Mercenary Mode coming soon to WoW PVP

Long queue times have been a long-standing problem for PVP players, generally attributed to faction imbalance on servers and in Battlegroups. To help combat this issue, Blizzard is introducing Mercenary Mode, where players will be able to queue up and PVP against their own faction as a mercenary hired by the other side. In other words, you’ll be fighting against your own faction. This feature is intended to work with Ashran as well as all unrated Battlegrounds. While in Mercenary Mode, you’ll still earn all the same rewards as you would fighting for your own side, with the exception of faction-specific achievements.

I have to admit, I don’t do a lot of PVP in WoW anymore, and the majority of the reason I don’t participate is because I simply don’t have the time to sit through queues. I was looking forward to Ashran when Warlords of Draenor launched, but found myself without the necessary time to sit and wait to play before I could actually play. Mercenary Mode sounds like an intriguing solution to this issue.

More importantly, it raises the question of that factional divide that has split World of Warcraft right down the middle for the last ten years. If players are able to freely hop the faction fence in PVP combat, what does this say for the future of the Alliance and Horde — and is Mercenary Mode a temporary solution, or something that’s going to stick around for good? We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m looking forward to the possibility of getting to mess around with my rogue in Ashran again, no matter which side I happen to be fighting for at the time. For more information on the upcoming feature, check out Blizzard’s In Development highlight.