ForeverDB

Battle for the Darkspear Islands: Forever's new 15v15 battleground

The Dustwallow Marsh map from the WoW Forever client

· ForeverDB

Blizzard has detailed the Darkspear Islands, a new 15v15 battleground off Dustwallow Marsh for levels 30 to 60. Teams hold four capture points and fight over a central flag, racing to 2000 points, and earn reputation with the Darkspear Raiders (Horde) or Theramore Expeditionary Force (Alliance). Both factions, their reward tiers and the battleground map are already in the Forever client.

Blizzard has announced a new battleground for World of Warcraft: Forever: the Battle for the Darkspear Islands, off the coast of Dustwallow Marsh. The official post sets out how it plays. The two factions, their vendors' reward tiers and the battleground map are already in the beta client's files, so we can line the post up against the data.

This is a beta announcement. Anything here can still change before launch.

Stake your claim in the Darkspear Islands, a new 15v15 battleground in World of Warcraft: Forever where teams fight to control strategic points, capture the flag, and earn reputation rewards with the Darkspear Raiders or Theramore Expeditionary Force. Blizzard, official announcement

The basics

Type of Map: 15v15 Capture Point with a Flag Capture Battleground Location: Off the Shores of Dustwallow Marsh Player Levels: 30-60 Victory Condition: First team to 2000 Points Blizzard, official announcement

So it is 15 players a side, for levels 30 to 60, and the first team to 2000 points wins. The client agrees on the level range: the Call to Arms: Darkspear Islands event in the files is set to a minimum level of 30, a maximum of 60 and 15 players per side. The battleground map is in the client as Darkspear Islands, with named spots for a Camp, Ruins, an Abandoned Tower and Shipwreck Cove.

Capture and hold

You score by holding ground. Blizzard describes it this way:

Teams earn points by controlling four capture points across the Darkspear Islands. The more capture points your team controls, the quicker your team accrues points. A flag waits in the middle of the map, giving both teams another objective to fight over. Grab it, bring it to one of the bases your team has captured, and earn more points for your side. Blizzard, official announcement

In plain terms: it works like Arathi Basin's four-node race, with an extra flag in the middle that you carry back to a base you already hold for bonus points. The more points you control, the faster your score climbs, so the fight is over position, not just kills. This matches how Blizzard first pitched it at BlizzCon, as strategic control points combined with flag captures. There is more background in our Darkspear Islands lore page.

Where to queue

Visit a battlemaster located in any major capital city or in the Barrens (Kalimdor) seek out the Darkspear Raiders base (Horde) at the Merchant Coast or Theramore Expeditionary Force (Alliance) base located at Northwatch, where a portal will take you into the battle. Blizzard, official announcement

Blizzard says those two bases also hold the reputation vendors and the battleground quests. The vendors and their stock are not listed in the reputation data yet, so for now the bases and what they sell rest on the post.

The two factions

Each side has its own faction in the client, both marked as new. Their descriptions tell the quarrel from each side:

Note the wording. One side calls the islands ancestral, the other calls them "so-called". Neither thinks the other belongs there.

Rewards

There is a reputation track for each faction for the Battleground: Darkspear Raiders and Theramore Expeditionary Force. They have gear and consumables that you can purchase including trinkets, rings, cloaks, weapons, armor pieces when hitting different reputation thresholds. Blizzard, official announcement

The reward items for both factions are already in the client, split across four reputation tiers. They line up with the post:

  • Friendly: a pair of seal trinkets each (for example the Theramore side's Enriched Seal and Volunteer's Lucky Seal; the Darkspear side's Darkspear Voodoo Seal and Relentless Raider's Seal), item level 53.
  • Honored: a cloak, a signet and a second ring, and a neck piece, item level 63.
  • Revered: weapons, item level 63: a one-handed spellblade, an off-hand tome, and a two-handed weapon each.
  • Exalted: shoulder and glove armour at item level 65, plus the faction's own battle tabard.

On the quests, Blizzard adds:

Turn in for Marks of Honor for reputation quests and unlock a short questline at Exalted to earn the faction's exclusive tabard. Blizzard, official announcement

The client also has an achievement for the battleground, Master of Darkspear Islands: reach Exalted reputation with the Darkspear Raiders or the Theramore Expeditionary Force. And there is a weekly Call to Arms: Darkspear Islands event, the same bonus-week rotation the other battlegrounds use.

The reputation quests and the battleground vendors are not in the extracted client data yet, so the Marks of Honor turn-ins, the Exalted tabard questline and the vendor locations rest on Blizzard's post. The factions, their reward items, the map and the Call to Arms event are in the client.

Sources

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