Mercenary Mode

“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”

Mercenary Mode allows players to enter unrated battlegrounds and Ashran as a member of the opposite faction. Players are transformed into an appropriate race and fully function as an indistinguishable member of their new team. Only available when a faction is experiencing long wait times, the feature aims to reduce queue times for these types of play, while still preserving the lore experience of factional conflict.

Functionality

Mercenary Mode is only available to players whose faction is currently experiencing long queue times for unrated battlegrounds and/or Ashran. At these times special NPCs will appear in the faction capital (Warspear for Horde, Stormshield for Alliance), offering players access to the mode.

Entering a battleground or Ashran through these NPCs will cause the player to be converted into a member of the opposite faction. Non-pandaren will be transformed into an appropriate race, including an exchange of racial traits. Players will function as regular members of their converted faction, and will not be marked in any way as mercenaries.

Players acting as mercenaries will still be able to earn the usual rewards for their participation, with the exception of any faction-specific achievements.

Mercenary Mode does not apply to PvP Brawls.

Recruiters

[Mercenary Contract] is the buff obtained upon speaking to a mercenary recruiter and becoming a mercenary for the opposing faction.

The two Horde recruiters are:

•  Sergeant Wilson <Battleground Recruiter>
•  Kayvon Quinnstar <Ashran Recruiter>

The two Alliance recruiters are:

•  Nassar <Battleground Recruiter>
•  Valmaun <Ashran Recruiter>

The recruiter NPCs are ONLY visible when the queue time for your faction is exceptionally high.

Which race the player becomes

Which race the player becomes is based on the players starting race and class.

		Class
		Druid	Hunter	Mage	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior	Death knight	Monk	Demon hunter
Alliance	Draenei
	Dwarf
	Gnome
	Human
	Night elf
	Worgen
	Void elf
	Lightforged
	Dark Iron
	Kul Tiran	N/A
	Mechagnome	N/A
Neutral	Pandaren
Horde	Blood elf
	Goblin
	Orc
	Tauren
	Troll
	Undead
	Nightborne
	Highmountain
	Mag'har
	Zandalari	N/A
	Vulpera	N/A

Notes

• Which race of the opposite faction the players become in the flashbacks of Battle of Dazar'alor is the same as in Mercenary Mode.
• Faction-specific mounts cannot be used with Mercenary Mode.
• Races are dissimilar to those given by the  [Orb of Deception]. Mercenary Mode combinations tend to be of similar build and shape to the converted character: such as Gnome to Goblin; or Tauren to Draenei, unless that corresponding race does not allow the particular class combination used. Orb of Deception races are more arbitrarily "opposite" their factional counterparts, like Orcs and Humans were opposed in Warcraft II.

Patch changes

• Hotfix (2015-10-06): Fixed an issue where players queuing for Ashran as a Mercenary could incorrectly receive Recreant.
  
• Hotfix (2015-09-21): Players should no longer receive a bonus objective to kill a tower guardian for the wrong faction, Rylai Crestfall (Alliance) or Jeron Emberfall (Horde) while fighting as a mercenary.
  
• Patch 6.2.2 (2015-09-01): Added.
  

External links

• Patch 6.2.2 – PvP Mercenary Mode (2015-08-31)