Quick answer: Darkspear Islands is a 15v15 battleground for levels 30-60 off Dustwallow Marsh, and the first team to 2000 points wins. Queue at a capital battlemaster or at your faction’s base in the Barrens.
World of Warcraft: Forever adds Darkspear Islands as a new battleground. It mixes two familiar ideas, holding capture points and running a flag, and pits the Horde’s Darkspear Raiders against the Alliance’s Theramore Expeditionary Force.
Darkspear Islands battleground basics
| Detail | Darkspear Islands |
|---|---|
| Type | Capture points plus a flag capture |
| Location | Off the shores of Dustwallow Marsh |
| Levels | 30-60 |
| Team size | 15v15 |
| Victory condition | First team to 2000 points |
| Horde faction | Darkspear Raiders |
| Alliance faction | Theramore Expeditionary Force |
How to win Darkspear Islands: Capture points and the center flag
Points come from two places. Most of your score builds from holding ground, and the flag gives you a way to jump ahead.
- Four capture points sit across the islands. Holding them earns your team points.
- The more capture points your team controls, the faster your score climbs.
- A flag waits in the middle of the map. Pick it up and carry it to a base your team has captured for extra points.
- The match ends when one team reaches 2000 points.
Because the flag only scores at a base you already own, the two objectives feed each other. A team that loses its capture points also loses places to turn in the flag.
How to queue for Darkspear Islands
You can join from a city or from the battleground’s own staging bases. You need to be between levels 30 and 60 either way.
Queue from a capital city
Find the battlemaster in any major capital city and talk to them to sign up for Darkspear Islands. This is the quickest option if you are already in town.
Queue from the Barrens bases
The Barrens bases also hold the reputation vendors and the battleground quests, so going there lets you shop and pick up quests before you jump in.
Darkspear Islands rewards and reputation
Darkspear Islands has two reputation tracks, one for each side: the Darkspear Raiders for the Horde and the Theramore Expeditionary Force for the Alliance. You raise them through the battleground and spend the standing at the vendors in the Merchant Coast and Northwatch bases.
| Reward source | What you get |
|---|---|
| Reputation vendors | Trinkets, rings, cloaks, weapons, armor and consumables |
| Battleground quests | Reputation in exchange for Marks of Honor |
| Exalted questline | The faction’s exclusive tabard |
| Every match | Honor and Rank Points |
Vendor items open up at different reputation thresholds, so more of the stock becomes available as your standing rises. Turning in Marks of Honor at the base quest givers is the direct way to push that standing up.
Reaching Exalted opens a brief quest chain that awards your faction’s exclusive tabard. The battleground also grants Honor and Rank Points, as other battlegrounds in WoW Forever do. Spend Honor on PvP gear, while Rank Points advance your PvP rank.
