Bluewall Bluewalling , also known as blue shielding or blueflagging , is the act of attacking someone who has their PvP flag up when yours is not up . It is considered by some as dishonorable due to the lack of fair chance to attack you before you approach . While not against any specific rules , it is up to the player to decide if they want to be " honorable " or have the upper hand . On the official Blizz ard boards , some servers usually have some list or another of bluewallers , or if not , at least complaints against them expressing strong anger and frustration . This phenomenon is , for the most part , restricted to PvE and RP servers as players can travel through many more zones without raising their PvP flag , and flagged players are generally an atypical occurrence . It is also difficult to define or even enforce since there is very little practical difference between suddenly flagging PvP and then attacking and attacking from behind a bluewall , despite the former technically not being bluewalling . The name " Bluewalling " comes from the blue color of the text above a non - flagged player ' s name , rather than the color of a flagged Alliance player ' s icon , a common misconception . Sometimes acceptable . One notable exception where bluewalling is generally accepted is in capital cities where a member of the opposing faction ' s PvP flag will automatically get enabled , if they enter . Entering an opposing faction ' s capital city is informally thought of as trespassing and one can expect to get attacked just for being there , if you ' re from the opposing faction . Another point of View . Some people , however , do not consider bluewalling an offence at all . On a PVE server , if you are for any reason flagged , that means you are subjecting yourself to PVP , period . That means unflagged people can attack , flagged people , it doesn ' t matter . That means you have to be really careful when deciding whether to flag or not . Sometimes Blueflagging is part of a strategy , when waiting for reinforcements to show up to start the battle , or whatever the case may be . Also consider the Rogue class , which typically enters a difficult battle under stealth , in which case the initial PvP flag rarely makes a difference for the opponent . In face a Rogue can reasonably argue that bluewalling as a stealth strategy fits the overall character of the class . There is another occurrence that hasn ' t been described here yet that has to do with the flagging process . When a high level character goes to a low level area flagged on a PVP server , some inexperienced players may unknowingly target and attack the flagged player , subjecting themselves to immediate ganking ( most prevalent at Elwyn Forest / Westfall / Crossroads ) . Unintentional . Note it is possible to accidentally attack a pvp player and become flagged through careless tab - targeting , especially in crowded neutral areas with many daily quests and popular grinding areas , such as Isle of Quel ' Danas . If that happens the attacking player might consider using / sorry emote ( even if killed ) to let the other one know it was an accident . Players might also unintentionally flag themselves when buffing or healing a friendly player they do not realize is flagged . Also note it is not possible to become flagged through use of AOE attacks around players or NPCs , the attack will simply have no effect and will not flag you . Bear this in mind if you are fleeing from NPC guards and you try and AOE fear / snare / etc to escape as it will do nothing . This behaviour also prevents griefing attacks where flagged players could stalk a player using AOE to farm mobs .