleground in which a player is eligible to participate according to level bracket (i.e. players levels 11-20 will always be offered a Warsong Gulch daily quest, while players levels 11-50 will be offered either an Arathi Basin or a Warsong Gulch daily quest, etc.).

Miscellaneous Information

• Players can cast spells for free in the Battleground before it begins.
• Players can cast spells for free for a few seconds after being resurrected by a Spirit Guide in the Battleground.
• Dropping the flag in a battleground will result in a debuff that will not allow you to pick up the flag again for 3 seconds.
• Flag carriers can be tracked on Battleground maps 45 seconds after picking up the flag.
• If a player dies 50 times or more in a battleground, they will no longer be worth honor for the remainder of that battle.

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