WoW Forever: 15 against 15 on the Darkspear Islands

Blizzard has set out how the Darkspear Islands battleground is played. It is 15 against 15, for levels 30 to 60, and it sits off the shores of Dustwallow Marsh. 4 capture points are spread across the islands, and the more of them a side holds, the faster its score climbs; a flag in the middle pays extra on top, once a player carries it to a base their own side controls. The first team to 2000 points wins.

There are two ways in. Battlemasters in the capital cities queue for it as usual, and each side also has a camp in the Barrens with a portal straight to the fight: Merchant Coast for the Horde's Darkspear Raiders, Northwatch for the Alliance's Theramore Expeditionary Force.

Those 2 names are also the reputations the battleground carries, and almost everything worth having hangs off them. Quartermasters sell trinkets, rings, cloaks, weapons and armour as standing improves, marks of honour come from the reputation quests rather than from wins directly, and reaching exalted opens a questline that ends in the faction's own tabard. We found the battleground in the beta files 2 days ago, before Blizzard had named it; what was guesswork then is now described.

Blizzard has not said when it opens, and has not said whether testers will see it before the beta closes. The beta runs until 21 October, and WoW Forever opens at 23:00 UK time on 4 November, which is midnight on 5 November in Central Europe.