Instance portal

An instance portal is the sparkling field that marks the entrance to an instance.

The color of the portal indicates the type of instance:

Image:Instance portal blue.png Blue Instance Portal: Group (5 or less, Blackrock Spire is an exception)
Image:Instance portal green.png Green Instance Portal: Raid (10 or more, on a raid reset timer)
Image:Instance portal red.png Red Instance Portal: PvP Battlezone (battleground). These portals are no longer functional with the addition of battlemasters at the entrances.
Image:Instance portal white.png White Instance Portal: Transit. In the world pre-The Burning Crusade, the only such portals are at the ends of the Deeprun Tram and for the officer's lounges in Stormwind City and Orgrimmar for players of rank 6 and up. Patch 2.0, in addition to removing the rank requirements for those portals, adds at least one more: the portal used to enter the Ghostlands from the Eastern Plaguelands (requires expansion). These portals can also be found directly inside the Battle for Mount Hyjal instance, leading to each of the 3 camps.

Image:Instance portal purple.png Purple Instance Portal: All instances in Outland and Caverns of Time are this color. Indicates that the instance has a Heroic mode available.
Image:UI-Skull-16x16.png Image:Instance portal purple.png Skull with Purple Instance Portal: Notifies the player that the instance is on Heroic mode. Only available to Outland dungeons and the Caverns of Time in Tanaris as of the release of the Burning Crusade.

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