Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley Battlegrounds are Now Live in WoW Classic Anniversary Edition

Author: Luxrah
Date: January 17, 2025
Updated: January 17, 2025
Expansion: WoW Classic

Phase 2 of WoW Classic arrived in Anniversary Edition last week, and now the first two PvP battlegrounds of World of Warcraft have been added to the game as well, giving players a new way to earn Honor along with some battleground-specific reputation and rewards to go with it.

The battlegrounds were briefly added with yesterday’s reset, but had to be taken down due to characters from Season of Discovery appearing in the same matches as those from Anniversary Edition. Following a couple hours of maintenance this morning, the battlegrounds are now back and appear to be working correctly.

Warsong Gulch is a 10v10 game of capture the flag. Alliance earn their rewards through the Silverwing Sentinels faction while Horde earn theirs through the Warsong Outriders.

Alterac Valley is an epic 40v40 race to defeat the opposite faction’s general, with plenty of other smaller objectives to help you get there. The Alliance faction for this battleground is the Stormpike Guard while the Horde faction is Frostwolf Clan.

The other battleground from vanilla WoW, Arathi Basin, will not be added to the game until Phase 4.

Blizzard – (Source)

Ring in the new year with the updated Honor System, the opening of iconic battlegrounds Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley, and the release of Dire Maul and the world bosses, Azuregos and Kazzak.

Release Timetable:

1/9: Phase 2 including the updated Honor System, Dire Maul, and world bosses Azuregos and Kazzak.

1/16: Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley Battlegrounds Open

Phase 2 of the Anniversary Edition introduces the updated Honor System currently in use on both WoW Classic Era realms and in Season of Discovery. At the launch of the phase, the Honor cap will be set to Rank 11, with it extending to Rank 14 shortly after the release of the Blackwing Lair raid dungeon at a later date.

This phase also marks the release of Dire Maul dungeon and the world bosses Azuregos and Kazzak, offering even more exciting encounters to dive into.

Get Ready for the Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley Battlegrounds

We’ve learned a lesson or two since we launched the original Honor System in 2019. With that launch, we saw a lot of great chaotic outdoor PvP engagements between players. But this chaos also led us to adjust plans so that we released battlegrounds slightly earlier than expected. This time, with the new Anniversary Edition realms, we’re leaning into the excitement and embracing the chaos—for one week only! (Southshore vs. Tarren Mill anyone?) We will be opening the Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley battlegrounds on January 16 at 2:00 pm PST globally, one week after the updated Honor System goes live.

We can’t wait to see everyone’s adventures unfold in this next chapter!

About the Author

Luxrah

I've been playing World of Warcraft on and off since vanilla, usually as a healer or caster and often as a guild leader. I play both retail and classic. I also love RPGs, sandboxes, and sims.