Battlegrounds

For those who prefer a more intimate, fast-paced, or simply lower level version of RvR, there are the Battlegrounds - standalone zones with level and realm rank restrictions and a single keep in the center.

In addition to realm points (for Killaloe and above) and the joy of slaughtering your enemies, battlegrounds can be a good way to earn experience. There are monsters to kill, and you'll get the RvR zone bonus for the kills. You also get a large amount of experience for taking part in a keep capture - once per level, you can get about 25% of your exp if you're in the area when your realm captures the keep.

Because battleground keeps have no hookpoints for defenses such as oil and palintones, you cannot deploy siege equipment as you would in the froniter. Instead, you must talk to a siegemaster at your realm's keep and buy a ticket for the type of engine you want. The siegemaster will then follow you out to the keep (or elsewhere, if you like), at which point you talk to him again and he will deploy the siege, then return to the keep.

Each battleground (aside from the first three) has both a cap on realm points you can earn, and a maximum realm level allowed when you port to the battleground. The cap is one level higher than the entrance limit. Some clarification, directly from the patch notes:

- If Realm Rank is capped in the Battleground, a player will not be removed forcibly if they die and release or not get resurrected. They will be ported back to the portal keep of their realm within the Battleground.

- If Realm Rank is capped in the Battleground, and a player willingly ports out of the Battleground, you will not be able to return to the same Battleground.

- If a Player's Experience level exceeds the Battleground cap, they will be removed from the Battleground if they are not resurrected from death.

Example for clarification: A level 24 player that is Realm Rank 1L4 Zones into Thidranki. That player then gets Realm Rank 1L5 while in the Battleground and dies soon after. The player is not resurrected, but releases back to the portal keep within the Battleground. Said player can log out of the game if they desire and come back to the same Battleground later. Upon coming back into the Battleground later on, the same player levels up to level 25. Later that day the level 25 player dies, and upon release of his spirit, he is ported back to the portal keep (Druim Ligen, Svasud Faste, or Castle Sauvage).

Proving Grounds

Level 1-4

No Realm Points

No siegemaster

The Lion's Den

Level 5-9

No Realm Points

No siegemaster

Hills of Claret

Level 10-14

No Realm Points

No siegemaster

Killaloe

Level 15-19

RR1 L2 Entrance Limit

RR1 L3 Cap

Two siegemasters per realm

Thidranki

Level 20-24

RR1 L4 Entrance Limit

RR1 L5 Cap

Two siegemasters per realm

Very popular battleground because of the /level command

Braemar

Level 25-29

RR1 L9 Entrance Limit

RR2 Cap

Two siegemasters per realm

Wilton

Level 30-34

RR2 L4 Entrance Limit

RR2 L5 Cap

Three siegemasters per realm

Molvik

Level 35-39

RR2 L94 Entrance Limit

RR3 Cap

Three siegemasters per realm

Three towers in addition to keep

Leirvik

Level 40-44

RR3 L9 Entrance Limit

RR4 Cap

ML3 Entrance Limit

Three siegemasters per realm

Another popular battleground, in which characters are starting to resemble their end-game counterparts. The map is mostly a large central island with the keep and its towers.

Cathal Valley

Level 45-49

RR4 L9 Entrance Limit

RR5 Cap

ML5 Entrance Limit

The final battleground, where you can get all the way to RR5 and your class' unique RA before heading out to the frontiers. The named mobs in Cathal Valley drop some pretty decent loot. The layout of the zone is interesting in that the central keep isn't actually "central"; it's actually set off to the side of the zone, all the way up a long mountain pass. There are no towers, but each realm does have a milegate between their keep and the main part of the map.