WoW Forever: the Darkspear Islands, a 15v15 battleground for levels 30–60, and how PvP ranks and Honor work

On 7 October 2026 Blizzard published two articles on PvP in World of Warcraft: Forever. The first, at 17:00 UTC, explains how PvP progression works; the second, at 19:00 UTC, presents the Darkspear Islands, the new battleground. Here is what they say, in short. Names of places, factions and items are the ones used in the articles.

The Darkspear Islands

• Type: 15v15 battleground, with capture points and a flag to capture.
• Where: off the shores of Dustwallow Marsh.
• Levels: 30–60.
• Victory: the first team to reach 2,000 points.

The two sides are the Darkspear Raiders (Horde) and the Theramore Expeditionary Force (Alliance). The battleground is also listed in our guide to zones, dungeons and raids.

How to win

Teams earn points by controlling four capture points spread across the islands: the more points a team holds, the faster it scores. In the middle of the map there is a flag: grab it, carry it to one of the bases your team has captured and you earn more points. The first team to 2,000 points wins.

How to queue

You can queue at a battlemaster in any major capital city or in the Barrens (Kalimdor), or at the two faction bases: the Darkspear Raiders at the Merchant Coast (Horde) and the Theramore Expeditionary Force at Northwatch (Alliance), where a portal takes you into the battle. The bases also have vendors with reputation rewards and quests for the battleground.

On which players you meet, Blizzard's article on rulesets of 21 September says that battlegrounds may include players from other rulesets, except Hardcore: more in our rulesets guide.

Rewards

Each faction has its own reputation track. As you reach higher reputation thresholds you can buy gear and consumables, including trinkets, rings, cloaks, weapons and armor pieces. The battleground has quests too: the reputation quests involve Marks of Honor, and at Exalted a short questline unlocks the faction's exclusive tabard.

Honor and Rank Points

Blizzard says it wanted PvP to be "Approachable and Familiar": a simplified version of the original Honor System that stays true to its roots. Progression has two parts.

• Honor is a currency. You earn it by defeating other players, completing battlegrounds and finishing PvP quests, and you get more of it in the highlighted battlegrounds during their holiday weeks. Blizzard has reviewed Honor gains so that rates are more consistent across battlegrounds: the goal is that nobody feels pushed to pick Alterac Valley just because it gives Honor faster.
• Rank Points come from battlegrounds and PvP quests, with an extra boost in holiday-week battlegrounds. They take you through the ranks of the original World of Warcraft, up to High Warlord (Horde) or Grand Marshal (Alliance). Ranks have a weekly cap.

To check your progress, open the Character Pane (C) and select the Player vs. Player tab on the right: it shows your rank, your current Rank Points and the rewards you can buy at your rank.

Gear by rank

Honor buys two sets of PvP gear, one blue and one epic. To upgrade a piece to epic you need the blue piece plus an Emboldened Seal, and Emboldened Seals have rank requirements. There are also new and reworked items for specializations that had no options before: Shamans, for example, now have healer, melee and caster PvP sets.

PvP seasons

During a PvP season you climb the ranks and earn Honor. Each season also has a journey of weekly tasks: completing them gives Honor and Rank Points, and three tasks per season give a Legacy Point. Because they are tied to the Legacy System, these tasks stay available in future seasons. How Legacy Points work is in our Legacy System guide.

What we don't know yet

• When the Darkspear Islands open: the article gives no date, and does not say whether the 30–60 range is split into brackets.
• Numbers: how many points a capture point or the flag is worth, the reputation needed for each reward, the prices in Honor, how many Rank Points each rank takes and how high the weekly cap is.
• Seasons: start date, length, and whether ranks are kept or reset from one season to the next.
• Marks of Honor: the three versions of the article do not agree. The English text says "Turn in for Marks of Honor for reputation quests", the Italian one says you hand them in for the reputation quests, the Spanish one that completing the quests earns them.
• Other battlegrounds and holiday weeks: apart from the Darkspear Islands, only Alterac Valley is named, and there is no calendar of the holiday weeks yet.
• Which other specializations get new PvP sets besides the Shaman ones, and which weekly tasks give the Legacy Points.