Battlegrounds
Organised PvP you queue for. One battleground runs at present: Battle Royale - Rural, a free-for-all for ten players at level 30.
Getting in
You queue from the battleground window. A test character cannot queue, and neither can a character in a shape - polymorph blocks joining and confirming both.
When the queue reaches its number everybody in it is asked to confirm, and has sixty seconds to do it. While that vote is open the queue is locked: nobody new can join. If fewer than two players are still there when it launches, the match is called off and the queue is cleared.
Launching dismounts you, rests you, and takes off anything you are not allowed to wear inside.
What you may carry, wear and use
Only in Battle Royale, and it is a cap on item level 16:
- Anything may be carried in. Your bags are never checked.
- Only gear at item level 16 or below, or gear made for Battle Royale, can be worn or used inside. Anything else is refused with a message.
- Potions, healer's kits, thieves' tools, keys, torches and books are exempt from the cap - but full heal, harm and spell-restoring potions stay blocked.
- Loot you find inside is usable inside whatever its level, and is destroyed when you leave.
- Taking a shape inside is allowed.
How a match runs
Everyone is frozen for the first thirty seconds, with a countdown, and every player is made hostile to every other. Then the fight starts.
The arena then closes in four steps:
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1:30 | the first ring is marked, with a three-minute countdown |
| 4:30 | first close - about a quarter of the arena |
| 7:30 | second close |
| 10:30 | third close |
| 13:30 | the final close: one tile in the middle is the only safe ground |
Two circles show it: one on the ground you are standing on that is still safe, and one on the ground it is shrinking to. Flames appear on the ring that is about to close, before it does.
Standing outside the safe ground costs 50 hit points a second for the first step, and 50 more for each step after - 200 a second on the last one.
Elimination and the end
Dying eliminates you, and so does disconnecting: both are recorded at the placement you had at that moment, and everyone in the arena is told. When one player is left the match ends, the winner is healed clean, and the full standings are sent to everyone who played.
On the way out you are raised if you were dead, battleground loot is stripped, and you are returned to your respawn point neutral to everybody again.
What is switched off inside
The player menu, the vault, mounts, and changing your attitude towards another player.