Alterac Valley

Battleground for 40 a side, levels 51–60 · Same as Classic Era · read from the Forever client, build 1.60.1.70755. All instances →

Alterac Valley loading screen

Hidden within the Alterac Mountains, Alterac Valley is the home of Thrall's own clan of orcs, the Frostwolves. The Stormpike dwarves have established a foothold in the valley and seek to plumb its depths for riches and links to their ancestral past. The territorial Frostwolves, unwilling to suffer the dwarven incursion, have rallied an army... an army eager for righteous slaughter.

What the client says

  • A battleground.Its map row is typed 3, the client's number for a battleground; an arena is 4.
  • Not rated.Its queue row carries no rated team size, like every Classic Era row. Two Forever rows do: Battle for Gilneas at 10 and Hyjal Crater at 5.
  • Forty a side, in groups of up to five.Levels 51–60.
  • Built on 17 of its 35 terrain tiles.Those 17 tiles carry 3,554 placed objects and 70 buildings. That is 2.1× the built area of Warsong Gulch.
  • Dressed for a player.A loading screen, a description and 26 named areas (Irondeep Mine, Stonehearth Outpost, Dun Baldar and 23 more).

What it does not say

  • Anything the server decides.Objectives, scoring, start positions and rewards are set by the server, not the client tables.

Each line is read from the Forever client, build 1.60.1.70755: the map and queue tables for what it is, its terrain files (measured on build 1.60.1.70425) for how much of it was built.

What else the client carries for it

Read from the tables around the map row, each block only where the build has something: nothing here is typed in. What the server decides (prices, vendors, scoring) is not in these tables.

Marked on the map

23 points the map marks.

  • Coldtooth Mine
  • Dun Baldar
  • Dun Baldar North Bunker
  • Dun Baldar South Bunker
  • East Frostwolf Tower
  • Frostwolf Graveyard
  • Frostwolf Keep
  • Frostwolf Relief Hut
  • Iceblood Garrison
  • Iceblood Graveyard
  • Iceblood Tower
  • Icewing Bunker
  • Icewing Cavern
  • Irondeep Mine
  • Snowfall Graveyard
  • Stonehearth Bunker
  • Stonehearth Graveyard
  • Stonehearth Outpost
  • Stormpike Aid Station
  • Stormpike Graveyard
  • Tower Point
  • West Frostwolf Tower
  • Wildpaw Cavern

Level brackets

The queue splits players into 1 bracket.

  • 51–60

On the world map

Filed as a map outside the zone hierarchy, under Hillsbrad Foothills.

Achievements and counters that name it

  • Master of Alterac Valley: Exalted with Alterac Valley

Counters the game keeps:Alterac Valley battles · Alterac Valley Honorable Kills · Alterac Valley Killing Blows · Alterac Valley towers captured · Alterac Valley towers defended · Alterac Valley victories · Bandage used most · Bandages used · Battleground Honorable Kills · Battleground Killing Blows · Battleground played the most · Battleground with the most Honorable Kills · Battleground with the most Killing Blows · Battleground won the most · Battlegrounds played · Battlegrounds won · Deaths in Alterac Valley.

Criteria the client defines for it, owned by no achievement row:Alterac Valley Runecloth Bandage · Kills in Alterac Valley (200) · Win in Alterac Valley.

How much of it was built

A map's terrain is stored as tiles, each 533 yards square. Counting only the tiles with something actually built on them (which leaves out the empty ground a map pads its edges with) gives each battleground's real built area. Warsong Gulch is the yardstick.

Hyjal Crater5 a side4.4×
Darkspear Islands15 a side3.0×
Alterac Valley40 a side2.1×
Battle for Gilneas10 a side1.1×
Warsong Gulch10 a side1.0×
Arathi Basin15 a side0.9×

Built area as multiples of Warsong Gulch. Every tile of every map was read, not sampled.

End to end3,733 yardsAbout 9 minutes on foot, 4 mounted
Built tiles17 of 355×7 grid, 2,667 × 3,733 yards
Scenery placed3,55470 buildings, 19 ground textures

One caveat, because this is the figure most worth quoting. Built area is where terrain work exists, not where a player can walk. Alterac Valley's mountains are built ground to a level designer and a wall to everyone else. What this establishes is how much was made, not how much is playable, and not what the map is for, which only its queue rows say, and the card above states.

Every measured PvP map

Scenery and buildings are placement counts, read from every tile of each map.
MapQueueBuilt tilesvs Warsong GulchSceneryBuildingsTextures
Hyjal Crater5 a side35 of 354.4×8,7445841
Darkspear Islands15 a side24 of 253.0×2,4619125
Alterac Valley40 a side17 of 352.1×3,5547019
Battle for Gilneas10 a side9 of 161.1×2,031387
Warsong Gulch10 a side8 of 161.0×1,1151911
Arathi Basin15 a side7 of 160.9×3,287266

The evidence, tile by tile

For anyone who wants to check the numbers rather than take them. Each square is one 533-yard terrain tile as the client stores it, shaded by how much scenery sits on it; a dashed square is ground with nothing built on it. This is where every figure above comes from.

Show the terrain grids
Hyjal Crater5 a side · 35 of 35 tiles built
Darkspear Islands15 a side · 24 of 25 tiles built
Alterac Valley40 a side · 17 of 35 tiles built
Battle for Gilneas10 a side · 9 of 16 tiles built
Warsong Gulch10 a side · 8 of 16 tiles built
Arathi Basin15 a side · 7 of 16 tiles built
nothing built 1–99 pieces 100–299 300–599 600+— hover a tile for its exact counts

SOURCES — the built-area figures on this page are read from the World of Warcraft: Forever client, build 1.60.1.70425: each map's own terrain files, every tile of every map, with a tile counted as built when a doodad or a building is placed on it. Nothing here is taken from another site. Reproducible with node scripts/measure-map-terrain.mjs --json.

Areas inside

Irondeep Mine · Stonehearth Outpost · Dun Baldar · Icewing Pass · Frostwolf Village · Tower Point · Coldtooth Mine · Winterax Hold · Iceblood Garrison · Frostwolf Keep · Frost Dagger Pass · Field of Strife · Icewing Cavern · Frostwolf Graveyard · Frostwolf Pass · Dun Baldar Pass · and 10 more

Same as Classic Era · map 30 Source: Forever client build 1.60.1.70755

Classic Era
  • Classic's Group Finder listed it for levels 51–60

Every instance

Dungeons & Raids

51 instances
With a level set, doors you cannot enter yet lock and instances near your level light up.
5 group size, 10v10 players a side 28 Group Finder level, entry level with a plus, or a battleground's level band Confirmed raid Blizzard has confirmed for Forever Announced announced, not in the client yet Not confirmed 40? in the client from Classic, not announced ★ new in Forever ◆ changed