Sharpen your axes! In World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, a slew of savage new challenges, rewards, and user-interface improvements wait for PvP combatants. All it takes is a hardy constitution and strong will to face off against ferocious foes—we’ll handle the rest.

New World PvP Zone

For players looking to engage in PvP combat on an epic scale, Warlords of Draenor introduces a new world PvP zone off of the north east coast of Tanaan Jungle. This new experience involves a raging battle that has no distinct beginning or end—instead, it offers constantly evolving objectives for participants to take part in. There will be items to gather, creatures to summon, and tons of action on multiple levels. While you can enter the fray sooner than level 100, you may find yourself biting off more than you can chew—enter at your own risk!

When first joining the battle, you’ll be presented with objectives based on the current status of the battle. The closer you get to your opponent’s base, the more difficult your tasks will become. Objectives will change at a moment’s notice based on events within the zone, and you may quickly find yourself switching from offense to rebuilding your fortress and gathering the materials needed to do so. There will also be faction-based vehicles—and some Iron Horde war machines—at your team’s disposal.

To provide a truly epic world PvP experience, the number of players and the amount of faction members allowed in the zone won’t be capped. Don’t worry, though—with cross-realm technology, the pool of potential allies (and enemies) is wider than ever.

Battleground Score, UI Improvements, and Updated Rewards

The Battleground scoreboard is being updated to provide better insight into your performance in Battlegrounds. A new stat called Battleground Score will take into account objective-based gameplay you engage in, such as returning flags, interrupting objective captures, healing, doing damage, and more.

In addition, flag timers and other objective timers will also be viewable on the map, complete with an additional animation. This will make it easier to identify the time until an objective is captured for players on either side to defend or attack to disrupt the capture.

To the victors go the spoils . . . and we’re upping the ante in Battlegrounds even further. Winning in Battlegrounds could garner players extra random rewards such as a PvP set item, a random bind-on-equip item, consumables, and more.

Trial of the Gladiator

If you’re looking for some great Arena action, then Trial of the Gladiator is for you. Building on the same system used for the Arena Tournament realm, players who take part in Trial of the Gladiator will be able to enter and purchase gear, enchants, and gems from a vendor, and then match skills with other players. Similar to the Arena Tournament realm, an array of equal-quality gear and items will be available to all players, putting everyone on the same footing from the start of competition.

Any player will be able to queue for this new feature once it’s available, but you’ll only be able to earn a rating during specific days and times of the week that rated competition opens up. This will help make the pool of serious combatants more concentrated, allowing the system to match players more accurately based on skill and helping ensure rated battles provide a highly competitive experience.

You’ll be able to practice whenever you like outside of those times, but if you want to earn the prestige awards, you’ll need to hone your skills and climb to the top of the ladder at the appointed times. We also don’t want to penalize people too heavily for missing a scheduled combat or two, and we’re looking into ways to make sure the system strikes the right balance between flexibility and cutting-edge competition.

We’ll provide more information on this system and more as we progress further into development. In the meantime, don’t let those blades get rusty!