It will be interesting to see the PvP community's responses to this, as it solves one issue - queue times - quite well, but leaves some other core PvP considerations on the table.

We’ll be testing this feature soon on the Public Test Realm, and look forward to hearing your feedback! Our goal with Mercenary Mode is to allow players who want to participate in Ashran or unrated Battlegrounds the ability to do so without having to wait through long queues, while still maintaining the spirit of the core Alliance vs Horde fantasy.

Perhaps most importantly, however, you’ll experience much shorter queue times, as our matchmaking system will be able to fill up groups much quicker! You’ll also have your race automatically changed into one appropriate for the opposite faction while you’re still inside the Battleground or Ashran. When you compete as a mercenary, you’ll still earn all the same rewards you would have by winning or losing as your own faction (with the exception of faction-specific achievements). These agents will allow you to enter Ashran or Battlegrounds disguised as an enemy player, and actually fight as the opposite faction. Whenever your faction is experiencing a long wait time to get into Ashran or unrated Battlegrounds, agents of the enemy faction will appear in your base in Ashran (Stormshield for the Alliance, Warspear for the Horde). In an upcoming patch, we’ll be adding a feature that allows you to act as a mercenary for the opposite faction in PvP. They say, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”-and soon, you’ll be able to do just that.

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