There is an area or WQ in Ardenweald (Gossamer Cliffs) where a magical, invisible zone instantly puts you in WM. The only way I know I entered it is the “suckerpunch” icon pops up.
If I wanted to pvp, I would turn WM on.
At least flash a warning on the screen that I am entering a pvp zone and give ten seconds to leave. LIKE YOU HAVE IN PREVIOUS X-PACS. I really, really dislike this.
It doesn’t “put” you in War Mode, it just enables PvP. People seem to forget that War Mode off doesn’t mean you won’t be subject to any PvP. Players in non War Mode can still enable PvP,
You walked into a PvP world quest, its a world quest meant for WPvP. If you didnt want to be flagged for PvP, don’t go to that area.
Never heard of or seen this happen
Weird
Only seen pvp WQ with WM on
How do you suppose to know if it’s a world quest pvp zone if you don’t have pvp on? So if you wander in that zone, your wm pops on and you can get ganked without knowing what you got yourself into. The wm pops off once you are back out of the area, but there is NOTHING telling you this other than the icon in your portrait and the suckerpunch icon.
It’s BS.
Look on the minimap, simple as that. It’s the only world quest with the swords icon on it to indicate PvP.
Again, it doesn’t put you in War Mode. It just enables your PvP. There’s a difference between War Mode enabled and PvP enabled. With War Mode on you’ll always have PvP enabled wherever you go. With War Mode off, you have PvP disabled by default but you can still enable PvP whenever or if you get hit by an enemy faction guard or walking into a PvP area.
I don’t think people with WM off can see the quest.
The quest is not visible if you’re in Oribos.
You’re right about both points. But for some reason the FFA in Ardenweald will still phase players into “FFA mode,” even if you aren’t playing in Warmode. Ardenweald is the only one that does it though and I dunno why?
You are not listening. There is no quest on my minimap because I DO NOT HAVE WM ON. There is zero warning.
Be more aware I guess? 
Just experienced this too. The quest is not available to me. Nothing shows on my maps. I just get a zone button and the auras pop up as FFA. I didn’t see this the first time I wandered into the area because I was really focused on searching for the Playful Vulpin. I was confused when someone attacked me and their name plate was different. Came here to find out wtf was going on. Why make me part of a FFA if I can’t even do the quest? Didn’t know there were world PvP quests til now.
It’s ok …dying in WoW is no traumatizing experience. Run back to your corpse and go back the way you came.
There was FFA PVP WQ’s in Legion and they made a return in Shadowlands.
In all fairness the one in Ardenweald is bugged so even if you aren’t in Warmode, you’ll still get phased into FFA if you enter that area. I can see where it would be startling. Not to mention the corpse runs back to every FFA WQ is at least 300 yards or more…
It’s just a bug. For whatever reason, if that quest is up in war mode, you’ll get flagged running through even with war mode off. And no, you can’t even see the quest on the map with war mode off, so you won’t actually know it’s even there.
Without war mode though, typically nobody is really going to go out of their way to attack you anyway so it’s not a big deal regardless.
^^^^ Yerp, exactly this.
Makes for a good laugh though, if there happens to be other players around once you’re flagged FFA, and then those players who want nothing to do with WPVP hightail it outta there. 
Said no ruin g4m3r ever.