Long ago, before the First War, the warlock Gul'dan exiled a clan of orcs called the Frostwolves to a hidden valley deep in the heart of the Alterac Mountains. It is here in the valley's southern reaches that the Frostwolves eked out a living until the coming of Thrall.

After Thrall's triumphant uniting of the clans, the Frostwolves, now led by the Orc Shaman Drek'Thar, chose to remain in the valley they had for so long called their home. In recent times, however, the relative peace of the Frostwolves has been challenged by the arrival of the Dwarven Stormpike Expedition.

The Stormpikes have set up residence in the valley to search for natural resources and ancient relics. Despite their intentions, the Dwarven presence has sparked heated conflict with the Frostwolf Orcs to the south, who have vowed to drive the interlopers from their lands.

Style: Destroy enemy towers on your path to defeating the enemy NPC general Location: Eastern Kingdoms (Alterac/Hillsbrad Foothills) Limits: Level 51-70 players (level range breakup: 51-60, 61-70) Maximum players per team: 40 Horde/40 Alliance Minimum players per team: 20 Horde/20 Alliance Win Conditions: Kill the enemy's NPC general

• Most of the quest loot available in Alterac Valley is removed from inventory upon exiting Alterac Valley to preserve fairness when a new instance begins.
• Right-clicking an enemy player's corpse disables that player from being able to resurrect at his corpse, whether by reclaiming it himself or having another player revive him with a spell.
• Reputation: You can only gain reputation if you are in the vicinity of an opposing player who dies and only if you have performed some action that puts you on their "hate list". This means you attacked the player and did damage, healed someone, cast a buff, or some other action that would mean you participated in the battle.

Each team will have a starting reinforcement count. Reinforcements can be lost in significant amounts if a tower is destroyed or if Captain Galvangar or Balinda Stonehearth is killed. For each team member death, an additional reinforcement will be lost. On the death of General Drek'Thar or Vanndar Stormpike, all reinforcements are lost and the team is defeated. At any point in time, if a team is reduced to zero reinforcements, the opposing team will win the battle. Defending your own teammates, towers, and key NPCs will be an important aspect of maintaining team resources and achieving victory in Alterac Valley.

Warmasters can be the boon or the bane of any team. They are an important element for the defense of your general or the defeat of the opposing general. Warlords and their general will be more closely linked in the next patch. Pulling one is a guarantee the other will come as well. Each team begins with four Warmasters. Destroying a tower will eliminate the associated Warmaster. Destroying the enemy tower will not add a Warmaster to your own side. All Warmasters are linked to each other and their respective Generals and cannot be pulled individually.

Players will only be awarded bonus honor during the battle for destroying enemy towers and slaying the enemy Captain. Once the battle is concluded, bonus honor will be awarded for intact towers, a surviving Captain, and for victory in battle. The bonus honor will reward players for taking more active roles in Alterac Valley toward defending or attacking key locations and NPCs.

• Alterac Valley can be reached by heading to Hillsbrad Foothills. The portal is north of Southshore for Alliance and northeast of Tarren Mill for Horde.
• In order to keep teams in Alterac Valley numerically balanced, players will enter Alterac Valley on a one-for-one basis (i.e. if there are 30 players in the battleground for each side with 10 players in the Alliance queue and 2 players in the Horde queue, only two players from each team will be added, bringing the total to 32 per side).
• The World Map icons reflect the state of towers, graveyards and mines.
• Whenever control changes for a Tower, Graveyard, or Mine, all players will receive a notice of what happened via yell.
• Killing the opposing NPC general wins the game and grants honor bonus based on what locations are under your faction's control.
• Deceased Hunters and Warlocks will have their pets resurrected with them upon resurrecting at a graveyard or reclaiming their corpse.